Thursday, July 8, 2010

#3: Sprawl


Americans may not have invented urban sprawl, but damnit if we didn't perfect it. Nothing says American "suckiness" like the suburban wastelands that surround our cities. There are literally hundreds of thousands of square miles in the US that look exactly the same - full of strip malls, franchise restaurants, gas stations, and Pleasantville-eerie subdivisions with completely b.s. names like "Meadow Lakes," "River Run," "Hillside Terrace," or "Beaver Dam." Of course, none of these places contain any such landscapes - no lakes, no rivers, no terraces, and they killed all the beavers when they built the shit.

How did it start, you ask? Well, I'll tell you a little story ... once upon a time America won a war. It was a great, mechanized war, fueled by a relatively new energy source called "crude oil." During the war, the early pioneers of this energy source extracted millions upon millions of barrels of this stuff and synthesized it into various fuels, which powered war machines such as tanks and planes and jeeps and crap like that. After America won this war and her soldiers returned victorious, the great oil barons were all like, "shit, now what do we do?" The answer came in the form of cooperative agreements with automobile manufacturers and various state and city governments. The deal (in simplistic language) was this: we'll make it so every American has to have a car ... no, two cars ... and that way we can all get rich.

And so, urban sprawl as we know it was born. Post-World-War-II America saw growth unmatched by any other nation in history. Suburban counties and developers created a vast marketing campaign luring returning GIs and their families with the promise of country living close enough to the industrialized urban centers (you know, where the jobs were) that these new suburban "pioneers" could drive to work or to the grocery store and whatnot. Pretty soon, this concept exploded around just about every major city in the US, the most successful being places like Los Angeles, Detroit, New York City, and Chicago. I mean, the US had tons of land, tons of oil, an eager workforce ... why the hell not.

Well, now look at us. The entire nation is a clustercuss of traffic congestion and architectural hegemony. You can't get anywhere in this damn place without a car. Excepting maybe New York and Chicago, public transit in this country is a total joke. You can't really walk anywhere because there aren't any sidewalks - well, not really - in the suburban landscape. Even if there were, who the hell would want to walk? There are no trees for shade, you have to negotiate six-lane highways full of speeding idiots driving monstrous SUVs, and everything's so spread out that you couldn't walk to anything anyway. Not to mention, we're all fat (probably because we CAN'T walk anywhere). It's just one big mess.

Here lately, people have been throwing around ideas about things like "smart growth" and "pedestrian-friendly" planning, but the majority of Americans aren't buying it. We love our cars too much and we're way lazy. Not to mention, a large demographic of Americans harbor latent prejudices against the certain groups of people and wouldn't, not for all the transfats in the world, consider living in more densely-populated urban areas inhabited by those certain groups of people. To do so would call for a significant change in the "culture" (I use that term loosely and will probably be struck dead for doing so) and we all know how Americans feel about their "traditions" and "freedoms" and "independence" and blah, blah, blah. I mean, that's commie talk.

So, we're just stuck with the sprawl and all the joys it brings. Maybe after the great "energy apocalypse" Americans will get a clue ... but, Americans suck, so probably not.

11 comments:

  1. I myself an American and yes the above may be mostly true, but there are facts left out such as: Every Country in the entire World is just as bad or worse as any American on every level! Just look around and see and notice how many more people come to live in The United States compared to every other Country. The Religion thing is all bullshit, because the only reason people say so many crude and stupid things in America today is the fact that we Americans have been letting many assholes like you live here and say what you want with total freedom, and that is the reason America sounds so stupid today:-) You wanted the facts and you got the facts!

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    1. Sorry to bust your bubble - but the only reason a person from a developed country comes to America is because they are better educated than most Americans and the wages are higher. In the end they often go home. Have you noticed even nowadays how many Indians and Chinese are also going home since the economy is providing better opportunities for them their. People move for money. Don't think they come here because they like your sorry ass. When I got here and turned on the tv I just thought f me... how f'd up is this place. I'm still not sure why America pays so well for educated people - I think there must be a time limit on it because most Americans I know can't find their ass crack

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  2. Americans are always right? It's probably because you couldn't find a way to prove them wrong jerk off:-)

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  3. Lazy? You must be black huh? As for me, I will stand side by side with anybody at work no matter what the job.

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  4. This whole article is on point, and like most morons you wants facts, here are some read the comments after this article..h aha classic

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  6. Yes, the suburbs breeds anti-social people. They have road rage, they are the angry customers that think merchandise (consumerism) is needed for survival.

    After work they all go home to tired to be out socializing; so they stay at home watching. mindless television.

    When I visited foreign countries outside the USA, it was the complete opposite: lots of people walking around, Socializing, Eating together even with strangers, exiting nightlife to say the least. They're just teeming with life.

    It really opened my eyes to the way real people actually live, work and , play. The USA on the otherhand is fake, full of uptight and agnry people because they never changed they suburban (anti-social) culture.

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    1. 100 years ago if you sailed along the US east coast you would have seen a bunch of grand European looking mansions. If you bothered to beach the boat and walk up to them you would have banged on the grand pillars of the mansion and found they were made of plaster.

      America has always been fake. A wannabee. The rudeness, lack of manners, loudness, materialism is just code for a people that feel inferior and want desperately to prove themselves. Even today the average American lives in a cheaply constructed wooden tract home, with stuco or plastic siding. They look good when new but don't last. To have a culture and a community requires a long term view of the world, not short term materialism. So you get what you got, angry, envy riddled people while countries in Europe have gone on to primarily get over their differences and create something a whole lot better than the US.

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