The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Saturday, Debtember 13, 2003

The non-communities of today

Locals joke that the way things are going, somebody will eventually have to build a Las Vegas, Las Vegas—a miniature version of the Strip inside a hotel on the Strip, so you can avoid the Strip and still experience it.

Which is something the casual visitor might dearly wish to do, because the experience of actually being on this gigantic motorway lined by buildings of such monstrous scale—or, at some stretches, vacant lots that appear to be the size of Rhode Island—is not apt to gratify many human beings with normal neurological equipment. In fact, if ever a setting was designed to ravage the central nervous system and induce acute agoraphobia, the Strip is it.

Las Vegas: Utopia of Clowns

When I mentioned the bit about oneday someone will build Las Vegas, Las Vegas to Spring, she replied that she heard that it was already done.

Not that it surprises me about Las Vegas.

I've been there on several occasions (mostly with my Dad, once with a friend) and the place is insane. There is no other word to describe it. Each hotel is trying to out do Disney World on a three mile strip of land in the middle of the desert.

The author, James Kunstler, is an urban design specialist and doesn't have nice things to say about Las Vegas. Well, James Kunstler doesn't have many nice things to say about sub urbia in general (and I agree with a lot of his points; in fact, I think zoning laws have destroyed our communities way more than sex, drugs or rock-n roll).

Though the National Defense Interstate Highway System originally had been intended for just such mass evacuations, it had actually never been tested to this degree before. And, let.s face it, 1959 standards probably didn.t apply anymore. For one thing, the sheer number of motor vehicles was up exponentially. Not in forty-odd years, either, had a hurricane so large and fearsome behaved quite so erratically, and, what with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) all cranked up to grandstand for the CNN audience, and virtually every county and municipality along the southeast coast issuing official evacuation orders, the system had clogged up like the porkfat-lined vascular system of a baby boom Bubba behind the wheel of his beloved suburban utility vehicle (SUV), and, Lordy, the entire fretful coastal plain had become a united parking lot.

Atlanta: Does Edge City Have a Future?

Last month, at the request of my friend Hoade, I drove around Margate (and Coral Springs, Coconut Creek and North Lauderdale), a town (towns) we grew up in) and took pictures. A CVS pharmacy (which used to be Wags, a Denny's-like restaurant). A pet store (which used to be a two-screen movie theater). A dying strip mall (which used to be this huge empty field twenty years ago). A pre-school (which used to be a restaurant). A bingo hall (which used to be a grocery store).

There are days when I really miss Brevard

Obligatory Picture

An abstract representation of where you're coming from]

Obligatory Contact Info

Obligatory Feeds

Obligatory Links

Obligatory Miscellaneous

Obligatory AI Disclaimer

No AI was used in the making of this site, unless otherwise noted.

You have my permission to link freely to any entry here. Go ahead, I won't bite. I promise.

The dates are the permanent links to that day's entries (or entry, if there is only one entry). The titles are the permanent links to that entry only. The format for the links are simple: Start with the base link for this site: https://boston.conman.org/, then add the date you are interested in, say 2000/08/01, so that would make the final URL:

https://boston.conman.org/2000/08/01

You can also specify the entire month by leaving off the day portion. You can even select an arbitrary portion of time.

You may also note subtle shading of the links and that's intentional: the “closer” the link is (relative to the page) the “brighter” it appears. It's an experiment in using color shading to denote the distance a link is from here. If you don't notice it, don't worry; it's not all that important.

It is assumed that every brand name, slogan, corporate name, symbol, design element, et cetera mentioned in these pages is a protected and/or trademarked entity, the sole property of its owner(s), and acknowledgement of this status is implied.

Copyright © 1999-2024 by Sean Conner. All Rights Reserved.