Sherman's March To Wal-Mart

[hatrack]

"Sherman's army didn't wreck a fraction of the American South being pillaged daily by the big-box store advance. Here in South Carolina's upcountry, the march of Wal-Marts, Targets and the rest are laying waste to 33 acres a day. Hills that nurtured peach trees for generations are buried under yet another Lowe's Home Improvement Center. A new subdivision obliterates all memory of what was a beloved vista.

Longtime residents in the Greenville-Spartanburg area talk of houses popping up from nowhere as though they were foreign invaders. They despair at bulldozers turning prime farmland into big-box moonscapes — and at the traffic congestion that follows the creeping ugliness. What was an eight-minute drive to church now takes 20 minutes. A statewide poll conducted by the University of South Carolina showed that growth is now the No. 1 issue, ahead of education. The people know there's a problem. But while Americans in other sprawl-prone regions may share these concerns and act, Southerners are paralyzed by their conservative ideology. "Zoning" is a bad word around these parts. When alarmed citizens bring up land-use planning, developers speak darkly of government bureaucrats stomping on property rights. Besides, a new Costco means lower property taxes.

Brad Wyche has to deal with this mentality all the time. He is executive director of Upstate Forever, a group advocating "sensible growth" policies in this part of South Carolina. Wyche recalls attending a public meeting on ways to protect the gorgeous Blue Ridge area from rapid development. There was a form to fill out, Wyche recalls, and one couple wrote at the bottom: "We love the Blue Ridge area as it is. We don't want zoning. Please leave us alone."

EDIT

If people in these parts are ever going to take a stand, they had better do it fast. Sherman's soldiers had to follow country roads. The developers have Interstate 85. Four of the five most-sprawling metro areas in the nation, according to Smart Growth America, lie along this stretch of highway. (They are Greensboro-Winston-Salem and Raleigh-Durham, in North Carolina; Atlanta; and Greenville-Spartanburg, in South Carolina.) Environmentalists call for federal programs to fight sprawl. But the developers want matters of land-use planning sent down, down, down to the lowest level of government. Real-estate interests know they can have their way with weak local officials. South Carolina is one of the few states that doesn't have a state land-use commission, and that's the way the developers like it."

EDIT

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0722-05.htm

[SaveElmer]

1. Target

I'd always heard Target was a bit more responsible than Wal-Mart in selecting appropriate sites