Exurbia

Today, I found this must-read article by Tristram Hunt of The Observer

Some excerpts:

"This is the cultural landscape of modern America: not the downtown conviviality of Cheers, but the soulless anomie of Desperate Housewives; not the urban chic of Friends, but the sprawling southern California of The OC."

"Aided by a welter of federal subsidies securing investors against depreciation, developers find it far more profitable to commission an entirely new mall than to renovate the present. In 2002 alone, half a billion square feet of retail space - the equivalent of some 4,000 dead malls - were left empty."

"A study by the Los Angeles Times revealed that 97 of the 100 fastest-growing counties in the US supported President Bush, providing him with a decisive 1.72m vote advantage over John Kerry."

Interesting stuff. Entirely visible, of course - take a drive ten miles out of any urban center in the States and you'll see it. Scary to think of the implications: sprawl means driving means fuel means oil wars and fossil fuel depletion, for example. Half a million dead in Iraq, for example.

The world is going downhill. There must be other ways.