Walkabout of a Texas Neighborhood
Although I can tell the neighborhood was originally built to give a sense of community, this neighborhood feels sterile and lifeless. There are no people outside even on a Saturday afternoon. There are no children playing outside with toys, no dogs being walked and no neighbors chatting on their front lawns. I see one middle-aged woman working with large yellow buds in her flower bed, and though I say “Good afternoon”, she just nods in acknowledgment and continues to work. The homes are all brick exterior of different shades of red and brown. Ironically, used to help with insulation in the Texas heat, the bricks feel cold and unresponsive. Each brick is the same size and shape as the next, much like the homes they comprise. The front yards all have the same look — neatly trimmed green grass with two or less semi young trees in them. There is a lawn service cutting many homes’ yards at once on one street, adding to the cookie cutter appearance. The sidewalk is mostly even and lines all the roads. The streets are clear of litter but lined with trash receptacles. Every home has a two-car garage in the rear of the house leading to an alley, but the cars I can see parked on the curbside are expensive models.
Walking though the neighborhood, I know that there are at least three high schools that the neighborhood feeds into. There are signs in a few yards proudly announcing which high school the family’s teenager attends and what aspect of Texas sports they participate. Football, basketball, track and field, band, cheer leading and dance team just to name a few are represented. Sports must be important in this area to have so many families involved in so many different aspects of the games.
I have also deduced that the occupants of these homes are well off financially or believe they are. This is not to say whether or not they are also in massive financial debt. There are many homes with brightly colored “For Sale” signs in this neighborhood. Were they hit by market fluctuations due to having variable rate mortgages? Was there a massive lay-off in a major employer nearby? Or could it be that these families just found another neighborhood to move to and continue perpetuating “White Flight”? It is empty in the neighborhood, so getting a bearing on the attitude and actions of its residents is difficult if not impossible to obtain at this time.
There are, however, dogs barking loudly everywhere I walk. Approximately every third home has a dog or two in their fenced-in, tiny backyard lot. The newspaper reported today’s high as ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit with eighty percent humidity. I wonder if the dogs are just temporarily out or if they are left outside all day in this excruciating heat. I wonder if the owners know the dangers of leaving dogs all day in this heat. I wonder if they even care to know. These animals are sentient beings and deserve more than a cursory life as someone’s toy. This adds to my assumption that the residents of the neighborhood are materialistic, shallow and self centered.
One of the most dominant features of the neighborhood is the large dominating single-family homes. Each McMansion, as they are known, takes up a space that could provide housing for twenty to thirty people and yet houses three to four people on average. Private land enclosure plays an important role in American society. What do American families need with all the space that their homes provide? Do they need a bigger place to cram more items of junk into organization boxes bought in our overly consumerist culture? Are they looking for a place to hide from society and each other only to connect via the internet?
These large homes use and waste large amounts of energy to provide hot water throughout the home, central heat and air conditioning and all the appliances standing at ready for its owner’s convenience. Convenience, in this case, leads to hardships later as the US’ energy sources, mainly coal and oil, continue to aid in the increase of greenhouse gases, pollution of our water supply and the destruction of our natural resources.
Returning to the vehicles parked on the road, most happen to be larger SUVs and family vans with bright yellow “Support Our Troops” stickers on the back bumper. That is a blatantly ironic sentiment. I believe that those that drive vehicles that guzzle gasoline are not supporting our military troops or thinking about the world as a whole at all. First, our troops are in an oil-rich country fighting to protect our interests in oil. They will continue to be there so long as our interests remain there. Burning through gasoline as if it were a never-ending resource does not help to bring the American armed forces home. This action keeps them there and therefore hinders the ability of America to protect itself by having its main military military force and its reserves spread even thinner across the globe. Second, drilling for oil to support America’s gas, plastic and energy gluttony destroys the natural surroundings at the drilling site. Debris from the drilling pollutes the ground, water, air and animals. Roads are built to reach the site of the drilling disturbing any natural areas in their way. Oil pipelines are laid into the ground or above the ground requiring more unearthing of the natural soil and the sectioning off of nature. These oil pipelines will eventually leak contaminating the ground and water supply surrounding the leak. Transport by land and water of crude oil, diesel and gasoline carries inherant risks all in itself. Last, the refining and use of oil as gasoline adds greenhouse gases, such as water vapor and carbon dioxide, into the air which aides in increasing the planets temperature. These factors suggest that the owners of said large, gasoline guzzling vehicles do not care or are ignoring the warnings of global warming and its future effects to the planet.
The grid-like layout and general fictitious appearance of the neighborhood allude to the idea that this area is far removed from nature. There is no natural vegetation that I can identify in the area. Bermuda grass coats the lawns up and down the streets. Imported and planted trees, not the original ones, are the only trees in the yards. Stained wooden fences enclose every matchbox sized backyard. Carnations and daffodils line the manicured flowerbeds. Mulch fills in every plant box and surrounds each tree base as decoration. This suburb looks like the next one over, which looks like the next one over, into infinity. Walking through the streets of this upscale area, I can not help but feel as though nature does not affect my day to day life and that I do not affect nature’s balance. We are two separate entities on two separate areas of the large globe.
I personally would never want to live in a neighborhood such as this. It is far removed from anything earthy, crunchy and natural, or at least gives the illusion of that appearance. There is no feeling of community as far as I can tell. I do not feel comfortable letting my children play outside, as there are no other adults keeping watch and too many large streets nearby. There is no children’s playground in a decent walking distance. Last, the people give the impression of being self-centered and materialistic which are ideas that I try to not teach my daughter and now son.
The neighborhood’s subtle messages regarding nature and the environment are “we are mainstream and not earthy”. The large energy hogging homes, lack of adequate pet care, large gas guzzling vehicles and water intensive flora scream “we don’t care about the natural world and are no longer a part of it”. It saddens me that someone would feel this way or that would even be subtly alluding to the idea that environmental aspects of life matter little if anything at all. This reflects very poorly on American society as these suburbs are all over the country. Upper middle class people caring more about the power of the dollar than the awesome power of Mother Nature are scattered all over the country and more people are joining their ranks each and every day.
After my walk I returned back to the house, grateful to be returning to my own neighborhood later that week. My neighborhood in contrast is most definitely a community in my thoughts. This community gets together for events, such as pool parties and educational seminars, throughout the month, has children playing at the community pool everyday and is an overall interactive area. Perhaps I will walk it for my second walkabout.
