My flight from Israel via London landed on Saturday morning, and after spending 13 hours sleeping fitfully at Heathrow airport I hit the ground running with a family outing to Manhattan.
This trip delayed the inevitable: confronting the fact that I grew up in a suburb nearly identical to most other suburbs in New Jersey and, for that matter, America. According to James Kunstler, author of Geography of Nowhere and other inspirational books, my parents' choice of living situation is "the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world," and it has three possible futures: as materials salvage, as slums and as ruins.
Seeing that none of these great destinies has yet to be realized in East Brunswick, NJ, I instead came home to participate in the town's daily life.
I went to ShopRite, a large supermarket chain that includes many soggy and oddly frosted baked goods, as well as a raft of products whose ingredients I cannot pronounce. This trip was of course done by car. I also played with my dog, Chloe, who lords over a quarter acre of weedy backyard but has no canine friends to socialize with, because large yards negate the need for parks within walking distance. Then I joined my mother for Latin Dancing at the New York Sports Club, a gym chain for all the people who have cut out physical exercise from their service-sector jobs and must therefore pay to enter a building where they can sweat.
We have bikes stashed in our two-car garage but at the moment only one of four is accessible because the others are buried in the detritus of our existence or hanging from the ceiling, above a car, reachable only by ladder which is hanging on the wall and obstructed by power tools and extension cables. I have considered biking to a few places around town, but everything is far away and in the end I just stay at home throwing compost out in the backyard.
It must be said: I love everyone in my family and I am delighted to see them, but we live in one urban planning black hole.
2 comments:
The truth, the truth! Am in a similar Australian blackhole pointlessly trying to explain to folks here that if we squished together all the houses on top of each other (i.e., an apartment building) and kept all that unused gardens for parks, we'd have a happier, healthier society. Unfortunately we were driving and nobody could hear me above the radio.
Ha! If only someone could take a huge broom, come down to earth, and tidy up the mess we have made of our once pristine rural hinterland by pushing all suburbanites to small towns. In the interest of humanity, the people would be warned and could escape before the Big Sweep.
Post a Comment