Hi! from Picnic Point!

Picnic Point protrudes half a mile out into Madison's Lake Mendota. It was always kind of neat - you had to ride, jog or walk a certain distance, and it was worth it. The Point is located only a few miles from downtown - it used to be a surprisingly natural setting. Sadly, "They" really butchered the actual "Point." They being the University of Wisconsin's grounds keepers, landscape architects, whatever they in their supreme vanity call themselves. Oh, they really gouged it - they put a big concrete and stone memorial at the tip of the peninsula, where before there had only been a gravel recreational path, a rustic way that wrapped around a notable promontory, then looped easily back towards Campus. But now, one is rather overcome by that expensive, terribly overbuilt monument to some "important person." (It's actually a small amphitheatre.) Or perhaps it's not so new - I hadn't visited the park for a few years, and was more than a little shocked. There was no need at all to lay down more cement where before existed a really quaint setting. The whole character of the place has been upset - the traditional balance formerly struck between nature and humans has been garishly tilted firmly in the direction of the latter. While it's true that for the last couple decades one experienced heavier bike and pedestrian traffic that changed the character of the place somewhat, the UW's "solution" significantly detracts from the immense charm of earlier times. On the bright side, I should note that nearly all of the of the woodlands flanking the new build-up to the west have been preserved. But the most striking view of all has been crudely curtailed. A unique spot. Pretty much ruined. I know that in general, I complain too much. But "Western Civilization" shows itself to be most uncivilized when it takes a basically natural place left pretty much intact for centuries, and destroys it, explicitly in the name of some weirdly and brutally envisioned destiny. Sadly, nothing really IS sacred. There are two cool aerial view photos at the top of the page I'm posting - they show the Point as it appeared some years back, unscathed by the ravages of UW's hack job: http://lakeshorepreserve.wisc.edu/visit/picnicpoint.htm