12/24/2004

WHERE ONLY VICTORIA'S SECRET HAS CHRISTMAS DISPLAYS

It's Flagstaff, AZ, a place where it's against the law to have Christmas displays. Jona J has emailed me the details, which I have excerpted below. She first describes moving to Flagstaff and what she found there....

At that time the parking lot at Fry’s (a huge discount electronics store in the west) was full of pickup trucks driven by Indians. Today the Indians seldom set foot in town and the parking lots are full of Hummers and top line SUVs. The city council two years back passed resolutions against Christmas decor and was backed up by the retail merchants association. Today driving through town, there is no sign that it is two days until Christmas. Out at the mall there are a few forlorn garlands strung up inside the mall, but no Santa for the kids, and the only store with anything Christmas inside its doorway is Victoria's Secret.
She goes on to describe the “gentrification” of Flagstaff, the sweat class being moved out by trendy rich Liberals who have jacked property costs to the moon. And they have imposed their “secular” value system upon the landscape too....
The town is a pretty forlorn sight, but the well-established Democratic liberal elite thinks it is just fine. Even the big downtown Catholic Church hasn't put up any outside signs of Christmas except for a wreath on its door.
The obvious conclusion is that when Christian institutions become so gutless that they don’t proclaim their faith, it is over. The current situation exists mainly because we who believe have just laid down like dogs, and our institutions (churches) are now but irritating fleas on our lazy sleeping bodies. The lady concludes that my piece on the gentrification of Carmel-by-the-Sea is what has happened to Flagstaff...
As soon as I read your Carmel column, it was clear to me what was happening here as more and more Californians move in, housing becomes scarcer and more costly, and taxes increase for the improvements the Californians want so Flag(staff) will look just like the upscale areas they are leaving.
My Carmel column of a year and a half ago got----and continues to get—huge email response. DO NOT GO THERE UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED FOR A LONG READ. I think she makes a point in that it is the upscale, advanced degreed atheists, with their money, that rules. I will post a couple of columns after the Christmas celebration.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Howard,

Ask your correspondent in Flagstaff to estimate the average age of the gentrifiers moving to Flagstaff from CA. I'll bet that they are mostly retirees, affluent retirees. ( As opposed to the rich geezers buying themselves an ocean view in Carmel. )

Aren't people of grandfatherly and grandmotherly age conservative? Maybe not. I perceive this set of liberal people who were the parents of Baby Boomers -- the hippie generation, who didn't actually emerge ex nihilo from nowhere.

Maybe Adlai Stevenson-voting Boomer parents have been have been wanting until their sunset years to come out of the closet with their far Leftism. Maybe these people who have been waiting a half century to rebel against 1950's and pre-1950's America.

The best example of this phenomenon is retired anchorman Walter Cronkite, who always played it neutral in public while he was working.

For that matter, Michael Moore and most of the Hollywood left past 40 if not 50 years old. Hardly what one would call the rebellious younger generation.

If I'm correct about the demographics of these gentrifiers, then there is hope for the future. Tell me if I'm wrong.

-- david.davenport.1@netzero.com