In the desolate wastelands of the Transchoptankia Realm lies an infernal disorderly relic of a town named Salisbury, of County Wicomico in the State of Maryland, where the ignorant and untamed are heralded. Out of this despair a hoarse voice was heard as it croaked out the barely discernible:

Unwalkable? Noisy? Miles of blacktop? A stunted tree here and there? What’s wrong? There is no responsible overall plan for how your town should develop.

Good leadership always involves a plan, a responsible plan, not a piecemeal, scatter-brained development blight like what we have in Salisbury, Maryland as in most towns throughout America.

The former was part of our groundbreaking inane mantra at outragedrichard.com in the year 2004 to purvey real and practical solutions to the unlivable and unsociable urban sprawl of Salisbury, MD.

Now we have come full circle after many years to … nothing beyond the live picture feed seen here except a “Round-A-Bout” traffic circle costing millions for some shoveling of a little tar by illegal immigrants.

Yes, you can click on the live picture feed and Biggie Size it.

Yes, we wrote a bit about changing Salisbury’s town design: “Vibrant Downtown or Downtown Disaster?: A Case Study of Salisbury, MD”.

Yes, we did an inspiring docudrama video on Salisbury, Maryland: The Downtown Disaster.

No, none of what we have recommended is anything new or radical. The basic design techniques we hold dear are called Traditional Neighborhood Design (TND) which is generally how our towns used to be in the past.

If you care to remove your “made in china” spoon away from your pie hole, your genetically modified Froot Loops, and your rGBH laced cow milk, and take pause from buffing your SUV’s custom wheel rims, you can read more of TND at the following websites: SmartGrowth.org, GreatStreets.org, TNDTownPaper.com, Walkable.org, NationalTrust.org, INTBAU.org, Sprawl-busters.com, and recommended hardcover reading from Planning.org.

Yes, on the local level UrbanSalisbury.org is feebly mentioning the MainStreet.org approach; the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (escl.org) has preserved a few acres from being blacktopped; and the massively funded Chesapeake Bay Foundation (cbf.org) has resulted in a few crab dip donor parties.

Even when the proper solutions, in a final act of desperation, are presented to the inept officials and government of Salisbury, MD and Wicomico County as indented below in bold lettering with internet link provided, they get that look like muskrats caught in the shine of a Mag-Lite® flashlight duct-taped to a shotgun:

Smart Growth Codes, Laws, Statutes, Policies (smartgrowth.org)

What more can be done past a reasonable presentation?

Well, also to consider is since Salisbury is so disgraced and mutated by poor design that rather than redesign Salisbury it may be prudent to dismantle the building, resettle the people elsewhere, and salt and till the soil under.

In any event, stubbornness and ignorance do have their just rewards, as herein described:

We might have fleeting moments throughout our lives of wanting things to be better as we choke on exhaust fumes, squint from the supernova brightness of the fluorescents at the supermax food store, or aggressively motion our flabby arms at others through windshield glass, but in the end it is not enough: We have gotten what we deserve. —Outraged Richard