I grew up here in New England and I concur- the extremes of overdevelopment seem to have bypassed us to some extent. But I wonder if it only seems that way since we have a better sense of aesthetics here and can build in a more visually pleasing manner-

I have seen statistics documenting the selling of and eventual development of historical farmland, and what has happened here is truly no less disastrous than any other part of the nation- maybe worse in some sense because much of the land we have built on here is fertile as opposed to the scrub and desert being consumed in the southwest...

On an off-topic point, I had a post deleted here wherein I made a defensive post in response to some blatantly anti-American crap about how wasteful our bathroom habits are- if we are not allowed to criticize European lifestyles here, there should be a warning posted somewhere. Don't tell me it was because I used the word "shit" in the context of defecating, because I have seen others use that term and worse here in posts which have been allowed to persist. The moderators' apparent hero Kuntsler constantly uses worse language and is seen as a hero around here- is it too much to hope for impartial moderation?