The most artlessly arranged town I have ever slowed down enough to notice is Midland, Texas.
I heard it described once as “having the layout of a town that my kids would have created.”
We need a school, and a road here. We could put a strip-mall here. Sure, two lanes is fine. Pizza Hut on that corner. A gas station can go there. And put the airport here.
Nothing against the town, I’d live there. (DM me with your offers.)
I’m sure all this has to do with the boom/bust nature of the Petroplex that Midland anchors.
But for the size town it is, you sure do get stuck in traffic often.
Of course, most towns you go through, you don’t even take the time to see – do you?
Some of these towns are pretty big now, but they are all the same at heart, one-and two-and three-story buildings artlessly arranged, so that what appears to be the good dress shop stands beside a W. T. Grant store, so that the big Bank of America faces a Mexican movie house.
-Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem