JUST ANOTHER MYTH

There is what remains of a strip mall. The movie house has nothing on the marquee, but if you venture inside there seems to be life. There is a dollar store. There is a Chinese buffet. The rest is derelict. A few cars occupy a large space whose ambitions vanished years ago. It is mostly derelict. It is like the set of The Last Picture Show.

But it is 2009 and I am in Fredonia, New York, a village about an hour west of Buffalo on the Thruway. We stay at a Day’s Inn that is trying hard but has seen better days. There is that slightly damp, mildewy aroma in the hallways and in the room there is evidence of a worn carpet that has been covered over.
It is America in decay. Until…
Until you head into town, It is not what you’d call “bustling” but there seems to be life. There are shops and banks and a few people in the streets. The village, like so many relics of the past, abounds iu luxurious looking frame homes, wrap-around porches and a few cupolas here and there. The biggest mansion is the funeral home. Shirley asks me how I’d like to live in a small town. She knows the answer.

But this is not just a small town. It is a relic. It is a personification of what the most ardent Republicans (like Sarah Palin) speak of as the “real” America. It is the epitome of the great myth of “small town folks.” You know the routine: “ ‘round here everybody knows everybody else. People smile and say hello in the street.” That again is mythic. The fact is that small town folks are friendly enough with each other. A newcomer is often shunned with suspicion as someone “from away.” You can die of loneliness in a small town unless your grandfather was born there. During the 50s and 60s urbanites moved to ex-urbia in search of a new kind of peace. I’m not talking about suburbanites who moved to the boonies because you could get so much more house for your money. (The dream has soured as suburban taxes soar, highways gridlock gets worse, and the daily commute keeps you from your family for about three hours a day, not to mention the cost of the second car and the reality that if you have to buy anything at all you have to drive to get t.)
So it is not the recession that is turning places into ghost towns. It is the new urban reality. Hate it you might, but Toronto is the 2nd biggest high rise condo city in North America – next tp New York. More and more people want to walk to work and to restaurants, and to supermarkets. Downtown is “where it’s at.”