To the Editor,

Recently, while driving down Veterans Memorial Dr. in Apponaug, I couldn’t help but notice the sad condition of the plantings in the median strip which runs between two roundabouts at Post Road and Greenwich Avenue.

When Veterans Memorial Dr. was first built, the strip was filled with ornamental grasses which looked really good, however years of neglect have taken their toll, and now it’s a drive-by, weed-infested eyesore. And this is right in the middle of our city’s municipal center?

Is it a matter of city budget? No, it comes under the jurisdiction of the state DOT. Who could have guessed? But the bigger question is why we, residents of the city of Warwick, allow that strip to look like that; whether it’s maintained by the city or the state shouldn’t make a difference. Perhaps it’s because we’ve all drifted into the mists of apathy and indifference and bringing attention to this is something only old aunt Harriet would do. After all, how can this matter so much when we have an outdoor ice rink to build across the street.

There was once in our country, a tremendous feeling of civic pride, still thriving in some parts and long gone in others; a feeling of civic pride that would just not allow decrepit sidewalks, weeds in cracks, potholes galore, to prevail. And perhaps the folks at the Mobil gas station next to the fire station are too busy selling gas to worry about the horrible condition of what was once a very attractive planting in front of their station.

Some cities and towns, very concerned with the creep of urban decay, would not allow that. Maintenance of property in front of a business would be required. Fines or tax incentives? Which to choose?

But perhaps, in the end, there is a concrete solution to all of this: let’s just cement it all over and forget it was ever there and Apponaug can get back to being tidy and municipal.

Jim Morgan

Warwick