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I live in a small suburban city and I can walk to: * The library (5 minutes) * A supermarket (8 minutes) * A dozen restaurants (7-15 minutes; mostly local re
by SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
I live in a small suburban city and I can walk to:
* The library (5 minutes)
* A supermarket (8 minutes)
* A dozen restaurants (7-15 minutes; mostly local restaurants + 2 fast food chains)
* Two liquor stores
* A drug store (12 minutes)
* A coworking space (15 minutes)
* Several antique stores (12-15 minutes)
* (Almost forgot) Walmart (10 minutes)
* Two barbers (8-12 minutes)
* At least three major bus lines
And if I get on a bike, I can go across the entire town in 20 minutes, which puts me in range of more supermarkets, a local game store, a Gamestop, a bowling alley, at least two dozen more restaurants, and tons more.
There are places to live in my town that I would be stuck driving (or at least biking) everywhere. But I chose a place near the downtown area, and I can walk to tons of places. And I do.
Not fond of big cities. My kids can wander around my neighborhood or walk to the park, and we don't worry at all. Granted it's not six miles to the park. Six miles in any direction and you've left the small city I live in. But we're trying to resist the helicopter parenting style.
That said, I think there's another thing that's missing from this discussion: People are having fewer kids. Sometimes they have a single kid. So it's natural when all your eggs are in one basket to be a bit more paranoid about that basket.
- MarkPNeyer 10y agoCurious - what city is this?
- SomeCallMeTim 10y agoLafayette, CO. Though neighboring Louisville is similar, and Boulder proper has some very walkable areas as well (at twice the price). Edit to add: Longmont, CO has a charming walkable downtown as well, plus gigabit ethernet for cheap. In case you care. :)
- visarga 10y ago> when all your eggs are in one basket Almost literally your eggs in one "basket".
- TulliusCicero 10y agoThat's exceptional though. Most American suburbs aren't like that at all, and many of the ones that do have a walkable area, most of their housing is still in unwalkable areas.
- taurath 10y agoSpecificlly built to be unwalkable in fact, to keep out "undesirables".
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoSource?
- baursak 10y agoLook up "white flight". http://www.alternet.org/story/65404/the_future_of_cities%3A_how_sprawl_and_racism_are_intertwined http://www.alternet.org/story/65404/the_future_of_cities%3A_...
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoAh, I stand corrected. Thank you.
- TulliusCicero 10y agoTo a certain extent you have to read between the lines, people aren't usually gonna come out and say, "Yes, these regulations are to prevent minorities and the poor from coming to my neighborhood." But that's kind of the obvious takeaway from, say, zoning regulations that mandate houses/lot sizes of a minimum large size: they make it so that a lower-middle class family can't enter an upper-middle class neighborhood by simply purchasing a smaller house on a smaller plot of land.
- SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
- MK999 10y agoSounds like an old railroad town that became a suburb. When was your city founded?
- SomeCallMeTim 10y ago1888 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette%2C_Colorado https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette%2C_Colorado