I stood gaping late Monday at the pile of cracked iron and busted glass where the Pioneer Square pergola had stood for 91 years until that morning. The feeling wasn't so much anger at Pete Benard, the U.S. Xpress truck driver from Greensburg, Pa., who cut a corner, hopped a cobblestone curb, and clipped one of the city's loveliest landmarks off at the ankles.
Humans do make mistakes.
Of course, when we make them behind the wheel of tons of rolling metal, the consequences can be crushing. The feeling was emptiness. But it quickly filled up with worry. Beside me at the chain-link barricade stood veteran Pioneer Square bookseller David Ishi. But both of us came up empty.