AND ANOTHER THING …

Here are the conclusions from the state’s 10th Annual Conference on Affordable Housing held last week: Too many Maine people cannot buy their own homes because rising prices exceed lagging incomes; too many existing houses are too dilapidated; and too many upper-scale homeowners object to lower-scale neighbors. Yes, they sound a lot like the conclusions of the 1st Annual Conference on Affordable Housing. The question is whether the conclusions of the 20th will be any different.

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Social critics have long observed that the desire of grown-ups to “get involved” with kids’ sports often is to the detriment of both the kids and the sports: From baseball in the vacant lot to hockey on a frozen pond, the trend toward adult-run leagues with excessive organization and regimentation has stunted the ability of kids to just choose up sides and play. The city of Bath may be about to set a new standard in this recreational nannyism. The new municipal skateboard facility – unlike the typical set-up of plywood, asphalt and attitude – will be indoors, admission will be charged, there will be a cafe, a skate shop and (you knew this was coming, didn’t you?) a youth counseling service.

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Fishermen in Nova Scotia have been in an uproar for months after Canada’s Fisheries Department banned them from working in a sensitive marine area because it is home to a large chunk of rare and exceedingly fragile centuries-old coral. The uproar should be about over – a Fisheries Department research vessel was in the preserve last week to collect data on how climate change has affected the distribution of certain species of invertebrates and in the process hauled up a large chunk of something that appeared to the researchers to be rare, fragile and quite old.

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According to the Maine College of Art calendar, Maine performance artist William Pope.L is scheduled to offer a crawling workshop and demonstration in Portland next month. The workshop will teach participants how to crawl Oct. 3, with a community crawl planned for the Munjoy Hill area Oct. 5. Though not as fast as walking, crawling as an alternative form of transportation takes cars off the street without wearing down shoe soles and could be a means for combating the city’s traffic problem. Commendable.