I probably have written about this before. When we first moved into our townhouse there was a pig farm running along the length of one side of the complex. The main exit from a then two lanes each direction Hwy99 (with bushes and a cable dividing the center) was typical of the country side exits of the time. You waited for the occasional vehicle and made a left across the traffic lane to enter the highway.
Now we are surrounded by Section Eight Housing. The Freeway has three lanes and an exit lane in each direction. The traffic headed south toward Elk Grove is akin to that would be expected on a Los Angles freeway. In keeping with the no living thing shall go un-killed in our neighborhood the complex gardeners have taking to buzzing of every little flower or bud on the complex bushes. I suspect they do this to try and lower their upkeep by stifling the new growth. We have no flowers except the blossoms in the trees and they point their blowers up into the trees trying to knock them off. The population in our area is victim to this mentality also. They just can not seem to take a break from killing people either.
I want to move. I wanna go! But where? The town I grew up in has grown to a point that I would not choose to move there. It seems like a vicious cycle. The Bay Area folks move to Elk Grove and Sacramento, the original dwellers get fed up with the steady influx of new bodies, they in turn move outwards towards the Sutter County and Placer County foothill areas and now the Rural County areas are growing to the point that many of their residents want to leave before the trappings of city/urban living attack.
I feel like a rat in the experiment we read about in High School – the one where all the rats are forced to live in a confined space and go wacko. The paper by John B Calhoun called “Population Density and Social Pathology.” (Calhoun, John B. 1962. “Population Density and Social Pathology.” Scientific American 206:139-148. – covers the experiment but I refuse to pay to for the online version. So here is an abstract online of the experiment.
Studies involving humans have shown it is not just the lack of space that causes the behavioral but the social aspects. Forced socializing is apparently not a good thing.
I guess I have hit my threshold. – I write as my neighbors music booms through the walls, a truck drives by with even a louder boom boomer, and a police siren goes off in the distance – emmm …. The gate outside goes clang bang – the youth of our little neighborhood ghetto have arrived home – let the games begin – as I put on my headphones and continue to type……. I try clicking my heels and chanting . There’s no place like home . .. There’s no place like home . …