Tour de France: A Study in Urbanity
The Tour de France is thrilling to watch. Stunning bikes, top athletes, and photo finishes. Lance Armstrong, the only man to win the tour six times, is a huge draw. With this years tour his last many are watching to see if he will make it seven.
But I have a theory about why so many American’s enjoy watching the TDF — the scenery. The French countryside, towns and villages are so beautiful to see. And so different than America. Watch as the race goes from the country to the towns. Where are the tract houses? Where is the Wal-Mart sucking life away from the town center? Where is the mall? They don’t exist. Instead you go from the fields to town. The line is quite clear.
The view from the helicopters gives you a great overview of the towns and their relationships to the countryside. From the motorcycles filming the riders you can a feeling of the streets and the importance buildings are upon creating an enclosure to the street. America’s small towns and villages certainly don’t have the age or buildings of France but at one time they had their own charm.
American towns were compact, walkable and had a clear separation with the surrounding farm fields. Not so today where even our smallest rural towns suffer from sprawl. Suburban style subdivisions and strip centers are more offensive next to a rural town than they are in a big metropolis.
I love the countryside and charming towns and villages. Sadly so few are left outside of Amish areas. For now that leaves the TDF on OLN.
– Steve
Steve-
You should check out the historic rural towns of southwestern Illinois. Many of them are within just a short drive from South St. Louis, and take you back 150 years, still intact, and not spoiled by encroaching development.
It is interesting compared to the sprawling development that has happened on the Missouri side of our region.
However, look a little deeper and you learn that much of the close-in farmland in Metro East is being bought up by land speculators in anticipation of future housing demand and construction, as commutes from the Illinois side are becoming more convenient than from St. Charles and Jefferson counties.
RB
Well, Rick, perhaps Monroe County towns like Maeystown are still unspoiled, but the entire area between Belleville and Scott AFB is looking very much like St. Peters and O’Fallon (MO). Shiloh, most of O’Fallon (IL) and points in-between are just as sprawling as St. Charles County.
The demand is not just future, but current as well – partly because of relocation from the closer-in suburbs on the Illinois side. For example, the village of Cahokia is now home to many African-American families who moved there from East St. Louis over the past ten years or so; many Caucasians have moved from Cahokia out to points east of Belleville, or to the Columbia (IL) area. Likewise, in Madison County, Edwardsville and Glen Carbon are booming; Granite City and Madison, not so much (unless you count Gateway Int Raceway, which doesn’t exactly attract residents).
I am referring to areas generally south of Illinois Route 15 and along IL Route 3.
Yes, as you move further north, there is more development, but still compared to the Missouri side, the Illinois side is much less populated, and one can still find many, close-in scenic country drives.
RB