Live in the inner city to keep life simple?

[Kestra]

As I have recently been challenged to make more threads, by someone who I will not name, but you can all go ahead and guess - :D here is a question:

I know a lot of people here live in rural areas, but are there others who have chosen to live in an urban setting for simplicity, cost or other reasons?

I currently live in an older neighbourhood near the city centre, and eventually may move right downtown. I really like it because:
- I don't have to own a car - I walk, take the bus, or use a car-share program
- housing is more affordable
- there are more stores in walking distance
- there are free activities downtown
- most of the interesting stores and restaurants are in the city core area
- it's multicultural
- people are outside their houses more, you tend to talk to neighbours more
- greater sense of community
- cool historic buildings; no boring subdivision buildings

Any other city dwellers? Why do you like it? Or are you just there temporarily and trying to get out?

[Tammy]

We chose the urban core after living in rural areas and small towns. We chose to rent apartments of less than 900 square feet. Currently at about 600 square feet.

We don't need anything that people have in their basements, garages, and sheds. No lawn care. No outside maintenance. We use public spaces as our backyard.

My husband and I share one vehicle. It's easy to do that when we both work less than a few miles to work.

It's simple and pretty affordable, although we pay more rent than necessary in order to have a nonsmoking building.

The thing with renting is that the shared walls let in smoke. Last time we moved to get away from a very strong smoke odor from a neighbor - I have asthma and they let us out of our lease early. Options for smoke free buildings are limited but we found a beautiful place we live right downtown. Just a little more expensive than before.

Overall we love renting in the urban core. More positives than negatives for us.

[Ultralight]

Tammy: I used to live here: https://www.camdenliving.com/phoenix-az-apartments/camden-copper-square

Familiar with this area?

[Tammy]

I lived at Camden for 2 1/2 years! Now we're at central and Jefferson - just a few blocks from there.

I love the science center.

[Teacher Terry]

Live in the city. Houses in burbs are cheaper but we love being able to walk downtown. WE get many festivals, etc that we enjoy going too. We still need 2 cars due to still being self-employed p.t. I envision that when our cars die in about 14 years that we will be able to share a car. Bus system is not so great around here. WE probably won't be working at all by then.

[iris lilies]

We live in an urban core and are serious gardeners. There is a lot of land around here for gardening use. One may not be able to own it, but one can certainly use it. I'm past the stage of wanting to own a bunch of real estate, anyway, and will have to get rid of at least one property in the next couple of years. Currently DH is growing a variety of beans on that place. He is crazy!
but he has always wanted to try beans, the kind that you dry.

a cool thing about our city is that it's a great place to garden if you can overcome the inherently bad clay soil. The city provides free compost and mulch. The lease city lots to use. The water service is unmetered in the historic districts where we live and garden. This is all great support for having gardens.

whike I have fantasies about the fabulous river bottom soil over the state line in Illinois, and s
while I've scoped out many a town and village that've could call home, in the end I am and always have been a city person at heart. I am so very tired of the crime and racial politics here, but other than that the city calls my name.

[iris lilies]

Ps to add: I hate the idea of driving driving driving everywhere if I lived in the country. We toured Calhoun County last week, a place where time forgot in Illinois, and it is just about as charming as you can get but there's not even a grocery store. And when the rivers are up, you cNnot get to town outside of 1.5 hours drive. When it's low water the ferries cut this time in half.

[IshbelRobertson]

I live in the centre of my city. Luckily, I have a large garden which supplies us with veg, fruit and flowers.

My city has a GREAT bus service, great shopping and amazing social amenities such as gardens, festivals, architecture and FOOD!

[Kestra]

Ps to add: I hate the idea of driving driving driving everywhere if I lived in the country. We toured Calhoun County last week, a place where time forgot in Illinois, and it is just about as charming as you can get but there's not even a grocery store. And when the rivers are up, you cNnot get to town outside of 1.5 hours drive. When it's low water the ferries cut this time in half.

Me too. That's one of my primary considerations for where I live. Back when I was looking at buying a house I refused to look at one that wasn't at least on a decent bus route. I kind of wish we still had trains. There used to be a train going up to a lake/beach about an hour north of here. But now you can't go there without driving, so I don't even think about it. And they've stopped most of the bus service between towns/cities. The driving thing is really thrust upon you if you want to go anywhere outside of city centre.

