Builders destroyed the very natural features their subdivisions were named for

Evidence

The popularity of suburbia makes that clear. In the nineteenth century, the well-to-do had begun to build homes in parklike grounds at the edge of the city, and the suburban dream became more common after World War II. Though millions of postwar migrants to the suburbs simply sought affordable shelter – buying a tract house frequently cost less per month than renting a city apartment – suburban homebuyers often wanted a chance to be closer to nature. The developers of subdivisions acknowledged that hope by naming developments for natural features, but the names evidenced a brutal contradiction. To create tracts of houses, builders in the 1950s and 1960s routinely destroyed the meadows, woods, and hills they honored in their place names. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 51

Categorization

• CANDY: The meadow/woodland subdivision naming contradiction is a sharp, immediately graspable irony for a light conversation or lecture opening.
• XREF: connects to: Suburban development relocated environmental threats from distant wilderness to the suburban home itself — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 570; Construal of land as blank slate made historical destruction pass for construction. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 642; Well-intentioned habitat restoration can destroy other creatures’ homes — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 310

Broader Connections

• Construal of land as blank slate made historical destruction pass for construction. #expands (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 642
• Well-intentioned habitat restoration can destroy other creatures’ homes #exemplifies (0.78) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 310