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The Nation's Pulse
Long Live Suburbia
The death of Suburban America has been greatly exaggerated.
Repent, suburbanites, for the end is near!
That’s the gist of a new piece in The Atlantic titled “The Beginning of the End for Suburban America.” And this time, say the doomsayers, it’s not just wishful thinking.
Many signs and wonders portend suburbia’s last days. First, the number of miles Americans drove fell in 2008 and 2009. True, this could be the result of a number of things. More carpooling, for one. The corporate exodus. More telecommuting. Even — though unlikely — more use of public transportation.
There’s just one small problem. Turns out Americans aren’t driving fewer miles. In the next paragraph, the author tries to slip this in on the sly: “In 2010, Americans drove a little more [than in 2009].”
Okay, but what about this: Houses are getting smaller and using less energy. “The average size of a new home in 2010 is nearly 130 square feet smaller than in 2007.” That could just as easily be a sign that suburbanites plan on having fewer children. Or that the popularity of the gaudy McMansion has run its course. Or that suburban homeowners simply want homes that are more fuel efficient. Some suburban folks, believe it or not, are actually concerned with energy efficiency. They just don’t harp on it continuously. They have more important things to do. Like commute three hours to work.
Ever since modern suburbia sprung from the loins of the post-World War II economic boom it has been criticized by right-thinkers as homogenous, conformist, dull, and populated entirely with lawn-obsessed, wife-swapping alcoholics. More recently, the burbs have been attacked for the clown-like size of their carbon footprint. “[The suburbs] are the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world,” says professional scold James Howard Kunstler. “America has squandered its wealth in a living arrangement that has no future.”
Well I, for one, happen to like big houses with big yards. I grew up in a family of five where we four boys were crammed into a single room the size of a telephone booth. Our backyard was far too small for the Nerf football field – Wiffle Ball diamond our budding athleticism required, which meant our neighbor’s vegetable garden paid the ultimate sacrifice. At that time, my parents couldn’t afford anything larger. But if today’s families can, why pack your kids into one cramped room like veal calves?
The “obscene suburban lifestyle” isn’t the problem and never has been. Our cities are the problem. They have become, in Rousseau’s words, “the abyss of the human species.” Still, a lot of suburbanites would like nothing better than to live in a great booming metropolis and enjoy a 10-minute commute to work. But for the great majority this is a non-starter. We city dwellers have to endure constant vandalism, crime, litter, noise, lousy schools, corrupt and unresponsive governments, derelict properties, drug wars, and so forth. How many times do you want to replace your shattered car windows because some hoodlum thinks there may be a revolver stashed under the front seat? (It’s under my pillow.) Raising kids in the city, if you can afford not to, should be considered a form of child abuse. At the very least, child neglect.
Kunstler and his ilk drone constantly about livable cities, by which they mean green, walkable neighborhoods, close to reliable food and water supplies. They never seem to talk about cities as they really are: barbaric hellholes. For example, this summer in my inner-city neighborhood an elderly Asian couple was assaulted by a gang of teenage thugs. The elderly man was savagely beaten to death. The next day, the couple’s children whisked their grieving mother away to the safety of a senior apartment building in the suburbs. It’s a story that is repeated far too often. As long as such things happen, on a fairly consistent basis, the suburbs will continue to thrive. Regardless of the price of gas.
Sure, the city has its compensations: Hip restaurants, quaint homes, kitschy shops, art museums, the best music venues. But suburbanites can take advantage of these too. Many own big armored Humvees they can drive into the city, dine at some upscale Bedouin eatery, and, if they are lucky and their tires aren’t stolen, they can get out of Dodge before the rioting starts.
Here’s what I don’t get. You’d think the city’s hipsters, couch surfers, trannies, green-anarchists and urban farmers would be glad the kind of people who live in the suburbs live in the suburbs. Perhaps they should ask themselves this: do they really want hundreds of senior-level reputation development executives and B2B IT consultants moving into their “edgy” neighborhoods?
You city folk best be careful what you wish for.
