Mayberry?

I'm not old enough to have seen the original episodes of the show that gave a youthful Ron Howard his start.  But I do recall reruns.  And I do remember the small town of Mayberry where the show took place. Today I live in a small town.  My kids can walk to school and even come home for lunch.  We can all ride our bikes to the grocery store if we have to, although no one ever wants to.  But we could.  The option is there.  I can ride my bike right from my garage and immediately be on roads for a 20-30 mile loop on which I see at most a half dozen cars.  A pleasant place to live. And there's more.

The downside to pleasant small town living is that we are locked about a decade behind the rest of the world.  Much of the town's leadership is struggling with how to emerge into the current century.  The school district that includes our kids is suffering from declining enrollment.  The town is stagnant.  Unfortunately zero growth means no new families coming to town, no new employers, no new houses. Mayberry is indeed pleasant, but stagnation has a distinct odor.  The handwriting is increasingly on the wall if one looks at demographics in our district, zip code and city limit, but yet little seems to be happening.  Mayberry will soon come to know desperation and its all by our own doing. Or not doing.

And that would be my take on Mayberry,