EDITOR’S DESK: The ditching of Camp Creek

       News item: A city contractor begins replacing the concrete panels in the Camp Creek ditch through Pleasant Valley.
       I didn't live here - and I would have been too young to remember anyway - in the late 1950s when development was starting on what would become Pleasant Valley. But it does seem evident that the whole nature of subdivision development was different then. Consider: Here was this thriving agricultural area abutting the Garden of the Gods, with a fresh-water creek flowing into it from the Garden. Do you think for a minute today that a developer could saunter down to City Planning and expect anything but horse-laughs from a plan that called for eliminating that creek's naturally meandering channel and confining it to a concrete ditch between the two sides of 31st Street? But back then the city had no problem with such a scheme. So here we are, nearly 50 years later, with a crumbling eyesore and scant hope of it ever changing. Obviously, it can't be left to crumble. Water has this nasty way of seeping through cracks, and next thing you know, there's no concrete left. And then the creek could start undercutting the road (like it tried to do in the storm of '99). and after that the houses. What might be a shock to some is when the crews install the new concrete bottoms above and below Fontanero. It's been kind of pretty in recent years, with grass and marshes and ducks. But say good-bye to all that.
       By the way, I think Pleasant Valley is one of the nicest neighborhoods in town. But that ditch? Yuck.

- K.J.