Imagine You Live In The Suburbs. You Walk Outsi...
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The walkability of Trolley Square offers a small-town atmosphere coupled with a lifestyle of convenience that is unmatched by the suburbs. A series of village-style shops make it possible to do all your shopping in one place.
Bordering Rockford Park, the Highlands neighborhood is close enough to Trolley Square and Forty Acres to enjoy all of their social perks while delivering a family-centered atmosphere removed from the nightlife. Free-standing homes, each displaying a garden or lawn, abound down every tree-lined street. Families walk just a few blocks to Brew HaHa or Scrumptious for a delicious frozen yogurt. Kids play with their dogs in front of yards hedged with picket fences. You admire these scenes, wondering if Norman Rockwell drew his inspiration from a stroll on Seventeenth Street. .
That same sentiment is shared by millions of people living outside big cities all over the world today. In fact, experts estimate at least half of the population in the United States lives in the suburbs.
In the United States, the suburban population explosion occurred primarily after World War II. During the post-war economic expansion, many returning soldiers chose to start their post-war lives in suburbs.
If you have one, take a look at your pet cat or dog. These animals descended from wildcats and wolves, but today live pretty sedate lives, walking around your house and yard, waiting for you to deliver some kibbles to their bowl.
That is true. Even if you look at the Netherlands, cycling is about a third of the most frequent mode of transport, cars about 50% and public transport and walking the remainder. Where I live it is about 5%. So even if we double or triple that, we still have a long long way to go. The Netherlands were a predominately car dominated culture until they implemented a very strong policy of moving to cycling over several decades. It can be done.
Even in suburbs... I would love to see sidewalks installed along streets on the yards where there is easement. I know some homeowners would object but honestly, I feel kids should have a safe place to walk in the neighborhoods as having some additional living units added to homes will increase traffic (as well as the increased delivery vans and bots). I, personally wish to put an addition on my ground level to possibly house my inlaws as they become more infirm, even my son and his family if they need shelter prior... and in the future, my husband may have increased difficulty ascending the stairs-- we don't want to have to transition to assisted living/nursing home as the cost is impossible. A coworker told me that before he turns 70 (he is 59 now), he is divesting all his assets after this past year having to find a safe competent facility for his mother with Alzheimers and selling her home.
The city of tomorrow has many familiar streets and sights of the city of today - after all, it\\u2019s a remodel, not a rebuild. While other countries have the option of building new cities or neighborhoods beyond the edge of existing ones, the US already used up most land within commuting distance in the 20th century on low density suburbs. Most of us will live in places that already exist today, but with changes.
Ditmas Park:\"We actually left the Slope for Ditmas Park in order to have more space (growing family plus visiting step kids) yet still be on the subway. The pluses for us are that we have an excellent school that is close by and have found a great community of like-minded people. And it's still got amenities, though less than in the Slope. Classes never fill up, we don't wait in lines for karate or music, etc. There's a couple CSAs, a couple healthy markets, that sort of thing. We haven't moved to the suburbs, despite the less expensive housing, for various reasons. My husband can't commit to traveling on train timetable but really likes to be able to hop a subway any time between 6-9 to get home from his midtown office. We like to be able to walk to shops and activities, bars and restaurants, see friends at the farmer's market and museum openings, all those urban amenities. Another reason is that once you add the expense of the commuter train plus subway, the extra car you need because in the suburbs you are dependent on private wheels (if one breaks, you can't possibly be without wheels for a day or two), and most of all the extraordinarily high taxes, I'm not sure you actually save that much more. Yes, daycare may be less, but really it's only the first 5 years of your kids' life that have high daycare expenses. Also, if you are city folk, you'll want to hire extra babysitters to allow you to enjoy the amenities in the city even when you live in the suburbs, so you'll spend more on those too. And interestingly, my eldest (now 18 and in college) THANKED ME for raising her in the city. She said she had less need to get into trouble because there was so much to do and she had such freedom of movement being a city kid. From college she has reported about the other kids as being shockingly immature, making consistently poor decisions, being terrified of their sudden independence, and increased use of drugs/sex/alcohol. I believe her, since she has no reason to give me a line--she studies in Scotland, so it's not like I'll find out she's been lying. She just honestly can't believe how different her NY friends are from everyone else. And another thing is that she tells me she cannot imagine living anywhere else. Which means I'll be able to spend time with my grandkids down the line a plus to me! So it's a fair consideration, but one that needs to be balanced by lifestyle and long-term choices. For us, staying in the city is the right decision, and worth the short-term financial anxiety.\"
Franklin Ave:\"I lived in PS years ago, moved to Prospect Heights and Bay Ridge, and am now on Franklin Ave (sandwiched between Crown Heights and Prospect Heights). Of all the places I've lived, I LOVED PS and Prospect Heights (but probably because it's basically just really far North Slope, as far as I was concerned - still within walking distance of anything I wanted in the Slope). Naturally, we're priced out of both of those neighborhoods now that we're a family of four. Bay Ridge was fine, but it's SO spread out that it didn't feel quite so neighborhoody as PS does. There are pockets of Slope-ish people and shops and restaurants, but there are also very Jersey-Shoreish places - one of my husband's oft-heard BR rants is about a homophobic incident he saw on 3rd Ave at 73rd. Not saying all the people in the Ridge are like that, obviously, but there's more of that element there than I've ever seen in the Slope. All that said, there are crap people everywhere and you could probably just find your own group to hang out with there. My landlord at the time loves the area, and she's also happy with the schools there. (Our daughter was way too young to use it at the time.) We didn't love it, though, although the prices can't be beat. Helps if you have a car, too, as the R train is a simply brutal commute. Took me an hour to get from Bay Ridge Avenue to midtown, and that was during rush hour. My husband and works the swing shift, and it would often take him more than 2 hours to do the one-way trip - you get bogged down by the transfer at 59th Street. When we went through this last January, we also thought about Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Prospect-Lefferts Garden, and Ditmas Park. Didn't get very far with those 'hoods, but I imagine we'll be revisiting again soon.\"
