So as not to disparage them needlessly, I went to the Groveland rinks in St. Paul on Thanksgiving morning on the chance that the good souls who make ice were having at it Thanksgiving eve. No, to my great disappointment, still dirt. Dogs were boundlessly enjoying the confines of the hockey boards, chasing tennis balls, but my sentiments wished for skaters, flying pucks and the happy chatter of pickup games.

Flooding weather descended on us at least 10 days ago and the outlook calls for more of the same. These are times of thanksgiving and I shall rest assured that there must be a perfectly good reason for the delay and that any day now, the ice will appear.

I did have the fleeting thought that the ice-free rinks would be a good place to gather and burn our property tax proposals and that empty rinks in all corners of the city could be used for the same. Alas, these are times of thanksgiving and I intend to embrace the apparent attitude of the average St. Paulite by saying, “Oh, well.”

My morning drive – the streets are peaceful on Thanksgiving mornings — took me to the intersection of St. Clair and Cretin avenues. A resident down that way informed me that the intersection is now controlled by 12 stoplights and he now more easily understands the 15 percent increase in his property taxes.

Over most of the summer, the St. Clair and Cretin intersection underwent a beautification project. All that time, the intersection was controlled by four stop signs, not lights. Upon completion, it is undeniably handsome. And, yes, there are 12 stoplights at this intersection. That’s true of apparently all recent construction. At Snelling and Montreal avenues, also recently opened after construction, the display of lights borders on psychedelic.

Think of it this way. When you get a green light, you get three green lights from three different sources. One more would border on overkill. This is true on all points of the compass, thus 12 lights, sometimes two of them lower than the main lights, as though to perhaps accommodate shorter drivers. It’s like when you have extra Christmas ornaments left over and you just put them on the tree anyway.

The lights at St. Clair and Cretin are so new that in addition to cameras and what appear to be many various antennas, it does look like an expensive space control center and a fellow might again think of the unacceptable property tax increases.

But what I would offer, uncharacteristically, many might point out, is those new lights are an affirming example of property taxes put to good use. We can see them. They work. They actually blink on and off. They benefit everybody. They are solid and trustworthy and a lifelong symbol of the American landscape. We need more of them, not lights necessarily, but more examples of our money resulting in things that can be measured for success.

It’s the unseen things that we are tired of paying for, gossamer things, whimsical and non-productive, new bureaus of social justice environmental engagement or a department ostensibly created for climate change resiliency.

What climate change? Flood the damn rinks.

There I go again. These are times of thanksgiving and I shall adopt the attitude of the typical St. Paul taxpayer.

Oh, well.

Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic’’ podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.

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