Back to the Suburbs.
The friendliest little city around is not a city, and not especially friendly. Apparently gang activity there is growing at an alarming rate. This can’t mean anything good for the state of our society, when gangs come to a suburban “town” whose whole only claims to fame are 1. IKEA, which is probably twice the size of Reagan National Airport; 2. Potomac Mills—the world’s largest outlet mall—which is probably three times the size of Reagan National Airport; and 3. All the streets are in alphabetical order. Dale City lies about 30 miles south of DC. I grew up in Dale City, in the house where my mother still lives. When we moved into that house some twenty-two years ago, our house was one of a few houses surrounded by a field. The elementary school I would attend, the houses that my neighborhood friends would live in weren’t there yet. We’d pick blackberries in the field and spot deer from the swingset. Today, as you can imagine, the fields and trees in the vicinity of my mother’s house a
