Neighbor Guy
City People. Urban Living. Other Stuff.
The Scourge of Sameness
What, Neighbor Guy innocently asks, is the difference between New York's famed Union Square and the Union Square located in the heart of San Francisco?
Obviously, they are situated in different time zones and on opposite sides of the U.S. One sits between Broadway and the Bowery; the other is bounded by streets named for rugged 19th century pioneers.
They would, in other words, appear to be worlds apart. And yet, in a disturbing development, upon closer inspection, they - or, more specifically, their environs - are remarkably the same.
Do the names Macy's, The Gap, Barnes & Noble and Starbucks all ring a bell?
In many ways, if not for the hovering presence of the nearby Empire State Building or the sound of the occasional cable car trundling past, you could mistake one Union Square for the other without being accused of senility.
What does it signify when Corporate America's unchecked proliferation renders indistinguishable two of the country's most cherished urban spaces?
Cities, it seems, are increasingly beset by sameness.
It's not that Neighbor Guy is fundamentally opposed to sameness. He likes it, for instance, when his favorite sports teams win again and again and again.
However, when cities - those time-tested incubators of idiosyncrasy - begin showing signs of a cookie-cutter mentality, it's time to drop the gloves and put up a fight.
Neighbor Guy isn't alone in his crusade against sameness. Voices far more reasoned than his own have suggested that major metropolises in the U.S. and abroad are succumbing to the scourge of sameness and losing their identities in the process.
Consider the well-considered arguments of one Phillip Blond, a self-proclaimed "progressive conservative" whose views are being called a blueprint for social and political change in England.
Blond argues that the city where he grew up - Liverpool - was destroyed in part when the city's indigenous culture became a largely homogenous one. He blames free market fundamentalism for this, suggesting that it allowed giant chains stores like Tesco to wipe out local shop owners.
Fast-food restaurants gobbled up more than their fair share of the neighborhood dining scene. Community banks were taken over by financial titans. Life in Liverpool began to look shockingly similar to life in Portsmouth, Manchester and Newcastle. Monoculture reared its ugly head.
What can be done to fight sameness? For starters, we can exercise the right to spend our hard-earned money locally. Get to know the town banker, insurance agent, and café owner in our own communities. Support the independents.
People are social creatures, after all. We should socialize more with each other. Blond calls it re-localizing the market. Neighbor Guy would simply call it more fun.
In the end, only by uniting behind the individuals and institutions that make our cities unique can we save the Union Squares in our own communities.
