A no-holds-barred, all-American gold rush for natural gas is under way in this forgotten corner of the South, and De Soto Parish, with its fat check from a large energy company this month, is only the latest and largest beneficiary. The county leaders and everyone around them, for mile after mile, over to Texas and up to Arkansas, in the down-at-the-heels city of Shreveport and in its struggling neighbors, suddenly find themselves sitting on what could prove to be the largest natural gas deposit in the continental United States. Already, several dozen people who own parcels of land over the field are becoming instant millionaires as energy companies pay big money for the mineral rights to the gas, which like other energy sources is worth far more than it was last year. Jalopies are being traded in for Cadillacs, plans for swimming pools are being hatched in rusty trailers, and the old courthouse here is packed to the rafters day after day with oil company "landmen" (and women), whose job it is to frantically search the record books for the owners of the mineral rights to land that has become like gold. In the space of months, the price of such rights on an acre has shot up to $30,000 from a few hundred dollars and is still climbing. Some very modest people, in a place where the Tough Steak Meat Market sits near the Triple J Motors car lot and the courthouse square is half boarded up, are becoming very wealthy, very quickly.
Already, several dozen people who own parcels of land over the field are becoming instant millionaires as energy companies pay big money for the mineral rights to the gas, which like other energy sources is worth far more than it was last year. Jalopies are being traded in for Cadillacs, plans for swimming pools are being hatched in rusty trailers, and the old courthouse here is packed to the rafters day after day with oil company "landmen" (and women), whose job it is to frantically search the record books for the owners of the mineral rights to land that has become like gold.
In the space of months, the price of such rights on an acre has shot up to $30,000 from a few hundred dollars and is still climbing. Some very modest people, in a place where the Tough Steak Meat Market sits near the Triple J Motors car lot and the courthouse square is half boarded up, are becoming very wealthy, very quickly.
Nothing like cashing in on fossil fuels to buy a gas guzzler.
This change will likely endure even if oil goes back down below $100/bbl and stays there for a year. It would take them that long to sell their backlog. In rural Arkansas farmers are scrambling to purchase any small aisian mini-trucks and micro-powered vehicles they can find. I suspect that a psychological barrier has been broken and it will be difficult to repair or replace said barrier. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
I see it where I live. I see many more people on bikes and walking. It's about a mile to the main shopping center in the area from my house, and I ride my bike up to several times a day to get things I need.
The big problem is that there is no sidewalk (pavement) throughout most of the city. My mother went to a meeting yesterday about improving living conditions for the elderly and the biggest complaint was the lack of side walks, and walkable neighborhoods.
I really do think that a psychological barrier has been broken, and that there's a real desire for walkable neighborhoods and mass transit.
The question that I'd like to know the answer to though, is how does this happen.
One way is the revitalization of the urban core.
But a second method involves retrofitting suburbia. Taking larger McMansions and carving them up into multiple unit properties, and turning them into something that looks more like a traditional "town."
Now at 1500-2000 people a sq mile (586-781 per sq km) mass transit doesn't work well with the tendency of suburban planning to cul de sacs and spaghetti streets. But if double the density through carving up empty houses and reselling the unit at a lower cost, then you can start to think of this suburban divisions as residential "towns".
And once you have a decent transit system, you can locate small scale commercial stores that sell the bare essentials like food and household goods at the transit stop. Even pubs, delis, and other small scale business. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
The question that I'd like to know the answer to though, is how does this happen. One way is the revitalization of the urban core. But a second method involves retrofitting suburbia. Taking larger McMansions and carving them up into multiple unit properties, and turning them into something that looks more like a traditional "town."
To some extent it may occur naturally. If McMansions are foreclosed and there are no new buyers for these properties as single residence dwellings, they will sit vacant unless they can be rezoned and remodeled as boarding houses or apartments or torn down and turned into neighborhood markets and services. Vandals may accelerate the process. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
