The Big Temple That Divided a Small Town

For years, residents of Fairview had it in for McKinney, their much larger neighbor to the north. Citizens of the small town thirty miles northeast of Dallas prize their Longhorns, horses, alpacas, and dark-sky ordinance, and McKinney was a perfect symbol of the encroaching urbanization that threatened their way of life. Despite Fairview’s decades-long history of complaints to the Federal Aviation Administration, four hundred or so planes take off from McKinney National Airport daily and fly directly over the eastern portion of Fairview—practically thumbing their noses at the town of 11,000 whose proud motto is “Keeping It Country.” If a Fairview resident rolled her eyes and muttered “McKinney,” her neighbors needed no explanation. But that resentment—and the town’s sense of solidarity—took a back seat once the…

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