Prompt Blog #5: The Trouble With Charlotte

I found a document written and published by Mecklenburg County entitled "State of the Environment Report" 2010. I spent a considerable amount of time reading some disturbing figures about population growth and the general environmental impact on our air, land, water, and waste facilities of such sprawl and over-development. It is true that Charlotte is not the same as it was in 1977, the year I was born.  According to this report, the Charlotte Metro area's "developed acres per person" back then was .056 acres. In 2010, the figure reached a staggering .41 acres developed per person. This one statistic says it all. Charlotte is suffering from over growth. While some cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland have been reeling from population decline, Charlotte has acted like a magnet for many of those employed by major banks who chose a more affordable cost of living than New York City. This does not account for all of Charlotte's growth to be sure, but it is rare to meet someone who was actually born here. Bank of America, IBM, TIAA Cref, Wells Fargo, and many others bring people in droves. While the city is suffering from the recession, it doesn't seem to be slowing development. I tried my hand at expressing how I feel about all this with a poem.

The Trouble With Charlotte

A rage in its center, pulsing upward

beating outward, veins reaching

all the way into the wilds

of South Carolina

a city willfully bellows,

sucking the air in

scratching it out in our throats

in the flat lines and hill sides

in the four wheels and escalades

on the bank side

north side oozing, thick with cholesterol,

ozone, and particulate matter,

erect heads, not even plastering,

pestering the carpool lane

to the IBM and Wells Fargo Complexes

Bank of America

spreading, like a galaxy of half walls and gray carpets

and industrial waste

scented with blue shirt starch and the steam of

chain restaurants stacked high with pseudo meats

and lifting burnt forests with a ball point pen

so soccer moms and dads and football players

can drive forty-five minutes to that new Brazilian

steakhouse that flies in seafood from Alaska;

sinking a fork into eighty-three pounds per person

vehicular emissions

south side biding their time in country clubs

licking up tidbits of the sewage treatment plant

over by the mall

and carrying the 3,325 pounds of trash

per annum, per body,

per pottery barn home delivery;

east side’s dredging up the past, talking about roads

and mass transportation and needing

a way out,

a way in,

west side’s gentrifying, newly developing,

putting a fresh coat of paint on re-use, mixed-use,

smart-use development, writing its spin,

a small town kid wanting to be “world class,”

desperate to fit in

the trouble with Charlotte is

all that breeding and importation

of the bodies and the breaths of

those born here or north or west and looking

for a better way of living

more square footage

for less

more acreage

for less.