Ch. 2 & 3: Suburban Nation/Assign 26-28

Hey guys...well the first house my family ever moved in to was and is mostly likely the definition of sprawl. I grew up in a neighborhood called the Cottages of Chicopee. It was a very small neighborhood of about 11 houses; fairly new neighborhood about 5 years old. Just in that statement you may assume that nieghbors were close because the neighboorhood was so small. Well that's not the case. The neighborhood was closed off from the outside by trees. And to be honest..the whole neighborhood was a cul-de-sac. There was no oulet and all road. Since when did cul-de-sacs become a beautiful scenery. Though the houses did look different, the basic concept of the way the houses were built were similar. There was nothing unique (maybe besides color) about the houses. That just screams (SPRAWL)!

 The neighborhood was located relatively distant from some stores and the school. Let be put it this way.. if you didn't have a car..you're screwed. Though my small neighborhood leaned mostly to the sprawl side, it wasn't all that bad. Yes..i know we still had to burn gas just to buy a few grocries, but our neighborhood did give us a sense of privacy and protection. It even states in Suburban Nation that one good thing that comes out of sprawl is the sense of privacy one gains from it, but on the flip side when one gets on the road..all that personal space is gone and one is now sitting in traffic. 

Now the neighborhood was an ok one. My family is the only black family to live in that neighborhood. It's funny because surrounding the neighborhood are apartments where mostly minorities live. You can tell a status or class distinction is evident. That's one thing sprawl tends to do. It separates social class. Is that a good thing..some think so. I think it's absolutely bogus.