I am discovering that The Geography of Nowhere is somewhat about the banality of the suburban landscape. It is much more about how we live in our automobile-driven society and why we live where we do. We've been sold a bill of goods that has preaches that our suburban life is the latest version of the ever-elusive-but-always-pursued "American Dream". What startles me reflecting on it is how our present way of life is one ironically chasing after a bucolic ideal while finding ourselves mired in a lifestyle that is as fast-paced and stressful as any we can imagine. In looking for restful peace we chase after restless business.
As it turns out, everything about suburban culture as we know it seems to have been driven by the automobile.
Henry Ford made the automobile affordable to the masses. When the Great Depression hit, you could buy a Model T for less than $300 (down from over $800 when they first came out). The car represented freedom. The car also represented profits. If everyone can afford a car, then businessmen like Ford would surmise that everyone should have one. If everyone can afford a pair of jeans, then everyone should have one. If everyone can afford a waffle iron, then every family should have one. Fill in the blank - there you have the American consumer-driven economy. But first and foremost, you need a car to get to the store to buy the things you can now afford to buy because you can buy them.
Did you know: General Motors bought many of the privately owned streetcar companies in major cities in order to dismantle tracks and replace streetcars with bus routes.
Did you know: Robert Moses almost single-handedly transformed Long Island from a countryside haven into a massive parking lot with his aggressive and short-sighted development of highways and bridges that spurred unchecked growth.
Did you know: After WWII, the Federal Housing Authority awarded many veterans favorable mortgage deals in new suburban developments as many families moved from the cities to the suburbs. (Correction: white veterans)
Okay - I'm spreading my ideas thin here, but what I am learning is that the automobile industry; in concert with tire companies, oil companies, and steel companies; have basically led us to live a life of consumption. Working so we can afford to buy cars to get to work. Working so we can buy gas for the cars. Working so we can afford to make payments on our house that has a garage for our car. Working so we can drive our car to the store to buy products for our house in the suburbs. Working so we can afford in-home entertainment to further isolate ourselves in our homes and alienate ourselves from our neighbors.
The thing is, we can never work enough to have enough - and the car drives us to drive more.
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| Land transformed for driving and parking. |
I liked how you had a couple of interesting facts that drew in a conclusion to how they were connected to the way suburbs were created. I found it interesting learning that many people were basically bribed to move out of the city and into suburban areas. Never noticed how much the automobile history had such an impact on how suburbs became so populous and led us to live the way we do now in present times. Most people work extremely hard just to pay for oil, car, bills for the house which means no matter how much time passes, we are all fighting to pay for the same things which in the end points to the car.This is simply the way we all grew up working hard everyday which in the end leads to a reward.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely rethinking my driving and how my community is laid out. The "reward" we work for is not an end in itself. It becomes something that demands more.
DeleteFor example, if the "reward" is a big house in the suburbs, you point out that all the bills we pay and work we do goes into maintaining that house and the car that gives us the mobility to get around the town it is in. The house is zoned far away from commerce, from schools, and from recreational centers so we have to drive to get to these places (the streets being inhospitable to bikes and pedestrians).
Some reward, right?