Animals and Urban Sprawl: Are the Two Compatible?

promo200.jpgNPR has a great story today about what happened in one Nevada neighborhood after new suburbanites complained about an old neighborhood resident--a braying donkey named Gambler. Gambler was shipped out of town and his 4-acre pasture might now be sub-divided into two lots to make way for more development.

Complaints of animal noise are becoming increasingly common across the U.S. as urban sprawl encroaches on rural neighborhoods that have traditionally had a few horses, chickens, and even a donkey in their midst. In nuisance cases, the law will acknowledge only 'reasonable' complaints--but what is 'reasonable' can change as the land changes. It's a nice shifting baselines story and worth a listen.

More like this

The past couple of posts on continuity and homeomorphism actually glossed over one really important point. I'm actually surprised no one called me on it; either you guys have learned to trust me, or else no one is reading this.
*(Note: in the original version of this, I made an absolutely **huge** error. One of my faults in discussing topology is scrambling when to use forward functions, and when to use inverse functions.
A neighborhood in Leicester, England had an entire YouTube channel dedicated to neighborhood issues, including catching "litter louts".
For all you city-dwellers out there, next time you walk by a vacant lot that’s been refurbished with green gardens and budding trees, take note of your heart rate. You might find the pleasantly green view caused a welcome moment of relaxation and lowered stress.

Thanks for posting this! I heard about it and missed the story.

-lara

Another manifestation of a culture built around the concept of entitlement and convenience, to an extent, I think.

By Luna_the_cat (not verified) on 02 Mar 2008 #permalink

The irony of it all would be delicious if it didn't leave such a bad taste in my mouth. Reminds me of the young families moving up to the wine country from SF, SJ and LA only to lodge complaints that the vinticulture was offensive (dust and chemicals...and noise) and reduced their poperty values.

4 acres into two lots! Oh my!

Round here a plot of land (1/3 acre)was redeveloped into no less than EIGHTEEN properties

(this was the council, who have also knocked down nice streets to put in three times as many properties...luckily my street is almost all owned by now.)