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For those of you who think you can have your job, your day care, your social activities, and everything else within walking distance, here's something to consider:
You get a very stilted view of the world, hanging out in your own yuppie/hipster neighborhood all the time. You think everyone has a job where they can work at home, goes out to eat at least four nights a week, etc, etc.
As far as your wife's plans, get back to us in 15 years.
Who said we eat out four times a week? We like to do a date night once a week, that is very important for a healthy relationship. Why such negativity towards having things you go to in your own neighborhood? The problem is most neighborhoods in this country isn't like that. Louisville, CO is a great example of a town that lacks having these things within walking distance. The town could have learned a lot by building itself around the idea that people walk.
Seeing my sister in law has no problem being a stay at home parent, and lots of parents choose to be stay at home parents rather than waste money on daycare so that someone else raises their children, I don't know why you think my wife can't also be a stay at home parent if she chooses to. Seems a bit odd to try to say it isn't possible. But I will be happy to get back to you in 15 years on this topic, I am sure you will want to know all about how we were able to afford having her be a stay at home parent.
Not all of us can afford to spend $15 (or 30RT) to be driven around everyday. I don't get you super privileged people sometimes.
In SF, I lived by the Great Highway in the Outer Sunset, and worked in the Civic Center area.
The N Judah, depending on its mood, would get me downtown anywhere from 30min to 1 1/2 hours. I always had to plan on the latter to be on the safe side, which resulted in me usually being super early for work and exhausted from having to lose sleep to account for Muni's unpredictable dysfunction.
And invariably late for social things because I can't always buffer in an extra hour for everything.
Great Highway is as remote as you can get. On a bad day my commute is 20 minutes. I can walk the almost 3 miles to work in about 50 minutes. I think that the outer Avenues are a great place to live if you surf, but a terrible place for everyone else. You'd be better off, in terms of travel time, near BART in the East Bay, Daly City, or South San Francisco.
Great Highway is as remote as you can get. On a bad day my commute is 20 minutes. I can walk the almost 3 miles to work in about 50 minutes. I think that the outer Avenues are a great place to live if you surf, but a terrible place for everyone else. You'd be better off, in terms of travel time, near BART in the East Bay, Daly City, or South San Francisco.
It took me 35 minutes for the N Judah terminus to downtown, though that was late at night with no traffic interference. Neat area to walk to. I liked hearing the waves and ocean noises as I got closer to the beach (went for a night walk from about 9th street in the Inner Sunset to the Pacific Ocean).
The other side of this is that when you live in a rural area, everything is farther away so you still waste time (and gas) driving everywhere. We live in a semi-rural area and you need to drive to get everything. Grocery store: 20 min. preschool: 15-20 min., mall: 30 min. places of employment: 30 min to 1:30 hours commute.
So, no, I don't think you save time living in a rural area. You don't have traffic, but have to plan on driving at least 10-20 miles on rural 2 lane roads to get to a Walmart or Target, to the grocery store, to go to the movies, and so on.
How true that is. A friend of mine who grew up in the suburb and now live in rural area laments how it takes 10 minutes to get to a hot dog place, 20 to Starbucks, perhaps over an hour to a HS football game when they are on the road.
Having lived in a large urban area and now living in a small rural community, I've noticed a major distinction in the amount of time that was lost in just waiting in lines and commuting. I think this is something people seldom think about, or figure the cost associated with the time that's lost.
For example, I live 3 miles from work and it takes 5 to 7 minutes to get there and have no trouble finding a place to park. When I lived in the city, I lived 5 miles from work and it took me 1 1/2 hours by bus. I had to take a bus because there wasn't anywhere to park. That was 1 1/2 hours each way, or 3 hours a day.
This is only a small example of what I'm referring to.
I challenge you to keep track of your time spent waiting in lines or traffic for a day.
You could WALK 5 miles faster than 1.5 hours . . . I mean, daaammmn. That is one slow bus. I live two miles from my work, and walk two or three days a week.
It took me 35 minutes for the N Judah terminus to downtown, though that was late at night with no traffic interference. Neat area to walk to. I liked hearing the waves and ocean noises as I got closer to the beach (went for a night walk from about 9th street in the Inner Sunset to the Pacific Ocean).
Off hours that is accurate. During the commute there is always some drama on the n-Judah that delays the trains 20+ minutes. It is literally faster for me to take the commuter bus over the Bay Bridge from Oakland and walk to FiDi for up to even a mile than it is to take the n-Judah to the same location from the outer sunset/Richmond.
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