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (53) | Leave a comment
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Chuck| 9.22.11 @ 6:51AM
Suburbia began in earnest...Brown v. Board of Education-1954. It continued with the interstate highway system-1956 and the construction of "planned" cities like Reston, VA and Columbia, MD-1960’s. Busing accelerated the flood in the 1970's to more rural areas. White Americans are a resilient people they found ways to dodge liberal society tinkering and racial strife and ended up building new towns and educating their children in private and home schools.
Derek Leaberry| 9.22.11 @ 2:43PM
As a flighter from Prince George's County who now lives on the Eastern Shore of the Crab State, let me compliment your very wise post.
DC Fred| 9.22.11 @ 5:36PM
You give a very cogent history lesson. I remember in the early 1950's DC Public schools were about 75% white by the mid-60's 90% black. What happened? Brown v. Board of Education, I never thought of that, forced integration by the whip of the federal courts in this case a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court. Very good sir.
donserge| 9.22.11 @ 7:44AM
In 1980 I moved from northern VA to northern Maine where my nearest stateside traffic light was 75 miles away. It quickly became evident how people's activites and their daily lives are virtually controlled by these lights. Now I live in north central FL and still, by choice, remain well away from them and have much more time to enjoy my daily life. Much less stress also! City life? You can keep it!
Henry22| 9.22.11 @ 7:55AM
Chris, I might have agreed with your assessment at one point....perhaps the 1980s or early '90s, however NYC is nothing what you describe....maybe that's how it is in St. Louis, but only in pockets in NYC. Let's face it, despite the exodus of middle class people from NYC these past few years, the crime rate has remained low, mainly because poor people, and the criminal element are leaving as well. NYC is too expensive for them! The caucasian population of NYC grew(!) for the first time in years after the 2010 census. Anyway, the country, AND the world, is becoming more urban and by 2050 fully three quarters of the globe will be urban or suburban. No, I don't think the suburbs are going anywhere, but nor do I think my city (at least) is how you describe it.
Mike D.| 9.22.11 @ 8:21AM
I was born and raised in Detroit, Chris's description of the big city fits Detroit in the good old days, now its dodge City and beyond.
PaulyD| 9.23.11 @ 2:33PM
The suburbs of Detroit ARE Detroit, or what is left of it. The entire U.S. Auto industry is now headquartered in the Detroit suburbs. When people still refer to "Detroit" as shorthand for the auto industry they are actually referring to its suburbs. The city itself has been abandoned.
PaulyD| 9.23.11 @ 2:39PM
And then of course there is Los Angeles, which is really nothing more than a giant suburb on steroids. So sometimes the definition of what constitutes a city vs. suburb is somewhat blurred anyway.
Sam Vaughn| 9.22.11 @ 9:21AM
Henry22 -- more power to you. I for one find cities soulless. I live in a small community where we run our own town. We have control of our taxes, and when a neighbor is in trouble we're all there to help. Having live in cities where you don't dare greet a stranger with a friendly wave or comment on the weather, you can keep it. I wish you well, but the cities oof today, especially the NE are heartless, soulless, centers of class stratification.
Margie| 9.22.11 @ 3:05PM
Home is what you make it.
If you want a greeting and a smile, you have to give one, first.
Yeah, NYC is crowded with people all busy and bustling and passing each other by. It's a concentration of everything, business, stores, and homes. Every thing's at your fingertips.
I lived there for ten years, and loved it. You either love it or leave it.
I grew up in Central NJ, and it was nothing like the city of NY.
I like owning a home and having green grass and trees around me now, and we now enjoy Ohio.
The neighbors are a lot more relaxed, and yes, that makes for friendly conversation and each other looking out for one another.
It's all a matter of taste, and what one makes it, too.
Ken Royall| 9.22.11 @ 6:45PM
NYC is great in some areas. So is SanFran. The problem is that the livable areas in these cities are also unaffordable to the average person. The areas that are affordable ARE crime-ridden hellholes with crappy schools for the most part.
brooksanne| 9.22.11 @ 8:04AM
Here in Massachusetts we have this quaint idea known as TOWN. All the advantages of both styles of living without the city scariness. Maybe you love to hate our state, but the rest of America could learn from town living, or maybe it's too late.
