"Progress" brings visual and noise pollution to rural locales in Texas and England

Last month, the New York Times reported from Boca Chica, Texas, a community at the mouth of the Rio Grande River that isn't even a census-designated place.  Today they report from Mersham, England, a "mostly agricultural village and civil parish" in Kent, about the impact Brexit has had on the movement of goods and its knock-on impacts on an area near the southeast ports in England--the jumping off point to the European continent.  

The stories--worlds apart literally--have similar themes:  rural places, previously somewhat idyllic, now dramatically changed by what some count as progress.  

Here's the lede from the Texas story, "A Serene Shore Resort, Except for the SpaceX 'Ball of Fire,'" with this subhead:  "For years, those in a rural Texas village cherished living among nature and wildlife.  Elon Musk's SpaceX has brought new fears and the promise of an economic boost to one of America's poorest corners:    :

The text arrived late at night: For your own safety, leave home by morning, it read. Nancy and James Crawford, no longer surprised but still unsettled, raced away in their S.U.V. after sunrise, occasionally twisting their necks to catch a glimpse of the space rocket towering behind them.

Moments later, the Crawfords, who are in their 70s, watched from a 12th-floor balcony on South Padre Island, a few miles up the coast, as the rocket shattered on impact during an attempted landing, spreading fiery debris along the sand dunes and tidal flats. The building shook, Mr. Crawford recalled, and in the distance, there was “a ball of fire.”

“It was exciting,” echoed his wife, “but too dangerous if we had stayed home.”

Home for the Crawfords is a remote coastal community a stone’s throw from Mexico, a village so small that water has to be trucked in. With a single road in that ends at the shoreline, it has long attracted people eager to escape congested cities, and retirees eager to escape the harsh winters of the North and Midwest.

Here's an excerpt from the British story, headlined "They Voted for Brexit, but Not the Giant Truck Park That Came With It." : 

Five years after Britons voted to leave the European Union, the aftershocks are still being registered. But few parts of the country have felt its impact more than this corner of England close to its Channel ports and the white cliffs of Dover, where a majority voted for Brexit.

When Britain was inside the E.U., the trucks that flowed ceaselessly to and from France did so with few checks. But Brexit has brought a blizzard of red tape, requiring the government to build the checkpoint nicknamed the “Farage garage,” a reference to the pro-Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage.

“For people living nearby it’s an absolute catastrophe with the night sky completely lit up. Honestly, it’s like Heathrow Airport,” said Geoffrey Fletcher, chairman of the parish council at Mersham (pronounced “Merzam”).

Consultation on the 24-hour truck park had been minimal and suggestions on how to limit problems ignored, he said. Yet, so polarized is the debate over an issue that divided the country, that Mr. Fletcher thinks few minds have changed on Brexit.

Also out of South Texas' Rio Grande Valley this week, a New York Times report on vaccine uptake amidst the LatinX community devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.