Another lot goes under here in Cheonsang. They started early this morning clearing away the junk from a lot that has not been in use since I arrived in January. When I was last here in 2005, it was a play area with a set of four trampolines set up for kids. They would come and play in the afternoon after school and jump around for hours. They’ve apparently sold it and will build another building immediately behind me. Zoning laws don’t seem to exist here, so there’s no telling what they’ll put there. Luckily, there isn’t room for anything truly massive.

Other than the garden directly east of me, there are scant few lots left in this neighborhood. There’s another unused trampoline lot two doors down, and that will probably go soon. After they’re gone, they’ll have to start tearing up what little farmland is left deeper into the valley west of us.

I used to be amazed at Dallas and how the place had grown so massively since we moved there in 1975. Back then, Plano was the end of the world and there was still a few miles of pasture between there and Richardson. The pace that Ulsan in general is growing is even faster. Partly due to the speed at which they slap them up and partly due to lack of zoning, inspections, etc.

The city seems to have little control on how and where things get built. In the building across the street, I’ve watched them tear up the same patch of street three times, each time digging up the tar and concrete and patching back over it, usually haphazardly. The first time was for water into the yoga building. The second was for gas. the third time was to install a speed bump and no-parking guards for the playground. It’s no wonder the roads in the neighborhoods are bumpy and uneven.

I’m a little split on which model of civic control is better between Korea and US. Here, there’s almost no control on building, zoning and public roads (at least here in the neighborhoods, off the main thoroughfares). It’s perfectly acceptable to set up a tent and offer food from a stall, even if you somewhat block traffic. Don’t even think about food inspectors for these guys. In the US, its regulations out the wazoo, inspections and controls on who can actually perform the work and when. Try and bang the ground with your crane early in the morning in Plano like they do here and see how fast the police arrive to shut you down. It’s the difference between Cowboys and Indians shooting from the hip to build versus the bureaucracy of America where things run at a snail’s pace. The PGB turnpike is a good example. It was slated to be built way back in the 70’s and it’s still not complete. There’s probably a happy medium somewhere in all of this, but it’s neither here nor there.