Uncrowded, Inc.
- Mark Cromer
- July 28, 2025
- Forum Papers
- Forum Paper
- 0 Comments
Click here for a downloadable, printable PDF version.
An NPG Forum Paper
by Mark Cromer
July 2025
ABSTRACT
Abstract: The stark divide between the proverbial ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ has been a feature in America since the founding of the nation. It’s a disparity that’s often garishly reflected by material goods – the number and size of homes, cars and many other items accrued through success or inherited by bloodline – but it’s a chasm that’s more accurately assessed through a metric of access; from educational and professional opportunities to medical and legal services. As population densities continue to grow throughout the country, open space and the sense of inner-peace that uncrowded environs provide is at risk of becoming another luxury amenity extended to those who can afford it and out of reach to those who can’t. Vast tracts of public lands are now facing possible sale as more politicians in Washington, D.C. see the land as an asset to provide more housing or as a means to reduce the deficit, even while social media influencers are driving ever more people deeper into the wild to seek out scenic locations and previously less traveled destinations. Trends like ‘glamping’ that promote luxury getaways in the wild are also playing a role in the commodification of uncrowded places and spaces.
More than two decades have passed since filmmaker Alexander Payne bottled some of California’s golden mythos and served it to theater audiences around the nation with his cinematic masterwork Sideways. A brilliantly crafted and quite believable account of one writer’s midlife crisis that’s overlayed and contrasted with his college buddy’s perpetual residency in reckless abandon, the film also reintroduced America to the lush landscape of the California Central Coast with its rolling hills, verdant vineyards and small towns all playing a powerful supporting cast.
While Sideways became an instant classic that captured the critics, triumphed at the box office and instantly elevated the careers of its thespians, the film also managed to accomplish something else, and not just notably increasing national demand for California’s pinot noir while putting a significant dent in the nation’s consumption of merlot – both of which it did…. Continue reading the full Forum paper by clicking here.
Mark Cromer is a professional writer and researcher with more than three decades as a working journalist and an investigator in the field of business intelligence. His work on mass immigration and population growth issues has been published in major newspapers across the nation and internationally. Cromer was a senior staff investigator at Sapient Investigations, Inc., for more than a decade and he worked as a contract investigator for Kroll Associates, the global blue chip risk consulting and investigations firm.