Old Soldier| 9.22.11 @ 8:45AM
I know this is hard to believe, but take it from a MA-refugee - there are towns in other states too. Some even have churches, rotaries, and cemeteries in the middle. And, taxes are generally lower and the people less obnoxious elsewhere.
Harry the Horrible| 9.22.11 @ 8:46AM
Took a train from Morristown, NJ to NYC. The little towns and villages along the line were truly beautiful. It wasn't the Democratic People's Republic of Massachusetts, but I think I know what you're talking about.
Of course, as a Southron, I wouldn't live there (winters are too fierce...) but it was a lovely trip. Didn't read my book at all. Just looked out the window.
Sam Vaughn| 9.22.11 @ 9:24AM
Sorry to be the one to enlighten you. When denizens of the state of Mass. leave our state the locals call them Massholes. Not saying it's right but we prefer that they visit and leave.
Renard| 9.25.11 @ 12:10AM
I live in a small town in NW Indiana, just south of the Michigan border, and about 60 miles outside the wasteland called - I'm sorry, meant to say 'city' - called Chicago. I get sick and tired of seeing Chicagoans - they are like locusts. All along the western Lake Michigan coastal area they are known as "FIPs" (F***ing Illinois People), and I've heard them called this since I was a teenager. Only a few years ago, I learned that in Wisconsin, they use an even better acronym, FIB - in which the "B" can be one of two words (one rhymes with "witch"), depending on the sex of the offending Illinois person!!
Todd Powers| 9.25.11 @ 4:21PM
I spent some time in college around a guy from Northern Chicago suburbs, "Northshore" is what he called it. Poor kid was a basket case, but likeable, unlike most anyone from Detroit metro.
Nina| 9.22.11 @ 10:33AM
I live in MA and in the burbs but apparently not as quaint a town you live in. Wish I did. I can't get far enough away from the constant traffic, noise, et. Recently visited WI, out in the boondocks and wish I was still there. Peaceful and quiet. I'd even give up the convenience of local stores to live somewhere less populated. Must be getting cranky in my old age!
Drunken Sailor| 9.22.11 @ 1:10PM
Hell, we have villages. Not even enough people to qualify as a town. One post office, one family store. I drive 100 miles a day to/from work. My neighbors on both sides are deer/get-away camps. Wouldn't go back to the city life if you paid me.
Drunken Sailor| 9.22.11 @ 1:15PM
By the way Chris. This is only 2 hours south east of you.
Old Soldier| 9.22.11 @ 8:37AM
After leaving my parents' suburban home, I lived in Boston and Los Angeles. Great fun places to live as a young single man.
As soon as I got married and settled down, it was back to the suburbs. No way was I going to raise children in those places.
My teenage daughter talks about leaving our "cow-town" and living in a city when she is old enough. I laugh and tell her she'll be back in a cow-town a few years later.
Occam's Tool| 9.22.11 @ 2:51PM
Old Soldier---I lived through the LA riots and moved to rural Alabama. I now live in rural Minnesota---exact SAME reason you outlined. My kids play outside year round without fear on my little 2&1/2 acre plot, and we're thinking of adding the nextdoor 2.5 acre empty lot. Cities are good for restaurants, museums, and indie movies. Not much else.
ConantheContrarian| 9.22.11 @ 8:47AM
When I was growing up I live in a small town, surrounded by other small towns. The problem with my town was that it became dangerous, filled with dangerous "youths." I was attacked one fine summer day by two youths who wanted a quarter from me (this was many decades ago). I escaped that encounter. I swore that I would never put my children through what I had experienced. Never. When I was married and had children, I moved to a demographically safe suburb, and my children are safe and my house price is relatively stable adjusting for macro-economic factors.
Todd Powers| 9.25.11 @ 4:30PM
Thugs are everywhere. I have similar stories from my youth in my small town. A few years back my divorced sister-in-law moved back into my old neighborhood for a brief period and it was a completely different vibe. Not only was it safe to walk the streets, but my nephew left his bike on the front porch at night, every night, and no one stole it. When I was a kid that thing would've been gone before 10pm the first night. I like to think all the thugs moved to Detroit.
