Blimey.

While you were oohing and ahhing over the "holy shit that's big"-ness of Philly and New York, you missed out on the spectacle of second-generation outer-ring suburbs. American living in five easy steps:

City grows up at the intersection of natural trade routes.

People with cars and disposable income decide they don't like the congestion of the city and move out to the newly-built bedroom communities. The commute costs more than a monthly bus pass, but not by much. Urban cores are left to industry, offices, and laborers who can't afford to move out. Rush hour is born, as everyone from the suburbs heads into the city in the morning and out to their homes at night.

So many people have moved to the bedroom communities that retail and light industry springs up and suburbs are born. Rush hour gets worse as some of the people from eastern suburbs commute to jobs in the western suburbs and vice-versa. Ring roads are invented to alleviate rush hour, but instead get clogged with people from the eastern suburbs getting jobs in the now-accessible northern suburbs, and vice-versa, verse-vica, and etc. Those stuck in the urban core have fewer and fewer jobs to chose from, since public transportation to the suburbs is a non-starter: While there are jobs in the 'burbs, they're so dispersed you can't rely on having a bus stop nearby. Some of them move to public housing units, built on the fringes of the suburbs because the land is still cheaper than downtown.

People with cars and disposable income decide they don't like the congestion of the suburbs and move farther out. We don't need that farmland anyway -- gas and diesel are so cheap we can afford to import all our food from Mexico and California. (Is there still a difference? </snide>)

The urban core, decimated by three decades of shrinking population -- and the population that's left are the ones who couldn't afford to leave, so are net consumers of public funds -- becomes cheap. Yuppies start moving in and re-habbing the homes built by their great-grandparents' generation. The houses have "great bones", and are close to the remaining jobs. What's not to love? Part of the re-hab includes bars on the windows and security systems -- this is still a bad neighborhood, after all. They love it right up until they get pregnant, then decide they need a Lincoln Navigator and a yard. But the only place with a yard is 40 miles outside of town.

If we were exposed to the true cost of gas -- ie: what the rest of the world pays for it -- steps 2 and 4 wouldn't have happened to nearly the degree they have. But now that it has happened, people feel they have "no choice" on step 5, and demand that the government do "whatever it takes" to keep gas prices down. If the tax burden of supporting our Middle East adventures were shifted from the income tax to gas tax, keeping net receipts the same, then people most responsible for the need would be most responsible for the cost. I get 30+ mpg, and I pay just as much for "keeping stability" (chyeah, right) in the Middle East as someone getting 10 mpg. That's fair.

Post #255,238 by pwhysall 5/12/06 10:11:53 AM Reply	Blimey. "Exurb" New word of the day! Peter [link\|http://www.no2id.net/\|Don't Let The Terrorists Win] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
Post #255,258 by drewk 5/12/06 12:14:11 PM Reply	Yup, that's something you missed While you were oohing and ahhing over the "holy shit that's big"-ness of Philly and New York, you missed out on the spectacle of second-generation outer-ring suburbs. American living in five easy steps: City grows up at the intersection of natural trade routes. People with cars and disposable income decide they don't like the congestion of the city and move out to the newly-built bedroom communities. The commute costs more than a monthly bus pass, but not by much. Urban cores are left to industry, offices, and laborers who can't afford to move out. Rush hour is born, as everyone from the suburbs heads into the city in the morning and out to their homes at night. So many people have moved to the bedroom communities that retail and light industry springs up and suburbs are born. Rush hour gets worse as some of the people from eastern suburbs commute to jobs in the western suburbs and vice-versa. Ring roads are invented to alleviate rush hour, but instead get clogged with people from the eastern suburbs getting jobs in the now-accessible northern suburbs, and vice-versa, verse-vica, and etc. Those stuck in the urban core have fewer and fewer jobs to chose from, since public transportation to the suburbs is a non-starter: While there are jobs in the 'burbs, they're so dispersed you can't rely on having a bus stop nearby. Some of them move to public housing units, built on the fringes of the suburbs because the land is still cheaper than downtown. People with cars and disposable income decide they don't like the congestion of the suburbs and move farther out. We don't need that farmland anyway -- gas and diesel are so cheap we can afford to import all our food from Mexico and California. (Is there still a difference? </snide>) The urban core, decimated by three decades of shrinking population -- and the population that's left are the ones who couldn't afford to leave, so are net consumers of public funds -- becomes cheap. Yuppies start moving in and re-habbing the homes built by their great-grandparents' generation. The houses have "great bones", and are close to the remaining jobs. What's not to love? Part of the re-hab includes bars on the windows and security systems -- this is still a bad neighborhood, after all. They love it right up until they get pregnant, then decide they need a Lincoln Navigator and a yard. But the only place with a yard is 40 miles outside of town. If we were exposed to the true cost of gas -- ie: what the rest of the world pays for it -- steps 2 and 4 wouldn't have happened to nearly the degree they have. But now that it has happened, people feel they have "no choice" on step 5, and demand that the government do "whatever it takes" to keep gas prices down. If the tax burden of supporting our Middle East adventures were shifted from the income tax to gas tax, keeping net receipts the same, then people most responsible for the need would be most responsible for the cost. I get 30+ mpg, and I pay just as much for "keeping stability" (chyeah, right) in the Middle East as someone getting 10 mpg. That's fair. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #255,379 by Andrew Grygus 5/13/06 8:32:44 PM Reply	Yes, there is still a difference. " . . Mexico and California. (Is there still a difference? </snide>)" In Mexico all the signs are in Spanish. In California they're in Spanish, Korean, Farsi, Armenian, Chinese, India, Vietnamese and even English. I live in Korea. Friday I did work in Mexico. Today I did my shopping in India, Vietnam and China. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]

Welcome to IWETHEY!