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My parents are boomers (and not), born in 1946 and 1948. They had kids on the late end of things (we are in our early to mid-30s. And also have moved a few times since we left the house. Now they live in a place that is smaller than the homes we grew up in. Switching to a single level home was important to them. They also moved away from the "hustle and bustle" of the city.
My mom's sister's (mostly boomers), all moved away from their "family" homes and downgraded in size, before it was known as a trend.
Some people are always ahead of the curve!
DH and I will probably be here until the kids move us to assisted living. We are a tad younger than your parents. Single level is nice. We do have a bedroom on the main floor of our house, right now is the guest room. Our yard isn't huge, but we can still have our garden. Our 'hood is not the most walkable, but we're still driving, and there is Call and Ride, plus the regular bus system. My dad drove until he went into the hospital for the last time at 82.
I'm going to predict that housing patterns will shift gradually towards more infill, ToD, new urbanism, and other urban developments, but will otherwise remain largely the way they have been since the end of WWII and the advent of sprawl. Unless oil prices suddenly shoot up, then the homebuilding economy and the modern American suburb as we know it will collapse entirely.
Hubby and I are Boomers, two children in their 20's. We followed in our parent's footsteps and always have lived close to public transportation, having both grown up in a railroad suburb near Chicago. We now live in an inner-ring Phoenix suburb. Ten years ago we decided to move, and did the opposite of what everyone else was doing, and moved closer in rather than farther out, to an infill subdivision that was already 10 years old. We chose the location carefully, based on three things: location, location, location.
Now, if I look out my stairway window, I can see city buses go by, along with the local urban shuttle bus which we can ride for .25 $. It is 181 steps to the N/S bus stop, two blocks to the route going E/W. I can see the library and senior center out my 2nd floor windows. It is a bit noisy at times, a combination of fire trucks [our dogs howl from the sirens] and ambulances. However, sometimes it is quiet and I can hear roosters and peacocks from the nearby city park. I hear church bells on Sundays from three churches within walking distance. And we hear other sounds too; the marching band practicing at the local community college, firecrackers going off on a Friday night in the fall after a football game win. Rarely do we see or hear a semi-truck, because they are only allowed on main city streets if they are making a delivery to a local grocery or big box store. We walk to the library, park, Post Office, Walgreens, Home Depot, the grocery, and restaurants.
We like a bit more noise -- it is a sign of life! We built a patio courtyard in the front, and I planted a garden in the front yard. We see neighbors go for walks and bike rides, and go back and forth to the dog park. We go for walks, and soon will be going for walks with a [grand] baby stroller. We have 3, soon to be 4 generations in our home, as I made a choice to take care of my mother. We are happy to have made the decision to move closer in. There are places like this in every city --- you have to go and find them (I confess ours was not hard to find -- it is right across the street from the main library and I watched it being constructed 20 years ago!!).
Houses go fast around here --- people of all ages are attracted to walkable neighborhoods close to transportation. What was old is new again.....
Just observing from my graduating class (Class of 2005, true "millennials") at a suburban high school, most kids, despite all the hype surrounding walkability, sustainability, density, and the like, choose the suburbs as a place to call home. They're so used to the car-oriented suburban lifestyle that they know no other way. And when children arrive (about a third of my classmates have children), it's not the move from hip-swank-brownstone-in-the-city-by-bars-and-izakaya to the suburbs, it's more likely suburban townhouse to outer suburban detached house.
To truly succeed, the cities will have to become child-friendly.
Just observing from my graduating class (Class of 2005, true "millennials") at a suburban high school, most kids, despite all the hype surrounding walkability, sustainability, density, and the like, choose the suburbs as a place to call home. They're so used to the car-oriented suburban lifestyle that they know no other way. And when children arrive (about a third of my classmates have children), it's not the move from hip-swank-brownstone-in-the-city-by-bars-and-izakaya to the suburbs, it's more likely suburban townhouse to outer suburban detached house.
To truly succeed, the cities will have to become child-friendly.
This is where you have it a little wrong. Cities aren't the only places that can be walkable/more dense etc.
