IT IS difficult to write about a place that once was vital, happy, with lots of commercial, pedestrian traffic when I was a college student and probably 15 years later. 38 years after I graduated, now, is just a cemetery, not much happening and no hope to resuscitate it.
I am not going to get into what made this diminute, Detroit, Michigan possible. Bayamon, Caguas, Santurce, Arecibo and I bet every other major and small city went or is going through the same process. Mega malls are part of the reason, blind/deaf/mute hogs politicians and accomplices are culprits also.
At any rate, cemeteries tend to be quiet places. The University of Puerto Rico has never been so quiet. I thought I was dreaming when I sat down in the half empty main library. It is unreal. No one is hollering in loud conversations that made me student days so miserable.
Almost every juan was teletexting, on a cellular, or a laptop, that is the probably 30 students I saw in an hour or so I spent in the area.
The photos show the silly train of thought of many islanders. Fountains! There is nothing requiring more constant maintenance and lots of electricity, unless they run with photovoltaic energy, which I really doubt.
Rio Piedras is a ghost town, not in a metaphorical sense. I think it is a waste of money, energy and time. Besides,l the botanical selection is as dull as the whole installation and concept. That is one thing, the other why should a cemetery keep a park? For lost souls to hang out in the dark?
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