The Deleted Scenes - Road Diary: More on Southern Maryland
Just like I write pieces here elaborating on articles I publish elsewhere, I often write more than one piece based on road trips I take and various other activities I do. I wrote recently about an Amish community in rural Southern Maryland, in Charlotte Hall/Mechanicsville. There are some bits and pieces I didn’t get to, so I’ll write them up here. First of all, Southern Maryland—and the Eastern Shore portions of Maryland and Delaware, and a couple of other places in Delaware—are really interesting places. They’re diverse and culturally complex in their way, and while some of all of this has been exurbanized and serves as D.C.-area bedroom communities, there’s still a lot of agriculture and old-fashioned local character. One of the things I pay attention to when I drive somewhere, maybe, between 45 minutes and two hours from the city, is where the last big new housing development is. Now there might be new housing getting built in, and for, these places, that has little to do with the D.C.-area housing crunch. But you can definitely see low-density (and often higher density!) development radiating out from D.C. and not really petering out until you’re well into what feels like it should be the countryside. This is mostly downstream of the housing shortage in the city and near suburbs. Take a look at this, in Brandywine. Agricultural/rural land interspersed with supersized suburban sprawl—huge standalone box stores, chain restaurants, so many Ryan Homes signs. I keep coming back to this: we have this heritage of lovely small-town urbanism in America, yet we build this stuff.
This doesn’t really stop until Waldorf, 26 miles from downtown D.C. and easily an hour’s drive. That doesn’t sound so far, maybe, but most of this development is quite recent. These are not historic D.C. suburbs; they’re accidental ones... Subscribe to The Deleted Scenes to read the rest.Become a paying subscriber of The Deleted Scenes to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
Read The Deleted Scenes in the app Listen to posts, join subscriber chats, and never miss an update from Addison Del Mastro.
|
Key phrases
Older messages
Friday, March 17, 2023
Friday roundup and commentary
Thursday, March 16, 2023
What Do You Think You're Looking At? #101
How Convenient are Supercenters?
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Further thoughts on big-box stores and urbanism
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
What is the "in" for disrupting the sprawl-car cycle?
Homeownership, Family, and Competing Responsibilities
Monday, March 13, 2023
Sort-of revisiting some previous thoughts here
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
on the people who look after what you love
Daily Skimm: She’s crunchy peanut butter
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Skimm'd with sneakers that look as good as they feel — Check out what we Skimm'd for you today March 29, 2023 Subscribe Read in browser Daily Skimm Cariuma Together with Cariuma Skimm'd
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
I became his / horse meaning Facebook Twitter Instagram Support Poem-a-Day March 29, 2023 Horse Lisa Olstein I became his horse meaning for a minute there I looked promising like a winner might just
Amal Clooney Wore The Effortless Pants Every Stylish Woman Should Own
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Her looks are *too* good.
TikTok Is Convinced Skinny Jeans Are Back
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Plus, the zodiac signs who love to sleep.
The Best Thing: March 28, 2023
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
The Best Thing is our weekly discussion thread where we share the one thing that we read, listened to, watched, did, or otherwise enjoyed recent…
You’ll Want to Wear These Stylish Waxed Canvas Jackets Every Single Day of Spring
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
View in Browser Men's Health SHOP MVP EXCLUSIVES SUBSCRIBE 15 Waxed Canvas Jackets That Will Never Go Out of Style 15 Waxed Canvas Jackets That Will Never Go Out of Style The toughest fabric to
The Eyeliner Trend Taking Over Spring 2023
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
According to celebrity MUAs.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Upcoming AMA and 4 other things
Our verdict on the new Apple HomePod
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Plus: The best deals on Apple products