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Urbanization is Coming For Your Suburb
American Thinker ^ | 16 Feb, 2024 | Jessica Marie Baumgartner

Posted on 02/16/2024 4:57:39 AM PST by MtnClimber

My neighborhood is changing. In just the six years that we have lived in our suburb after fleeing St. Louis, Missouri for a more conservative area that supports our conservative values, towering apartment buildings are being built everywhere. There have been dozens of new car washes, chain restaurants, and big businesses put in or approved.

During 2020, panhandlers started appearing in the area. This has grown so common that the local government had to recently pass a bill outlawing it for the safety of pedestrians and drivers because the panhandlers were obstructing traffic.

While conservative Americans have continuously expressed outrage at political movements that seek to urbanize suburban areas, uni-party elitists in Washington have pressed to globalize every aspect of our lives.

Now, I believe that these officials do deserve plenty of blame, but unfortunately, local officials are a driving force behind this modern crusade to turn every area into a city — complete with liquor stores on every corner.

I report for my local paper. It is run by a former writer for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. She left that “prestigious” paper when they went corporate years ago.

Writing for a locally owned paper and reporting on my local beats was supposed to be a nice change of pace from my other political writing job, but after months of attending Board of Aldermen meetings, I’ve learned that, just like everything else, all of this starts closer to home.

I have three beats. One is my municipality, which I love. The mayor and board all get along and pass pretty much everything that is proposed with little to no opposition. It seems very kosher, but that is because virtually none of our 60,000 residents in my suburb attend the meetings.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: leftism
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To: Alberta's Child

I’ve seen density pushed because developers told the local politicians it was needed to bring the businesses they want.

What usually happens is that the density comes and the business never does.


21 posted on 02/16/2024 6:53:08 AM PST by brianl703
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To: brianl703

The easiest way around that is to structure the zoning code so that mixed-use buildings with ground floor commercial space and residential units above is given favorable treatment over stand-alone apartment buildings.


22 posted on 02/16/2024 6:56:21 AM PST by Alberta's Child (If something in government doesn’t make sense, you can be sure it makes dollars.)
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To: MtnClimber

Well yeah. That’s just the natural math of a growing city. Out of town becomes the ex-urbs, ex-urbs become suburbs, and suburbs become urbs. Not really a mystery. At the end of the 19th century the part of Tucson I live in was a different township entirely with a bunch of nothing between it and Tucson. By the time I got here it was all Tucson.


23 posted on 02/16/2024 7:02:45 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: babble-on

Yogi, how have you been?


24 posted on 02/16/2024 7:22:34 AM PST by Petrosius
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To: MtnClimber

How about a bounty on panhandlers who disrupt traffic?


25 posted on 02/16/2024 7:46:12 AM PST by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Finish the damned WALL! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH!)
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To: yldstrk
Our form of government is supposed to be a representative form where government puts out what the governed demand.

Maybe that's because we complain, bitch and moan instead of DEMAND!

26 posted on 02/16/2024 7:52:32 AM PST by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Finish the damned WALL! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH!)
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To: dfwgator

Cyclopean clusters of Chinese style tofu-dreg apartments for everyone!


27 posted on 02/16/2024 7:53:19 AM PST by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: Alberta's Child

“...tax revenue stream while adding no students to the public school system...”

Well how’s that gonna work with all our new ‘citizens’?


28 posted on 02/16/2024 8:01:13 AM PST by SMARTY ("A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies." Tennyson)
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To: MtnClimber

My County is one of the Redest in Minnesota.

Over the last 5 years... They’ve built multiple high density housing projects and put in dozens of business complexes where there used to be farm land...

My taxes have skyrockets accordingly...

Anecdotal proof... but there it is...


29 posted on 02/16/2024 8:03:44 AM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: Alberta's Child

Sure. Then the ground floor remains empty for years. Real world experience with this.


30 posted on 02/16/2024 8:42:57 AM PST by brianl703
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To: GranTorino

Everyday citizens running for office rather than just those with a leftwing agenda needs to happen more often. Until recently it’s been the norm. George Soros with his ‘hand picked’ culture disruptors is still the exception not the rule. Does that answer your question?


31 posted on 02/16/2024 8:50:36 AM PST by GOPJ (Mayorkas reeks of that 'CIA (Creepy Thug Assh*le') mentality. Ashli Babbit's killer was promoted..)
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To: discostu

Lots of things didn’t exist yet in the late 1800s


32 posted on 02/16/2024 8:57:07 AM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: brianl703

I’ve seen that in newer multiple buildings in the Manasses Virginia area. Empty business spaces unclaimed at the ground level and apartments on top.


33 posted on 02/16/2024 9:09:23 AM PST by mdmathis6 (A horrible historic indictment: Biden Democrats plunging the world into war to hide their crimes!)
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To: Noumenon

Have you witnessed that sort of dreary prison-block style housing projects going up in our part of the country (between Cascades and Rockies)? I haven’t. In my town there are numerous apartment developments going up but in the typical three-story style with courtyards, pools, etc. Often with tasteful color schemes and distinctive.


34 posted on 02/16/2024 9:10:52 AM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: steve86

True, but the concept of how cities grow did. Heck Euclid complained about urban sprawl. Even with skyscrapers cities will still grow horizontally more than vertically. So you’re nice suburb now will be in the city in 10 to 20 years.


35 posted on 02/16/2024 9:12:15 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: MtnClimber

If she doesn’t want any development (big box stores and restaurants) she needs to move to a mountain hamlet where there is no physical space for development.


36 posted on 02/16/2024 9:14:24 AM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: MtnClimber

Local politicians perform much better when angry and determined locals are in their face 24/7.

They are public servants and need to be treated like servants.

If they don’t like it they are free to quit.


37 posted on 02/16/2024 9:15:17 AM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: steve86

But she probably won’t find that in Missouri lol!


38 posted on 02/16/2024 9:16:04 AM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: MtnClimber

News flash:

This has been going on for at least 60 years, and there are any number of suburban ghettos which prove it. They all started off nice, then they went to hell. Many close-in suburbs were well underway on that dismal journey before many of us were even born, and things surely aren’t getting any better today.

You want a good area? Get as far away from the central city as possible. Skip over the “first ring” suburbs (they should be obviously horrible by now) and probably over the second ring too. In some areas like Atlanta, you need to go at least 3-4 counties away from Fulton. That’s a hell of a commute if you work in the city, but well worth it to be able to sleep relatively safely at night.


39 posted on 02/16/2024 9:16:36 AM PST by PermaRag (Joo Biden is not my President)
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To: steve86
Her sentiment is very typical of the dingbat Karens you find in a typical American suburb. I usually describe it this way:

“Suburban sprawl needs to end … the day after MY FAMILY moves into OUR suburban town.”

40 posted on 02/16/2024 9:20:17 AM PST by Alberta's Child (If something in government doesn’t make sense, you can be sure it makes dollars.)
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