Bellah et. al. wrote about how distracted American urban sprawl is, and how small towns could be xenophobic but at heart were focused. As I read this, I kept thinking of Fremont, a neighborhood in Seattle.
If you're walking around downtown Fremont and see barhoppers dressed as zombies, it's a perfectly normal day. Did a neon green stretch tandem bike just pull up to a stoplight? That's pretty standard. All Seattle and Portland have a reputation for quirk, but Fremont separates itself by taking this to an extreme. This isn't isolationist at all--welcoming anything and everything is one of the most open minded ways to separate yourself. More importantly, civic associations are built around this identity. The most flagrant example is the Fremont Arts Council, which every year stages a massive solstice parade.
Tocqueville's idea of social capital--though he didn't call it that--has resonated with a lot of people. Putman and Bellah et. al. both believe that people are drifting father and farther apart. Fremont is an example of the city environment that Bellah et. al. criticize remodeled into a vibrant community.
The existence of vibrant neighborhoods may indeed be a counterexample. I'd be interested in further investigation of this point. How would we go about it? LDL
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