Really? Over "Telephone" Poles?

We're all too young to remember the time before telephone poles.  But there was such a time.  No one had a telephone, since they hadn't been invented, and no one got electric power, either.  People had kerosene lamps, and they cooked with wood.  But at some point, people were made a wonderful offer.  No more dangerous and smelly kerosene, and stoves and lots of other things could run off electric power.  All people had to do was flick a switch.  And people could have telephones, so they could easily communicate with others who didn't live within walking distance.  There was a catch, though.  We had to receive the electricity and the telephone connection from wires, and those wires were to be strung up all over town, draped from one large wooden pole to another.  I wonder if anyone was up in arms over the appearance of these impositions, which fouled the view and had that mass of wires on them.  And can you imagine how many trees had to be felled to produce all of those wood poles?  I shudder to think.

But we all got used to it, and we fell in love with the convenience of easy power and easy communication.  I doubt there has been a moment since, when anyone imagined what it would be like to have to do without them.  We do find out from time to time, though, when some event, usually weather-related, interferes with the wires or the poles.  I don't remember any happy campers from the summer and fall of 2005, and we're all still talking about the days and weeks without power and telephones.

Those who bring us the utilities we crave have had more trouble with this than we have.  They're without services, too, and they have the considerable expense and trouble of restoring our services, which, at times like those, we nag them mercilessly to do.  And our suppliers have to figure out how to make repairs quicker, or, better yet, prevent the interruptions.  Our big supplier, FPL, hit on the idea of making more secure poles and better connectors.  The poles are to be concrete, not wood, and they're bigger.  Many of them don't look much bigger, because most of the increased length is buried deeper in the ground than the wood poles are.  They're bigger around, though.  Not huge, by any means, but bigger.  FPL calls this project network "hardening," and it's these poles, more than anything, that make the network harder.  It would take much more force to bring these poles down, or to bring down the wires that rely on them, and the poles last considerably longer.  It costs FPL a lot of money to replace wood poles with concrete poles, but they don't want us to be without power (and we've made it clear to them we don't want to be without power), and they are also trying to save themselves the trouble and expense of repairing or replacing wood poles damaged or brought down by storms.  Problem "solved?"

It turns out it's not quite so simple.  It turns out some of us, although we like the power and the convenient communication, somehow don't like the new concrete poles.  I have no way of knowing whether these people would have been precisely the same people who would have shrieked and catastrophized over the wood poles in the first place, so long ago, but they might have been.  They're certainly shrieking and catastrophizing now.  Word like "monstrosities," and "Oh, God" are heard.  In one case, the reaction was described as "apoplectic."  Over poles that are the same height as the wood poles, light, instead of dark, in color, and somewhat larger around at the bottom.

And it's not simply a complaint about the appearance of these new light color, somewhat-larger-around-the-bottom poles.  Although that is part of it.  They are portrayed as hideously imposing, industrial, non-organic, essentially dehumanizing in their appearance.  I guess that's the equivalent of saying some people don't like them, or prefer the familiar look of the wood poles.  But no, it's more than that.  There are adventitious imaginings, like that these poles will destroy the neighborhood and deflate property values.  And worse, that these poles represent the further dehumanizing domination of the corporate behemoth (that's FPL, the electric company that supplies the cheapest power in the United States) over the plain folk of the small towns of the area.  Municipalities like our little Biscayne Park.  First, like a conquering horde, they crushed us with a Franchise Agreement that gave us nothing (except a reliable income stream) and took nothing from us, and now, they want to prevent us from being without electricity if a hurricane comes.  And their weapon, which is seen by some as being used against us, is poles that are about the same height as the previous ones, light, instead of dark, in color, and a little larger around at the bottom.

Now to be perversely fair to the plaintiffs, they do not believe, or at least they don't say, that the replacement concrete poles are in fact much like the wood poles, except for the color and the circumference at the bottom.  Some of them claim, or claim to believe, or just want others to believe, that the new concrete poles will be much higher than the old wood poles, and sheathed in metal, and strung with very heavy distribution cables.  They invoke images of the poles and lines along 135th Street.  What's curious here is that we already have some of the new poles, and they're not remotely like the poles on 135th Street.  They were installed 2 1/2 years ago.  A few more concrete poles were installed a few weeks ago, and they're nothing like the 135th Street poles, either.  They're exactly the same as the 2011 poles.  So it's a little unclear why the rebels say the poles will be the same as the 135th Street poles, since they're patently very different.  It's even more unclear why, or if, they believe it.  We're left with the unpleasant task of deciding whether these critics are dishonest, or instead, not in touch with reality.  Sort of a no-win problem for all of us.

There is some good news about the replacement poles, apart from the fact that they are not large and imposing after all.  They also, as it turns out, do not decrease property values.  From all indications (the judgment of experts and a review of property assessments), it seems the new poles, and the improved reliability of the electric network, either have no effect on property values, or they increase them.

And concrete is inert.  Wood poles are organic, and they lean, warp, and split over time.  In order to prevent their deteriorating as fast as nature is inclined to dictate, they are treated with various preservatives which are usually toxic and which leach into the ground and ground water.  Not so with concrete.  And for those of us who care about such things, no trees are cut down to make concrete poles.  Concrete poles, seen by some as so unnatural, actually allow us to preserve nature.

So this is all pretty much of a non-issue, except that some of us make a great issue of it.  It's just not at all clear why.

If you want to witness some of the sturm und drang of this non-issue, the May 6 Commission meeting might be a good opportunity.