Signs of the times

SIGNS OF THE TIMES February 2007 Eye-catching construction activity around town, presented for your amazement, amusement, or consternation -- your pick. Some of these are signs of more to come. Some you may hope are NOT signs of more to come. All are making for a different Plainfield from the one you knew even a short time ago.
West 4th Street, 600 Block This surely gives a new meaning to the notion of a 'shotgun' house. It's an expansion of an existing dwelling, across from the old Plainfield Health Center.	Arlington Avenue, 900 Block This new house towers over its neighbors. Makes you wonder how that got approved. The windows may meet code, but they appear as tiny punchouts in a slab of wall -- more like portholes than windows.
Emerson School construction, view 1 While school construction faces an undecided future throughout the state, Emerson is the only project under way in Plainfield now.	Emerson School construction, view 2 If the state welches on the rest of Plainfield's school construction, will the former National Starch property ever return to the tax rolls? You REALLY want to know the answer to that one.
East Front Street, 700 Block How to develop a deep narrow lot? Putting the drive down one lot line and stacking them cheek-by-jowl? That's one solution, as in these new multi-families.	Belvedere Avenue, 900 Block What to do when your house is on a hill, with a thousand steps to the front door? Take some of the hill away. The UPS guy will be thankful.
Myrtle Avenue, 1000 Block, view 1 This classic 1920s center-hall Colonial is getting a new neighbor. Scary looking construction entrance for the new foundation has swiped the soil right up to the foundation.	Myrtle Avenue, 1000 Block, view 2 Neighborhood rumor is that this will be Plainfield's first tear-down, with the gracious colonial to disappear and be replaced by another new unit on this spacious double-wide lot. Progress?