​ESTRELLA PUBLISHING produces Arizona West Valley's premier and preferred

hyper-local community magazines.  From Your Neighbors, For Your Neighbors. 

​

We have a variety of publications that are available FREE of charge to affluent communities including; Up The Hill magazine (Estrella & CantaMia), Viva magazine (PebbleCreek), The Hamlet magazine (Palm Valley), The Park magazine (Litchfield Park), Main Street magazine (Verrado & Victory), Mountain View magazine (Vistancia & Trilogy), The Front Porch magazine (Marley Park), and White Tanks View magazine (Surprise Farms, Sierra Montana, Waddell Hacienda, and Sterling Grove)

From Me To You

 

‘Tis the season. Just not the season you are thinking of. Sure the holidays are upon us, but the season I am talking about is the “let’s tighten our belts and make do” season.

 

I am sure you are well aware of the supply chain restrictions. Couple that with the massive number of people who have left their jobs and you see a gap in the market that is unprecedented. That is a word that has been used far too much lately but it is, again, true. Have you noticed the emptying shelves at your local supermarket? The items ‘out of stock’ when you try to order them online? This is all due to that pesky supply chain problem.

 

I watched a news segment the other day and I was shocked to find that, on top of all the containers sitting at ports waiting to be unloaded and trucked to their destinations, there is another problem. The ports are limiting which color of container can be returned empty to the yard. So, say you are a truck driver with an empty green container and you wait 8 hours or more in line to return your ‘empty’ and pick up a ‘full’ in exchange. You get to the front of the line and a supervisor says,”Sorry mate, we are only taking red containers today. Back of the line!”

 

It seems to me that the problem goes further than infrastructure, at this point it is organization that is needed. Either that or someone needs a good kick in the pants. You decide.

 

So that is the first problem but let’s add another one to the pile. Gas prices are rising, and that is never a good thing. Especially in a state where we have to drive for everything. Growing up I was used to a robust train and bus network. If you didn’t drive and needed to get around, there was a bus or train that could get you where you had to go.

 

When I was 22 I decided that I wanted to see the country, and having been raised on reliable public transportation, I knew that trains were the way to go. So I booked an around-the-country train ticket on Amtrak. I packed a backpack and set out with a friend to see the sights. We started in New York and headed south for the first leg of our trip. Things were ticking along smoothly as we sat sandwiched between commuters and children on school field trips. Then we got south of D.C. and things ground to a halt. Well not completely, but they may as well have. The trains outside of metro areas travel at approximately 30 miles an hour. And the dinging. Oh my goodness! That noise is one I still hear in my nightmares. Ding, ding, ding! It went on for hours.

 

Despite the noise and the lack of speed I managed to see a good amount of the country, in fact there are only 9 states I have yet to visit. Now if the price of gas ever goes back down, then I may go on a road trip and finally see those last few states.

--

Catherine Uretsky

Editor in Chief, Estrella Publishing