- lack of natural beauty: sure, every part of the country has its own particular beauty if you pay attention...but it gets old being in an area where you have to look so hard to find it. this is our view out the window each time we fly back. geometric, yes; visually enticing, not exactly.
- conservatism: in a survey last year, this lovely place ranked second only to provo, utah as being the most conservative city in the nation. the ironic thing is that we are both actually pretty conservative in our views, but living here makes us come across as ultra-liberal by contrast (not to mention hell-bound heathens...or are those the same thing?)
- environmentally unconscious: while not being extreme tree-huggers, it would be nice if simply recycling or bringing your own bags to the store was not such an anomaly. how about this...when people running the register pull out a bag for one item and then proceed to throw it away when we tell them we don't need it. it happens regularly.
- car-oriented: public transportation is limited and it is not a pedestrian- or pedal-friendly town. the bike lanes are in the gutters and the sidewalks end abruptly in strange places. we can build a new multi-million dollar freeway, but good luck with rails-to-trails.
the strip: you have not lived in lubbock until you have been to the vegas-like strip of road outside of this dry town where everyone has to go to buy alcohol. this is a sight we will not miss when we finally live somewhere that we can walk into the local grocery store to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner.
- lack of unique choices: we are bound by strip malls and chain restaurants. in a college town this size, it is inexcusable to not have an independent film theater, a whole foods market, and a vitalized downtown. not to mention a breakfast place that serves mimosas ;) if you don't want to order from a predictable menu, see a mainstream movie, or go country-western dancing, your evening options are limited.
lest you think we are just ungrateful ranters, we promise a future post will be devoted to the things we would miss about lubbock. feel free to weigh in.
3 comments:
Hmmm. Things to miss about Lubbock? Tough one. I would say Market Street, La Diosa (sp?), and your backyard that you've somehow managed to make look very un-Lubbock like. One thing I won't miss when you live elsewhere? How difficult it is to find a flight from here to there. No Delta or United service? Come on!
Now I love Joni Mitchell as much as anyone...but when it comes to escaping the "black hole", she got it all wrong! As I sit looking out on water and mountains with my recycling bins close at hand...I feel comfortable saying that you guys, on the other hand, are right on.
Alix
:(former "languisher"...currently thriving in the Pacific Northwest:)
okay, it's true. i was trying on a new "if you don't like it, do what you can to change it" attitude, complete with U2 mantra of "grace finds beauty in everything," but you're right, it gets old always having to narrow your focus so drastically to find it. i was talking to a friend the other day about the place i like to walk on the outskirts of town, where a dirt road leads behind a golf course (and a trailer park) and then up a little rise (!) between a cotton field and a hay field; there are high-voltage wires running across the hay field, but if you look in just the right direction and squint, that field looks enough like the Northeast that i can almost convince myself i'm not in lubbock at all...for a few seconds, at least. sitting here this morning with itchy eyes streaming and sinuses clogged, though, watching the wind whirl up a brown sky and trash skittering through the yard, my fine new attitude is is in the dustbin itself. i'm tired of having to squint...
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