Lost me, honey. People's buying food and fuel, and then having a place to live, is "ugly." I haven't made it through the whole article, but this sounds like "crunchy-con" aestheticist elitism.
Keep on reading.
I think you’re oversimplifying. The reason these places are “ugly” is because the planners don’t care. It has little to do with material poverty.
I’m with him. I have seen so any ugly strips, just jarring to the eye, with no effort to blend it all into a whole. More often than not one cannot even drive from one place to another without getting back on the street. No effort at landscaping because it is all done on the cheap. I guess it is the cheapness of the look that offends me. When I go to Walmart, I can hardly wait to go inside, becaus the big box looks like a bi box covered with ugly paint. That’s why many communities demand that Walmart dress them up a bit before they allow them in their communities.