Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning July 2006 » Stalled subdivisions leave Metro homeowners on barren blocks home alone « Previous Next »
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Eric
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Username: Eric

Post Number: 616
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Saturday, December 02, 2006 - 7:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Stalled subdivisions leave Metro homeowners on barren blocks home alone

Robert Snell  | The Detroit News / The Detroit News

TAYLOR -- It would be easy for Christopher Lightfoot to erase the eyesore.

The carpenter figures parking his Ford E150 van on the front lawn would obscure the abandoned condominium complex across Beech Daly, the one with waterproof-wrap rippling in the wind and a half-finished fieldstone chimney.

But it wouldn't fix the problem. Stalled subdivisions are becoming an increasing part of the landscape across Metro Detroit amid a slumping housing market for single-family homes and condominiums, threatening increases in property values and quality of life for neighbors.





http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20061201/B IZ03/612010399/1001/BIZ
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Bearinabox
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Username: Bearinabox

Post Number: 75
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Saturday, December 02, 2006 - 7:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Well, that's one way to stop sprawl...
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Flybydon
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Username: Flybydon

Post Number: 60
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Saturday, December 02, 2006 - 8:03 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Well it sucks to be him.... Sometimes a good deal isn't.
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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 4791
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, December 02, 2006 - 9:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bearbinabox, I wish there were actual other ways to do it, though.
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 2999
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, December 02, 2006 - 10:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Send the scrappers out there ... problem solved.
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Rhymeswithrawk
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Username: Rhymeswithrawk

Post Number: 174
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Saturday, December 02, 2006 - 10:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Send the scrappers out there ... problem solved.

hahahahaha
That's one way to get people to move back into the city. :-)
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Detroitplanner
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Username: Detroitplanner

Post Number: 457
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 12:42 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Scrappers don't want the $h!t they build houses out of these days!
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Erikd
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Username: Erikd

Post Number: 775
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 4:52 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

LOL!!!
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Charlottepaul
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Username: Charlottepaul

Post Number: 80
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 1:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Isn't that what these people wanted by moving out to the 'burbs?. Having open land with the house next to you being far away? Plenty of space to do your own thing? Why is anyone complaining? They got what they asked for and more actually.
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Yvette248
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Username: Yvette248

Post Number: 231
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 1:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Maybe they should put Taylor into receivership. They are going to turn the whole city into a ghetto. Its obvious that the *&$%! mayor out there is incompetent. I don't know why you idiots elected him!

(Add other various idiotic things suburbanites say to bash the city.....)
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Burnsie
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Username: Burnsie

Post Number: 770
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 1:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Send the scrappers out there ... problem solved."

They've been out there:

"Vandals and thieves have smashed windows and stripped copper pipes from the abandoned Taylor Meadows condominiums across from the house where Lightfoot lives."
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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 4793
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 4:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It should surprise no one that Detroit is easily one of the most self-cannibalizing major metropolitan areas of the country. It not only eats its children, but itself down to the bones.

Well, if you want to turn it into a euphemism, I guess you could say that Detroit is great at recycling. :-)
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Bibs
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Username: Bibs

Post Number: 608
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 10:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'm starting to believe that people love to complain. If its too urban then they complain about the noise, pollution etc. They move out to rural northern Oakland County and they complain because they have coyotes roaming through their neighborhood eating small dogs and cats.
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Lowell
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Username: Lowell

Post Number: 3367
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 11:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"It should surprise no one that Detroit is easily one of the most self-cannibalizing major metropolitan areas of the country. It not only eats its children, but itself down to the bones."

When sprawl becomes Soylent Green...
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Mrjoshua
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Username: Mrjoshua

Post Number: 1027
Registered: 03-2005
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 11:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Taylortucky is even worse than Livonia.
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Rhymeswithrawk
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Username: Rhymeswithrawk

Post Number: 191
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 3:09 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

they have coyotes roaming through their neighborhood eating small dogs and cats.

Out thar in dem hills, they's calls 'em kay-yotes.
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 5242
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 9:14 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

A lack of jobs leads to slow economic growth. A slow economic growth leads to slow housing market. A slow housing market leads to more lawsuits. More lawsuits leads to loss of profit. A loss of profit leads to bankruptcies. Bankruptcies leads to other corporate take overs. Other corporate takeovers leads to monopolies. Monopolies leads to government intervention. government intervention leads to break up of corporate companies. Break up of other companies leads to corporate competition. Corporate competition leads to booming economy. A booming economy leads to good economic growth. A good economic growth leads to inflation. Inflation leads to a recession. A recession leads to lack of jobs. Lack of jobs leads to a slow housing market.

