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Thread: Abandoning Suburbia

  1. #11
    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    since the beginning of time people have been burning each others fields, stealing their belongings and treating those below their station or those of color despicably. Yet, civilization rises up from the ashes and thrives. The only choice is to do your best with what you have no matter if you are a city, rural or suburban dweller. I don't dwell on it.

  2. #12
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    i agree that there is suburbia and there is suburbia.

    I've been in suburbs that were heavily car-based and didn't even have side walks for pedestrians to walk the hood. I've been in suburbs that were about 2-4 miles from the nearest grocery, but then development happened and it was an easy 1 mi trot to lots of amenities. I've been in suburbs that were revitalized old towns (my personal favorite) that blended via sprawl into the city.

    I currently live in a suburb that has a cute little downtown, but no real grocery. There's a corner shop that has a bit of food (mostly processed, but some fresh fruit/veg), another corner shop that focuses on candy/ice cream, two cafes and a fish and chip's shop, a dress shop, and an art gallery, plus our local doctor. There's also an accountant's office, several churches with different public functions, and the bowles club which has the RSA. I'm working to bring in a farmer's market -- ideally a bi-weekly one eventually.

    I can't walk to work -- I can take a bus or drive, and we discovered that it saves time and money to drive (i think this is poor planning on the part of the city, but hey, that's just me) so we drive. If the bus system were more affordable, we'd probably go that route as I actually enjoy doing the bus.

    I would prefer to live back in the city. I think it would be better for us, but DH loves this suburb. It's only a 15 minute drive to the city, so it's not like it's "far out" -- it's just that I have to drive!

  3. #13
    Senior Member Rogar's Avatar
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    I agree...there is suburbia and there is suburbia. Where do you put people when city housing and space for industrial development are maxed out? It is pretty much inevitable in a prospering area.

    Where is live, the city is building up in the form of high rise lofts that seem trendy and low maintenance, but also a little sterile. Many of our "suburbs" are built around little satellite towns that had their own traditional downtown as well as the newer ubiquitous strip malls and box stores and have 50's and 60's houses with mature landscape. We have a developing rapid transit system to connect the downtown and outlying areas. So where does the city end and the suburb begin?

    I think there is the stereo typical suburb with ticky-tacky houses all in a row. Often cheap construction and no true downtown or sense of community. Not all suburbs are equal.
    "what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Mary Oliver

  4. #14
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    In our thirty plus years of owning homes, we have tried several living styles - a 100 yr old house in a crime-filled downtown area, a new house we had built wayout in far-flung suburbia, a cottage on four acres...and several others including our current and favorite, a 50s house in an inner ring suburb of a large city. It has proven to be the most sensible situation thus far and would probably be advisable in most other large cities. I think it depends on a lot of factors though whether or not urban or rural is best for being self-sufficient.

  5. #15
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    I grew up in (and also currently live in) an area that, when my parents moved there in the late 1960's, was a distant suburb of L.A. (at about 50 miles south of LA). There were 1950's tract housing communities in each smallish city with lots of local ammenities like shops, restaurants, movie theatres, schools, etc... There was some space between each little suburban town and the larger cities - parks, farm fields, little ranches, orange groves, some wilderness areas, etc... and a small municipal center for each town. The whole county probably had less than 200,000 population and my city had less than 10,000 people. It was a nice suburban area to live and grow up in.

    Over time it has become a one huge sprawling giant mega-suburb with a county population of over 3 million (which abuts LA counties population of 10 million and 2 other counties with several million each) where each town and county blends into the other, and all the little pockets of nature have been paved over for more houses (McMansions tract houses on tiny lots), lite industry and office blocks, malls and strip malls and big box stores. It truely is suburban sprawl at it's finest. So now there is very little open space left to develop, and developers have moved further afield to create an even larger suburban sprawl - at least before the recession which halted a lot of development. There are no slow or no growth rules in place here and so it's become a free for all. Places like Portland, Or where a slow groth policy is in effect can really help keep suburbs nice and it would be nice if more cities developed that. It's too late for it here in SoCal, but I'd hate to see beautiful suburbs of some of the bigger cities turn out like the L.A. Suburban Sprawl-Monster that is spread out for 100 miles or more in a all directions.

  6. #16
    Senior Member awakenedsoul's Avatar
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    As I drove to Sprouts this morning, I was thinking about how convenient it is to live in a suburb. I really have everything I need within a few miles of my cottage. I remember living in NYC and how hot and expensive it was there. My life is so much cheaper, easier, and more comfortable here. I remember missing my car when I lived in NY. The subways were crowded and smelly. I do feel spoiled in LA. My parents think they are going to develop the neighborhood that I'm in...the mail carrier told me that they've already drawn up the routes. They've put in a city college, and a few housing developments with homes that are priced from $500,000.-$700,000. My plumber told me that they may want to knock down my house, offer me $500,000, and put up two houses. He's bought and sold five homes in the San Fernando Valley.
    My grandfather bought some land up in Napa many years ago. He and my dad held it and paid the property taxes on it. They grazed cattle for Harris Ranch on it. Now they're developing it. It's a great way to make some passive income over time if you have the patience. Homes in that area are quite pricey.

  7. #17
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    awakenedsoul,
    if you got a $500,000 offer, would you take it? just curious

  8. #18
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    DW and I lived in a couple classic, outer-ring suburbs when we were first married. They were nice houses by most standards, but the areas pretty much had nothing within walking or sensible biking distance. It was classic car travel or nothing. Our sense of community, such as it was, and our social lives pretty much revolved around the schools and a few immediately adjacent neighbors. It was pretty boring because everyone was just like us. I can't say it was a bad life because it wasn't, but it just never felt like there was any soul to it.
    "Back when I was a young boy all my aunts and uncles would poke me in the ribs at weddings saying your next! Your next! They stopped doing all that crap when I started doing it to them... at funerals!"

  9. #19
    Senior Member awakenedsoul's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lainey View Post
    awakenedsoul,
    if you got a $500,000 offer, would you take it? just curious
    Lainey,
    That's a great question. I think about the pros and cons a lot. If they build new homes around me, (I'd say there are about 100 older homes in our little pocket,) it might make sense to stay and keep mine. I think most of the druggies and undesirables would cash out. If I knew I could buy something tiny, charming, and that had an orchard, then I would sell and move. (I think I'd fit in better in CO, NM, or OR.) I also love Europe. I'm not really sure. Each time I've put my house on the market, I've ended up keeping it. When I see what else is out there, I just like mine so much more. But, I get tired of next door neighbors who throw their leftovers in my orchard and garden, and park their cars in front of me house. It's that macho thing. It seems like this part of LA is becoming like the San Fernando Valley. (which has really gone downhill.) I try to focus on the positives, because there are many. It takes a long time for fruit trees to mature, too. Growing food has really been rewarding and such a money saver! Another thing I've considered is that if both of these developments happen, in ten or twenty years I could afford to live in a very nice area in Carmel. Sometimes fairytale cottages come on the market. Right now they go for around $600,000, (which is very pricey,) but they would be cheap to heat and cool. The trade off would be living in an area with very high end, well maintained homes. I'm not sure...

  10. #20
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    If you sell and then buy a new to you house in CA aren't you then subject to the higher taxes on the new house? Or if you spent the proceeds on a house in another state would you not then be subject to the much higher annual real estate taxes on that property?

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