Chasing the American dream

There's a facsinating NY Times series on class running right now. Yesterday's article highlights upper-middle class "relocation specialists" - people who move for the sake of the job and lifestyle, people who seem to have it all, yet still remain dissatisfied. Of the family profiled,

"The Links are the first to say they have not really found a way to make their Alpharetta life work. They found good schools, safe streets, neighbors they like and a big house and a yard. But they did not count on the grueling traffic, on how far away everything seems, on how much is asked of volunteers to sustain the community, or on the stresses of a breadwinner's travels. They have no deep connections here, no old friends, no parents to sit for their children."

What's interesting to me is how the physical characteristics of their daily lifestyle - suburb of Atlanta, suburban housing developments - has inhibited their ability to build meaningful social capital.

I'm not talking about the mere act of relocating. I'm thinking about what happens when these people move, what they have to do when they get there. I'm thinking about the milk run, the school run, the soccer run, the bible study run, the tennis club run - all those daily little trips that this family has to make. Fundamentally, it seems that these relos are placeless though they try desperately to root themselves to whatever community they live in. Our transportation and land use decisions have become barriers to the Links' ability to fulfill, in its entirety, the life that they seek.