Bruce| 9.22.11 @ 9:05AM
The biggest problem with the 'burbs today is that the meth cookers have discovered that small-town police forces don't always have the resources to find them. And most people in the 'burbs trust their neighbors to be upright citizens, so don't normally expect the criminal element to move in next door. The criminals enjoy the same short commute to the larger areas to dispose of their poison before returning "home".
Dan Hirsch| 9.22.11 @ 9:07AM
Chris Orlet missed the most insidious characteristic of in town and in city living - NOISE!
Non-stop sirens, motorcycles, every night, all night make sleep impossible.
When I finally moved to the pastoral zone, one morning I woke to notice a very disturbing sound, it was a thumping that just kept going. I was very worried, until I realized that for the first time in my life (I have little grand kids...) I was hearing the sound of my own heart...
You all should try it - besides the criminal elements know that we in the rural areas are all armed and dangerous to them, so they stay away.
DTOM
Todd Powers| 9.25.11 @ 4:32PM
An armed society is a polite society, Mayor Bloomberg.
JimH| 9.22.11 @ 9:47AM
I grew up in a part of Queens which when built in the early 20th century was an escape from Manhattan tenements made possible by the East River bridges and the el trains. Even into the forties most of Queens was viewed as the burbs are now. Think of the house located in Forest Hills in Miracle on 34th Street. The move to Long Island really started in the sixties. It was made possible by the construction of highways by Robert Moses and the building of relatively low cost housing developments. People just wanted some space and fresh air and felt it was a better life for their kids. A rising crime rate along with a decline in public school quality also encouraged people to leave. I now live in a Tampa suburb. And while it’s great that we have a nice house and a pool, good schools and other amenities, I do miss being able to hop on the subway to take the kids to a museum or some other interesting spot. You pay your many and take your choice I guess.
Le Cracquere| 9.22.11 @ 10:47AM
And then there are places like Charleston, where the city center is the safest and funnest place to be, and the suburbs are crime-ridden. My car and my wife's have been broken into, but only ever in the parking lots of our suburban workplaces.
The same model holds in several other cities, not all of them in Europe. This suggests there's nothing INHERENT to city life that promotes crime and disorder, or that suburbia inherently produces safety and ease.
No place is a "barbaric hellhole," save that its inhabitants make it so. At the same time, some environments have always been considered more expressive of civilization's virtues than others. One of these is the "urbs," rightly ordered and populated by a virtuous citizenry. Long story short: whatever's wrong with St. Louis that you extrapolate to cities & suburbs in general, might lie closer to home.
"[A] lot of suburbanites would like nothing better than to live in a great booming metropolis and enjoy a 10-minute commute to work. But for the great majority this is a non-starter."
Unfortunately, you're right. But in my experience, many on the Right dismiss these people, and consider them deluded or some kind of crypto-leftists for wanting such things. And we fight tooth and nail to keep such desires impractical--through big-government nanny-state measures, no less (promiscuous road/utility construction, transport-funds distribution, zoning laws). Contra Orlet's caricature of city-dwellers, we'd be THRILLED if even more ordinary, law-abiding folk who wanted to move intown could do so.
Seek| 9.22.11 @ 11:12AM
I grew up in suburban St. Louis, Orlet's home turf, during the 60s and 70s. It's still there, thriving. It's not going away anytime soon. But I'll admit to one baneful trend: Since opening nearly two decades ago, MetroLink area mass transit has enabled a lot of St. Louis city blacks to "arrive by train and leave by car" -- if you know what I mean.
Sean| 9.22.11 @ 11:34AM
The suburbs are great. Hell I don't even like to drive into a city. Traffic, trash, bums, lack of parking, paying for parking, over priced goods and services. Those are the qualities you find in the city.
Gary| 9.22.11 @ 11:39AM
I was reared in a small town close to New Orleans and loved it. I am now 65 and still fondly remember long summers of swimming, baseball, hide and seek, roaming on our bikes with no fear of crime, neighborhood movies, bar-b ques, and on and on. Cities may be good for affluent yuppies who can afford its' benefits but for blue collar working class families like mine, you can stuff it. I reared my kids in the suburbs and my son to this day often talks about the fun he had.
