My home town died last night

[MadHound]

My home town is Columbia, Missouri. It was a fun, funky, liberal college town, a great place to grow up. I thought I might just live my entire life there. However over the years, cancer started creeping in and things started to change. There were two incidents that started the slide. First, in the mid eighties two of the Walton spawn came to town to live, and one of them, Kronke, was using his wife's family fortune to make a fortune of his own in various developments around the city. The second incident sounding the death knell for Columbia was in the early nineties when MONEY magazine declared Columbia to the best small city in the country. The floodgates opened and people came pouring in.

As the population expanded, its demographics expanded, becoming more conservative. We started seeing conservative fundy yahoos showing up on the school board. In 2004 Boone County went for Bush(though they did go for Obama in '08. A hate radio station started up. Don't get me wrong, liberal groups fought back valiantly, and managed to hold the line for almost two decades against the most outrageous effects of these insane assholes, but the people came flooding in, a lot moving up from Springfield Missouri(and if you know anything about Springfield you know just what a special type of RW yahoo fundies I'm talking about).

I move out in '03 for a number of reasons, some of which were related to this influx in population. I didn't move far, about thirty miles away out in the country, and I still was very active in Columbia life.

But yesterday's election has sounded the death knell for the great little town I once knew. Yesterday's election saw a conservative, Chamber of Commerce mayor elected, along with two yahoo fundies, teabagger types, elected to the City Council. To put the icing on the cake, a conservative fundy Mom, whose son was attacked in a parking garage last year, managed to push through a referendum on allowing cameras to be posted throughout downtown, thus fully invading everybody's privacy. Next up is the proposition to equip all cop cars with license plate readers to read everybody's plates and feed that info into a database so they can keep track of everybody wherever they go.

This marks a horrible turning point for my home town. All the good works, all the care and nurturing that went into making Columbia a great little city is being torn down before our eyes, and now it's only going to be accelerated.

It's a sad day when your home town dies.

[Joanne98]

1. Bummer!

[lonestarnot]

2. Now sounds like nightmare on elm street.

I'm sorry. :(

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. Gah!

What's happening to the University?? I spent 8 weeks at a geology field camp they held in Wyoming. I met a lot of great people and it was a tremendous learning experience in a lot of ways.

[asdjrocky]

4. Wow, I find this so interesting.

Columbia has always been one of my favorite cities I've never been to. Learned a lot about the town when I interviewed for a job there by video link for the Democratic Party.

Just missed getting the job, but I still know a number of people who live in and around Columbia from when I worked on the Edwards campaign. It always seemed like such a great town from everything I read and all the people I talked to. Too bad to see the neo-cons taking over.

I know a lot of weird facts about Boone County too. For example, did you know Boone County has 23 cemetaries but only one airport. Don't even get me started on Daniel Boone.

[Mari333]

5. I know your feeling

happened here, too. the dem mayor lost, we have a whole council of GOPers.

sad.

[stray cat]

6. It sounds like the impression some have in America because Obama was elected

not like towns who have practically disappeared because of job loss or natural disaster or just population loss

[Hannah Bell]

7. ironic: the people who came want to change what made it "the best place"

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

8. Don Henley: Call Someplace Paradise - Kiss It Goodbye (nt)

[closeupready]

15. That's exactly right.

I can't even tell you what I think about my neighborhood and all my new neighbors without violating the terms and conditions here on DU. :(

[amborin]

25. ^^ +10

[patrice]

9. You know, maybe the problem is that Liberals really do think people ought to live their OWN lives,

with just enough assistance from government to keep the "playing field" open to all, and Conservatives that everyone ought to live THEIR lives, hence the tendency for cons to assert themselves into positions of power.

It's a bad deal, MadHound, my condolences.

[DCKit]

10. It's not a new phenomenon.

The little town where I grew up in PA went through the same thing, beginning in the 1970's.

Outsiders with money moved in and became active in politics, the school board and the Chamber of Commerce and, by the early 80's, it was on track to becoming a little fascist hellhole. Most disturbing to me is the way the children are oppressed. The town of Stepford seems to have been their model. If the kids are having fun - y'know, being kids - they're slapped down with arrests and fines for all manner of jacked-up charges.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. This reminds me of a recent interview that Cenk had on TYT

with a woman who describes the fundie plan to take over towns.
What she said seems to match what we are seeing re: the Texas textbook issue,
the rise of charter schools, the neo-con make up of local city councils, etc.

Here is a link if anyone is interested. I found it fascinating, in a creepy way.
It explains what we are missing about Palin's popularity.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TYTInterviews#p/u/4/MgdZgBwMjIc

[Raksha]

27. Specifically, it's the Dominionist plan to take over towns,

and it's a very well thought out plan. The basic outline or blueprint for such takeovers goes back at least 30 years. What happened to MadHound's town was no accident but the result of a deliberate strategy, which you can read about on a number of websites. After I read MadHound's OP I spent some time looking at this one, which some of you may want to check out...
www.garynorth.com

Dominionism is also known as Christian Reconstructionism, and Gary North is probably it's prime strategist. He's been at the Dominionist game longer than just about anyone, and he is deadly serious. When I checked out his website this last time, I downloaded two issues of his old newsletter going back to 1985. It's called (I kid you not) "Dominion Strategies."

