Seems like that whole debacle had to be about ten years ago. I remember the
city counsel meeting. The place was packed. Standing room only. One half of
the room was occupied by citizens of Albany, and the other half by
autocrossers. One by one, people went up to the microphone and presented
their cases to the board. Our goal was to convince the board that we were
worthy of using GGF.
In my opinion, we had a good case. Our weakness, though, was that none of us
lived in Albany itself. Arguments in our favor were that autocross helped
our daily driving skills, and somehow contributed to the world of traffic
and accident avoidence. We created this image of ourselves as belonging to
this special community, a family what-have-you, of drivers, and without GGF,
our fragile existence was doomed.
The citizens, however, couldn't give a squat. This one woman, I'll call her
Olga, as she looked like she came straight out of a Wagner opera, gave such
an emotional plea, I very felt bad for her. She was rather hefty,
middle-aged, and had two long blond braids wrapped tightly around her head,
and the coat of a dead animal wrapped around her shoulders. "On Sunday
mornings, I am shaken out of bed by these awful, violent sounds!" she said,
trembling before the court. "I can't sleep, I can't think, I can't enjoy my
coffee. These cars are destroying my health!" She occasionally blew her nose
or dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.
Another citizen described us as hooligans with cars with flashy paint jobs
covered in decals. If he really looked at our side of room, he would have
seen a bunch of moms and dads, some with their children.
I hadn't seen this much controversy since we were kicked out of Gay 90's
pizza when I was four. Our crime? The manager didn't like the t-shirts.
Thought we were some sort of gang.
Ironically, when sound tests were conducted (by a sound meter on the hill -
somehow, the freeway noise wasn't as annoying), it was proven that it wasn't
the cars that were that loud, but the sound of the PA. I still don't really
believe that was the problem, either. I believe we somehow failed to endear
ourselves to the community of Albany.
Hopefully, we'll do better this time.
Katie K.
Happiness is the best cosmetic.
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