Progress

So there's big news at Cityscape Abu Dhabi---we're going to get honest to goodness addresses. Yep, that's what they're promising by the end of 2011. They're even talking about such groundbreaking ideas as every street having a unique name, each bldg having a unique number, numbers running sequentially from one end of the street to the other with odds on one side and evens on the other. Isn't this amazing. I seriously wonder how much some planner is going to get for these innovative ideas.

At the moment in order to get my pizza delivery it's a slow dance of circling in on the target. First I tell them, "it's near Liwa Village", they never hear the near. Then they call back (thank God for cellphones) and tell me they're in Liwa Village. I say, "No, I said near. Leave Liwa Village and turn right I'll be outside. They are NEVER in Liwa Village when they say they are. Then there's this whole dance of getting them closer and closer without actually being able to say where I am.

In other progress news....there was a long article yesterday in the paper about how they're going to develop Lulu Island (which is a man-made island that picnic-ers and boaters have long enjoyed). It sits right across from the Corniche and used to have a ferry that would take people over. In the last year there hasn't been a ferry since it's going to be developed--so now it's the playground of anyone with a private boat. They, of course, are going to load it up with buildings and expect 33,000 people to live there. 33,000. Where are these people going to come from? They expect 80,000 to live in Masdar City. I don't know how many on Reem and all the mainland compounds. I just don't see it.

I guess that's progress....but Sheikh Zayed (the founder of the UAE) apparently wanted to have this very beautiful green corniche---would he approve of a mega development right in front of it???