YOU GET THE IDEAL....

WORLD CAPITALISM IS LIKE PHOENIX. IT DIES OUT IN FIRE, ONLY TO BE BORN AGAIN OUT OF ITS ASHES. SO GET USED TO IT. OR IF YOU LIKE IT THEN USE SOCIALISM.
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Miss_cleo
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Username: Miss_cleo

Post Number: 371
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 10:03 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I get the IDEA, but its not IDEAL
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Crawford
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Username: Crawford

Post Number: 16
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 3:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I love the guy who ignores plummeting sales prices and claims his Taylor home is worth 300k.

I don't think a Bloomfield Hills-style home would be worth 300K in Taylortucky. Taylor is hideous, with horrible schools and very limited amenities. I can't imagine spending even 150k within Taylor city limits.
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Swingline
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Username: Swingline

Post Number: 631
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 3:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This thread had some potential for a discussion of how the region's economic malaise can affect a suburban community and new home construction. Too bad that it turned quickly into a catty whine-fest. It's happening kind of often these days. The Forum can do better.
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Udmphikapbob
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Username: Udmphikapbob

Post Number: 221
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 3:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

people can't sell their old houses to move to big new ones in the sticks any more, because peoples' wages aren't rising and they aren't getting new jobs. and they don't like commuting 40 miles each way.

i for one welcome the downfall of the sprawldivision. you know what that land could be used for? sell it back to the farmer and let him grow something we can use as alternative fuel. put up some windmills on that barren plain while you're at it.
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Mackinaw
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Username: Mackinaw

Post Number: 2234
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 4:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This is the best bad economic news ever.

The only problem is, for all of us other people that live in normal, existing houses, this oversupply is killing our homes values too, even in neighborhoods with tons of character. This area kept building new even though the population wasn't really growing, and now, with more jobs leaving, the population is declining and we're stuck with ugly houses and empty subdivisions. You'd think that the Grosse Pointes or Birminghams of the world, with fairly unique housing stocks and other redeeming qualities, would be immune from this, but the oversupply is so rampant that their homes values are not going up, and homes are languishing on the market because of the sense of economic caution that most people are taking.
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Fortress_warren
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Username: Fortress_warren

Post Number: 250
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 4:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mackinaw, my brother has a house in Birmingham, been on the market for most of the year, can't sell it. He could if he dropped the price by $125k, on a $650k asking price.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, Metro Detroit is going to see a lot more economic trauma in the next few years. The auto industry problems aren't going to get better, just wait till contract time next year. When the hard asses in the UAW won't allow any concessions, rather see the company die, look out. This place in Taylor will look mighty good.
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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 4801
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 4:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I wouldn't be so quick to predict the death of the sprawldivision just yet. The Metro is very fastly approaching the point of collapse, but I'm not sure its' quite reached that point, yet. Livingston County, which is just one giant sprawlburb in the eastern half of the county, is still growing like a nasty weed.
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1953
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Username: 1953

Post Number: 1195
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Thursday, December 07, 2006 - 6:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Could this article really be about race?

Historically, white people move out of neighborhoods when black people move in. But what if a black man is the first to move in, as in this article?
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 5258
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 9:01 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

...Then all the white folks will say those N.....S! are moving into our neighborhood. Let's do something about it. That's what happen to that black family who moved into a Van Buren TWP. Home. IT GOT VANDALIZED WITH KKK LETTERS ALL OVER IT. Be careful! INVINCIBLE SEGREGATION is everywhere.
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1953
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Username: 1953

Post Number: 1196
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 9:35 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

But, Danny, this guy is the only one in his neighborhood. Maybe the white people will never come!
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Mrjoshua
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Username: Mrjoshua

Post Number: 1065
Registered: 03-2005
Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 10:43 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Danny, something similar happened to me when I moved to Detroit. But it was the other way around.
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Trainman
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Username: Trainman

Post Number: 285
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - 12:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Some transit advocates have it backwards. It's jobs FIRST then transit. We should not raise taxes until the jobs come back and fix this problem of the housing market and all the other related problems first.

It was largely transit tax increase supporters and DARTA that caused the Livonia opt-out. The people just simply got tired of all the bullshit and now we all pay more and get less. We see almost no action to actually do anything to improve public bus service and lots of promises.

