Too much salt on Roosevelt (Photo by Bonnie McGrath)

A salt cathedral near Bogota (photo by Anita Rogers)

Ok, I'll make an understatement: We haven't had much snow this winter. And I'm sure the City has tons and tons of unused salt they'd like to get rid of so they can buy more next year from someone they owe the business to. But throwing an overabundance into the street after a modest snowfall is not the way to lessen the load.

I walked out of my house yesterday morning and a bus passed me going east on Roosevelt from State. It raised a cloud of whiteness that made me mad because I thought the bus was smoking up a storm due to bad maintenance. But then I realized that the white cloud was hovering over Roosevelt in every direction and going up and on into heaven. And I was in the middle of it all. I could hardly see through it. And then I started to get the taste of salt in my mouth just as though I was snorkeling in saltwater somewhere else in the world. Like I was floating along peering at a coral reef.

I went into Starbucks and skipped my favorite coffee accompaniment: a salted chocolate caramel. Instead, I ordered a blueberry scone because I thought I'd raise my blood pressure with the extra salt on the caramel--and have a stroke--because there was already so much salt within me. And I couldn't stop breathing it in.

But there are places that do that sort of thing on purpose, I suddenly remembered. And you have to pay. Salt spas on the northwest side where you sit in a huge cave-like space made of salt, breathing it in and draining your sinuses. I guess it's a very popular thing in Eastern Europe. And my friend Anita just came back from a trip to Columbia where they have an actual salt cathedral. So maybe I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe it's a good thing that salt is heavy in the air at Roosevelt and State.

So here's a suggestion, Streets and San. Instead of wasting the salt by throwing it willy-nilly on the street, build something!