Suburbanism

I had lunch with a friend today, and he pointed out how funny it is that new shopping centers title themselves "Main Street" or some such matter. It made me think of the big consumer center south of our house, which houses a movie theater, JC Penney, Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy and Wild Oats among numerous other smaller shops and restaurants. The name? "First and Main Town Center."

I'm not sure if they were intentionally trying to be ironic or not. They're using a name to evoke images of small town America, the kind of place you could conceivably walk to, but if you didn't live nearby, you could comfortably walk around. First and Main is structured around the automobile. There are giant parking lots with several big streets coming in. Your blood is on your own body should you choose to get out of your car and try to go into an establishment. And there are no living spaces within a mile or so as the crow might fly if he's feeling adventuresome. That is to say, there are barely any dwellings within two driving miles.

First and Main Town Center. This idea used to be centered around community life with commerce as an incidental. Now you have to get in your car quite intentionally, drive a few miles, nearly die under the wheels of a maniacally crazed and consumption-obsessed driver, all to go focus on your own group of people that just drove in. Over stuff you just paid way too much money for.

FaMTC? Why are you twisting a decent image into something wholly perverse? I know; "Centralized Location for Medicating Your Pain over Consumer Debt by Driving You Deeper into It While Destroying the Former Prairie Landscape" just doesn't quite have that marketing appeal, does it?