This evening I drove from my home in Fern Creek to Wish's Drug Store in Lyndon. It saves me big money on prescriptions. On the way there and back, I noted how many vacant store fronts I passed, especially on Hurstbourne Lane. I thought of the empty "big boxes" in Shelbyville Road Plaza--one of my favorite shopping centers--the Borders closing at the intersection of Taylorsville Road and Hurstbourne and other favorites too numerous to mention in formerly prosperous areas, and yet building is going on everywhere. I know there is a new mall planned for Bardstown Road outside the Gene Snyder Freeway in Fern Creek. I wonder what it will take for Louisville, along with the rest of the United States to wake up and recognize that "business as usual" is not coming back. When will we begin to realize when we have enough, and that "enough is as good as a feast"?
Detroit was once a major population center and economic engine in this country. Now we all know it is a pale shadow of its former power and glory. It is now significantly smaller than Louisville. Recently Detroit has begun to face up to the truth: the city can no longer hold out hope of rebuilding to its former size. The administration has begun downsizing: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1972926,00.html
The shrinking of our cities -the shrinking of the American Dream- is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Like cancer, alcoholism and global warming it will only destroy more and more until we stop ignoring it. Let's preserve and conserve what we can while we still have enough. Capitalism cannot continue in it's present form. If we fail to reform it, we stand the chance of being overtaken by a grim alternative by default.
If you would like to submit an opinion on an issue, please feel free to send it in for consideration.
No comments:
Post a Comment