ugly El Paso

I used to enjoy the generous pedestrian spaces available in Europe. Nothing like that exists in El Paso, Texas. Everything is organized around climate destroying individually steered vehicles. In Vienna or Bratislava every grocery store does not have an enormous parking lot. (More accurately most don't; and only the monstrosities like "Tesco" built in Petrzalka do....) It makes a difference when a store is fronted directly onto the street, and need not be entered only after one has navigated through an enormous parking lot, in which one must (as an unarmed pedestrian) be in a state of constant vigilance lest one be squashed by an enormous truck.

But the buildings of El Paso are not designed with any thought about beauty. They are functional, and to judge by the house my parents own, most are not even particularly well-designed from a functional point of view. (Not to mention the numerous doctors' offices located in buildings without handicapped doors!--shameful!)--Of course, there are bank buildings--"monuments to their own magnificence"--apparently designed to be intimidating and proud, full of the false glory of the capitalist, but never really beautiful or pleasing to the eye. (Unlike, say, St. Stephen's in Vienna, or the "Blue Church" in Bratislava....)

Or consider the coffee shop nearest to my house, a place which supports aggression abroad. You can send coffee to the soldiers abroad. That coffee shop has a few tables outside. Sitting there you can see a hundred trucks, sitting in the parking lots which extend into the distance. Now that is really ugly!

Nonetheless, I am---by way of contrast---putting in a link to a recent entry by Keith Oatley at"On Fiction". Oatley is a good deal less dissatisfied with his life than I am with mine. The contrast might be of interest.

http://www.onfiction.ca/2011/12/travelogue-conducive-buildings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+onfiction+%28OnFiction%29

Note: correction made 3 February 2012