Development makes you sad

It sounds like you're a sentimentalist. It's not uncommon for those that grew up (at least mostly) in one area and have good memories there to feel a strong sense of fondness for their hometown. Having whole building being replaced or significantly altered would justifiable cause feelings of displeasure, unease, or general sadness.

Sounds like one of the places I used to live in. We had a bunch of wooded areas and mom and pop shops that were slowly replaced by large companies. We had people moving in that were wealthier than the people living there. The homeowners noticed this and decided to charge more for rent. A lot of people who lived there all their lives wound up moving out. I drive by there once in a while and the place is much prettier now than it was, but I still miss the old stuff there. XD

once in a while i drive by a place that was an ole stone quarry back in the day

we useda jmp from bg heights into the water and swim around drink and so on

and now its the back parkin lot of a best buy

I feel you, big time.

The small town I spent many years in is becoming overrun with housing developments, businesses, and warehouses. They are trying very hard to compete with the neighboring cities, and rapidly losing their small town charm in the process.

The city I was born in and currently reside has developed immensely over the past 20 years. The area I live in was once mostly farmland with only a couple of small neighborhoods and a couple of smaller businesses, and now has a huge outdoor shopping center surrounding it. They keep tearing down places I've always loved in order to build ugly gray boxes and places we definitely don't need more of, like Taco Bell. 🤮 There used to be absolutely gorgeous houses lining the highway, and all of them have since been demolished for crap like Walgreen's, a couple of crappy chain restaurants, etc. Makes me sad. They're planning new development right now, and considering I hate change, I'm not wild about it one bit. This city is trying to compete with the major city it is somewhat near, which I hate, because that city is a shithole. If I wanted to live there, I'd move there. I don't want to live in a wannabe of that shithole.

COVID has also done a number on some of my favorite businesses (currently having a late lunch at one of my favorite places that is closing in a matter of days), and our mall is sadly suffering from it. I'm really hoping no one has any bright "redevelopment" ideas for it, like they did with my other two favorite malls (both of which have just been massive fields now for 5+ years, as the development plans fell through). They should take the crappy outdoor shopping center near me instead, which is not doing much better. I'll never understand why those are currently so popular compared to indoor malls, which IMO, are easily 100000% better in every way. Don't have to dodge idiots on their phones in cars just to go from one store to another, nicer to browse, bad weather is no problem (I live in the Midwest, so we definitely don't benefit from outdoor shopping centers year-round like California or Florida), and they're great for walking (again, in all weather). Outdoor malls just don't have the same fun atmosphere, either.

It sucks! I'm not a fan of this so-called "progress". Not every place needs to compete with big cities or imitate that big city feel! If we wanted that, we'd move to one of those places!

One of my reasons for leaving my hometown, as well as Arkansas in general really, was the lack of development and diversity. There were areas such as Little Rock or Fayetteville that I could have moved to. I, and my girlfriend, both decided that if we were going to live in a city we might as well move to a major one. At least one of the cheaper major cities.

It’s called gentrification. It happens everywhere. Get used to it.

It’s nostalgic at best.