This big city snob stuff is a bunch of crap and for those that tout it, PLEASE stay in the cities away from me and mine. I now live in the country, it's great!
Le Cracquere| 9.22.11 @ 1:27PM
No need for hostility. Funny, though: my urban neighborhood is PROTOTYPICALLY blue-collar, and working-class to the core--I hadn't realized they wanted anyone to stuff anything (if that's what you meant--hard to parse your sentence).
You're most welcome to live where you like, as long as you aren't siphoning the taxpayer to do so; it'd be nice if the sentiment were shared, but ah well. It's weird, though: we on the Right inveigh against people telling us where and how to live, but from the other side of our mouths, we imply that only suburbia is an appropriate living environment for right-thinking people.
KyMouse| 9.22.11 @ 11:39AM
I will always appreciate the fact that my parents bought a home in a suburban neighborhood that was just about ideal. It had (and still has) streets that formed a big loop, so there was little through traffic; plenty of trees to climb; hills to sled down; lots of dogs and nice neighbors; and a creek that was about six inches deep--deep enough to wade in and look for crawdads, but not what any of our parents considered dangerous. Several neighbors had horses; and one had a cow that got loose one day, resulting in lots of fun trying to catch it.
All of it added up to one terrific place in which to grow up.
I treasure so many memories from there, including the crisp fall days during which we raked up the leaves from our maple trees and burned them at the curb -- what a great smell! Of course, we left enough scattered around to make tiny winding paths for us to canter on, pretending we were horses.
Todd Powers| 9.25.11 @ 4:40PM
Being a hillbilly, I can recognize the Lexington/Louisville/ Cincinnati triangle, since everywhere else, other than Bowling Green, Paducah, and Owensboro, would be considered rural.
LindaF | 9.22.11 @ 11:44AM
I agree. I've lived in cities, and I've lived in the country. They both have crime, but the greater number of people packed into cities makes the likelihood of being a "vic" higher. Plus, too many of our darker-skinned brethren seem to think of the pale-skinned types as "deserving it" and not worthy of being treated as human.
My youngest and her children and husband still live in a city, but in a neighborhood that is relatively well-off and primarily populated by families with working adults. I wouldn't count on their NOT leaving at some point for more space, and less crime.
Plainly put - if people don't have to stay put, they use their scarce cash to avoid the downside of cities. Only government interference will stop that.
Ed| 9.22.11 @ 11:56AM
I live in the exurbs of the Akron area and prefer that lifestyle. In my opinion, people should be free to live wherever they want to without meddling or badgering by governments and self-appointed "urban planners".
The New Urbanism only works in areas that are truly affluent like Seaside, Florida. It fails in other areas because liberals are incapable of dealing with crime.
cicero| 9.22.11 @ 12:34PM
Being from Detroit, and still living and practicing law in the tri-county (Wayne,Oakland,Macomb) area, I have seen the transition of the mettro area. In the 60s and 70, the hew and cry was that you culdn't abandone the central city. Then, everybody began to ask, "Why not?". As a result, as the city began to collapse, as usual, as a result of spectacularly bad governance, the workers and earners left. They moved to those horrible suburbs, where the schools were better; the streets werer safer; and there were actually services in return for lower taxes.
The Metro area is composed of serveral suburban communities. When combined, they are actually a massive city of 4-5 million people. They offer evrything that used to be characterized by the major cities.
In fact, the area has developed several commercial, entertainment, and learning ceners. There is no needd to have everything in one placce. Even Detroit itself is developing psuedo-suburban aresl within its boundaries. Midtown is a good example. They have a major university, a huge medical center, and (for the first time in decades) a major chain grocery store (Whole Foods) moving in. Lafayette park is another example. There are others developing. How long it will take to redevelope the entire city is anyone's guess.
In the meanwhile, the "old city", that everyone wants to preserve is going vacant. (40 sq miles of vacant land.) The people who can are moving to the near suburbs. A city is not just a location. It is made up of people. For anyone to say that a city is better than the suburbs needs to check the new reality of things.
JP| 9.22.11 @ 12:34PM
The new upscale Urbanites have the cash and coin to indulge themselves in fantasies of urban gentility. And if these Urbanites went back in time to say 1903 to some "thriving urban community" they would be appalled at the stink, noise, philistinism, bigotry, and filth. In short, today's Urbanites would head for the 'burbs.
