a different kind of slum

there was an interesting blurb on one of the globe’s blogs today about suburban decay, and how it’s possible that the extruded subdivisions with the identical houses and clustered mailboxes might be the run-down, sketchy areas of the future, thanks to the well-documented overreaching of both banks and borderline homeowners alike.

it’s interesting, for one, because this was a significant part of the last nanowrimo novel i worked on (died on the table at 30k words; maybe i’ll finish it up next november), and thought it was a really interesting concept, considering that exurbs and bedroom communities are predicated on assumptions about human civilization that might not always hold true (namely, cheap personal transportation).

it’s more interesting, considering that i saw that happen in the neighborhood where i grew up back in plymouth. we moved there at the very tail end of the so-called ‘massachusetts miracle’, in time to buy high (after selling low in new orleans, woo-hoo!), and watch the economy go south literally and figuratively. and sure enough, the neighborhood went to shit. lawns went unmowed, shingles rotted and clapboards faded. faded toys inscribed permanent patterns in the grass, and playground equipment peeled and disintegrated. people moved in that weren’t like the people who moved out, chiefly in that they didn’t seem to give a damn. school bus shelters burned down mysteriously. of course, it was all petty crime, and of course, an increase in the rate at which i got threatened and/or beat upon on the way to and from school, but you could see trends. like the buildings fading and turning gray in simcity.

it turned around eventually, but i never made the assumption that suburban cul-de-sac’ed neighborhoods were in any way inherently safe or idyllic. the migration pattern of the indifferent and obnoxious doesn’t necessarily limit them to the big city.