Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[beans-on-toast]

Same around here. The DFW metroplex was about 5.5M when we moved here. It's about 7.5M now. Allen was a bedroom community of about 22K. That's why we picked Allen. Two restaurants and a McDonalds were the only food places. It's about 102K now. Strip mall after strip mall, quick shops on about every corner of major intersections. Roads that were two lane are now 6 lanes. Houses built right next to a busy road or with a strip mall in the back yard and they are selling.

The amount of construction particularly the past 5 yrs is unbelievable particularly commercial. The '08-'09 economic troubles didn't slow stuff down very much. I think there is a law that requires any empty space to be scraped off and something built. Lots of subdivision developments in rural areas.

Pics of Allen in '94 and '16 (latest image on google earth)
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

The other side of all that is there is pretty much anything we would ever want or need within 30 mins of us. Any medical need or doc within 30 mins. That's one thing that keeps us from packing up and moving today!

An area can be big and still maintain a friendly small town mentality. When it becomes a zoo, it becomes more difficult.

At one point, they alagmated a lot of smaller towns into the big city. Local police and ambulance services disappeared and were merged into a mega system. Services went down, taxes went up. To deal with the poorer police coverage, some towns hired additional private security patrols. More cost. Volunteer fire services were dropped, they were merged into full time city services. But nothing is as good as it was. Nobody but the politicians and social engineering types asked for this, the sort that join school boards to experiment with children's education and to indoctrinate them.

Smaller local public hospitals were also merged and they built mega hospitals. When the mega hospitals were built and came on line, they first thing that administrators cried is that they were not large enough. So other hospitals that were closed or slated for closure for efficiency reasons are reopening. Of course, these old places need renovations so more through the roof costs. Administrators are smiling because they now have budgets in the billions.

Progress isn't always good.

 

[Fat Freddy]

So none of the august assembly had ever head of the term "gluteal?"

I thought "glutial" meant sticky......

 

[Winslow]

I thought "glutial" meant sticky......

In your case, I could believe that.

 

[GwenOnBass]

An area can be big and still maintain a friendly small town mentality. When it becomes a zoo, it becomes more difficult.

At one point, they alagmated a lot of smaller towns into the big city. Local police and ambulance services disappeared and were merged into a mega system. Services went down, taxes went up. To deal with the poorer police coverage, some towns hired additional private security patrols. More cost. Volunteer fire services were dropped, they were merged into full time city services. But nothing is as good as it was. Nobody but the politicians and social engineering types, the sort that joins school boards to experiment with children's education and to indoctrinate them, asked for this.

Smaller local public hospitals were also merged and they built mega hospitals. When the mega hospitals were built and came on line, they first thing that administrators cried is that they were not large enough. So other hospitals that were closed or slated for closure for efficiency reasons are reopening. Of course, these old places need renovations so more through the roof costs. Administrators are smiling because they now have budgets in the billions.

Progress isn't always good.

Progress isn't linear either.

 

[Fat Freddy]

In your case, I could believe that. View attachment 4203991

Like I said "Council House Vermin".......No education.....no brains even if there were....

I doff my cap in your direction generale.....

 

[Winslow]

Like I said "Council House Vermin".......No education.....no brains even if there were....

I doff my cap in your direction generale.....

Haha! All in good fun.

 

[Fat Freddy]

Haha! All in good fun.

Indeed....

 

[GwenOnBass]

Only council house vermin would find amusement in such low humour as

fortunately the same maturity required in not laughing at banana hammocks is firmly in place.

 

[Winslow]

Only council house vermin would find amusement in such low humour as

One of my grandfathers raised rabbits. I knew about that stuff from a very young age. No commercial could ever persuade me to try cereal or anything else that looked like that.

 

[Fat Freddy]

Is it worth a ban?.....

Yeah...........

So, my dear Winslow......What kind of are you full of then?.....

 

[Polish Thunder]

Sounds nice.

Is the area populated with the spring break throngs yet?

Yes. Unfortunately it is a lot more crowed than approximately this time last year. We are on the Gulf beach so there are 'throngs' of thongs (I thought that is why they made sunglasses?). Some are worthy of a glance and some you regret looking in that direction.

Personally, I would would rather see the school age kids go the Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, or even Clearwater Beach, than Madeira Beach for Spring Break partying. But this is just a GOF complaining....

 

[Winslow]

So, my dear Winslow......What kind of are you full of then?.....

Whatever the bran flakes can't manage to knock out of there, I guess.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Miralax — Drink 'n Go

meebee there's a band name in this ^

 

[notJaco]

Golytely -- you'd never know you had it in you.

 

[GwenOnBass]

You know, these solutions and thongs don't do all that well together. In public or anywhere

 

[gtmalone]

Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a documentary to me.

And it's pretty much spot on.

 

[gtmalone]

I had to google that one...where have I been?

I think I know what that is but I ain't gonna look it up!

 

[Winslow]

You know, these solutions and thongs don't do all that well together. In public or anywhere

Some stories simply defy editorial efforts to render them "family friendly."

 

[Polish Thunder]

I had to google that one...where have I been?

SoulReflection, I put on my banana hammock and took a selfie...check your inbox.

 

[gtmalone]

An area can be big and still maintain a friendly small town mentality. When it becomes a zoo, it becomes more difficult.

At one point, they alagmated a lot of smaller towns into the big city. Local police and ambulance services disappeared and were merged into a mega system. Services went down, taxes went up. To deal with the poorer police coverage, some towns hired additional private security patrols. More cost. Volunteer fire services were dropped, they were merged into full time city services. But nothing is as good as it was. Nobody but the politicians and social engineering types asked for this, the sort that join school boards to experiment with children's education and to indoctrinate them.

Smaller local public hospitals were also merged and they built mega hospitals. When the mega hospitals were built and came on line, they first thing that administrators cried is that they were not large enough. So other hospitals that were closed or slated for closure for efficiency reasons are reopening. Of course, these old places need renovations so more through the roof costs. Administrators are smiling because they now have budgets in the billions.

Progress isn't always good.

We bought a house in an established subdivision. Pretty quiet, good neighbors, little traffic, no HOA, and folks take care of their property pretty well.

The traffic in general has become pretty bad. Roads and infrastructure have always been at least 5 yrs behind the population growth. Too many cars and the confluence of major north/south/east/west arteries creates problems. It's been somewhat entertaining to see the work done on US75 in our area. Four lanes jammed up in the first few years we were here, then six lanes jammed up, now eight jammed up. TXDOT would add lanes south of us, then here, then McKinney, then Anna, and keep moving the bottleneck north plus rebuilding interchanges. Major surface streets are also somewhat jammed up since some people stay off the highways.

Our first office location was in Richardson, about a half hour on back roads from the house. Then we were moved downtown. Up at 5:30, 15 min drive to the train station, 40 mins on the train, 4 block walk to work. It worked pretty well. I very seldom drove myself. Train was $50/month at the time including an employer discount. So much better than sitting in traffic and paying more than that a month for parking.