Oh, the irony of this one

I am not at all in favor of toll roads here in NC. We already pay a heavy burden in property, income, and sales taxes. We have a highway trust fund that gets raided and never replenished by the state. We also hear about the need for education spending "for the children". Now the same liberal side that wants to ram higher taxes and usage fees such as a toll road and anything "for the children" down our throats has a conflict. The proposed highway extension of I-540 would potentially "harm children".

Why? A day care center built in the 80's would be close to the proposed loop of 540 and could possibly be subject to (according to the News and Observer article)

"Noise pollution notwithstanding, exposure of these children to particulate emissions -- both during construction of the parkway and in its planned use -- is very likely to have adverse effects on their health".

OK, we are talking 120 yards. 1.2 football fields away. I have seen apartment complexes closer than that to the beltline. Now people want to whine about a single day care center? People want to slow down or halt the project of major highway construction over the proximity to a single day care? No, not taking the day care center by eminent domain...just being near it.

One neat quote in the article is this one.

"The pathway for the Triangle Parkway was reserved in 1957" before RTP was built, Teer said in an interview. "They knew it was there when they built that day-care center in the 1980s."

It is kind of hard to argue with that logic. It took 50 years for the road to be planned, but it is finally coming. The builders of that facility did so knowing about the coming highway but built anyway. That would be like me buying a house near the railroad tracks (which I did) and complaining about the train noise or proximity.

If anything, the day care center needs to relocate.