The Feudal Lords Step Across the Moat
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15236127/california-forever-billionaire-san-francisco.html
When Trump ran for his first term, I coined a phrase, "The peasants beyond the moat." This was meant to denote how average Americans really have very little voice; and those who promise to represent our interests quickly move toward their own self-interests. The malignant forces at work against Suison City will not be discussed. No need to write about the obvious. But the Feudal Lords are now stepping across the moat and impacting the very thing which the "peasants" hold dear: Their generational communities and neighborhoods.
What I prefer to address is how these emerging "smart cities" have the potential to destabilize communities, and more importantly, harm childhood growth and development.
It is a story which I do not share often, but it has merit here. When my brother and I were young teens we would ride the city bus in Oaxaca and purchase groceries from the open air market. Usually, our mother would include enough money so that we could purchase a snack from a street vendor. We went through a season where the Communist Party students from the state would spark episodes of unrest. On this particular day, several students commandeered the bus and catapulted the driver onto the sidewalk. We were driven about the city for quite some time. There was plenty of sloganeering, shouting, and angry looks. But eventually, the angry protesters had used up their store of adrenaline, and the rest of us were left with trying to figure out how to get home. My parents? Unflappable. Unshakable. We merely waited until the unrest cooled and went about our lives.
Planned communities with amenities can be favored by our geriatric population. The elderly no longer want to be confronted with risk. Children and growing teens should never find themselves force into this type of a (fake) neighborhood. It is counter-intuitive, and I believe it is distinctly unhealthy.
Planned communities with grid cities are an urban planning blight which should be resisted. We should shun grid cities. We are not China. And we should shun the steel-and-glass fish bowl communities which confuse amenities and convenience with freedom. Freedom only comes with choices. And being reduced to the choice of a nearby Starbucks... a day spa... a handful of designer restaurants... boutique grocery shopping experiences... should frighten us. We should resist the encroachment of the same upon our own residential single-dwelling (and free standing) neighborhoods.
Cherishing conveniences should not be at the top of our list for the lifestyle of our children. Shielding our children from normative risks and inconvenience deny our progeny the full ability to develop character. Simply stated, life without risk is a life not worth living. Predictability without life's small surprising moments creates emotional dwarfs.
"California Forever" is a well-constructed myth. The softly massaged legend that Americans can be happy with investor-planned spaces which ultimately trap human potential is a falsehood.
We should never seek to move our children into a sarcophagus neighborhood. You open the door to your own sarcophagus and step out onto a street with another sarcophagus. There is a small dog park. Next to it, a small playground with safe, short plastic slides. Several meters away, the Starbucks where a bored nanny can pick up her six dollar coffee. One block away, the elementary school. The word which comes to mind is "suffocating". The very thought sucks the oxygen right out of my lungs.
A healthy neighborhood (in leaf form) resembles an Acerose and not an Elliptical. Children need panoramas and vistas. They need the random interactions with neighbors a short bike ride away; the unpredictability which comes with crossing the path with others with individual traits and behaviors unlike their own. All of the aforementioned can be found in established, naturally-occurring neighborhoods.
Planned communities destroy a pioneering spirit; they reduce the potential of man. We must never forget that we are primates. And that little bit of us which is still wild must be allowed to take risks, explore opportunities, and interact with others. Grid cities - suffocate what it means to be human. And to desensitize children to risk and neighborhood adventures weaken the species.
Recommended fun film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAjECYnrYks
swoffordwrites@gmail.com
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