Bye Bye Birdie

Here's some further proof that we've screwed up Earth. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I really don't like birds. They scare me with their beaks and funny feet. But this should be something that rings an alarm in even the most conservative of heads that the time has come to do something. The state bird, the Robin, is even declining. And it's not just global warming, but something much more noticable and not under debate--urban sprawl.

I am quite familiar with urban sprawl, or as it is known in the Metro Detroit area, White Flight. Basically all the white hoes move further and further away from people with pigment in their skin--not on an individual basis, but on a larger scale. When my parents moved to the little town of South Lyon so many years ago there were very few stores (two grocery stores (one of which closed within the first year of being there), one pharmacy, one fast food place, one high school, one middle school, four elementary schools). Now it has grown into a suburban mecca--there are (at my unofficial but informed count) three grocery stores, three full service pharmacies in the city limits and one additional one in the area, three fast food chains (one under construction after they decided to tear the old one down and build again), two high schools starting in the fall, two middle schools and, at last count, six elementary schools (I think there might be seven but I'm too lazy to figure it out). Where I currently live, in Royal Oak, they just downsized to one high school, one middle school and about five-six elementary schools. But people keep moving further and further out.

When we first moved to South Lyon we had acres of untarnished nature to play in as kids. Now there are subdivisions there. God, I hate subdivisions.

So there you go, apparently urban sprawl isn't for the birds. And even though I don't like them, I'll be sad to see them go.