Suburban Sprawl

Yet another book jumped off the shelf at me the other day as I was walking past the stacks in the library. Funny how that happens and also how it always seems to turn into astroblab.

This is its title. Published year 2000.
Suburban nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream
by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck

When thinking about the American Dream it's always great to think about the Ticky Tacky Houses that rise up out that dream. Huge stucco neighborhoods that people drive in and out of like Fischer Price toys. The book mentioned above talks about the beginnings of Urban Sprawl and it's causes. Surprisingly Sprawl's beginnings track back to very good and well-intentioned bits of legislation. By coincidence these bits of legislation which were trying to guarantee Quality of Life are interesting in light of the current Credit Crunch and Mortgage Crisis. Turns out that the Federal Reserve Bank Sun isn't the only one who is going through a major Pluto transit right now.

Legislation is great because it gives Astrology fanatics neat, clean little dates to leap all fairy brain off of. The first bill or law or act listed in the book has its roots in the Great Depression and is the Federal Home Loan Act (FHA) of 1934. The second is related to the VA Loan Program that was begun in 1944 in order to help Servicemen coming home from World War II.

The Astrology is interesting here. The Legislation for both of these Aid Programs was signed while the Sun was in the early degrees of Cancer. This is great for anything having to do with making sure everyone has his own home. What's a drag is that Pluto is now opposing the Sun for these programs. These bills have basically been reduced down to Mortgage and Loan programs, Lending Programs, Credit Programs. But the people for whom they were made are mostly long gone and the new guard could only use them for reckless consumption. Sun in Cancer might be one of the signs associated with that kind of thing, gee, as a Cancer Sun trine Jupiter how would I know about reckless consumption?

Roman Overconsumption aside, these Mortgage Programs are going through the same Plutonian Crisis that the Federal Reserve is going through and at the same time. Pluto's doing its pruning and cleaning out of old dead wood. Sometimes throwing out the Baby with the Bath Water maybe, but sometimes that Cancer Baby is just so damn huge...

Perhaps someone should suggest to the Legal Law Politician Writers to stagger when they put these things into effect so there isn't so much Outer Planet wipe-out all at the same time. The Federal Reserve, the FHA and the VA are all doing wipe out at the same time. Funny how predominently Cardinal Signy these all are. Pluto's going to be mean to them, boy o boy.

Perhaps we could reincorporate the Federal Reserve Bank during a Taurus Sun and Wall St., what's left of it, could have a Scorpio Sun. And, of course, we don't want to do it right now while Saturn-Uranus and Pluto are playing push me pull you with each other. If we re-write Housing Bills, well, with Uranus and Neptune doing the mutual reception thing all we can really rely on right now are UFOs anyway, so forget about it.

Hopefully I'll get back to talking about Urban Sprawl because that's much more interesting story telling. Also, I had an architect Father who was honestly trying to figure styles of urban planning that would bring quality of life and aesthetics to the American Dream. He's not mentioned in the book so I know the authors have missed a bigger picture. Of course, he died young while being sued because all California homes during his time were built to last only 20 years and lower income building materials will pretty much guarantee their failure. It's a lot like the crap you buy at Ikea and Target. Poverty is a tricky thing, lower income is maybe even trickier because people are still trying.

The FHA Loans were first started as a solution to the Great Depression and the VA Loans were created to help servicemen coming back from World War II.

National Housing Act of 1934
signed June 27, 1934

Sun 6 Cancer; Moon Capricorn; NN 13 Aquarius.

The Sun in this chart may be unaspected, depends what time it was signed. Either way, Pluto's going to be opposing this Sun for a few years so now would be a great time to figure out a new way to prune and re-do how we give out money to lower income people. I suppose we could just go back to requiring a down payment and checking income but that might be too simple. We could also encourage designers to work with the land and the environment and the people's needs rather than against all these. And now that we've paid the psychologists so damn much money to tell us how miserable the poor are we could perhaps turn that money over to hiring real designers, not drones, to build the houses. And real builders who refuse to skimp. Wouldn't that be a gas? An Ikea cupboard that can hold onto its cabinet doors for more than a year, imagine that.

After looking very quickly I noticed that Solar Arc Uranus was passing over the Sun of this legislation about 7 years ago. That would be around 2002. When did the mortgage lenders start going ape face? That's back when I was looking for a house and the market was already rising in value. I dropped into a really bad depression from the competition. I remember one house I looked at, the Real Estate agents had hired a Stagers (oh, those Pluto in Leo Real Estate agents, don't get me going about staging) to make the interiors look great. A shredded cloth hanging over the window just so. A faux Asian vase and a chair artistically sitting in the corner to show off the light. The house really did look great. It was built over a cliff and was tilting in that direction. That's what I noticed. And the guy was so frustrated from looking at houses that he paid $100,000 more than asking price for it.

There really was a bizarre vibe about needing to "get in," very Uranian and Jupiterian. Peer pressure.

We might have to provide Health care and Higher Education to all (even the white kids who are U.S. born, imagine that) in order to create equality in the country. We might have to return to studying humanities and the arts in order to turn the kids into creative thinkers. They might actually peel themselves away from the computer screens on their own if they think they can make a difference elsewhere.

Then there's the VA Loans. They began as an overall helpful policy to help Servicemen returning from War:

Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill of Rights)
June 22, 1944 Signed? Washington DC? time?

Sun 2 Cancer; Moon probably in Cancer; NN 29 Cancer

This chart is close to being a New Moon in Cancer chart conjunct Saturn and squaring Neptune. You can't find anything more concerned about giving helping the deserving but unfortunate types of the world with a well-constructed get back on your feet, we love what you did for us type of plan (Saturn). Unfortunately, Pluto here is at 8 Leo widely conjunct the North Node which is out of sign back in Cancer. That has Ka-Blooey written all over it. I could go on and on about why that happened but that isn't my place.