Development does not match our dreams

Today, I stopped to pick up the dogs, Musti and Tassu, and like most Sunday mornings we walked along the shore of Lake Superior. The water was calm, no fierce waves today--or at least for the morning. Canada geese, hooded mergansers, and mallards paddled serenely about, yet swimming further out of reach when the dogs came into sight. The heavy flap of wings of a flock of 9 Canada Geese broke the silence. They looked like they were going to land on the water but they chose to skim its surface, careening out of sight around the bend. This bend, and what lies on its other side, are more or less all that's left for us walkers to walk at the downtown waterfront due to "development." I thought, as the dogs panted along beside me and Tassu drooled, that previous "development" made it so that we can't actually reach the water anwhere along this part of the downtown waterfront. As you can see [click on photo to enlarge], large rocks line the shoreline preventing anyone from actually touching the water. I thought how unfortunate as the dogs panted for water beside me. I find it odd that folks push for "development" of condos and hotel on the waterfront to "bring in tourists" yet the images of Lake Superior that we desire and imagine are, like the 'fierce waves' photo I linked to above, of its more rugged untouched shores. I believe the photo that I linked to was taken on Fort William First Nations, east side of The Place Where Thunder Birds Nest. There are reasons beyond the bottom line why shorelines should remain out of the reach of "development." Too bad we don't seem to learn our lessons.

Around the bend, down the road, earlier "development." Much of the shoreline along Lake Superior along Thunder Bay city was given to industry. Most of it looks like this.