Pottersville and Bailey Park

A lot has been written about Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" but ironically it provides an interesting view of our cities and town before and after World War II. I believe this movie was made in 1946 and it wasn't that successful at that time because it was thought to be to dark and pessimistic at the beginning of the post war boom. The town of Bedford Falls had the typical compact downtown area with stores, banks, etc. all near by. While there were cars and traffic people could appear to be able to get around the town by walking. However, the dream of home ownership and the beginning of the suburbs could be seen in Bailey Park. While that scene in the movie is before the war the reality of when the movie was made suggests an early post war suburb (perhaps in Orange County) assuming these were real houses and not a set. Another irony is that the greedy Mr. Potter was a banker but primarily a landlord. Why wasn't he lending money for people to build houses. That was the Bailey Building and Loan's function. What you obviously don't see is where was Bailey Park, where were the highways and freeways, etc. The dream of home ownership should not mean that we can't have livable cities and towns. Do we need the tract developments of Bailey Park? It is sort of funny to think but would we be better off in Pottersville? I don't mean the "sin city" aspects but rather the more compact town without suburban sprawl development.

We have what we have now and we can't go back in time. Someday we will run out of petroleum and costs for other fuels will be high and we will have to reconsider how we live. Perhaps then we can live in Bedford Falls but without the sprawl of Bailey Park.