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We live on five acres at the end of the road in the Sierra foothills. The property is folded between a 300 acre cattle ranch in front of us and a vineyard behind. As I write this, the storm clouds are rolling in from the Valley below and the deer in the yard are looking for a place to bed down out of the wind. We are on a hill-top so I can see 100 miles to the mountains just above
Yosemite, but I can't see any mass transit from here.
Live east of Phoenix (as the crow flies some 50+miles). A little over an acre. Home when completed will be a little over 4000 sq ft. At the base of a Mountain (Superstition). Surrounded by large Sahuaro cactus. I drive some 40 miles each way to my office. But, when home, there is no traffic noise of any kind. No city lights to interfere with our view of the stars. No noise from neighbors.
Utopia!
You really had me until you mentioned your 80-mile roundtrip commute. How about telecommuting?
Live in a huge log cabin home on 5 1/2 acres in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in southeastern Ohio, about half way up the mountain, live in the smallest county in Ohio, with a population of just a little over 14,000, there are more horses and cattle up here than there are people, and I'm so far up in here I get Monday's newspaper on Tuesday, but I wouldn't trade it for anything, moved up here from Metropolitan Washington, DC to get away from all the noise, polluted air, and traffic.
I'm not quite sure how to categorize where I am. I said small town, but I think I'm a mix of suburban/on the fringes of small town. 17,000 people, but spread out over 40+ sq miles. We've got farms, mansions, only 3 stoplights, no grocery stores, but close to the extreme density that is Northern NJ.
Put it this way - for northern NJ it's small town, for just about anywhere else it would be considered suburban.
You just described "exurban" pretty well actually. I was actually going to include an "exurb" category, but I didn't think many non-urban planning nuts like myself would know the difference between an exurb and a suburb. Exurban is like the outermost fringe of a suburban area. A good example you might be familiar with would be Monroe County, PA (Stroudsburg/Mt. Pocono) being an exurb of New York City/North Jersey. An exurb still has a lot of developable land available whereas most suburbs are beginning to "fill up." Exurbs tend to have larger homes with larger lots sizes whereas most suburbs have relatively-large homes on smaller lots (McMansions if you will). Exurbs overall, in my humble opinion, will become obsolete in the coming years unless gas prices stop increasing or mass transit options are developed to link these areas to the city cores or at least to the suburbs so exurbanites can drive into the suburbs and then hop a train the rest of the way into the city. I shudder to think about how much all of those Stroudsburg-NYC commuters spend weekly on gas to fill their SUVs! I complain now about gas prices, and my commutes to school are only about 15 minutes and my commutes to work are only about 20 minutes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormcrow73
Definitely suburban here. You should have included an Exurb category, lots of people making that type of decision these days.
In hindsight more people might know the difference between "exurb" and "suburb" than I thought, and I am regretting not adding it as an option. As I said earlier though I think exurbs will wane in popularity unless something is done to either mitigate soaring gas prices or to encourage more mass transit options.
There are those who will do whatever it takes to live in their "special place"
I posted an article in the Arizona area about 42,000+ who commute, daily, from Tucson area to the Phoenix area for work. The article highlighted a man who drove 135 miles, each way, every day.
There are those who will do whatever it takes to live in their "special place"
I posted an article in the Arizona area about 42,000+ who commute, daily, from Tucson area to the Phoenix area for work. The article highlighted a man who drove 135 miles, each way, every day.
There are folks here who commute daily from Tobyhanna, PA to New York City for a distance each way of 97 miles or about two hours. Round-trip that is 194 miles and four hours (or more considering congestion, accidents, etc.) How people can put their children through such hell of never seeing their parents is beyond me, but even as I type this people are starting to move further from NYC! I'll live to see the day when folks ride a train daily from Scranton, PA (241 miles and 4.5 hours round-trip) to NYC! It's amazing what great lengths folks will go to in order to find affordable housing, safe streets, good schools, etc. Ideally Northeastern Pennsylvania could attract positions other than forklift operators, telemarketers, and plasma donors, but until that time we're going to continue to develop into a bedroom community of New York City.
I'm living in the sprawling suburbia of Orange County in Mission Viejo. Its got 100,000 people so it isn't small town living though. Good safe place to raise kids and have a family.
Papillion, Nebraska: It was a small town, but the Omaha metro area grew to it over the years, so now folks not familiar with it say its a suburb. Those in the town or that know the history still generally say small town.
I live off of the St Johns River on a beautiful piece of property with a pond and citrus trees. We can't really see our neighbors....which is wonderful . We also can't see the Comcast truck or Pizza delivery . It's a fair enough swap. The 40 min commute to work is fine also. It's my personal quiet time.
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I complain now about gas prices, and my commutes to school are only about 15 minutes and my commutes to work are only about 20 minutes. 
. It's a fair enough swap. The 40 min commute to work is fine also. It's my personal quiet time.
