Micropolis?

As the marketing person here, I received a mysteriously addressed brochure (to "German M") from Magic Media Inc, advertising the availability of outdoor ad space in Micropolises. A micropolis, in case you haven't heard, is a town or city with a population of 10,000 to 49,000. Apparently, they now account for a

"thriving, growing, a brand new potential base of more than 28 million people."

Yikes, subtle sign of sprawl, but there you have it. Now all of those with a burning desire for a 1.5 acre lot away from the city's core will too experience glorious visual clutter and marketing gambits.

For ways of thinking around this corporate encroachment of public spaces in all of our country's urban edges, visit Scenic America, of the Lady Byrd Johnson wildflowers-along-the-highway legacy. Or if you need to vent, check in with James Kunstler, my favorite urban pessimist.