I like college towns. Not because I like restrictive -- even punitive -- zoning, sky-high rent for run-down rooms, or being awakened at 7:30 am on autumn Saturdays by debauched tailgaters; rather, these uncomfortable realities represent the confluence of multiple historical trends -- forces brought to bear on municipalities and institutions that are looked upon in American society as the very apex of economic, social, and intellectual mobility. And I am nothing if not narcissistic, so I like to write about my own experience.

Kalamazoo, my current home, and Ann Arbor, my once and future hometown, are fascinating places dealing with budget problems, ambitious universities that care little about damage collateral to their expansion, and the Pandora's box of "cool."