A sprawling mess

 Kadizzle had the assignment yesterday to drive over 200 miles to pick up some stuff for the Forest Service in Phoenix.  Phoenix is a sprawling mess.  The cancer of urban sprawl has eaten up the East coast, and the East side of the Rocky Mountains.  From Denver you can go north or south and drive from one shopping mall to the next.  Phoenix is like a checkerboard of shopping malls.  How did people build these cute little towns in Europe, and even in early America? Back in the old days people planned towns.  Is there anything better than a town square?  Now, fast food joints pop up like weeds.  Highways are like spider webs with on ramps, off ramps, and areas impossible to navigate on foot or bike.  Winky and Kadizzle used to talk about poorly laid out homes.  We called them Weneeda homes.  We need a kitchen, we need a bedroom, wee need a den.  Just put them anywhere with no relation to how one relates to the other.  When you drive through a town often it seems to have been laid out on the We Needa plan.  No though is given to what goes where.  One major thing that has been left out everywhere is the need for mass transit.  It is put in as an afterthought, so then it doesn't work.  We seem to fear planning.  The health care system in this country is just a patchwork mess.  The virus has proved that.  When the dust settles it is clear most of our infrastructure works for the wealthy, but is hard on the poor.  The rich get good health care, the poor are left to rot.  The rich get good water, the poor get all the lead they can drink.  The rich live in the castle and drop their waste in the mote.  The poor drink from the mote and pick up the crumbs from the castle.