The chapters that we read of Place Matters discuss issues in both city life and suburban life. The most basic, sweeping take away points that I got were that city life is perceived as crime ridden, dirty, and morally corrupt. While on the other hand, suburban life is disconnecting, time consuming, and expensive. These are over generalizations but they were the major trends that I saw in the articles. This was interesting to compare to the pros and cons of Memphis.
Memphis appears, at a simple level, to be a combination of the bad traits of both city life and suburbia. Many residents have long commutes to jobs and for errands, even those who don’t live in the suburbs, while simultaneously there is a perception of high levels of crime and poverty. We discussed in class that much of the creative class leaves Memphis, and these negative traits seem like they could also be part of the problem. Memphis doesn’t have the safety or physical beauty draws of suburbia even though it is spread out, and the city doesn’t have the draws of good public transportation or close proximity.
Does anybody think that this dichotomy explains the reasons that the creative class is leaving the city? Our class discussion centered around the lack of social and creative opportunities, but I think that this is another reason that Memphis doesn’t seem to draw many young, educated people.
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