e-commentary

. . .

J          “Toby Hemenway observed about life with their rural neighbors:  ‘We were on good speaking terms with all our neighbors, but never found much common ground with them.  Local parties often began with watery beer and ended in drunken fights, so we went to fewer as time went by.’”

. . .

K          “They were transferred and transported from a small fishing community to the East Coast, submitted the application to the yacht club, and waited.  And waited.  And when they inquired when they might get a response were enlightened:  ‘In about 200 years.’”

. . .

J          “He characterized the entrenched neighbors surrounding the new stewards of Green Acres as cool and distant and observed:  ‘They’ll let you volunteer all you want, but don’t expect to get invited to their homes for dinner.’”

. . .

K          “And then the other recent pilgrims band together which creates two communities in the community.”

. . .

K          “The cauldron of class, income, gender, region, religion, profession, education and even syntax create hurdles that can become barriers.  With a little understanding and a lot of work, common ground can be found.  A sincere dinner invite was even issued.  Oddly issued?”

J          “Losing that cherished ground to the highest bidder often produces legitimate resentment among the long-term locals.  They may even lose their ground merely because the taxes to hold their ground are overwhelming.” 

. . .

K          “Toss race into the pot and taste the stew.  Even today, a non-white moving into the area would trigger an overload.  Or should I say “Oddly today” the move would be awkward and uncomfortable.”

J          “And non-whites are legitimately resentful when they lose their ground to well-healed whites who move into the area and move them out of the area.”

. . .

K          “Gentrification is the private sector solution to housing and urban development.  The Department of Housing and Urban Development should be scaled back to police the market for red lining and other market impediments but otherwise not get involved in the market.”

. . .  

J          “Imagine a vegetarian tee-totaling transgender who describes their former neighbor’s cabin as an ashram and festoons it with Buddhist prayer flags and fires up solar panels.”

. . .

[See “Peak Oil and Urban Sustainability” by Toby Hemenway dated June 1, 2005 that provides much insight but does need a much sexier title.]   

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