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Well, I'm living in Europe, where we live in apartments in buildings with 3 to 10 floors and consider our balconies gardens (some people have lawns on them, most have flowers, and my parents even hav a small pool!), so I always admired americans living in houses and having gardens and still lving in cities.. I always dreamt of having a hosue, being it however small, and a back yard, just some grass, big enough for a table and chairs. You americans have that, don't you? It must be great, isn't it? But I don't know, because on the other hand, in my city, Vienna, about 80% of the population lives in apartment buoldings, the rest in rowhouses, a very small number of people in the suburbs actually lives in detached or semi-detached houses. On one hand I miss a garden, and I miss jumpoing around, without neighbors complaining, buton te other it's vry convenient to live so close to each other, the air in Vienna is soooooooo much cleaner than all american cities I've been to, although we ave a metro population of about 2.5 million people. I live on the outskirts of Vienna, and still can walk to six supermarkets, two cinemas, a park, a major pedestrian shopping street, a museum and two high schools in less than ten minutes, I don't know how to drive a car, I just get out of the house, take the streetcar which has intervals of two minutes to the next metro stations, I basically am able to get to each point in a 2.5 million people metro area without a car in less than 50 minutes (of course only during the day, at night intervals are up to ten minutes). I lov all that, but I'd also love a back yard, it's justso nice to just open your back door, sit barefoot in the grass, have a drink at the fresh air.. It must be a great feeling to walk through a street with only detached homes, and actually living in one.. But on the other hand, it do not like driving for hours in a car through traffic jams, I detest shopping malls, segregated nighborhoods, and I don't really like that strict separation between residential and entertainment neighborhoods. I have a question, is it worth it? How great is having a back yard and living in a detached house? Would it be possible to live in small detached houses with back yards and still maintain an urban feeling, good public transport? Are there cties in the US where this really works? I heard Minneapolis is one, but I'm not sure.
Sorry for making this post so long, I just started writing and got te flow
In the US, you have the choice between the homes with larger yards and smaller homes with little or no yards. The smaller yards are closer in to the cities and typically have shorter or easier commutes. The larger yards are further out and have longer more difficult commutes. Portland, OR has a great public transportation system for a medium-sized city and there are still a good number of homes with decent sized yards.
It is worth it to me to have a yard that is just large enough for my daughter to play in, but still small enough that I can mow it in 20 minutes.
Your question seems a bit strange to me since when I visit friends in Europe they all live in cities (though not cities as large as Vienna) and all have yards. In fact I think my German friend has a larger backyard than I do here in the US.
Much of this country has been built around worship of the automobile though. Our street car lines were bought up and dismantled by the auto companies way back in the 40's and 50's.
Like you I prefer a mixed neighborhood and those are still available in some areas. Where I live I can walk to groceries, shopping, movies, etc within 20 minutes. I can take buses if I need to go further.
I would not choose to live in a neighborhood where I had to drive a car for everything but that is what many Americans seem to prefer. Most people I know will not consider walking even in my area like mine where it is very possible.
Well if you have never been to America, how do you know that we spend so much time in traffic jams? Also, what is wrong with malls, one stop shopping is very convenient. Also, my neighborhhod is diverse and a suburb of Orlando. My commute to work is under 30 minutes, with rarely any traffic jams. Not all Americans own a home and many do live in apartments in larger cities. But, yeah, I love my back yard. I have a butterfly garden, herb garden, patio with a grill and swing. Oh by the way, it takes me about 50 minutes to mow all the grass, which in Florida, you have to mow weekly April-October. This is the downside I guess to owning a big yard.
Well, Vienna (Wien) is a really gorgous city, more so than most other European cities. So while it seems odd to compare it others, you can indeed find that lifestyle here in the States in places like San Francisco, Boston, New York, Washington, Portland and many others.
And you can have all those other options you listed. There is no uniform model here.
I do sense a snide implication towards suburbia in your tone. You must remember that while the American population is growing very fast, yours in Austria is static or shrinking. Therefore our traditional cities, many much bigger than Vienna, cannot hold all these extra people. Thus, a lot more suburbia is inevitable.
Finally, Austria, lovely and prosperous it is, at least since 1945, is the size of one of our smaller states making comparisons rather absurd.
Hi!
At first thanks for all answers. Southern Belle, I never said that I've never been to America, I was three times, once to California and Nevada (Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Louis Obispo, Sacramento, San Francisco, Eureka), one time to New York and Chicago, and one time I was on a three week teacher exchange program in Alexandria, VA, a suburb of DC. And I never said that there is something wrong about malls, I just said that I don't like, I prefer the downtown atmosphere to similar looking shops under a glass roof. And for me 30 minutes is a long commute if you go by car. And moth, thank you for saying so many nice things about Vienna, but my problem is that although I like the amenities of living here I just don't the like the city in general. My problem is that I like mixed neighborhoods, walkable cities, public transportation, neighborhood stores etc. I don't like high density housing.I love american housing (although the thin walls scare me a bit) and especially yards or gardens. I just wish there was a way to get both in one city. I guess you really can't compare Austria with the US (Autria has about the population of New Jersey or North Carolina I think), but Vienna is actually growing very fast since 2000 aters years of stagnancy. In 2001 we had a population of 1,550,000 in 2007 it were 1,671,000 in the city proper, the metropolitan area has grown from about 2.2 to 2.5 million people (the first data is from the official homepage of vienna, I read the second one somewhere and I'm not sure if it is right). That's 120,000 people increase in six years in the city proper, no wonder they can't all live in detached houses and that the metro is getting more crowded each day
Luke - I think you need to come back and visit more cities. This is a huge country with so many varieties of living conditions. Like Europe we have many metro areas that boomed during the industrial revolution, pre-dating the automobile, and requiring compact living for the working classes near mass transit to get them to centralized work districts. You mentioned New York City - this is a classic example. High density, mixed, walkable, a huge variety of entertainment and dining options just out the door and no malls like you'd find in younger areas. Most of my NY friends haven't a car, nor a yard or garden. Yet there are loads of smaller cities with similar amenities and walkable, but also with affordable in-town homes. Look at cities similar or smaller than Vienna. In fact, some of our best gems are in the 200,000 person range.
I just wish there was a way to get both in one city
There is. Upper Northwest Washington, DC is built on an urban grid pattern, but is mostly lovely, large houses with ample backyards. You can feel like you are living in a forest, but walk to the Metro or to restaurants. 1920s suburbia.
Das Zukunft ist hier passiert.
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