Almost twenty years ago, I was volunteering for the Center for Environmental Policy at the Institute of Public Affairs of the University of South Carolina. (Whew!) This was located in a university building called Carolina Plaza, which had previously been a high-rise motel called the Carolina Inn. For a year there, the SC General Assembly (legislature) were there with us, as the State House was being renovated, complete with turning the green copper dome shiny again, however briefly. (Just don't ask.)
There was a certain irony in this, because Carolina Inn was home to a bar where many sleazy political deals were, uh, consummated. Regardless, the Department of Transportation, or possibly the city, decided that they didn't want any unhappy legislators, so they retimed the light at Pendleton and Assembly to turn red for Assembly a LOT, allowing pedestrians to cross often.
Carolina Plaza is long gone, the pols have gone back to their natural home, and that light still turns red for no reason, traffic calming or traffic-related, all the time. This includes this Easter morning before 8 in the morning. They could of course have just put in a button allowing pedestrians to request a crossing; we had that technology in the '90s. But no; politicians can't wait that long. Well, it IS called Assembly Street, I guess. I'll just have to develop patience against annoyances I can't control or figure a better route. But it IS awfully annoying.
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