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February 1, 2006
oh, how i miss the sounds of sirens in the morning
COLUMBUS - What a drab, ugly, depressing place my hometown is. I left to live someplace beautiful, at the cost of seeing my old home through new eyes. This place is just ghastly. Flat, gray, dirty. Even what I used to think was pretty is laughable to me now. "Pretty" in Columbus is a man-made pond (with fountain!) in the middle of an ant-colony of houses. Oooooo, let's stop and enjoy it for a moment. Get the camera, honey!
I get back about every other year, and each time I return, my old neighborhoods are notably more rundown. It's not like Columbus is decaying like so many urban centers; in fact, it's prospering. It's just prospering outward. As superdoopermegawealthy neighborhoods have sprung up where I used to go for country drives, existing businesses and neighborhoods have dried up. This whole town feels like a houseplant I forgot about when leaving for the summer.
posted by john at 2:08 PM • permalink