----- Original Message ---- From: Dennis Claxton ddclaxton at earthlink.net
Beyond that there's a certain lack of desire to engage with the outside world that is characteristic of small towns. That's why people stay there. So when small town values are portrayed as characteristic of the better angels of america, I say no and no.
[WS:] I fundamentally agree with you on that, but there are more twists than just lack of desire. Many st on this end of the empire (e.g. central PA) are mostly retirement communities, populated by old folks who have no resources or energy to move elsewhere. ST isolation is not just a bunch of fatheads lacking desire to engage with the outside world (albeit that may be true of many of them.) It is about the lack of transportation infrastructure, or lack of affordable housing, to name just a few. If you want to travel from, say Uniontown or Pottsville PA to any larger city (Pittsburgh or Philly) - your only choice is to drive for several hours. That may not be a an exciting proposition when you are old and on a fixed income, and gas costs you $3.50 a gallon. Better yet, if you want to go from Pittsburgh to Phily or NYC, or Chicago, you still need to drive, because train takes 12 hours and flying costs you an arm and a leg (and still takes
6+ hours in most cases.)
By contrast, every podunk in Germany has good rail connections to the rest of the country and for that matter, rest of EU.
An then there is affordable housing. Low income, fixed income or just old folk woul dbe beter off in housing cooperatives or even kibbutz-style settlements, but that is NOT what the developers with the help of governments are pushing. They are pushing the most costly and least efficient solution - individual homes in exurbia.
I still belive that StA is a shithole as you argue - but a big part of responsibility for this state of affairs should be placed on developers and governments that pushed for land use favoring st development.
Wojtek