The comments in the previous post got me started, and I realized that the subject deserves more than a small rant in the comments.

It’s a very strange thing, to be living in Morgantown these days. Those who live in big cities will probably have no clue about what I’m talking about, but I wonder if my experience is in many ways common to what many people in my grandmother’s generation experienced, as their small towns grew into these cities that they no longer recognized.

The first thing you have to realize is that WVU now has a student body as large–or maybe even larger–than the population of Morgantown when we moved here in 1972. And the population of the town itself has, at the very least, doubled since then.

This is all good and well, until you realize that Morgantown is still, at its heart, a small town, despite the fact we have four–no five–interstate exits, for two different interstates: I79 and I68. This leads to the problem of traffic.

Morgantown was never expected to get this large, and so the roads simply can’t handle the traffic. Too many small, narrow, winding roads. Too many multi-lane roads that bottleneck into two lane roads. Too many cars, not enough public transportation, and a climate and terrain that are unfriendly to walking and biking. Sidewalks that are in disrepair or non-existent, and aren’t cleared in bad weather. (Okay, WVU does an excellent job clearing their sidewalks, but WVU has three separate campuses, and you have to use city roads to get from one to the other.) Roads that are too narrow for bicycles and cars to use at the same time. (Especially with drivers who don’t follow speed limits in residential areas.)

Not to mention the fact that in Morgantown everything is uphill.

But of course even if you could walk, there’s hardly anywhere to live. The residential housing within the city limits continues to decline. Areas like Sunnyside and lower South Park–areas that are within walking distance of downtown–were ceded to the students years ago, and now most of the housing is owned by slumlords like McCoy 6. Family homes have been cut into apartments, and then allowed to fall into disrepair until they’re hardly fit for habitation.

Other neighborhoods–like mine–are on the margins, but it’s a battle that the family residences are losing. After all, who wants to live in a neighborhood full of trash, where loud parties last late into the night?

Who’s to blame? I don’t know. No one and everyone I suppose. After all, it would take a lot of money to widen the streets to alleviate traffic congestion. And there’s nothing you can do about the hills. And it’d take a lot of effort to drive out the slum lords. And even if you could, you’d probably have to raze Sunnyside and lower South Park to the ground, because most of those houses are simply in terrible condition after years of abuse and neglect.

Not that it can’t be done. I’ve seen what’s been happening in Baltimore, and the changes that have been made in the past few years are amazing, as slums are replaced with gorgeous new buildings–and homes. And Morgantown’s public transportation system has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years.

But it’s not yet enough.

What’s going to happen next? I don’t know. Things are going to keep getting harder until something is done. The question is simply how much harder are things going to have to get?

I hope not too much, because for all its faults, I love Morgantown. I love the mountains and I love living where even in the heart of town there are trees everywhere.

Because it is beautiful, this place I call home.