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Sunday, July 30, 2006

There Goes The Gayborhood

I will admit it. I am a person with a lot of pet peeves. One of them is when a group of people move into a place (presumably because they are attracted to the character of the place) and then do everything possible to change the character of the place where they have just moved. I see this a lot with sprawl. People move out of the older suburbs and cities into rural areas because they like the country. I can understand that. I like rural areas. But then, the first thing they do is tear up the fields and plant icky lawns. Then they decide that living in the country is inconvenient so they demand stores and strip malls and wider roads, etc. Pretty soon, the countryside strongly resembles the suburbs they were trying to get away from.

It turns out that this happens in cities too. A place develops some character and becomes attractive to people who start moving in. But as soon as they are there, they start wanting things that ruin the character of the place. Maybe they want a Starbucks instead of a non-chain coffee joint? Maybe they dont like the poor people in their rapidly gentrifying neighborhood? Maybe the dont like cheap student housing or porch couches? Or maybe it is like (as they say in the segment below) moving next to a busy airport and then complaining about the noise?

Anyhow, this is something that has bugged me for a long time and that is why when I first saw this piece from The Daily Show, I about bust a gut and peed. It is so spot on for me. And now, I have found it on YouTube so I can share it with everyone. Enjoy!

2 comments:

portuguesa nova said...

Haha! Awesome.

E-Speed said...

I love the Daily Show :)