The Sterilization of America - guest blog

This blog is from Scott Eaton - our illustrious Executive Pastor... also known as XP! He sent me this idea and I just decided to publish it - as is. So here goes!

I found it troubling how the evolving demands of the current tourism public are actually causing us to lose a lot of our historical character that caused places to become tourist attractions in the first place.

Both in Monterrey and in San Francisco, blocks and blocks of historic buildings have been bulldozed along with the prior occupants of those buildings, and replaced with much more functional modern buildings that contain homogenized versions of the western world.

The fact there is enough demand by the public to eat at a Joe’s Crab Shack at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf is sad, not to mention the Rainforest Café, In-N-Out Burger, and all the other corporate outlets we can all find back in our own neighborhood.

The days of being exposed to a different area with its own unique character and personality are quickly disappearing. Instead, we seem to me migrating to a point where we can all get different flavors of the same basic thing we are all comfortable with. Is that really healthy for us in an increasingly global economy and world?

-- Scott Eaton