I am at they grey land between Gen X/Millenials. In my class, the people who wanted to move to the city left the area completely. I was back for the first time in about 5 years or so (one of those people who moved really far away). Now, even though the area is pretty much completely suburban, sprawly, and car oriented, things are changing. There are sidewalks and crosswalks in areas that didn't have them before. There were people biking on the main highways, and they weren't wearing lycra or swimsuits. They were in normal clothing with panniers and the like looking practical.
We connected with my sister's former classmate, and she mentioned that in the past couple of years, biking has become really popular. In fact, on my uncles street we came across on a woman biking, for her first time in many years, She was in her 50s and just biked to the beach! (No one did that when I lived there, and only kids biked around their neighborhoods.)
One of the new top tier addresses is in a redeveloped air force base. It is designed to be walkable and bike friendly, with shops surrounded by condos, and single family homes a little further out. With parks and the like. It is a new version of "old style" small towns. And although it is still in the works, and is about 30% more expensive than the other housing in the area, it seems to be doing OK. The restaurants were busy, the parking lot was busy. But more importantly, we saw loads of people biking and walking from the nearby area. To top it off, when I went to the city data forum on the area, there was even a recent long thread about people moving into that development and enjoying it.
It was designed to be walk/bike friendly, yet still in the middle of the burbs. A tiny bit denser than the other places, but mostly just a typical mixed use/smart growth development.
Peoples preferences are changing. But many just want it in their current location. Few people move really far from home, but their preferences can change drastically along the way.
Just observing from my graduating class (Class of 2005, true "millennials") at a suburban high school, most kids, despite all the hype surrounding walkability, sustainability, density, and the like, choose the suburbs as a place to call home. They're so used to the car-oriented suburban lifestyle that they know no other way. And when children arrive (about a third of my classmates have children), it's not the move from hip-swank-brownstone-in-the-city-by-bars-and-izakaya to the suburbs, it's more likely suburban townhouse to outer suburban detached house.
To truly succeed, the cities will have to become child-friendly.
About the opposite of my graduating class, though of similar age. Many wanted to go to a big city for university, and post-college most wanted to move to a big city, that was usually walkable and dense. New York City was the most popular choice, since my suburban high school was in the NYC suburbs. Those who didn't go to, or finish, college were less likely to move to the city, but even then some moved to NYC. Of course, many will move back when they have children.
This is where you have it a little wrong. Cities aren't the only places that can be walkable/more dense etc.
As for Long Island, 20 something often moved to suburban downtowns if they stayed rather than move to NYC. At least if renting, once they bought a house, then they moved wherever was a good deal. But the interest in suburban downtowns was more to be where other young people and nightlife was rather than specifically urbanity. Here's an article on Long Island young people moving out of the burbs.
A former county executive thought urbanizing suburban downtowns helped encourage young people to stay:
Thomas R. Suozzi, in his unsuccessful campaign to reclaim his former position as Nassau County executive last year, held up Long Beach, Westbury and Rockville Centre as examples of municipalities that had succeeded in drawing young people with apartments, job-rich office buildings, restaurants and attractions, like Long Beach’s refurbished boardwalk. Unless downtowns become livelier, he said, the island’s “long-term sustainability” will be hurt because new businesses will not locate in places where they cannot attract young professionals.
and from a former Long Islander:
Meghan Bernhardt, a 29-year-old child psychotherapist, grew up in Roslyn on Long Island and now lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She did not like living in Roslyn because “everyone was Jewish and upper-middle class like me.” She not only savors Crown Heights’ polyglot character but also likes her ability to do so much without ever leaving the neighborhood, citing performing arts spaces like LaunchPad and restaurants like Mayfield.
Umm. Crown Heights is mostly working-class black. I doubt she interacts much with the locals nor has much in common. I'm thinking she's interacting with other whites just like her, young and upper-middle class. More gentiles than her hometown, except for the native Orthodox Jews, but those are probably the wrong type of Jews for her.
As for Long Island, 20 something often moved to suburban downtowns if they stayed rather than move to NYC. At least if renting, once they bought a house, then they moved wherever was a good deal. But the interest in suburban downtowns was more to be where other young people and nightlife was rather than specifically urbanity. Here's an article on Long Island young people moving out of the burbs.
