Re: [Culture] Sprawl, Politics and a Republican Future

[Benseraglio2]

In a message dated 8/31/2004 8:53:31 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "Sprinkler Cities" may be the latest "fad," but we saw exactly this same thing happen here in Philadelphia over the years. Philadelphia because of its physical size was a microcosm of the Continental US. The Philadelphia Social History Project traced the population movements from the area now known as "Old City" (in the late 1700s) to the edge of Fairmount Park (Parkside) to the "middle north-east" (Pennypack & Oxford Circles area) to the Far North east -- to over the border into Bensalem. While this "migration" is well documented here in Philadelphia, one must assume that it is pretty much identical to the patterns seen in other parts of the country in other, more recent times. And, one would assume, that the equivalent "sprinkler city" area in Pennsylvania is now Lancaster County. You also missed an important quote.... "GEORGE SANTAYANA once observed that Americans don't solve problems, they just leave them behind. They take advantage of all that space and move. If there's an idea they don't like, they don't bother refuting it, they just go somewhere else, and if they can't go somewhere else, they just leave it in the past, where it dies from inattention." The obvious problem with sprinkler cities is that at some point out West they're gonna run out of water to sprinkle all those stupid suburbs. You can only find water to create places like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix in the middle of the desert for so long. As everybody should know, water politics is big time stuff already out in the arid West. (Remember Jack Nicholson in "Chinatown"?)   Leaving the junk behind and fleeing to a new frontier is the American way. But at some point, as Miggle sagely points out, we run out of hydrocarbon fuel. And of course it's not just we Americans who are addicted to oil. One of the things that really disappointed me about places like Korea, Vietnam and China is how they had a perfect chance to create future-looking transportation systems and instead opted for the archaic clunky old automobile.   One of the things I love about old rust-belt Philly is the way it's emptying out, people are scurrying off southwest to the newest sprinkler. That's just perfect for an Amish like me. It means we slowly get an extra-livable walking-size city with lots of green space and all the cultural amenities, while the Yahoos are tying themselves up in traffic out in the sprawling nowhereland suburbs.     Ross Bender http://rossbender.org