A Blow for the 'Burbs

Slartibartfast has some things to say to those who consider suburbanites the Great Over-Washed Heathen:

I was raised in suburbia. It’s all I’ve ever known. The commute, the multiplex, the mall, WalMart are all part of my “culture”. Many of the left consider themselves multiculturalists; we must accept others as they are, the argument goes, and not make anyone feel bad because they are different. Demands of assimilation are totally out of bounds.

I wish they’d apply their own standard to suburbanites. After all, our strength is our diversity.

Go read the article and the comments, they're very interesting.

I have a similar background as him - I was raised in Fountain City, which is a suburb of Knoxville on the north side. I lived there until I was about 19, and after a stint at UT I've lived in the West Knox 'burbs ever since.

I spent many emails and posts on the old Knox "K2K" forum (does it still even exist?) going round and round with some folks who think living downtown is all there is to life, and anyone who dwells outside the streets with numbers have sold their souls to the WalMart devil, sacrifice young children inside soccer goalposts and never eat anything that isn't fried or barbecued. While their tastes, of course, were oh-so-refined and oh-so-cultured living withing viewing distance of the defunct JFG Coffee Factory and the old Palm Beach Mill Outlet. There are certain local groupthinkblogs who will remain linkless that often harbor the same sentiments.

There's enough of life to go around, folks. You enjoy what you like, I'll enjoy what I like. Sometimes downtown interests me and I'll come visit and enjoy. I love going to Mast General Store on Gay Street, the Tennessee Theatre, the World's Fair Site, the Old City... I enjoy strolling around Market Square and any of dozens of other things to do in the center city area. But try and convince some people to come out to Turkey Creek to eat at, say, the new Table 15 restaurant or Abuelo's Mexican Embassy Cantina (I know, pretentious name) or at least shop at the Super Target... you'd think you'd proposed an evening of dumpster diving and a Shopping Channel marathon.

Let's lighten up, and if you truly confess to being multicultural, let's be multicultural.