It is not pretty, but it is where we are...

  There are many reason as to why and how America is in the state that we are in.  Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, explains "Industrialization promoted urbanization, urbanization eventually gave birth to suburbanization.  This trend, which was repeated across America, nurtured the development of the American car culture, the building of the national highway system, and a mushrooming of suburbs around American cities, which rewove the fabrics of American life."  This is when I was born, in June of 1979.  The fabric of suburbanism was woven, excess was everywhere;  the gap days, but pre-abercrombie.  As a pre-teen in southern California, the only place my friends and I would go is to the mall, a place to do nothing but walk around indoors and consume.  The frustration I felt then, was similar to an experience of traveling to Panama some ten years later, hoping for anything authentic to the indigenous region of Central America.  Travelers and locals alike told me to check out the shopping, they described it as inexpensive and wonderful.  What I found was a soulless attempt to sell soulless cheap 'American inspired' junk.  I recognized then that materialism had spread like a virus and the overall negative footprint America was having on the rest of the world ,both economically and socially, was detrimental.  The only revival option we have, is the opportunity to lead through example by 'Code Green'.  "Code Green means making America the world's leader in innovating clean power and energy-efficiency systems and inspiring an ethic of conservation towards the natural world, which is increasingly imperiled." 

Let's begin with this image.  "Everything you need in a neighborhood" soulless excess.  Nothing makes me angrier than soulless excess. The idea of buying just to have.  The idea of not thinking about what you are wasting.  The idea of not using what you own.  The idea that if you market something the right way, it will sell regardless of its substance or quality.  The idea of producing goods that are not sustainable so that more of this behavior takes place.  Here is a community who has produced something soulless.  Built cheaply, with no quality,  suburban communities have produced many similar structures.  The selling point of this community is that it markets just that, a community; you can find everything you need right there.  The problem is that this community was built on marketing a great concept, and then actually creating fluff.  A post attempt at suburbanization, jumping on the soulless excess bandwagon inspired only by money, not quality, sustainability,  or integrity.  Now, not only is this excess visible, but it is wasteful, as no one is purchasing and the poor quality is not fit for long term wear.  

   The counter to this image is American River, at least they have nature and a view.  Tent City, the controversial area, only blocks from Sacramento's capital building, running along the American River, where unused Railroad land has become an area for homeless to make a home.  The conditions there are based on necessity, the counter-opposite of soulless excess.  Necessity is the recognisable need of something for basic human survivals;  food, water and shelter.  Showing necessity and living in connections to understand necessity is crucial to understanding what soulless excess is, does, and perpetuates.