[Kestra]

I live in the centre of my city. Luckily, I have a large garden which supplies us with veg, fruit and flowers.

My city has a GREAT bus service, great shopping and amazing social amenities such as gardens, festivals, architecture and FOOD!

One day I will visit your city. One day...

[Ultralight]

I lived at Camden for 2 1/2 years! Now we're at central and Jefferson - just a few blocks from there.

I love the science center.

I was at Camden from Dec. 2010 to Oct. 2012. :)
Small world.

[Tammy]

I was there feb 2011 - July 2013. We were neighbors.

[sweetana3]

We live right downtown Indianapolis. Well within the one mile square so totally walkable. We moved there to reduce commute to almost nothing. My office was 5 blocks away and husbands was 1.5 miles. He could round trip by car in less than 10 minutes or walk. It is quiet and has nice neighbors. Downtown is now booming with several thousand new apartments, a new grocery store (Whole Foods coming), doctors, dentists and vets, and a huge new central library 5 blocks away. If we want something special, all corners of the city are available. I do not have to drive to get away.

I do not mind living in an urban area and love the "eyes" that are around in case of emergency. Tried the suburbs for 3 years and was miserable.

[Ultralight]

I was there feb 2011 - July 2013. We were neighbors.

Small world!

[Miss Cellane]

Currently, I live in a small city in a rural area. But I used to live in Boston.

Pros: lots of things to do. A car is not really necessary.

Cons: housing is much more expensive. The closer you are to a bus line, the higher the rent. The closer you are to a subway/trolley stop, the rent goes even higher.

While there are a lot of stores, there are very few grocery stores. If you aren't within an easy walk of one of the few supermarkets, you will either be food shopping every other day, or getting a taxi or Zip car weekly. If you need to lug large bags of pet food or cat litter home, the bus is not the best way to do this.

Food is more expensive. Actually, just about everything is more expensive.

Most apartments in a reasonable price range do not have washers and dryers in the building, meaning that you have to lug all your clothes to the nearest laundramat, which could be over a mile away and not on a public transportation route.

It's hard to meet neighbors. Once I lived in a building with 8 apartments, and I had no idea who lived in 5 of them. Never saw them in the three years I was there.

That said, I did like living in the city, and if family and work obligations hadn't made me decide to move, I'd probably stil be there. But for everything that the city does to simplify one aspect of life, it also can throw in a complication in another area.

[Florence]

I am 67 and my husband is 68. We have 4 acres in what used to be the country. But suburban sprawl is rapidly surrounding us. So we have the worst of both worlds. We are getting old and have to take care a 4 acres and we have to drive 10 miles to the nearest grocery through traffic that steadily grows worse as the sprawl envelopes us. And to top it off these 2 lane country roads were never designed to handle the current amount of traffic.

[pinkytoe]

We live in centralish Austin in an older neighborhood and have everything we need close by. Our main grocery is 3 blocks away, two library branches, tons of eateries and parks within a half mile. My work is 4 miles away and on a bus route if I want to take the bus. It was a very calculated move 15 years ago when we realized that the nice house in the burbs on a big lot with a pool wasn't worth the long stressful drive to work and amenities. It was the biggest thing we ever did to simplfy our lives and has made all the difference in quality of life. I loathe traffic and driving so doubt I'll ever live anywere that is totally car dependent. The downside though is that now everyone who can afford it wants to live close in because of the awful traffic - so the real estate is getting pricier by the day.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I lived at Camden for 2 1/2 years! Now we're at central and Jefferson - just a few blocks from there.

I love the science center.Wow, you really are downtown! Myself, not quite so downtown but on top of it. A few blocks north of the 51 and McDowell Road. Rob

[gimmethesimplelife]

I like being where I am at the moment - very close to downtown but not so close that I can't have a backyard to grow some veggies and a little space between houses. I did some research recently of a town in Arizona I've always found fascinating - Nogales - turns out housing is not that expensive there and if you live close to downtown but not right on the border things are very walkable. The idea of getting a car after all these years without one and the costs and hassles of car ownership just does not suit well. I would say living so close to downtown and essential services really does simplify my life. And something else I cherish, after having had a medical emergency in rural Utah two years ago - I am very close to a hospital - two actually - that are in my insurance plan. Having had some health issues myself that's not something I take lightly these days.

