Rio Rancho Growing Pains

One of the nice things about older, mature neighborhoods is that they are not necessarily as strongly affected by hectic growth and sudden changes in plans for growth as their new counterparts. The city fathers recently chose to fire the city manager who had been negotiating for nine months or more with a firm to build the city buildings in the new city center. That was a couple of weeks ago. Now they have terminated negotiations with that company too. That means back to the drawing board. There is a nice new road which goes to the event center that houses the hockey team, concerts and the like, through a lot of open space that will eventually become the city center.
There are several neighborhoods of very new homes in the middle of nowhere which will eventually be mature neighborhoods near the city center. For now, there is a long trek to get to a grocery store, the library, post office, a cafe, or any other service a person might want. It will now be much longer before those services arrive.
There was a lot of buying and selling of property near the proposed city center when it was believed that it was on the brink of being built--they even held a groundbreaking ceremony on the site....
Meanwhile, my cozy little neighborhood still has a community center within walking distance and a plethora of cafes, shops, grocery stores and services. One of the better things about a mature neighborhood is that pretty much, what you see is what you get. When I moved into the neighborhood, there was no Starbucks and they were just building a WalMart. There was and still is a local butcher shop and a small local hardware store that has all the older fixtures and parts you need for a 20-30 year old house. Ever try to find a part to fit the original equipment in an aging house which still works fine except for the gasket or valve or handle you need at a WalMart???
The Starbucks opened last week....I still goto the local coffee cafe a litlle farther from my house but it is locally owned, has great (dare I say better) coffee and FREE WiFi. They know what I like and how I like it. I can see friends there or do business there and I often do both.
The city center will eventually get built. The services will arrive. And those new neighborhoods will become older, mature neighborhoods in their own right.