In My City

[rusk2003]

Il live in the south and in my City I look around and see so much comercialization around me it is shocking. When I go out of my neighboorhood there is a Mcdonalds,Wendys,taco bell, and KFC on the left and on the right not too far of a distance there are the same resturaunts then of you drive to the third part of my city there are those same resturaunts there.ANd it is a small city population of about 10,000-20,000 There are two dollar trees close by.

There is two dunkin donuts and five hundred gas stations. IT is way too many constuction and busines's. It is a insane surplus. All at the expense of the destruction of the earth. There are several vacant building yet I see new stores building buldings instead of leaseing those out. IT is insane. If I won the a super jackpot in the Lottory I would go buy a million or two in land so those greedy developers could not get their hands on it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. You're right, rusk

These days, you can hardly tell what part of the country you're in unless you look closely at the vegetation. If there's Spanish moss or kudzu, you're in the South. If there are Douglas firs, you're in the Pacific Northwest. Otherwise, the outskirts of every city look the same.

It used to be that when you traveled around the U.S., there were strong regional differences. If you stopped to eat in a small town, there was a locally owned restaurant that served local specialties. You got grits for breakfast in the South, jelly omelets in the Upper Midwest, huevos rancheros in the Southwest, and scrapple in New England. But the freeways killed a lot of these local tourist-oriented businesses by bypassing the towns entirely and providing "natural habitat" for car-oriented fast food and other chains. Now it's Egg McMuffin from sea to shining sea. :-(

[Dissenting_Prole]

2. It has a name:

Market-driven monoculture

[Kolesar]

3. Developers are gangsters

In my city, the developers strongarm the city to allow them to build new commercial development. It does not attract new businesses, it just draws the commercial tenants away from older commercial properties. The snazzy new buildings get built, and the old buildings sit vacant, causing a financial drain on the owner and a visual blight to the old shopping district.

We need to educate Americans that there is a better way. We need strong development and zoning laws to work in the public's interest.