The following is a Counterpoint.
By Andrew Young
David Noer raises important questions (“Dogpatch or Gotham? Rate Greensboro’s future,” Ideas, June 1) in an engaging way. However, the answers are conditioned by the way he’s framed them. Suggesting that Greensboro’s future lies somewhere between Green Acres and New York distorts the likely choices we face.
For example, we’re past the provincialism of yesteryear, when eating “ethnic” meant going to Italian-American or Chinese-American restaurants of lowish quality or when (this being the South, it is hard to ignore) “White” and “Colored” signs neatly arranged society into those whose opinions mattered and did not. Since Dogpatch choices are in the past, let’s remove them from the list.
Imagining the future, as Noer wants the reader to do, is pretty much based on the reader’s imaginative — that is, creative — abilities. Most of us can only envision what we see, and what we see in our immediate environment is mediocre or sub-average.
Most well-intentioned, well-educated middle class adults simply cannot imagine lifestyles that do not include SUVs and gated communities, and the building industry has consistently offered them ugly, hodgepodge styles of McMansions outfitted with Viking ranges and great rooms. Ask the middle class to envision the future and it will show you an expanded version of itself — a model that is not sustainable.
Ideas about living — true innovations — rarely come from the middle. They come from the lower class (rap, hip-hop, NASCAR), from oddballs, eccentrics, loudmouths (think artists, scientists, innovators, garage tinkerers), business people prepared to take very large risks, and the occasional daring official (think Gen. Greene). If we count on consensus — that wonderful, time-honored and time-consuming goal sought by all earnest, hard-working committees — to determine Greensboro’s future, we will probably wind up with heavily protected suburban developments, gently regulated sprawl and an ongoing, unresolved and undiscussed divide determined by race, education and class. More of the same, only more so.
Since it’s evaded hard choices, I suggest Greensboro take on what is within reach of its collective imagination. We can all stand to lose a pound; we’d all benefit if we installed a rain barrel; we’d all gain by driving less.
Let’s get some reality TV-like competitions going, with individual, street, neighborhood, church and office prizes provided by the medical and insurance industries and local businesses. Tacky? Yes. Engaging and fun? You bet. And possibly, a way forward to deal with even tougher matters.
The writer lives in Greensboro.