[at-l] What McKaye Really Wanted

[RoksnRoots@aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

In a message dated 4/11/2002 1:26:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
mbunz@telcordia.com writes:


> The Condo development proposed
> for Saddleback is exactly what McKaye proposed.  


   (Jim probably agrees)

    Not quite. MacKaye's camps would have been the minimal necessary shelter 
needed to create a community whose sum result would be the vast preservation 
of wild lands. Saddleback's condos are structures all right, but their 
purpose is to extend land development, or sprawl, further into rural America. 
Their situation could not be more anti-MacKaye/anti-AT. They are being put 
right into the Trail's lap and will serve to destroy the overall amount of 
wild presence presently existing there. MacKaye would have your head if you 
said that to him...  




> McKaye wanted to move people from the cities to the mountain tops.
> Vacation
> communities are doing that.  Hey, the Maine Kingdoms are even in line with
> McKaye's thoughts because he didn't want the population to get too dense.



     ***  Nice try. MacKaye wanted to lock-in a guaranteed percentage of 
preserved wilds surrounding those primitive communities. There is absolutely 
no comparison between condos, kingdoms & MacKaye's camps. What makes you 
think the well-spaced kingdoms won't follow the course of all highly taxed 
large properties through history? They are always broken up and subdivided. 
The end result is POOF to rural character and natural integrity. The AT is 
here because MacKaye intended it as a response to this...



> Also, the trail was to go from community to community.  Those folks
> complaining a month or
> two ago in Northern New Jersey, where the trail goes along their back yards
> now,
> was exactly what McKaye was proposing.


     *** only by obnoxious overpositioning of his words...


> 
> In keeping with McKaye's vision, perhaps small 5-10 home developments
> should be built
> at each road crossing.
> 
> In fact, he states:
> 
>      3. Community Groups --
> 
>      These would grow naturally out of the shelter camps and inns. Each 
> would consist of a
>      little community on or near the trail (perhaps on a neighboring lake) 
> where
>      people could live in private domiciles. Such a community might occupy 
> a substantial
>      area -- perhaps a hundred acres or more.
> 
> So, if we were to consider a 1/4 acre lot per home, each shelter on the AT 
> would be surrounded by
> upto four hundred homes.  OK, a little too dense, give people a 2 acre lot, 
> then you would only build
> 50 homes.


    ***   Brilliant! Except that his dream is only valid in relation to the 
present amount of undeveloped lands existing in the corridor. His plans for 
those camps were in 1920 when the surrounding areas were hard to get to and 
mostly forest. Because he was denied this original scale, you have to adjust 
for present conditions. To come anything close to what he envisioned would 
require the *removal* of many trailside developments...



> Clearly McKaye envisioned building small developments every 10 miles or so 
> (a day's walk).
> 
> Personally, I don't see where looking at someone's underwear on a clothes 
> line is any better
> than looking at a windmill on the other side of the valley.  In fact, maybe 
> the windmill should
> be built at the shelters to provide power to the community, rather than 
> bringing a power line
> in.  And cell phones have to be better than running lines along the trail.  
> Of course they
> could be run underground, and you just run them under the trail, and cover 
> the trail
> with asphalt. 


    ***  This isn't you is it Sloetoe? May you fall through the privy in 
front of MacKaye's laughing ghost...



> I could go on, but I suspect I've p*ssed off most of the list with this.  
> But really, McKaye
> had a vacation timeshare idea where you buy into the deal by giving up your 
> vacation time
> to work on the project.  Sure, it got you out of the city, and gave the 
> unemployed something
> to do when they gave up looking for a job.


     ***  Many people proudly donate vacation time to the AT today. They 
probably don't even look at it that way because the Project is worth it to 
them...



> 
> Ducking and running (don't want to get hit while I run).
> 
> Marc
> 
> PS. I didn't mean to p*ss anyone off, just wanted to provide a new 
> perspective, with a real quote
> as backup.
> 


      ***   I thought mine was a better interpretation. Thanks for 
participating and helping expose the difference between trolling and sincere 
posts...


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