For your reading interest this morning: Willliam Wimsatt, an op-ed writer in the Washington Post debunks five myths about suburban communities.
* All white? Not any more. Minority populations are growing.
* Uncool? Many are becoming “culinary and cultural hot spots.”
* Product of the free market? Hah. Government subsidizes suburbs hugely with freeways and other infrastructure; fragmented governments are inefficient and sometimes corrupt, and so on.
* Politically conservative? This is of local interest, naturally. The answer is: Not always. See Northern Virginia. This writer thinks that as suburbs become more densely populated — more like core cities, in other words — they’ll become more progressive.
* Environmentally insensitive? The writer sees signs of greening.
All very interesting, hopeful even. But, in the Arkansas context, I offer one word of response: Bryant.