Le Cracquere| 9.22.11 @ 1:17PM
Not sure I see the point. Suburbanites who went back that far in time wouldn't find the 'burbs, period--they'd find rural farmsteads and hermit's cabins without power, water, or lines of communication. That doesn't make modern suburbanites deluded per se, so I'm not sure why it should modern urbanites.
JP| 9.22.11 @ 1:39PM
The point is quite simple. Today's Urbanites wish to re-create a world that never existed. Those who decry suburbia have no idea what life in large cities was actually like. If you want an idea of this foolishness read the writings of Rod Dreher. Suburbia came about because life in places like the Lower Eastside and Chicago's near Westside sucked.
And I think my irony went right over your head. Of course there was no suburbia in 1903.
Le Cracquere| 9.22.11 @ 2:02PM
I'm saying that for all sorts of reasons, living ANYWHERE in 1903 would probably have involved a lot of unpleasantness. You might as well say that today's rural Americans are frauds if they don't live like 19th-century homesteaders. If the irony went over my head, it was in the same way a wild pitch would (mixing metaphors FTW).
And when you say "[t]oday's Urbanites wish to re-create a world that never existed," you're parroting Leftist arguments against anyone who believes in Western civilization and attempts to act like its heir in any sense. "Oh, the Tea Party wishes to re-create a politics that never existed..." That's just as surface-level accurate as your statement, and just as logically trivial.
Seek| 9.22.11 @ 6:11PM
Actually, suburbia did exist in 1903. Read urban historian Sam Bass Warner's classic 1962 book, "Streetcar Suburbs," with reference to Boston.
CalMark| 9.22.11 @ 1:30PM
Exactly.
We middle class plebeians don't want a an urban war zone, and can't afford the wealthy zone. In my experience, there are two categories of big-time city lovers: those willing to spend half-a-million bucks (or $2500 a month in rent, take your pick) for a 400 square foot condo, and milliononaires, who usually have a second house...in the 'burbs. (Think buyers on HG's "Selling New York" --fun show, by the way.)
fsilber| 9.22.11 @ 3:30PM
City, suburb, town and farm each have their own inherent advantages and disadvantages.
My mother grew up in the Bronx in the 1930s and '40s, and it was fine. Public transportation that was good, safe and cheap. It had the best public schools in the nation, museums and other cultural attractions. There were plenty of playgrounds and parks for children. I'd have no problem raising my children in such an environment.
It's just that during the 1960s the young Leftists of the 1930s had finally risen to high positions in the academic and urban establishment, and the policies motivated by their ideologies made the cities hostile to the petit bourgoisie. In the suburbs, in contrast, we philistines still had some rights. It was like in the 1930s when a few Jews did well to flee Berlin for Shanghai; it wasn't that Shanghai was inherently a better place, it was just a matter of who was running things.
Imagine a city in which each neighborhood is served by multiple nearby public schools -- so that in each neighborhood there was at least one which allowed only children who behaved well and studied hard. Imagine that state law required that police respect the city dwellers' right to bear arms and their right to shoot down muggers, burglars, rapist abductors -- and any vandal or purse-snatcher who threatened violence upon having his dastardly activities interrupted. Imagine a police force in which corrupt cops worked with organize crime to ensure that the bodies of sloppy hit men responsible for the deaths of bystanders would be dropped off in front of police stations before racketeers could again do business. Imagine a city in which rent control had not made the city unaffordable for anyone who had not already been living there for twenty-five years.
I would _love_ to live in such a city.
Of course, given what the cities have been like since the late 1960s, I'd commute in a 50mpg two-seater if that's what it took to live in suburbia.
Ken Royall| 9.22.11 @ 6:50PM
One thing that is pretty inherent to urban areas is another layer of liberal government (and taxes) is added on to the crime, lousy schools, dirt, noise, crummy city services, lack of good parking, and decaying infrastructure. Other than that they are great! :) I would die fighting before I would allow some libs to horde us into the big cities. It is all about control folks, that is what the left craves. Cities allow them to do that.