I also appreciate being so close to the Art Museum and to the public library, and when the weather is not so obnoxious - think starting Mid October I'm close to the light rail to take me to all kinds of temp banquet shifts and also to a few public parks here in Phoenix, my favorite being Tempe Town Lake, which is a man made lake that is a big tourist attraction here but it's still cool anyway. I'd say living in the middle of it all does simplify my life but there's also a part of me that yearns to be somewhere smaller and more human scaled. Meh....can't have my cake and eat it too. Rob

[Tammy]

Rob - It's really something how we meet neighbors online. I work at MIHS - the hospital at Roosevelt and 24th st

[gimmethesimplelife]

Rob - It's really something how we meet neighbors online. I work at MIHS - the hospital at Roosevelt and 24th stSmall world. Amazing sometimes, isn't it? I'm really grateful for MIHS as I had some issues with Banner last year with all my GI issues and I've had good experiences since switching to MIHS. And I belong to the credit union that has a branch downstairs and I love the salad bar at the cafeteria there! Rob

[Kestra]

This talk of Phoenix and lakes - I'm trying to remember this little hidden park and lake we stumbled upon but I can't figure it out. I just remember how pretty and deserted it was on a Sunday when a nearby hill park was super busy. Now it's going to bug me.

[Zoe Girl]

i like living in the city now, not totally downtown but closer to things, i would say be aware of food deserts however, if you are moving into the city look for a walkable real grocery store (now they have maps that will show you the walkability score). i think i could walk to more than a food mart kind of place from my apartment, we are just at a mile away.

[Ultralight]

I really just want to move to a small college town. I used to live in Tuscaloosa, AL. This town would have been ideal had it not been for two deal breakers.
1. Football
2. It is in Alabama.

But it was walking and biking friendly (for the most part...). Groceries, restaurants, a major university, a nearby lake, a nearby river, no winter, and a fairly stable economy (both for the working class and the middle class -- because of the University and a big unionized tire factory) made it a decent place. But it was edging up toward being too big for my taste.

[Kestra]

I really just want to move to a small college town. I used to live in Tuscaloosa, AL. This town would have been ideal had it not been for two deal breakers.
1. Football
2. It is in Alabama.

But it was walking and biking friendly (for the most part...). Groceries, restaurants, a major university, a nearby lake, a nearby river, no winter, and a fairly stable economy (both for the working class and the middle class -- because of the University and a big unionized tire factory) made it a decent place. But it was edging up toward being too big for my taste.

I have to ask, being completely ignorant of most sports. Is it the presence of football or the lack of football that was the deal breaker?

[Tammy]

We've probably said hello in passing and didn't realize who we were talking to. :)

[gimmethesimplelife]

We've probably said hello in passing and didn't realize who we were talking to. :)Isn't that funky? It could very well be though.....small world. Rob

[SteveinMN]

DW and I live within the limits of the city of Saint Paul, but we're about a mile away from downtown. Standard city lots, a mix of single-family homes, duplexes, and apartment buildings, with few of the older structures crowding anyone else out. We have mature trees; some of us have garden plots; some of us have workshop garages. We can walk to a decent grocery store, some restaurants and bars, an auto mechanic, some art galleries, barbers/hairstylists, and, until recently, a medical clinic (which moved down the road to expand its services). We are within three blocks of two major bus lines and HourCar/ZipCar rentals dot the streets. We are maybe a third of a mile from the Interstate, which is behind a big noise wall/bike path that just got an update and lots of new plantings. Yet with all this, early on a weekend morning, the loudest sound you'll hear is birds chirping or leaves rustling in the wind.

Ideal? No. There were two daycares on the block which generated a ton of car traffic twice a day. Nothing against daycares, but adding so many cars in with kids is not smart. Until The Great Recession, there were a few absentee landlords who owned a number of properties in the neighborhood; when they washed out, many of the houses sat, foreclosed upon, deteriorating to the point where the only real solution is tearing them down. That's a very slow process.

But if The Cataclysm were to come, I'd much rather be part of a collective in which people are committed enough to share their talents and their assets. We also value the the diversity of the people here -- races, religions, ages, economic status, interest. I'm aware that does not happen in every neighborhood but it does happen here.

[sweetana3]

SteveMN, sounds just like where we live. Our one negative right now is the huge corporation that moved 900 employees to temp space about 3 blocks away. So now they are parking all over and causing headaches for repair people and such. But.... a temp thing.