Pulled up a snippit today with the catchy headline "Suburbia's March To Oblivion". The title did its job and I dutifully pulled up the link. The author of the short piece came straight out and announced that suburbia was doomed because of the mortgage "crisis". He continued to point out that some professors in universities have been calling for the obliteration of suburban life in favor of a return to urban locations, leaving vast swaths of suburbia to decay and crime, etc. etc. By 2025, one academic pronounced. All this was too much for the author who, apparently gleefully, predicted that the "frantic selling" was only the beginning of a profound change in American life. To me, it sounded like something out of a "Mad Max" movie. I think they actually want this to happen...
Oh, then I noticed that it was from the New York Times. In the business section, no less.
Relieved, I set the article aside until now. Only a writer for the NYT would be so misguided as to write of a normal economic cycle like it was the end of time, and of course to rely on college professors (with unknown personal agendas) for his research. I was sad (but not overly surprised, sorry Gil) to see our own Gil Smart quoted prominently in the article. At least he voiced the one concern about this sillyness.
Read it here. I just remembered why I don't rely on "the times" when I'm interested in our times.
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