Patio Man and the Sprawl People

The Weekly Standard ^ | 08/12/2002 | David Brooks

[First_Salute]

Dynamic!

Original thinking!

Mr. Brooks evidently awoke in his pentium-condominium, "Mid-Town," and began to swing at the flies that have accumulated inside all his windows (which also give him a lovely view of the basic city food groups, also "dynamic").

[ikka]

No matter how much he tries, no matter how much he recognizes the basic goodness and worth of the guy he calls "Patio Man", the author is reflexively an effete snob and can't get past his upturned nose.

[P7M13]

Wow, thanks for finding this. We are talking american theology here.

t

[P7M13]

Ping

[TightSqueeze]

Great read, thanks. I must confess, over the last 6 months I have become patio man, all the time wondering why I hadn’t done so 10 years ago now I realize, this didn't exist 10 years ago, except in my dreams.

[Ahban]

I found this to be a good read. I am conflicted. I admire them for their clean living and committment to family, but frustrated by their shallowness. No talking about politics or religion? WHAT ELSE IS WORTH TALKING ABOUT? Chit-chatting about meaningless sports events for eternity is my idea of purgatory- and I was the captain of my football team in high school.

[TightSqueeze]

No talking about politics or religion? WHAT ELSE IS WORTH TALKING ABOUT?

Oh we talk about these things for sure, just not with each other, that is what forums like FreeRepublic are for, silly.

[Dan from Michigan]

These new people may live in the old suburbs but they hate suburbanites. They hate sprawl, big-box stores, automobile culture. The words they use about suburbanites are: synthetic, bland, sterile, self-absorbed, disengaged. They look down on people who like suburbs. They don't like their lawn statuary, their Hallmark greeting cards, their Ethan Allen furniture, their megachurches, the seasonal banners the old residents hang out in front of their houses, their untroubled attitude toward McDonald's and Dairy Queen, their Thomas Kinkade fantasy paintings. And all the original suburbanites who were peacefully enjoying their suburb until the anti-suburban suburbanites moved in notice the condescension, and they do what Americans have always done when faced with disapproval, anxiety, and potential conflict. They move away. The pincer movements get them: the rich and the poor, the commutes and the mortgages, the prices and the alienation. And pretty soon it's Henderson, Nevada, here we come.

That's what I hate about suburbia right there. I come from the country which is now one of these 'sprinkler cities'. I don't like the elitists. I can deal with the poor. I can deal with the rich that aren't elitists. The ELITISM I can't stand.

The people who used to live in these empty places don't like it; they've had to move further out in search of valleys still pristine. But the sprawl people just love it. They talk to you like born-again evangelists, as if their life had undergone some magical transformation when they made the big move. They talk as if they'd thrown off some set of horrendous weights, banished some class of unpleasant experiences, and magically floated up into the realm of good climate, fine people, job opportunities, and transcendent convenience. In 2001, Loudoun County did a survey of its residents. Ninety-eight percent felt safe in their neighborhoods. Ninety-three percent rated their county's quality of life excellent or good. Only a third of the county's residents, by the way, have lived there for more than 10 years.

ROFL. I remember the pre-walmart days, pre-mass subdivision days, pre-depos, and back when we had blue racer snakes and phesants.

For a time they do a dance about preserving the places they are changing by their presence. As soon as people move into a Sprinkler City, they start lobbying to control further growth

I know a lot of the stereotype 'patio men' out there. They are probably the most common people I see at gunowners and GOP meetings. No elitism(doesn't matter if they are a doctor, lawyer, or auto worker). There is a reason these people move AWAY from the city. Most I know don't care for a lot of the growth. "Brighton is too big...there's no space anymore between Brighton and Howell". When I'm not saying it myself, I'm hearing that all the time.

And the suburban middle-class folks in these places will again strike out as the avant-garde toward new places, with new sorts of stores and a new vision of the innocent hometown.

This is what scares me about Livingston County(particulary Brighton, where I'm from), and I have seen some of this coming already. Property values are skyrocketing, and some of the elite types are coming out here.

Anyone ever tell one of those elitists to GO HOME?!!!

[Dan from Michigan]

And I'm the guy whose area patio man moves into........Ain't them I'm worried about, it's the snobs that follow.

[SamAdams76]

Great read! In trying to denigrate the "Patio Man," the author has actually managed to put him on a pedestal for others to emulate.

I'd say more but I have to go downstairs and flip over the steaks that I have marinating. Also it's time to turn off those sprinklers and get the beer on ice.

[ken5050]

GReat article.....the one point that the author omitted in his analysis of the "Sprinkler Cities" and the NEW suburbs, is that NONE of these communities come with ANY mass transit, whatsover....no trains, hardly any buses.....it's all tied in via roads....The older suburbs, say, for example, in the NYC area...grew around the city core, with trains to carry you in each day...that's what "sprinkler Cities" don't have, and probably never will, happily..

[ken5050]

Ping....must read....bookmark for later...

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I came from such a depressed area of West Texas that I honestly don't mind "sprinkler cities"......... our area of Southeastern PA is growing like mad! Everyday there is a new home or business being built..........I love it! I love to see the growth and prosperity.............

I know, I'm going to get hammered by the people who are living in caves who say all growth is bad.........lol

[Dan from Michigan]

I know, I'm going to get hammered by the people who are living in caves who say all growth is bad.........lol

Yep, as I say over here, if you want to see all this growth, drive the 20 minutes or move to Novi.....

Signed
A 23 year resident of the COUNTRY....or what used to be..:(

[gcruse]

Great read, indeed. It has many similarities to Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, which, on first reading, was like a documentary of up-to-date living in Zenith, a 1920s Sprinkler City of sorts.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Dan......and like I always say "Your house didn't spring forth out of the ground - and someone bitched when it was built too"............ lol

[Cleburne]

Interesting read. This sort of culture is still very much minority in my part of the world (perhaps because we are the poorest state in the Union..), but has its pockets among the "regular folk" that form the non-urban population. However, in Hattiesburg, MS, thirty minutes to the south, the Patio Man culture is predominate, though still infused with Southernism to a certain extent.

There is something at once comfortable and at once revolting to me in the Patio Man culture: perhaps it is to shiny, to polished, to easy, to suit me. Which is rather hypocritical to say, as my family is quite affluent in our area, and live comfortably in a large, newly built home- but folks here tend to lack the suburban culture, even if they possess large homes that would fit into any Sprinkler City. My "through the woods" neighbor, Mr. Rielly, has a large, fairly new home that one could easily picture in a suburb- but he feeds catfish and brim every afternoon and grows a massive vegetable garden and shoots deer from his back porch. Some of our neighbors live in little trailer houses and have cars up on blocks. It's not the refined, beautiful world of suburbia- but I get to watch a spectacualr orange-boiling sunset through misty pine woods and overgrown privet hedges- though perhaps with log trucks roaring by up the road. Choose the life you wish to live. Patio Men have their place, and if someone chooses to live as such, good for them. But I think something is lost- and perhaps it is invietable that one day no one will be able to choose.

[LurkerNoMore!]

Currently living in a pop. 300,000 city, I can honestly say I lived here when the pop. was 17,000. And I'm old, but not that old.

[Dan from Michigan]

When in Rome, do as the Romans....:)