What?

A couple miles from where I live a large section of woodland is being cleared for some sort of development or other. Not sure yet if it's residential or commercial, but it has partially ruined what was formerly a nice country road, and it has undoubtedly driven the deer into even smaller quarters, which means that more of them will end up both in the roads and in people's gardens. I can hardly wait! /s

There are still a lot of wooded areas in this township, and a handful of parks, at least one of which operates as a sort of nature reserve, but "development" is most definitely the priority, and the place is not nearly as attractive as it was when I first moved here 30 years ago. It was still a suburb back in those days, but we were close enough to the countryside that you felt like you were "away from it all," at least partially. That's simply not the case anymore.

Maclin

I wasn't sure if you meant urban sprawl or a band named Sprawl.

You seem very isolated where you are, despite the fact that you are surrounded by houses.

AMDG

We don't have these issues in Wyoming LOL! Part of the reason I came here.

Wyoming is on my driving-to-Seattle map.

The growth of de facto Memphis neighborhoods was stopped by the 2008 recession, but it has been picking up for a few years, and is really going strong now.

That's terrible about the area where you grew up.

I was thinking if there was a band named Scrawl you would likely like it.

AMDG

What do you mean by "de facto" neighborhoods?

Oh, I see. Same thing with Birmingham. And I guess most cities. With Bham and Montgomery it's the small towns close to the city proper that are the prestigious addresses.

If you mean not much chance for sprawl because the area is not especially attractive economically, you might escape it. But my small town is sprawling horribly, and nearby little towns are worse. It seems that there's no middle ground between sprawl and death.

My maternal grandmother was from Washington, PA, and looking at a map of that area now for the first time in many years I see it's much closer to Pittsburgh than I had realized.

Yeah, "Little Washington," as we call it, is about 30 mi. south of here. It was originally called that not so much because it's small, but to differentiate it from Wash., D.C.

Some of the towns in east central Ohio are spreading that way while others are not. In the area that I'm considering they are far enough apart that I think you could mostly avoid it if you chose wisely.

Currently reading Grace Olmstead's new book Uprooted, and she has a lot to say about suburban sprawl as she witnessed its effects in her Idaho hometown. She does a good job of explaining how the economics of the thing work. A friend of mine who grew up in Bozeman, Montana, and who goes back to visit periodically tells a similar story.

Olmstead's book is an excellent primer for people who are unfamiliar with the questions raised about these sorts of issues by older writers like Berry. She takes into consideration the fact that many contemporary people, and not just younger ones, know little or nothing about farming, food production, and rural small town life. It's a great book for someone who might find writers like Berry or Allan Carlson daunting.

"That sounds good but I'm not sure I want to put myself through it."

Understood. It's a dispiriting read at times, as almost all books of its sort are. You can almost hear the shades of the 12 Southerners whispering over your shoulder, "We told you so."