Sprawl: A Complaint
The New York Times is running this great series called "Choking On Success" about the industrial boom in China, and the effect it is having on their environment: namely, turning all of China into a wasteland. Thank God for American enviromentalists. There's still a lot of filth in America, but it could be a lot worse. The land of fish and rice has made economic growth a priority no matter the cost. Its fish have been poisoned, and irrigation water is so contaminated that farmers can't touch it or their skin will fall off. In some areas, truck traffic is so bad that if you open your window at night you'll wake up with your face covered in black soot.
China is horrible in so many ways. Their workers are treated horribly. They are devastating the environment. And they spit in the face of economic freedom. I can't fathom why we would honor them with the Olympics? Is it just in hopes that the media attention will force them to improve to escape some of the embarrassment?
For the past few years I've been really interested in the development of rising countries like China, India, and Iran, and the growth of super cities like Dubai. Globalization / modernization. Tom Friedman kind of stuff. I always read his articles, but I still haven't read any of his books. Does anyone have a copy of The World Is Flat or Longtitudes and Attitudes? Anyways, the industrial revolutions in America and Brittain are fascinating, too. Does every country striving to become a global economic power initially have to treat its workers like crap and destory the environment? Then, only once the money starts flowing in do the workers have the power to complain about their working conditions and the pollution? We're lucky to have developed earlier when humans were quite so expert at destroying the environment. Now, our pollutants are more advanced and it will be much harder to remove them.
On a somewhat related note, there is a huge new shopping development being built next to the hotel. They started clearing this space way back in my freshman year. I remember because while they were clearing it they let some enormous trees fall onto some abandoned houses... and you know, it looked cool. Anyways, at one point the space was supposed to be used to build a Super Walmart. Then the current WalMart would have been made into a Sam's Club. That deal fell through, and Lewisburg ended up with the Super Walmart, and their old WalMart is now just a giant empty building. The area by the Super Walmart is now really built up with Applebees, Sheetz, and another Hampton Inn. Across from the SuperWalmart there's a new strip mall that has Immix, Original Italian Pizza, and maybe two or three other stores. But more than half of those brand new storefronts have never been filled. Which makes sense. How can they compete with a brand new Super Walmart?
For a while we've been trying to figure out which stores are coming in next to us. A lot of guests are curious about it, and the people in town REALLY want to know. We finally found out a partial list: Target, Giant, Home Depot, Red Robin, Chiles, Rossi's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Bed Bath and Beyond, Starbucks and Kohls. There are still eight empty spots. There's also speculation that across the street where the Rex is/was they are going to put in an Olive Garden and Red Lobster. They will most likely have to put three more traffic lights on the strip.
The local people talk about the development ususally in terms of "this area really needs a (fill in the blank)." I admit that I'd really like to see a Borders or Barnes and Nobles go in. And having a Sonic would be amazing. But people should really rethink what we "need." There's already a GIANT like two miles away. This Home Depot will be about a mile away from Lowes. Starbucks might hurt the Kind Cafe. Chile's could drive Casa Sanchez out of business. And BJs is already on the brink of bankruptcy and sinking fast. Target will probably put KMart out of its misery, which means a red light will be directing traffic at an empty parking lot.
I admit that despite my hatred of shopping, Target is enough to get me excited. And most of these stores are "different" yes. But getting back to the "what this area needs" argument, part of their reasoning is just not wanting to drive to Harrisburg for some of these stores. Part of it is like a stamp of approval for the area, like, now Selinsgrove is really on the map because we have a Target. Never mind that traffic is already horrible on the strip, never mind the empty store fronts.
Maybe people don't realize that what makes a town great is not how many corporations think they can make money in a five mile strip of road. Why not promote some nice local bars and restaurants? That would be a start at least. The other day a guest asked me what happeend to Sunbury. Twenty, thirty years ago, Sunbury was the shit, and Selinsgrove was nothing. Now Sunbury is god awful, and Selinsgrove is "on the rise." In the end, the guest concluded that it was the university that had kept our side of the river thriving. That may be part of it. But a bigger part may be that a lot of corporations are looking to expand to the next tier of towns and we just so happened to have a lot of empty farmland located on a busy highway.
