by Christopher Kendalls

Created on: April 17, 2008

It isn't the size of the home as it is the individuals who are trying to live outside of their means in those homes that is the real issue. For example, I live in South Norfolk, which is part of Chesapeake but more so a neighborhood within that city that serves as a poor suburb of Norfolk. It's one of the poorer neighborhoods in Chesapeake, which is more of a bedroom community that is growing into a city of it's own. About half of the city is developed, as it is nestled in-between the rest of Hampton Roads and North Carolina.

Homes around here are rather small and built so close that driveways are in front of the house rather than beside them. You don't get much space here, and there are a lot of working class individuals. So why is there an enormous mega home like more than 8 times the size of all of the other homes in the neighborhood on Old Atlantic, an arterial road that connects the neighborhood to Indian River, an upscale community, via another arterial road?

It isn't the size of this home, but the location. Housing projects are right behind it, and it's twice as big as some of the other mega homes built on that street. Why in the world would someone build such a home in such a neighborhood; it isn't one of the nice townhomes that are redefining Chesapeake that were built on that street. Those homes can be rented for like $1,500 a month, this monstrosity has to be like at least three times that amount. In fact it is for rent, which is a sad commentary on the fact that people get into properties and are quickly overwhelmed.

For months though someone lived in there, the windows were open to the street and you could tell that there wasn't any furniture inside, in fact it wouldn't surprise me if the people were sitting on the floor watching high-definition television over the air. It is one thing to have a twenty million dollar home on the Upper East Side, like what you see in movies like Panic Room, it blends into the aesthetic of the neighborhood and actually compliments it. People wouldn't even know that it was a home.

But when you build a monstrosity in a ghetto it's a little odd. Chesapeake is growing rapidly and builders aren't really paying attention to how the new construction fits into the area anyway. You always see high rise office buildings or hotels built in really odd places blocking off a view of something else. But commercial construction is only pretty for so long anyway before an area becomes overwhelming. It's somewhat acceptable; but where

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