Friday, September 21, 2007

The Modern Day Ghost Town

Out here in the west, when someone mentions the words "ghost town", we all envision the typical stereo types. This usually falls into one of two categories. There is the revived ghost town. You all know them and many of you have visited one. The names instantly spring to mind, Virginia City NV, Bodie CA, Deadwood SD, Cripple Creek Co. They cater to the curious tourist and the people who long to experience what the old west was truly like.

Then there are the true "ghost towns". The cliche' picture we all envision. The lonely wind blowing tumbleweeds down a long abandoned street. A street lined with old clapboard buildings. Buildings now rotting in decay for want of the loving care a human presence once brought them. A nail here, some paint there, a door adjusted on it's hinges. Or the towns that are even farther beyond that. An empty landscape, dotted with the occasional crumbling foundation of old rocks or cement. A pile of weathered boards, laying in a stack too precise to be anything but the remains of an old shack or house that finally gave in to time and collapsed. Almost as if it knew, no one would ever come again to repair the damage time has done. These are the pictures we all have when those two little words are mentioned together.

Now enters a new category of ghost town. One that has only come on the scene very recently. This is no ordinary ghost town. As a matter of fact, none of us would have ever categorized this scene as anything but normal suburban America. "Where is this ghost town?" It is everywhere you go in this nation. Subdivisions everywhere, many still partially finished. Some very much completed, with children riding bicycles and playing ball in the street. The smells of barbeque's cooking something delicious, suburbia at it's best. Then you notice it - one, two, no three houses randomly scattered on the street, empty. Some show the signs of having been lived in, curtains still partially hanging in the windows, some with boards covering entry points but all of them empty.

The partially built ghost towns are the worst of the lot. At first all seems well and then as you continue on it strikes you. Of 20 or so completed houses only 2 have families in them. Skeletons of half completed structures lay on the outskirts waiting for someone to want or need them, so they too can be completed. Alas, even the people that want them cannot afford them and many who convinced themselves they could afford them are now faced with the reality that they couldn't. They too will contribute to the death of this little community by having to leave behind what only a short time ago had brought them so much joy, a home.

To be continued.....

So is this our legacy….

Or will the buyers once again flock to own these houses. Will some miracle suddenly happen that will allow people to buy again? Do all of these developers know something that the rest of us are in the dark about? Just as every action brings an opposite and equal reaction, it seems the boom has gone bust.

This scene has played out in a dozen ways throughout or great nations’ history. We have endured unspeakable hardships to prosper and succeed. Multitudes have rushed to pan, prospect and mine any and every mineral of value. Many lost everything and gained nothing. Our ancestors traveled in little more than wooden crates to grab land in the great westward push. They gave up and or lost everything just for land. So here we are repeating our history, trying to grab land. This time though, as I suspect happened in times past, it has not turned out with the proverbial story book ending.

Even if the government stepped in, it is far too late for many people. It would take years to undo the damage just a few short months made on their credit. Let alone those that have actually had to walk away or the ones who clung to the hope that something would happen and they and the house they loved would be saved. Reality though shines through all those illusions when you find your home that you loved so dearly has gone to sale in foreclosure. One more investor gains from the heartbreaking tragedy of another’s loss.

The economy is strong they say. The housing market will come back. Yes, it will come back. Once again it will become a healthy housing market. The coming market will bare none of the earmarks of the buying frenzy we once experienced. It will resemble the housing market many of us grew up with; a slow but steady group of buyers who have skimped and saved. Who have that precious 20% down with a perfect credit score.

Once again I am left with the thought – is this to be our Legacy? Can all of these housing developments possibly sell all of these houses that are even now sitting and rotting, and why? Why do they keep building more and more? Will our children someday stand on empty streets of cracked pavement and wonder the questions we wonder about when visiting a ghost town? Or will they be new questions? Questions that resonate with the folly off our own ambitions. Why did they build all these houses when there was no one to buy them?

Perhaps they will buy them. Long after the developer has gone bankrupt and the houses have sat rotting, longing for an owner to love and care for them. The price might be a pittance compared with the cost of a house 10 or 20 years from now. The sheetrock, carpet doors and windows could be replaced. A new roof could be added easily enough. So therein may lay the answer. Perhaps, the modern day ghost town may not be a ghost town forever.