Which is to say: As a child I was free. I had the will to roam the space to do it in.
Then in ninth grade we moved to a house on a small lot (bigger than the lot I have now, but much smaller than we were accustomed to) -- and there was no place to go. We lived in a new development surrounded by other developments. We'd get on our bikes and just ... ride ... in a circle. Houses, houses, houses.
I hated high school. I wonder sometimes whether, you know, high school sucks for everyone; or whether I was unhappy because I was a new kid from the sticks and I had no place to roam.
So now I'm a parent and I moved to a small town, hoping to give my children the same freedom of movement that I enjoyed -- and what happened? My small town of 50,000 grew into a city of 75,000 in less than five years. All the vacant land is growing houses or golf courses. The roads are busy... I know that Bend is not Allentown. The forest service boundary is just 2 miles from here; there's Shevlin Park and there's the river. But still, when I see all the construction continuing despite the fact that none of the houses for sale in my neighborhood has sold in seven months -- well, I get claustrophobic. I worry for our freedom to wander as we please.
Bend calendar:
- Currant bushes beside the lava rocks are flowering; those in cooler spaces, not yet
10 comments:
Yeah, one of the things that I'm happiest about is that I live in a town that is as developed as it's going to get. There are no surprise building projects possible--there just isn't the land.
I grew up in a town that had a similar building explosion, and while I didn't live in a development, I was affected. The people who moved in were whiter, richer, and generally snobbier than the people I had grown up with, and the class pressure was pretty intense.
I grew up in a neighborhood where my mother was an oddity for being a college graduate, for going back to work when my brother was four. But the people who moved to our town later were the ones who caused division, not my neighbors in town.
I grew up in a town of 4,000, now it is 30,000. I hate going back. It is just too depressing.
Like Landismom, we moved to a town that was already built-out. So while there are 25,000 or so, we know exactly what the town will look like in 10 years, give or take a few 70's ranch tear-downs....
I would love to have the nature you do, I would think (or should I say hope?) that despite the growth, your town would still be conscious of the environment around them.
Oh, that would be so disappointing. I've always lived in cities, but spent many summers on a lake on the outskirts of a very small town (< 5000 people). I've always yearned to get back to that. In time. But I worry that, soon, I'll have to go so far out to get that, that it'll be an impossible dream.
Landismom -- The class pressure here is pretty bad, too. I think my husband experienced a lot of what you did. If you ever have time to write about that experience, I'd love to hear about it!
Chichimama -- I should have added as a disclaimer that Bend currently has the 6th highest per capita ownership of hybrids IN THE NATION. And a local builder just won an award for building the greenest house in America. There's a strong environmental ethic here ... which somehow does not seem to stop the new construction.
Sage -- I understand that concern, that there's no place to go to get away from the pressure of other people.
i have good friends in Bend..they got married last year in Sisters at Black Butte...i was amazed, so amazed at the wide open spaces...how the sky seemed bigger there.
the smallness amidst the grand.
oh, and i also meant to say, i grew up in a town in the mountains with 1,800 people...
so i craved city as i grew. but as i am older, i find myself longing again for the small.
I will sometimes go several days without making it into town, and then when I do go, it seems like what was an empty lot a few days before now has several houses going up.
The smallish "town" I (mainly) grew up in is now a pretty-decent sized city. It's kind of strange to go back there and I "miss" what was, even though I'm not there anymore. At the same time, the area I live in now has expanded RAPIDLY over the past 10 years, but I've only been here for those 10 years so I guess it's people like me (people moving in) who are part of the problem. ;)
I do think people grossly underestimate the value of open space.
It seems that many people see open space and think: I need to have a house there. It's kinda like a boyfriend I used to have who made me crazy when we went to Jasper: he always wanted to climb off the trail, into 'fresh bush' and I told him that if the million or so visitors to Jasper every year did that, the whole damn place would be trampled.
Sorry. I'm ranting. I feel pretty strongly about leaving the wild be wild, and maybe packing ourselves in a little tighter in the towns we have.
I get such a sense of PLACE from your posts ...
And yes please. Send me some questions.
I also grew up in small towns surrounded by lots of space, filled with nothing but small bushes and tumble weed. Even too many trees make me feel claustrophobic.
And now our amazing piece of open land is also being zoned for development. It makes me sad and a bit panicky.
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