This song is about the terrible suburbs that many folks found themselves in in the 1980s, but it also carries several other meanings. In Latin, suburbs is from the word subura, meaning "below the city" as it was the area between the seven hills of Rome. The poor folks and the huddled masses lived there, which is achingly true of the 1980s experience for white teenagerdom of which I was a part.
Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
Between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown
The bright lights get the attention, but growing up in Iowa it was the far unlit unknown that was the true scary place. What lay out in the areas beyond Hills and North Liberty? Nowadays those places might as well be part of Iowa City; the tentacles of Cedar Rapids and the University of Iowa grow closer and closer together. No more small town tirades or trips to the Casey's for pizza and illegal booze and smokes. The sinister names of roads that led into the cornfields (Seven Sisters Road, Old Highway 218) are now streets with Whole Foods and crummy overpriced sports bars.
The disappearance of the "unlit unknown" does not matter for those on both coasts who live in the bright lights. If anything, they are far more worried about the gentrification of poor neighborhoods, and not concerned about the destruction of the poor neighborhoods of those who work the land and have the ill fortune not to be poor in an urban area.
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night
We of the middle of this country go to cities because that is where the jobs are. My brothers and I are the first generation of my family to not live on a farm. I do not bemoan this, I celebrate it. Farming is damn hard work that I do not want. Towns and cities provide jobs and the ability to have a damn good time. Having lived in a small town (Dallas City, IL, population 1000) the business that everyone knows you is true. The tale that everyone is friendly is not. The mechanic was very friendly to me because I had a piece of shit car that kept breaking down. The gas station lady was friendly to me because I was the only person in town that bought Oil Cans of Fosters.
Suburbs grew because of the perception that our childhoods were idyllic. The perception that large cities could not possibly be a safe environment for children or families. I would argue that Dallas City was far less safe for a child than some large cities. Yes, there may not be gangs on the street or molesters hanging from the trees. However, there would not be a meth lab six houses down, nor a 20-minute bus ride to the nearest school. There would also not be any jobs, care for the elderly or medical services that did not require a 10-15 minute wait. These things are routinely complained about in San Francisco and Oakland. The perception is that this is an urban problem. In reality, it is a class problem. As professionals move from these places, the tax base drops. Services disappear.
Add 'em all up, and you have the death of middle America; not the middle of American geography, but the death of middle-class America. This began happening in Iowa in the 1970s with the death of the family farm, just like it happened in the 1970s with the closing of factories in the Rust Belt. The middle class jobs disappeared, pushing out the kids of middle class parents to the suburbs of places like Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix. My hometown will never die because of the University of Iowa. Burlington has lost 20.6% of its population since 1960. Vista Bakery and Champion Spark Plug are still there, but the largest employer is Great River Medical Center. 12.6% of the population were age 65 or older according to the 2000 census. In 2013, that percentages is estimated at 18.3.
Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose their race to rats
Get caught in clicking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory of lighted streets on quiet nights
Places like Dallas City do not change because they are in that slow shambling drift toward invisibility. They are already irrelevant, except for photo ops. Factory closes? Well, it had to happen because it was inefficient. School shuts down? Well, we will still provide quality services for you children in the next town down the highway. Meth or heroin epidemic? Well, our drug programs are very successful! Mass shooting? (Insert politician in front of building, and they will say "We are shocked and saddened by this senseless tragedy.")
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone
All the dreamers and misfits work for Google and Apple now. Their God is Mammon, and you will know them by their actions and Limousine Liberalism.
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