A former county executive thought urbanizing suburban downtowns helped encourage young people to stay:
Thomas R. Suozzi, in his unsuccessful campaign to reclaim his former position as Nassau County executive last year, held up Long Beach, Westbury and Rockville Centre as examples of municipalities that had succeeded in drawing young people with apartments, job-rich office buildings, restaurants and attractions, like Long Beach’s refurbished boardwalk. Unless downtowns become livelier, he said, the island’s “long-term sustainability” will be hurt because new businesses will not locate in places where they cannot attract young professionals.
This makes perfect sense to me. Usually younger people want to be where the "Action" is. But it doesn't have to be the most exciting place in the universe....just a bit more exciting than where they are. Most suburbs are "urbanizing" in pockets.
No one will mistake Dublin for a city, but they did start to densify, and build more compactly right around the BART. The ranch homes and other traditional suburban neighborhoods stayed exactly the same. All of the growth was concentrated on the commercial corridors and in-between the strip malls.
Quote:
and from a former Long Islander:
Meghan Bernhardt, a 29-year-old child psychotherapist, grew up in Roslyn on Long Island and now lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She did not like living in Roslyn because “everyone was Jewish and upper-middle class like me.” She not only savors Crown Heights’ polyglot character but also likes her ability to do so much without ever leaving the neighborhood, citing performing arts spaces like LaunchPad and restaurants like Mayfield.
Umm. Crown Heights is mostly working-class black. I doubt she interacts much with the locals nor has much in common. I'm thinking she's interacting with other whites just like her, young and upper-middle class. More gentiles than her hometown, except for the native Orthodox Jews, but those are probably the wrong type of Jews for her.
I saw a lot of criticism in the "black press" about this article focusing exclusively on white people, like no one else existed (or matched this trend). It really felt like a story of white people returning to the burbs.
On an unrelated note, when my parents got married, my dad was evaluating job offers in San Jose, White Plains and DC. He chose San Jose.
This makes perfect sense to me. Usually younger people want to be where the "Action" is. But it doesn't have to be the most exciting place in the universe....just a bit more exciting than where they are. Most suburbs are "urbanizing" in pockets.
True, though most of these Long Island suburban downtowns don't feel all that different from where Long Islanders grew up. They're still much less urban than the city, and a lot of young people want a bit of a change. The urbanizing there is also rather limited, though that article focused on exceptions.
Quote:
I saw a lot of criticism in the "black press" about this article focusing exclusively on white people, like no one else existed (or matched this trend). It really felt like a story of white people returning to the burbs.
I'm not sure if that's a fair criticism, the article was focused on Lond Island, which is predominately white. What I was criticizing were the people who move to the city for "diversity" but probably aren't interacting with the diversity.
I'm not sure if that's a fair criticism, the article was focused on Lond Island, which is predominately white. What I was criticizing were the people who move to the city for "diversity" but probably aren't interacting with the diversity.
I might be getting it confused with another one that framed it as a trend, there has been a lot of coverage lately on the milenials and their living preferences. Who knows.
But you know it is pretty silly, the same thing happens in Oakland. Some people claim to move here for the diversity. And somehow manage not to find it at all. They go out of their way to find the least diverse places in the city. Much of the city is diverse, particularly in the commercial districts (housing can be a bit more segregated).
In about 70% of the commercial districts, people of all incomes and ethnicities go there. But somehow the media (and regular folks) manage to find those 5 non-diverse places. It is almost like they were looking for it or something. Half of the so-called "hipster" places are diverse. The farmers market certainly is as are those so called "yuppie" places too. I am always weirded out when I see those photos or articles and think, where exactly did they go, since it doesn't reflect my reality at all.
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Crown Heights is mostly working-class black. I doubt she interacts much with the locals nor has much in common. I'm thinking she's interacting with other whites just like her, young and upper-middle class. More gentiles than her hometown, except for the native Orthodox Jews, but those are probably the wrong type of Jews for her.