Todd Powers| 9.25.11 @ 4:50PM
That's why, in Soviet Bloc countries, they had apartment buildings. That's why African Marxist tried to stuff nomadic tribesmen into apartments as well: to keep an eye on everybody.
SF_Exile| 9.22.11 @ 7:48PM
At present I live on the far western end of San Francisco known as the Outer Sunset District. For much of its existence it was considered a wasteland of dunes, jackrabbits and fog. Even up to the 1930s houses were sparse and there was little in terms of services. In fact the Market Street Railway Co., at one time one of the many private streetcar lines in San Francisco, literally dumped their older and unneeded streetcars in the dunes along the beach.
Now, this side of the city has a very suburban feel. It's block after block of connected row houses built over rolling sand dunes. It's a perfect grid of numbered avenues practically right down to the water's edge. Most the homes are a standard size and floor plan - built right before, during and after WWII. Each block was pre-planned, with prospective buyers choosing from a dozen varying floor plans within a specific square footage framework. It's considered by many to be one of the lesser desirable neighborhoods to live in due to this cookie-cutter uniformity as well as the ever-present fog that permeates everything. It's gritty, it's beach shabby and it's a real rarity to see a taxicab venture out there. In my particular neighborhood there are a few restaurants, a couple of stores within walking distance, but not much else, really. While I get weary of the fog, I rather like the fact that we're forgotten by the rest of the city. But there are perks - I get to bike and run along the beach, I have a small back yard/patio where I can putter with my roses and hang out with hummingbirds and butterflies and I can step out my door, hop on the streetcar and be downtown in 30 minutes. When I leave downtown I feel as if I've left the city. I can hear the surf at night and even stargaze when it's clear. And on those rare days when I can see the sunset, it's spectacular.
Todd Powers| 9.25.11 @ 4:55PM
I visited my aunt in San Francisco in July of 1981. She lived on Page Street in 'the Haight'. That place was wild.
Mark MacDonald| 9.22.11 @ 9:54PM
My soon and his new wife recently made the decision to move to the suburbs and I encouraged them to do so. They want to raise children and their main concerns are safety and education. They were also able to buy a new, larger and more energy efficient house at a much lower price than what they would have paid for in the city. Even in a city as small as Tulsa, childless 'hipsters' are driving up real estate prices and ignoring the quality of education. These people are the ultimate parasites. They consume and consume and by choosing not to have children, they provide little to nothing for the future. Of course, they expect the federal government to provide for them in their old age and many of them are incensed that their Chosen One has even had the gall to suggest any changes in entitlements. Go figure.
POST American| 9.23.11 @ 12:00AM
--'90's Show' SAP OP --ALERT!--
Meanwhile, we're getting far down
that Globalist integration timeline.
With those sleeper cancer and leukemia
viruses starting to kick in from those
50's-60's POLIO vaccines ( from arch
EUGENIST Dr. Jonas Salk ) ---along
with 'Agenda 21' (ie Smart Future/ Planning/
Life) ---we are expecting suburbia to start
looking a little depopulated, a little untidy
---before we know it.
Petronius| 9.23.11 @ 8:59AM
Chris, you left one thing out. This year's party piece is swiping air conditioning units and selling the condensers to salvers. It only took the law until Labor Day to shut down the metal dealers abetting the thieves. But the burbs get theirs too with the catalytic converter choppers raiding the commuter lots on the interstates. Americans have two options no thanks to the Liberals who control the self serving legal establishment. Either accumulate enough wealth to make your property impregnable or don't own anything somebody would want to steal. With the Muslim population increasing here, I can't wait for the day when we witness a little street justice and a would be thief winds up in the ER at Barnes minus his right hand.
POST American| 9.24.11 @ 12:25AM
-----------------BOTTOMLESS LINE-------------------
----Globalist RED China TRAESON OP
------EUGENISTS in charge of meds and food
And ---------FUKISHIMA
-------------------FUKISHIMA
------------------------FUKISHIMA
falling across North America with the leaves.
Enjoy those radioactive fall colors kiddies!
-----OPRAH n' O'Reilly LOVE YOU!
L--O--L