Westchester:\"We moved to northern Westchester 6 months ago and have never looked back. I lived in the city for 20 years-- 4 in Manhattan and 16 in Park Slope, and even though I adored the Slope and miss my friends, the move was absolutely the right choice. We LOVE our house, the quiet and beauty are unparalleled, and best of all, you can actually DO ANYTHING YOU WANT WITH YOUR KIDS and never have to worry about epic crowds or major hassles. It has been a major adjustment-- driving everywhere, learning a new place, new people, etc., but we expected that. We have none of the anxiety of living in the city with kids and not knowing what we'll do for school-- around here, you just sign your kids up for whatever preschool you like and that's it, they're in. Public school is the same-- they're all outstanding, and your child is guaranteed a spot until college. For what it's worth, the mortgage on our 2700 square foot house on nearly an acre of land is barely higher than the mortgage on our 2 BR apartment! Yes, the taxes are much higher, but it's cheaper than private school any day.\"\"We love Westchester. It's got some great little towns that make it an easy transition from the conveniences of the city. Our first place was a rental in Mamroneck. We were at the Avalon Willow complex. The location is great for walking to downtown Mamaroneck and it's also walking distance to the train station. The walls are not sound proof but as long as you don't have a neighbor that plays base guitar you should be fine. We have now moved just across the border from Mamaroneck into New Rochelle and purchased a home. We are a short drive to Mamaroneck, Larchmont and Scarsdale - all of which have a great town centers.Commute is short for living outside the city. On the child care front - I am finding limited choices for under 18 months but there are options. I think nannies must be a bit more common.\"
\"We moved to Hopewell, NJ, this past summer. Hopewell is about 10 minutes from Princeton and is a town itself, albeit smaller than Princeton. We live in the Borough, which means in the town center, in walking distance to restaurants, shopping, the library, school, piano lessons, art classes, playgrounds, etc... We bought the house my husband grew up in from his mother because we love it and the whole family wanted it to stay in the family. We lived in Park Slopefor 12 years and loved it. Below is a list of my thoughts in response to your post. Like is much easier here. Grocery shopping, doctors, errands...it's all faster and easier. I don't mind driving, and I love that parking is not an issue, all the stores are accessible and I can get a ton done in one outing and then load stuff into the trunk, rather than schlepping around with lots of stuff in the city. I can get doctor's appointments in reasonable time-frames. A recent experience getting my daughter's hearing checked at the Princeton location of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was an easy morning exercise, especially compared to the all-day trek that I had to do to the Upper East Side for the same thing a few years ago with my older child. Getting to the city is easy and we've done it a bunch by train (express trains take under an hour during the week, weekend trains are about 75 mins. from Princeton direct into Penn Station). The drive is only 1 hr. 15 mins. Tons to do: New Hope, Lambertville, Princeton, Terhune's Orchard, Howell Living Farm, consignment and antique shopping - lots of events have kept us very busy all fall with our two daughters, ages 7 and 4. The school has a carnival in the beginning of the school year, the town has a Harvest Festival in October, there are regular events at the train station, a public space behind our home. At the holidays they had Reindeeer Lane, where kids got to go shop without their parents for gifts costing between $1 and $15 (mostly $1-$3) - super cute. Friends have visited, and every weekend has been full and happy for kids and adults alike. We've seen theater at McCarter in Princeton and the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope. Kids have more independence: because we have a yard and live in a small town, the kids get to play without constant oversight. In Brooklyn we were either in the apartment or out all together. I had to go to the park with them, of course. Here they can play alone outside in our yard, my daughter can walk home alone from her piano lesson, which is literally steps from our home, and she even is allowed to walk back to our house a couple blocks on her own sometimes. Next year we anticipate our older daughter will probably start walking to and from school with friends. The school is AMAZING. I've seen over 60 schools professionally, so I've got pretty high standards. I've worked in and seen a lot of beautiful NYC independent and boarding schools. Hopewell Elementary, where my daughter is now in 2nd grade, is a community school, intimate, warm, and friendly. The facility is spectacular. The library is huge. The classrooms have everything. Her teacher is beyond phenomenal. They have a computer lab and a climbing wall in the gym. The curriculum is thoughtful and student-centered. The kids had an introduction to coding last week. The school librarian is a parent and Princeton graduate. There is definitely more diversity than I expected, which I was pleasantly surprised by. The school does a ton of community service, so there is a purposeful acknowledgement that not everyone lives with privilege, and it's clear that not everyone at the school is super wealthy. There are people with plenty, but there are also more middle class and even some lower income families. I could go on... We've met, and in some cases reconnected with, some lovely, grounded parents, some of whom have come from NYC/Brooklyn to be here. We can host family & friends. We now finally have enough space to host guests for more than a day, comfortably. This has been fun for our kids and for us. My daughter's private Montessori preschool is excellent in terms of teachers and curriculum. That said, the parent body is largely very affluent so there's a bit of a divide between more showy parents and more understated families. I definitely miss my friends and knowing everyone on the streets. Moving comes with building a new community, and that's the hardest part for me. But I think that would happen anywhere. I've started to meet people, for sure, and my kids and part-time work keep my busy enough that I'm not wallowing and just living life and confident that relationships will continue to build and form over time.\" 59ce067264
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