For more current information from the POV of "the enemy" (secular humanists), you might also want to check out the theocracy watchdog site Talk to Action.www.talk2action.com

[Javaman]

12. I know the feeling well. nt

[Tsiyu]

13. "Can't you see the sun setting fast

and just like they say nothin good ever lasts


Go on, now, Say Goodbye to our town, our town, Good Night"

Iris Dement song fits.

It's happening here as well in a few little towns, and they're attempting it in others. The worst thing, as another poster said, is how they treat the kids. The new Rightie Town Elites go after grants to prettify their towns while the poor Appalachian kids who need services, transportation, education and job training instad become THE ENEMY of the pretty little towns.

The futures of our towns - our young people - are being sucked into the prison machine instead of being offered any sort of hope for the future.

The GOP and all its minions spread death and misery wherever they go.

Sorry, Mad Hound, to hear it.

[closeupready]

14. Sorry for you, and for Columbia.

:( My neck of the woods in NY is changing very rapidly, so I can really relate to seeing your familiar surroundings suddenly become strange and not to your liking.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. Spent several nights in Columbia. About 3 or 4 was with animals at the teaching hospital. The vets

there were finally able to work with the U of Tenn. and diagnose my dog after more than 2 years of tests. They also radiated by cat's thyroid. I also taught some classes there for IBM, down by the river.

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. "Chamber of Commerce mayor elected"

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!


Now is the time to cultivate those pesky community activists. If they're thorns at the side of City Hall, then you might find some common ground because, together, you can keep an eye on your elected officials.

Does Missouri have any open records or Sunshine Laws?

[liberalla]

18. aww... that's discouraging and depressing to hear

I remember Columbia. Fun, funky, liberal - yep! I wasn't political then, though. My Mom went to college there and then I did, too. I remember having such a great time... Very fond memories of my years there.

I feel sad for you and the community.

[Gaedel]

30. I am old enough to remember when

Detroit was a beautiful city with streets shaded with canopies of elms and small brick homes occupied by and meticulously maintained by their owners. Now look at Detroit.

[glinda]

19. They are going right for the targets-College Towns.

[truedelphi]

20. Sorry to hear that this town is going D-O-W-N

I have heard that aluminum foil strips on borders of your license prevents the camera's digitzing computers from reading it.

And in California it is being learned that the cameras at intersections cannot determine if a car's license reads as a "D" a zero or and "O," so I don't know how valid any of this would be in court.

People are fighting traffic tickets and winning.

[donheld]

21. Very sad

[aikoaiko]

22. You can't go home again.

"You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time — back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."

[Contrary1]

24. Sure you can ...

You close your eyes, and think about what made that place dear to you. I do that every now and then, when I am having a bad day. I find it to be very calming.

You can go back home again...you just can't stay.

[Electric Monk]

23. "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded." - Yogi Berra

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

:shrug:

[Raksha]

26. K & R

[Swamp Rat]

28. k&r

:hug:

[live love laugh]

29. It's even sadder when your country dies. It has. And I have mourned. nt

[NNN0LHI]

31. Wonder if this had any effect on your city dying?

http://hamptonroads.com/2006/07/life-after-ford-lesson-hazelwood-mo

Life after Ford: Lesson from Hazelwood, Mo.

July 9, 2006

<snip>St. Louis Assembly once offered some of the best-paying jobs and most generous benefits in the region's manufacturing sector. A Ford assembler with three or more years of seniority made $26.35 an hour .

By comparison, the average manufacturing worker in the St. Louis metro area made $21.02 per hour in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

About 400 Ford workers lived in Hazelwood, with the rest spread across the St. Louis region and spilling into Illinois.

The economic impact was expected to be drastic. Missouri's Department of Economic Development predicted in January that Missouri would lose an average of nearly 7,000 jobs annually between 2006 and 2015.

The yearly loss in personal income was pegged at $374.3 million.

St. Louis Assembly drew parts and services from 33 vendors in 29 Missouri counties in 2003, according to the state agency. Lear Corp., which built seats in Hazelwood for the plant's SUVs, closed the same week as St. Louis Assembly, laying off about 250 workers. The effect on other local suppliers was not as severe, although there were layoffs .



----------------------------------------------


My city died decades ago when people started buying non-union made cars.

Welcome to the race to the bottom. We made it.

Don

[MadHound]

32. No, actually not,

With the University of Missouri here, along with two smaller colleges, Columbia was never, still isn't a manufacturing based town. It was, and is, still a fairly recession proof city.

No, it was the influx of all those outsiders, people who brought their narrow conservative outlooks with them.

Columbia used to be considered as a small sin city, especially by the fundies in the the state. In fact thirty years ago Columbia was the number one party school in the US. Lots of good music came through here, music of all sorts, not to mention lots of cultural and intellectual events. Now the city has become much more buttoned up. We still get some decent music and cultural event coming through here, but we've lost some as well.

There is still a strong liberal presence in the community, but having our city government turned over to these Chamber of Commerce, fundy assholes means that they're going to do what conservative assholes generally do, raid the city for what it's worth, leaving a huge mess behind for the progressives to clean up, thus starting a vicious circle that spirals ever downwards.

A sad, sad day.