Folks from the BAD list will remember my anthropological reports upon encountering massive does of Suburbania for the first time. I almost ODed! While there are lots of public spaces and sidewalks here, that's probably because the weather *cough**hack* is so nice and the sidewalks don't have to be shoveled or repaired (no freeze/thaw cylces). All 'communities' have walking/running/biking paths.
I agree with you. One of the things I hate the most about 'burbania is the way it discourages you from being in public. There's a way in which a 'burb makes you feel isolated from neighbors even though the houses are just as close together as they are in an urban neighborhood.
Here in limpdick, even the most low-rent places are mimicking the model of a gated community. The gate's just for show. Spruce it up with a fountain and hibiscus bushes and it's hard to tell the difference, at the entrance, between a ritzy condo community and HUD subsidized housing. (Taxi drivers know the difference, though.) Plus, the privitization is going on even among middling neighborhoods, especially senior communities.
The privatization is biting people on the ass, now. FEMA won't subsidize the clean up of streets/grounds in gated communities. Big oak tree toppled and blocking traffic? Pay for it yourselves! Of course, they could get together and do it the barn-raising way, cleaning up what can be cleaned up by manual labor. But it's a little daunting since the clean up of your own yard can be pretty trying, not to mention expensive. (The guy next door had to pay for a big crane to back up to the front of his house and chop down an oak that was going to topple any day. They had to raise the oak up OVER the house. There was no way they could have chopped it down because it would have landed on his house, his pool, his fence, and/or four of his neighbors' houses!)
I discovered last year that at least two of these mammoth, privatized 'communities' applied for county grants for entrance improvements. I kid you not. They had the balls to take $8000 in tax payer money so they could plant hibiscus bushes and trees around the entrance! Now they get to pay to clean up the trees that were probably uprooted! Mind you, their entrances were _not_ in the least bit ramshackle. Lansbrook was built in the last 8 yrs and featured a massive estate-like entrance with two huge ponds and spotlighted fountains on each side of the entrance.
http://www.pinellascounty.org/Community/NEGLansbrook.htm (I can think of a bizillion and one neighborhoods that could use that money. None of them are featured on that county page!)
This just disgusted me. But there the money sits, and they have the resources to apply for the grant whereas the poorer communities often don't.
On the Lansbrook Master Community page http://www.lansbrookmaster.org/, you'll see a newsletter where they're complaining about having to hire more security or volunteer for patrols to keep trespassers out. They have their own park, boat launches, picnic areas, a shopping center (mini chain outposts), and the developer' made a deal with the YMCA to locate branches on the property.
I can see a big home schooling type movement where they'll want to get a tax rebate or something feeling they shouldn't have to pay for public services they don't receive.
Kelley
At 02:08 PM 9/26/2004, John Thornton wrote:
>When I lived in St. Louis the light rail proposal to St. Charles was also
>label "dark rail" and people said the exact same thing. "Negros from the
>city would ride up there, steal their TV's, and ride back home". I thought
>they were kidding at first but these people were quite serious. At least I
>derive some small satisfaction in hearing this same tale from someone else
>as I could hardly believe I was hearing it at the time. It's just too
>ridiculous to believe but it does happen. When asked where they got this
>idea several stated they had "been in cities where they saw people riding
>on transit with stolen TV's".
heh. reminds me of the time we were driving home late and saw some of the kids from the neighborhood pushing a huge flat screen TV up the street toward the apt complex. They'd stolen it from Best Buy, which was about a mile away. I have NO idea how they managed to do it, but they did. I imagine it'd have had to be done with insider help. They were never spotted, even though it was about 1 a.m. and this was the kind of neighborhood where the police choppers routinely.
Since we left that neighborhood, I've learned that my kid knew a lot more about the petty theft and shoplifting that went on. I found out when I decided to teach the kid a lesson and refused to keep in touch with me so we could co-ordinate our schedules. I got home expecting to see him weary from sitting in the heat after having walked a mile and a half from the bus stop. (It's not fun to sit in 98 degree shade!)
Nope. He was sitting in the house all relaxed. He'd cleaned the house, made himself a snack, and was pressing away at a control pad.
How'd he get in? He knew how to pick a deadbolt lock.
At that point, he told stories on himself and friends. It's pretty amazing how much kids know!
"We're in a fucking stagmire."
--Little Carmine, 'The Sopranos'