General Discussion

When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, my dad was in the Air Force and he was transferred all over the place. We traveled a great deal on America's highways. There were noticeable regional differences from town to town and state to state in architecture, foods, even the accents of Americans when they spoke. Now if you were dropped in to several widely separated mid-sized town at random, you'd see the same handful of stores selling tires, fast food, clothes, and other things with the same store fronts surrounded by similar-looking suburban enclaves. You might have trouble telling the places apart. America has become very homogenized and the local color that privately-owned business brought to the downtown area is almost gone. I love certain things about modern America including the progress made in human rights, medicine, and science. But there are things about the older America I wish we could bring back. I know some of it has to do with the taste you acquire from growing up in a certain environment. I personally despise the look of modern architecture and the fact that most American cities now all look the same, with their steel and glass cubes that have zero personality. When I was a kid and my father was transferred to Colorado Springs in the 60s, they tore down the beautiful Antler's Hotel, the main downtown feature of charm so that a developer could put up a rectangular steel and glass monstrosity. As a lawyer, I always hated working in these buildings as you could not open a window to get fresh air. They were like crypts and I was much happier working in old buildings made of brick or stone remaining in older parts of town where you could open a window and listen to the life on the street outside. Somehow, that seemed more human. I know that part of my discontent is just the fact I'm an old-timer and hate a lot of modern things. But I think this article is very true and that America is losing its organically-grown character and is becoming an extension of corporate culture, centrally planned, based on how to spend the least and make the most profit. Culture and charm have no place in that world.