They Paved Paradise

Well, it's hardly paradise, but it's the closest place to my house I can walk my dog without fearing to trip over armless Bratz dolls on the sidewalks or weaving through an endless maze of on-street parking for the endless strip of copy/paste duplexes developers decided would provide an excellent buffer between commercial zoning & single-family residential. I'm happy I live on the "nice" end of the street. I have at least 20' between me and the next duplex!

The piece of property that is greatly saddening me has previously looked like this-

This was Doolittle Farms, a bit over 5 acres of open greenspace. Now, however, it has been transformed into Doolittle Farms Subdivision. The aerial photography doesn't show this, but all of the farm buildings are gone & all of the roads have been paved. Here is the current plat-

Doolittle Farms Subdivision has 42 lots. So act now! Doolittle Farms is a subdivision providing housing in the low $180's and the developers will build to suit! Currently, three lots have houses. Today on my walk, a bulldozer was working on the foundations for houses #4 & #5. I don't think it will be long before houses #6-#42 are under construction. Seriously, Lawrence can't sell the houses they already have, let alone new ones. Half these properties back up to low-income rentals with barky pit-bulls & busted up plastic playlands. Would you pay $180,000 for a backyard that looks out on that? But hey, at least there's about 20' between the Doolittle houses! I'm not anti-development; I think city planners should include more open space (yes, I do recognize open space doesn't generate property taxes). Actually, I really just want my greenspace back.

Some people say that if they suddenly became rich, they would buy a huge house, a new Lexus, go on a shopping spree & take their momma to Disneyland. If I suddenly became rich, I would buy a fairly small house with a huge yard at least 300' away from any neighbors, preferably a 1/4 mile, and then take my parents to Disneyland (but how about Euro-Disney? followed by at least 2 weeks at a Mediterranean villa?) Until then, I guess I'll simply deal with navigating through Natty Lite boxes, paisley couches with the stuffing ripping out, and the Kool-Aid stained mouths of children asking, "Hey lady, can I pet your dog?" This is not the right neighborhood for a neat freak.