NEIGHBORHOOD-ISM
Is there hope for the re-establishment of a neighborhood feeling in our cities ? Does more mean better?
I bring those two related questions because I notice our nearest city, the urban center in which we shop most frequently, is developing into complex grouping of pairs, or more, of business firms which seem to be placed to serve a segment of the nearby residents. We went through a phase of intensification when businesses tended to head for the Mall on the edge of town. That mall, of course, has now being overwhelmed with new shopping centers on every side of it, and while it continues to do well, so do the stores at other locations – some of them duplicates of the Mall shops.
Ours is a small city with a population of around thirty-thousand. It is fortunate to have a large area from which it draws shoppers in a least twice that number It has two universities and another college nearby which is a factor of great importance with seasonal jumps of about fifteen thousand residents. Construction of apartments and town houses continues unabated ,much of as student housing. The city fathers have wisely provided well in advance to meet increasing traffic and utility needs and to control
the growth of the city and to refurbish the downtown area which has, like many others, suffered a measure of blight.. Right now, it sports the lowest unemployment rate in the State of Virginia up a bit to l.4%.
A small city, you might say, and growing.
This small city now has two Wal-Mart Super Stores, with a third one under construction and no talk, thus far, of closing one of the others We have five Food Lion stores and three or four more in small towns in the area. Three Radio Shack stores are making a living, two McDonald's, three major book outlets, and another opening soon. Pairs are endless all over two in the fast food stores, pizza shops and convenience stores, auto supply shops, gas stations, banks and ethic restaurants abound.
And, if you watch carefully you will see a family tendency to try to live pretty much within the section of town in which their home is located. They bank at the branch nearest them; the visit the food store nearby, they do all they can as close to home as possible. They go outside the neighborhood area for employment, for medical care, and for entertainment and much of their neighborhood shopping, such as food, health and vanity needs, is done as they are going in-or- out of the larger community.
For those of us who saw merit in the old neighborhood scheme, this appears to be a blessing we can come to enjoy all over again, with modifications, of course. Go with the flow of progress, it seems, and you will find we “progress” in large circles. We tend to re-try what we have done before with subtle changes, of course, which - we hope - will make it be an even better time way of living.
a.l.m. November 27, 2002 [c519wds]
