How we talk about where we live

This is a very thoughtful piece on the meanings of the words we use to describe our home, our towns, and the places we live and work.   The author is Ben Ross.  Ross has published a new book, Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism.   The title of the book is a bit off-putting - I'd have to read it to approve or reject it - but the essay here is a good reminder about how people see the world differently.  As Ross concludes, "For a half-century and more, deformed language has made it hard to think clearly about the communities we live in. Our system of land use will be the easier to understand, the more we use words that say plainly what we mean."
Click Here to read the complete essay.

Dead ends: Euphemisms hide our true feelings about growth

by Ben Ross   •   April 18, 2014

In Briarcliff, New York, a spurned builder once wrote, the aim of zoning is to guarantee "that each newcomer must be wealthier than those who came before, but must be of a character to preserve the illusion that their poorer neighbors are as wealthy as they."

Photo by Michael Patrick on Flickr.

Such frank talk about land use is rare indeed. If you don't want something built, an honest statement of objections invites defeat in court. If you do, plain speaking is unlikely to convince the zoning board, and it risks offending any neighbors who might be open to a compromise.

Each party has an illusion to maintain, so words become tools of purposeful confusion.