As we contemplate vital issues of community related to our schools and commercial developments, it's a good time for cautionary wisdom from Ray Oldenburg as expressed in his book, The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community:
We aimed for comfort and well-stocked homes and freedom from uncomfortable interaction and the obligations of citizenship. We succeeded.
And as if to seal our fate, zoning ordinances were copied and enforced all over the land, prohibiting the stuff of community from intrusion into residential areas. In the subdivisions of post World War II America, there is nothing to walk to and no place to gather. The physical staggering virtually ensures immunity from community.
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Encouraged by a continuing decline in the civilities and amenities of the public or shared environment, people invest more hopes in their private acreage. They proceed as though a house can substitute for a community if only it is spacious enough, entertaining enough, comfortable enough, splendid enough--and suitably isolated from that of the common horde that politicians still refer to as our "fellow Americans."
Is it any wonder that we hear the self-interested dogma of "What will this mean to me and my property tax bill" attempt to drown out the more far-reaching concerns of community-building that we should be contending with here in Franklin?
Let's attempt to look beyond the tips of our own noses and the borders of our expansive lawns.
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