Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In 3 jobs in 33 years, DH has never worked in downtown Denver. He's worked in Boulder (twice) Jefferson County and Adams County. I had a couple visiting nurse jobs that had offices downtown, but my territory was not in the city. I had to go to the office 1-2 X/month.
In 3 jobs in 33 years, DH has never worked in downtown Denver. He's worked in Boulder (twice) Jefferson County and Adams County. I had a couple visiting nurse jobs that had offices downtown, but my territory was not in the city. I had to go to the office 1-2 X/month.
My entire 8 years in Portland I worked downtown, about 5 of those 8 years I also went to college that was located downtown.
If you notice the traffic into downtown Denver each day, that should inform you that people do work in downtown Denver.
Did I say that? I know quite a few people who work downtown. The issue was that a PP was claiming that there are only service jobs in the burbs. DH works in telecommunications/ IT. I work in health care, which I guess you'd call service.
Did I say that? I know quite a few people who work downtown. The issue was that a PP was claiming that there are only service jobs in the burbs. DH works in telecommunications/ IT. I work in health care, which I guess you'd call service.
Sorry, it was what it sounded like you were implying and I wanted to make sure it wasn't.
Sorry, it was what it sounded like you were implying and I wanted to make sure it wasn't.
OK, I'm treading on thin ice here, but I have to speak up. If a person makes a statement, e.g. "my husband hasworked in the suburbs for 33 years at 3 jobs", it doesn't mean s/he is saying something else, e.g. "there are no people working downtown". A lot of the bickering on this forum would be avoided if people would keep that in mind.
OK, I'm treading on thin ice here, but I have to speak up. If a person makes a statement, e.g. "my husband hasworked in the suburbs for 33 years at 3 jobs", it doesn't mean s/he is saying something else, e.g. "there are no people working downtown". A lot of the bickering on this forum would be avoided if people would keep that in mind.
It's hard for me to pinpoint exactly when I became a city person, but I'll try.
I am, more or less, a second-generation suburbanite by birth. Both my parents grew up in Levittown, PA. My mother's family was from Philly, and she only moved there when she was five - spending a fair amount of time back in the city in her childhood. My father's father actually worked for Levitt building the houses themselves - he was a plumber, and after helping to build houses in Levittown, NY (where they initially lived until my dad was around five), he moved down to PA with his family to help build out that site.
My parents lived in various suburbs in Bucks County until I was three, when they moved to Connecticut. We spent around four years in a rather conventional mini-subdivision, and then moved to another town and another bigger house. My parents liked suburbs at that time, but they also liked old houses, so they were happy to get one from the 1930s with intact woodwork and the like. I lived there from second grade until the end of high school.
Once I became older (around ten) I started really disliking certain aspects of suburban life. First, we had a pretty big lot (half acre, although it was a long and narrow property) which meant I had a lot of snow shoveling, leaf raking, and lawn mowing to do. The mowing was the worst, due to the grass allergies I have. The other aspect was how residential my town was. The town was originally rural, and when it became denser in the 1950s, they purposefully set it up so that all non-residential development was along the outskirts of the town, and we lived in the middle. There was a convenience store around a 10-minute walk from our house, but there were no sidewalks, and the road had high speed limits for a residential street (at least 35 MPH IIRC), so it wasn't a fun walk. If I walked another 10 minutes, I could get to the library, but again, it wasn't a pleasant walk, so I seldom did so.
My mother decided I wasn't "mature enough" to drive when I was 16, so I didn't get the freedom of a car in my teenage years. I didn't actually learn how to drive until I was 19. So throughout high school I had to bum rides off of my friends to get places. Mostly I stayed cooped up in my house however. Given I did grow up outside of NYC, however, my friends and I used to go to shows in New York pretty frequently, taking Metro North back home again, which may have caused an early affection for New York City to form. By the end of high school, I was pretty sure that I wanted to ultimately end up in a city, but I didn't know where it would be.
I did not go to college in an urban area, but a small college town in Western Massachusetts. That said, in some ways, I got used to living in a non-autocentric environment. The campus was not ideally set up for walking, but I did walk, and quite a lot. Most freshmen gain ten pounds, I lost fifteen. My second and fourth years I had a car, but my permit was for a lot so remote from my dorm that it took around twenty minutes to walk there, so I never used the car unless I was visiting home or going to Boston to see a concert/hang out with friends. I got used to taking public buses as well (I initially had a weird fear of them, because I had never been on one and didn't know what to do). My junior year I spent abroad in England, where no one I knew drove, and my car collected dust at my mom's house.
I got a masters degree in the same place as I did my undergrad. The first year, I lived pretty far off campus, in a "garden apartment" complex. I had a car, but I didn't have a commuter permit for campus, so I used the bus to commute. I got sick of the commute, however. The summer between semesters, my car broke down, and I went carless for the second year, picking up bike riding at 23 for the first time since childhood and enjoying it immensely.
After graduation, I took a job in DC. Or rather, I took a job in suburban Maryland, but I was sure that I didn't want to live in Prince Georges county, so I lived in Capitol Hill and did a reverse commute. I had no need for my car besides for work, as I could do all of my grocery shopping either on a bike or the Red Line. I loved it. I think this was the point that city live was cinched for me, and I was set that wherever I lived, there needed to be transit access and good walkability. I've moved around a few times since, but I've broadly kept to similar neighborhoods.
It's true not all college towns are in urban settings.
The larger colleges that are high-ranked in California all seem to have urban features about them except Irvine being the only exception since Orange County is mostly new suburban development.
San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Davis, San Francisco, West Los Angeles, Berkeley, and Stanford all have high nice downtowns, bus systems, and great bike systems. Even Irvine has a good bike system.
With the exception of Santa Cruz, all the universities are at 20,000 enrollment or above. Santa Cruz has 17,000 enrollment.
You have your small and even more rural located universities in California. Sonoma State in Rohnert Park (north of San Fran) is in a suburban setting. Humboldt State is in a small town, in a rural area and is a small university.
You also have CSU Northridge in suburban San Fernando Valley of LA where I went for two semesters of college that has urban features all though it's a large college.
I'd rather live in one of the college towns mentioned than a city like Fresno, Sacramento, Stockton, or Bakersfield.
You have plenty of performing and fine arts in the college towns. You have your ethnic restaurants, natural food markets, locally owned shops, some night life, and other urban amenities I may be forgetting.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
