A Wonderful Life

I've heard references my entire life regarding the movie "It's A Wonderful Life," but I had never seen it until just this last Christmas. I found that the movie, trying to convince me that family and virtue are the true definitions of wealth, really demonstrated a wholly different bend that I see through the lens of a bicyclist and an Elk Grovian social critic -- and one that most people conveniently ignore.

Consider how the despairing Mr. Bailey is shown what Bedford Falls would have been without him. It's renamed Pottersville -- nightmarish and frightening compared to the idyllic small-town of Bedford Falls. George Bailey is returned by his angel to the life he nearly sacrificed, now filled with renewed faith and confidence in life itself.

Yet...have you noticed that Elk Grove is Pottersville? Since 1946 we've watched this classic movie that warms our hearts while we 've spent those ensuing six decades actively destroying the character of worthwhile places to live like Bedford Falls. The movie tries to convince you that small banks and family-run storefronts in quiet small towns are somehow better than gin parlors and pawn shops in Pottersville.

Look around Elk Grove -- filling up with cigarette shops, Asian foot massage parlors, high-speed collector surface roads, payday loan shops, cell phone kiosks, corporate run WalMarts, supermarkets, PetSmarts, giant-monster-mega-banks, strip malls, automalls, oceans of parking, Targets -- we crowd out each other on Black Friday looking to save a buck on imported consumer shit in wretched, lifeless, auto-dependent suburbia then we snuggle together at Christmas to watch a movie extolling the virtues of a modest banker in a walkable, human-scaled friendly small town.

If this isn't situational irony, I don't know what is.

Everyone who bough a housal unit in Elk Grove over the past decade -- you thought that fucking thing would go up 20% per year ad infinitium...didn't you? And when it didn't, you just drove away. Didn't you expect money for nothing? All you had to do was sit there and cash-out refi. Tell me -- were your actions more like Mr. Bailey or Mr. Potter?

When was the last time you engaged a local Elk Grovian business? Not Safeway, not Target, not Kohls, not Bank of America. No, a real, small scaled mom-and-pop business?

How many times last year did you visit Las Vegas, Colusa Casino, Jackson Rancheria, Reno, Red Hawk (kree-ee-ahhh), or Thunder Valley? It's OK for Pottersville but not Elk Grove Bedford Falls?

How many times last year did you visit Showgirls, Hooters, Internet porn sites, Club Fantasy, City Limits, or Gold Club Centerfolds?


Based on our actions, tell me -- what exactly was wrong with Pottersville? It's the same damn environment we built for ourselves, where we live...and Elk Grove is becoming more like it every day. It's fascinating to assume that audiences across America likely take the view that Pottersville had regressed significantly under Potter's helm, much like Biff Tannen and Lyon Estates in 1985 (I never understood this reference until now)...yet we strive to build more of this shit. I personally think Elk Grove specifically and suburbia in general is a waste of human talent and natural resources, but this is among the most minority of positions -- it must be, because more of us live in suburbia than at any other time and we intend to build even more of it once our economy "gets back on track." So -- what, exactly, was wrong with Pottersville?

Indeed, doesn't Pottersville represent progress relative to Bedford Falls? Isn't that what pro-growth, Palin-esque fiscal conservatives want? Their all important metrics of continued economic expansion and single-use development must certainly be more profitable in a Pottersville, no? What's not to like about Elk Grove's Pottersville's prospects for future residential and strip mall development? We've got no trees, no hills, no rocks -- a developer's paradise.


Aren't all of us Elk Grovians following the mantra of individual economic gain over interpersonal relationships? Could you really count on your neighbors during a crisis, real or perceived? Would they count on you? Do you even know their names? Could you borrow a pound of flour if you asked? When you do chat, isn't it always about how far the housing market has crashed? How much you've lost? How far gas prices have risen?

What, do you suppose, are the odds you and all your neighbors would trust an Elk Grovian banker during a run on the bank? Are you fucking kidding me? Trust? Bankers? The most vilified people during our little economic slump? No, you'd be the first to cash out, you'd have to. I'd have to.

There's no definitive end to the movie, is there. No indication of what was to come. Just like there's no definitive end to Elk Grovian suburban sprawl. We just thank God he sent angels to guide us to build more sprawl.