Yes, we can bring the buses back to Livonia but it will take lots of work. Unfortunately, too many of our leaders and government workers are not used to this.
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Thecarl
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Username: Thecarl

Post Number: 973
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - 1:17 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

funny. after having recently returned from denver, i witnessed what detroiters would call "sprawl." my brother lived in a city called broomfield, situated between denver and boulder. the place is now unrecognizable compared with how it looked two years ago. there is new commercial, retail, residential, and infrastructure development, and the area is in high demand. citizens in the denver area refer to the growth of this community by its proper definition: growth. detroiters have alternate definitions for such a scenario: "sprawl" and "blame."

the building of communities around a vibrant and culturally-rich city is growth. the building of communities around a city immersed in self-immolation and denial is "sprawl." don't blame the suburbs for the distress. blame the urb.

detroit is prominent, worldwide, for what it has built - but it's just as prominent for what it has built and burned. the ongoing destruction of the city falls upon its citizens, and the "leaders" they elect. sobeit.

don't tell me that the downfall of detroit is the growth of troy, rochester, royal oak, or any other neighboring community. the decline of detroit is a direct reflection upon the attitudes of the people and leadership of the city of detroit.

case in point: detroit's leadership wants to sell rackham. city council and the mayor are attempting to line their pockets so we can have more residential. the real estate market in this area is depressed enough - as the original article states - and the leadership in detroit is willing to prostitute greenspace for saturated residential.

in that regard - detroit's leadership endorses sprawl!
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Jerome81
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Username: Jerome81

Post Number: 1214
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - 3:57 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Did I hear "when the jobs come back"? I'm not sure sure they will. I don't see this as a boom-bust cycle but rather a permanent downsizing/correction.
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 5276
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - 4:26 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Trainman,

You can keep on preaching with your mass transit cause. Those folks in Facist Livonia has spoken THEY DON'T WANT THEIR TAX DOLLARS SPENT ON SMART. So opting out and bring in the public transit is their answer to their problems. For me, I DON'T LIKE AND NEITHER ARE YOU AND SO GOES THE REST OF THE FOLKS. If those folks in Facist Livonia learn their error of their ways then they would reconsider until then, let's those folks in Facist Livonia suffer. Their doom will come.
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Bearinabox
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Username: Bearinabox

Post Number: 89
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - 4:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thecarl, I would say "growth" is a euphemism for sprawl, not the other way around. Developers and township officials like to put a positive spin on it because it fattens their pocketbooks, but it amounts to the same thing: rampant destruction of rural America for cookie-cutter subdivisions and acres of parking. It's not a Detroit thing, it's an American thing.
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Hybridy
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Username: Hybridy

Post Number: 51
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Thursday, December 14, 2006 - 8:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

residential discrimination has NEVER ceased
fair housing act of 1964 only accelerated it
every single race has some form of bigots
funny thing is i came from a white blue collar farm town in wi, only to find a shit load of black people who say some of the most racist shit about their own race
and i love to bash white trash!
don't be hating
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7051
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Username: 7051

Post Number: 28
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Thursday, December 14, 2006 - 9:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Metro Detroit stagnant population growth since 1970 yet the developed square mileage has increase greatly = SPRAWL

San Jose which has tripled population in the last 30 years yet increased developed square mileage only moderately = GROWTH
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Thecarl
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Username: Thecarl

Post Number: 974
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Friday, December 15, 2006 - 11:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

bearinabox:


quote:

Thecarl, I would say "growth" is a euphemism for sprawl, not the other way around. Developers and township officials like to put a positive spin on it because it fattens their pocketbooks, but it amounts to the same thing: rampant destruction of rural America for cookie-cutter subdivisions and acres of parking. It's not a Detroit thing, it's an American thing.




bear - of course, "sprawl" cannot be a euphemism for "growth," by definition. a euphemism tiptoes around the real message, in hopes not to offend. "sprawl" is an ugly word. nobody would call "sprawl" a polite substitution for "growth."

you say "developers and township officials like to put a positive spin on it [growth/sprawl] because it fattens their pocketbooks." bear, the city of detroit hopes to sell greenspace property in the suburbs, which potentially provides new housing for people wishing to leave the city. does that make sense? especially, if city officials are willing to call an exodus of the city "sprawl," while they're taking money for the sprawlers' homes to be built? that shows you how honest they are.

although - bear - i am looking at this from an aspect of how people complain that detroit is suffering because of sprawl. i agree with you that a lot of rural land is being chewed up because people are in search of civility and sanctitude.

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