Seminar in Urban Problems: Student Thoughts on Solutions

Post #2: Crabgrass Frontier 157-305

I’m going to continue my blogging with more revelations, experiences and thoughts from the book and my travels. This post is dedicated to my new home, Memphis. In the past two years I have moved 6 separate times: 3 different apartments in Knoxville, 2 different apartments in Nashville and now my itty bitty house in Midtown Memphis. As the reading states, cars are important, but trucks are truly entirely more efficient vehicles. If it hadn’t been for my friends with trucks and patience, I may have my belongings scattered about Tennessee right now. In my many apartments I have experienced downtown living, campus living, urban living and of course, suburban living. See below for some observations:

Howdy neighbor!

It is true. Sometimes painfully true that a characteristic of city verses suburban living is all about how close you are to your neighbor, how similar all the houses are and how similar all the people are. Easiest to understand and experience in my many apartments was the fact that the further away I was from the city, the further away I was from my neighbors. This is even apparent in my downtown Knoxville apartments and my suburban apartments in Nashville. The Nashville apartment complex had bigger parking spaces, wider roads, larger hallways and more space between each apartment building. In Midtown I can’t leave my house without exchanging greetings with one or two neighbors, petting the dog my neighbor never puts on a leash and hearing the little kids play across the street. Even after just 6 months of living here I know my neighbors. In my 4 months of living in Brentwood (suburb of Nashville) I didn’t meet anyone in my neighborhood.

My second thought about neighbors is the amount of personality you get to see from your neighbors based on your location. I have always said that Memphis has tons of character and soul. I should correct that by saying: the central part of Memphis has tons of character and soul, but the suburbs look all of the same. As a new Memphis resident I could tell you all the differences between Central Gardens, Cooper Young and all the other little nooks of Midtown, but I couldn’t even begin to tell you how to distinguish between the suburbs. Why? Because the center part of Memphis is bursting with different colors, different housing layouts, gorgeous flowers, crazy graffiti and the houses are so close together that you can easily see the personality from each neighbor next to the other. The suburbs have brick, green grass and maybe an occasional wreath to distinguish a house wife’s taste in decorating.

Last, but importantly not least: city living provides different (sometimes crazy) neighbors. Living in the ‘burbs guarantees 99.9% of your neighbors are all the same (and sometimes still crazy). Maybe that is why suburbs are so spread out: if the neighbors are all the same why should you have to be so close to them? I’m not really concerned with the craziness level of my neighbors, but I do find that the issue of diversity is taken for granted in some places. When living in the suburbs of Nashville I think I went a few days without seeing an African American. In Memphis, the only way to not see a person of color is to close your eyes. How can people live in different cities and neighborhoods, but not interact with other races, languages and cultures? Why would you want to seclude yourself (and your family) from diversity? I know that some people don’t do this intentionally in their housing choices, but I find it painful to think that some people do. When asking my current landlord about the neighborhood before I moved in he made it a point to tell me where every black person lived on the street. What?!? That is NOT what I meant! After a few more experiences like this, I realized that most people of Memphis use color to define their city. This is something I’m still trying to wrap my head around, but after our reading this week I’ve started to understand why. Property values and mortgage rates have historically depended on race. The idea of defining a neighborhood, a school, a house or any public space depending on the race of the folks who are in it is something that isn’t even 100 years old. We still have generations of people who think this way.

Tidbits from a Tourist

I just spent the past week driving across the country from Memphis to Roswell, New Mexico. We traveled through big cities, little towns, and I think even a few ghost towns. Thanks to I-40, each town (even ones with 1 street light) had a gas station and a hotel. I never realized that these amenities (this word is a stretch for some towns) wouldn’t have began without the success of our interstate system.

Route 66’s Cadillac Ranch

I understand that Drive-In Culture helped to make America what it is today, but once again I have to point out why European culture is much more healthy. The epitome of Drive-In culture shock occurred when a friend of mine had her boyfriend from the Netherlands accompany her to the bank on his visit to the states. Like normal, she stayed in her car, drove up to the drive through lane, and put her check and necessary forms into the little carrier that travels all the way inside the bank. Her boyfriend was in shock at what just happened. Americans didn’t even have to get out of their car to go the bank! I didn’t realize how ridiculous this was until an outsider was so in shock about it. Why have we taken Drive-In Culture to the extreme?

Arc de Triomf, Barcelona. Maybe if our streets were as pretty as this we would walk around more often?