Alex posted a link on his facebook page. www.thestoryofstuff.com You should really watch this video. It's been haunting me and I pretty much feel awful whenever I buy ANYTHING.
China is horrible in so many ways. Their workers are treated horribly. They are devastating the environment. And they spit in the face of economic freedom. I can't fathom why we would honor them with the Olympics? Is it just in hopes that the media attention will force them to improve to escape some of the embarrassment?
For the past few years I've been really interested in the development of rising countries like China, India, and Iran, and the growth of super cities like Dubai. Globalization / modernization. Tom Friedman kind of stuff. I always read his articles, but I still haven't read any of his books. Does anyone have a copy of The World Is Flat or Longtitudes and Attitudes? Anyways, the industrial revolutions in America and Brittain are fascinating, too. Does every country striving to become a global economic power initially have to treat its workers like crap and destory the environment? Then, only once the money starts flowing in do the workers have the power to complain about their working conditions and the pollution? We're lucky to have developed earlier when humans were quite so expert at destroying the environment. Now, our pollutants are more advanced and it will be much harder to remove them.
On a somewhat related note, there is a huge new shopping development being built next to the hotel. They started clearing this space way back in my freshman year. I remember because while they were clearing it they let some enormous trees fall onto some abandoned houses... and you know, it looked cool. Anyways, at one point the space was supposed to be used to build a Super Walmart. Then the current WalMart would have been made into a Sam's Club. That deal fell through, and Lewisburg ended up with the Super Walmart, and their old WalMart is now just a giant empty building. The area by the Super Walmart is now really built up with Applebees, Sheetz, and another Hampton Inn. Across from the SuperWalmart there's a new strip mall that has Immix, Original Italian Pizza, and maybe two or three other stores. But more than half of those brand new storefronts have never been filled. Which makes sense. How can they compete with a brand new Super Walmart?
For a while we've been trying to figure out which stores are coming in next to us. A lot of guests are curious about it, and the people in town REALLY want to know. We finally found out a partial list: Target, Giant, Home Depot, Red Robin, Chiles, Rossi's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Bed Bath and Beyond, Starbucks and Kohls. There are still eight empty spots. There's also speculation that across the street where the Rex is/was they are going to put in an Olive Garden and Red Lobster. They will most likely have to put three more traffic lights on the strip.
The local people talk about the development ususally in terms of "this area really needs a (fill in the blank)." I admit that I'd really like to see a Borders or Barnes and Nobles go in. And having a Sonic would be amazing. But people should really rethink what we "need." There's already a GIANT like two miles away. This Home Depot will be about a mile away from Lowes. Starbucks might hurt the Kind Cafe. Chile's could drive Casa Sanchez out of business. And BJs is already on the brink of bankruptcy and sinking fast. Target will probably put KMart out of its misery, which means a red light will be directing traffic at an empty parking lot.
I admit that despite my hatred of shopping, Target is enough to get me excited. And most of these stores are "different" yes. But getting back to the "what this area needs" argument, part of their reasoning is just not wanting to drive to Harrisburg for some of these stores. Part of it is like a stamp of approval for the area, like, now Selinsgrove is really on the map because we have a Target. Never mind that traffic is already horrible on the strip, never mind the empty store fronts.
Maybe people don't realize that what makes a town great is not how many corporations think they can make money in a five mile strip of road. Why not promote some nice local bars and restaurants? That would be a start at least. The other day a guest asked me what happeend to Sunbury. Twenty, thirty years ago, Sunbury was the shit, and Selinsgrove was nothing. Now Sunbury is god awful, and Selinsgrove is "on the rise." In the end, the guest concluded that it was the university that had kept our side of the river thriving. That may be part of it. But a bigger part may be that a lot of corporations are looking to expand to the next tier of towns and we just so happened to have a lot of empty farmland located on a busy highway.
Alex posted a link on his facebook page. www.thestoryofstuff.com You should really watch this video. It's been haunting me and I pretty much feel awful whenever I buy ANYTHING.