Rural "Defenders"

Thursday, March 15, 2007

From the irrepressible Hans Noeldner:

Residents in the townships adjacent to metropolitan Madison are fond of proclaiming their determination to remain rural in character; they see themselves engaged in an epic struggle against annexation-obsessed cities and villages.

But it is delusional to think that such areas can REMAIN rural. Demographically, these townships can best be described as ultra-low-density suburbia; economically, ethnically, and racially segregated; and totally dependent on the private motor vehicle for movement. The townships themselves lack significant employment, retail, and services; and their residents are disproportionately dependent upon the motoring infrastructure for which they fail to pay anything approaching their fair share. Indeed, exurbanites have an essentially parasitical relationship with the rest of society; without nearby urban centers their way of life would collapse. The reverse is not true.

Very few exurbanites are conscious that their way of life presumes an open-ended entitlement to ever-expanding highways and abundant free parking at their every destination: such niceties are, like air, taken for granted. But the day is rapidly approaching when motor fuel (and the results of its combustion) shall be far too expensive for eight and twelve motor vehicle trips per household per day. Will exurbanites abandon their "rural” sleeping quarters, or take up the fork and hoe to become real country dwellers?