Random Thoughts

May 7, 2003

Back to the Land, Not

In the late ‘70s, I got bit by the “Back to the Land“ movement bug and decided it would be a great idea to move way out in the country on my own small farmette, far from the madding crowd.
The country outside Detroit at that time was the burg of Lake Orion. Our version of Green Acres was a house that fit the definition of “ramshackle“ on two acres of land on a dirt road, blessed with several cherry and apple trees and soil so rich you could feed a village in Africa with the bounty of its garden.
It was heaven, and I loved learning the off-kilter and out-of-square craft of remodeling, roofing, installing toilets and the like. Didn‘t even mind getting chewed alive by the skeeters lurking outside the doorway at night.
But there was a dark side of paradise, and that was driving 20, 30 miles or more to work. After losing a job, I found myself fighting traffic 40 miles or so through the daily snarls to far-flung Livonia in pursuit of a paycheck. All that driving meant a 2-3 hour chunk out of each day.
Then too, there was the yard. The soil was so rich that the grass grew a foot each week. It required cutting twice a week, and our super strain of crabgrass was so tough, it was like hacking your way through mop heads. I developed a severe allergy to lawn mowing, which -- sadly -- endures to this very day.
So, by the time we moved to Traverse City, the “Back to the Land“ movement had lost its luster, and city life sounded a lot tastier. A lightbulb went on in my head that it might not be such a bad idea to live in a place where you could walk downtown, and not get saddle sores from driving across half the state each week on your way to and from work. Then too, yards in the city are appropriately small, and don‘t require endless slavery to the green blades.
I got bit by the city bug, and it‘s been thumbs up ever since, having easy access to downtown, bike trails, the library, nightlife, restaurants and all of the good things that urban life (such as it is here) has to offer.
That to me is the challenge facing Gov. Granholm‘s new anti-sprawl task force, the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council. The 26-member panel is supposed to cook up new ideas for curbing urban sprawl, including making our cities more attractive as places to live. Across America, in places such as Atlanta, Boulder, Portland and L.A., urban planners are testing new ideas on urban growth boundaries, mass transit and inner city development in hopes of luring folks back into town.
It‘s a worthy effort and one that fits the zeitgeist of our time, but in my own experience, the desire to move back to the city has to spring from your heart, possibly after discovering that life out in the boondocks or a suburban-style subdivision isn‘t as swell as it‘s cracked up to be.
Changing hearts on the urge to spread out is no small thing. For some of us, that urge goes back hundreds of years to roots in Europe. Peasants emigrating to America were thrilled with the notion of owning their own property, in many cases for the first time ever after generations of servitude. The American Dream was about spreading out, getting your own piece of the action in the form of land, like the barons, princes and dukes of the old country. Today, we‘re still not far from that dream: many of us have parents or grandparents who owned farms -- powerful symbols of self-sufficiency, safety and a healthful lifestyle close to nature that still resonates the allure of a “place out in the country.“
So, will the Land Use Leadership Council be able to convince people to move back into cities such as Grand Rapids, Midland, Battle Creek, Saginaw and the like, even if money for mass transit and Greektown-style attractions can be found?
We‘ll just have to wait and see. There are also forces -- such as the high cost of housing in desirable cities like Petoskey or Traverse City -- that force the young and restless to live at cheaper addresses many miles from town. Then too, the advent of hybrid and hydrogen-powered cars, complete with onboard entertainment systems, talking books and the like, will take the pain out of commuting long distances.
So, is sprawl a goner or an Energizer Bunny that will just keep going and going? Good question. These days, every trip through Northern Michigan reveals a new subdivision, pole barn or jumbo store going up, with the scenery gradually being chewed away. Traverse City and Petoskey‘s residential areas still have their charm, but for how long?

Appetite for destruction
Why is President Bush insisting on his $700 billion tax cut when polls show that the majority of Americans believe it could damage the economy even further?
The Chicago Tribune offers an interesting theory: cutting taxes will mean less and less money available for social services, including Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment benefits and the like. Ultimately, neoconservatives in the Republican Party will be able to destroy the New Deal launched under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Lack of funds for social services will also make it easier to reduce environmental regulations and safeguards in the workplace, allowing for the continued plunder of our natural resources by the super rich.
Don’t worry your pretty heads about it though. With the quality of our education diluted even further and nothing but far-right propaganda running 24-7 on TV and radio, future generations will be too ignorant to have a clue as to what hit them.

Pass the vegetables
Did you hear? Turns out there are millions of viruses in animals ready to make the leap to human hosts, just like the SARS epidemic.
In the past, there hasn’t been any biological bridge for those viruses and bacteria to make the trip. But unfortunately, we’ve been pumping farm animals full of antibiotics for past couple of generations, and all of the cooties in pigs, chickens, beef and other edible critters are getting stronger and more resistant.
And mutating too, with a yen to make the acquaintance of human beings.
Maybe it’s time the human race gave up eating meat. We could feed everyone so much more economically, and end so much environmental degradation and cruelty to animals, not to mention heart disease.
Now if only someone could reproduce a beef tenderloin from soybeans and not have it taste and chew like cardboard...