Spring                                                        Bee Hiving Moon

Continuing the city theme from the post below.  I live in the exurbs now, just two or three miles or so north of us corn fields begin and our development is a small cul de sac of homes that jut out into a working truck garden.  The MUSA line, the intended sprawl container of the Met Council, runs a mile south of us.  Beyond it a city cannot extend sewer connections.  That’s why we have a septic system and our own well.

But before I lived in the city.  First Minneapolis, then St. Paul.  In fact, over dinner with Kate, I realized I spent roughly 20 years in a small town, 20 years in the city and now have spent 20 years in the exurbs.  Those 20 years in the city were where I found my milieux.  The mix it up, bare knuckle politics of neighborhood economic development, labor organizing and straight political work appealed to my middle adult need for agency.

The varieties of problems, the mix of people, the different communities, the history  rushing into the present all exhilarated me.  In the city years I wanted, needed to make change, get things done, improve life.  And through fortunate relationships with many active folks I had a chance to participate in some interesting and worthwhile projects.

In the exurban years I’ve retreated, pulled back into my own work, writing, learning, gardening, sharing life with Kate and the dogs.  It was time to do that, to pull back.  That’s even more clear these days.

Here’s an example.  A number of young activists, the age of my city years, especially environmentally focused activists lobby for urban density.  They want to tear down parts of old neighborhoods and build apartment buildings.  These are the same folks who advocate for bicyclists, mass transit and against urban sprawl.  They look at the city and say the way to stop sprawl is to keep people in the center city.  How do you do that?  Build up.

In my years in the city we stopped apartment buildings, advocated neighborhood level decision making and tried to make communities stronger through increasing economic development.  These are different times and I understand the arguments of those who want denser urban areas.  Not only do I understand them, but I agree with them.  But fulfilling those policies often means riding over the protests of folks in the neighborhood.

This is one of those instances where momentum and the needs of the time have shifted thinking.  I can approve from afar, but I wouldn’t be able to wade into the politics.  I’d be too conflicted.  In that situation it’s best I’m removed from the scene.  Out here tending our garden.