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Probably like the original railroad suburbs. Bars, restaurants, stores, all within walking distance. The only reason you need to drive is to get to your job. Maybe not even that if you work downtown.
Per past discussions, it's mostly bars that are the attraction.
You two were guys in California, but this was the way it was pretty much all over the East too unless you lived in a big city. A lot of kids in cities like Buffalo or Cleveland didn't get their permits/licenses until they were older, but for suburban kids, and especially kids from small towns and rural areas, girls as well as boys, it was truly a rite of passage. On your sixteenth birthday, your dad drove you to the county seat to get your permit, and even if you never had cracked a book in the last two years, you had that DMV "rules of the road" booklet memorized so you could pass your "permit test".
Of course, as a farm kid, I had been driving tractors and "field cars" since I was about 12.
Oh, yes indeedy! I couldn't wait for my 16th birthday, and then for my driver's test.
My mom was a farm girl too, learned to drive a Model A Ford when she was 16, so she could help on the farm. This was in 1937.
What's to be confused about? You've been on here a while. Surely you remember some of those many discussions about living within walking distance of a few bars as a major criteria for a place to live. Do a search.
What's to be confused about? You've been on here a while. Surely you remember some of those many discussions about living within walking distance of a few bars as a major criteria for a place to live. Do a search.
No, I don't. If bars are mentioned, they are usually part of a larger list, and are often grouped in with restaurants (e.g. "bars and restaurants") as places to eat and drink.
No, I don't. If bars are mentioned, they are usually part of a larger list, and are often grouped in with restaurants (e.g. "bars and restaurants") as places to eat and drink.
Yes, that's what I remember as well. And emphasis on the usually, I'm sure if one searched one could find some over the years that focused on bars, but that doesn't show it was the main focus. Grocery store discussions were more common from what I remember.
You two were guys in California, but this was the way it was pretty much all over the East too unless you lived in a big city. A lot of kids in cities like Buffalo or Cleveland didn't get their permits/licenses until they were older, but for suburban kids, and especially kids from small towns and rural areas, girls as well as boys, it was truly a rite of passage. On your sixteenth birthday, your dad drove you to the county seat to get your permit, and even if you never had cracked a book in the last two years, you had that DMV "rules of the road" booklet memorized so you could pass your "permit test".
Of course, as a farm kid, I had been driving tractors and "field cars" since I was about 12.
And as a percent of population more kids were living (and growing up) in similar places in 1960 then today. So I'd expect fewer teenaged drivers back then. Most of the anecdotes were in small towns or suburbs of western cities. I think EscortRider grew up in Missouri, not California.
Probably like the original railroad suburbs. Bars, restaurants, stores, all within walking distance. The only reason you need to drive is to get to your job. Maybe not even that if you work downtown.
I honestly think the "walkable suburb" thing isn't a millennial thing yet, at least not to a great degree. It's still mostly a Gen X thing. It's the sort of place that a certain sort of person aspires to live in once they leave the city. The "best of all worlds" - owning your own home, walking to the local business district, and feeling like you're connected to your neighbors. At least, that's the idealized version of it.
Probably like the original railroad suburbs. Bars, restaurants, stores, all within walking distance. The only reason you need to drive is to get to your job. Maybe not even that if you work downtown.
The problem with the concept of "walkable suburbs" is that in order for businesses to prosper by attracting walking customers, there has to be fairly high density. That means there has to be duplexes and/or mid-rise apartment buildings, and lots of mixed used buildings. It also assumes small, sole proprietor stores and other establishments, and that's really not our economy.
If you look at the street car suburbs that are predominantly single family homes, you'll find that most of the housing isn't really within easy walking distance to commercial strips along through streets. Maybe you could walk to a restaurant or bar but hiking twenty minutes from a supermarket with groceries in your arms and a child or two in tow is really not feasible. Of course, in earlier times, there were many more "corner stores" where people shopped, and they were satisfied with limited choices. Today, the only people who regularly shop at delis, bodegas, convenience stores etc for most of their groceries are poor people without cars and without enough money for bus or taxi fare because of the limited selection and high prices in these places.
IOW, the "walkable suburbs" where everything, possibly even your job, is within walking distance of your single family house is probably not very realistic.
What Linda_D describes seems to be a contradiction. To make a suburb more or less self sufficient implies urbanization of the suburb.
Unless, perhaps, a given suburb is marginally walkable. I'm thinking of some sort of focal point, such as a school or church. As for retail, about the only thing I can think of that might be viable is a convenience store.
BTW, I recall a discussion of the old streetcar suburbs in another thread. It was commented that the local retail was very limited; the idea was to take the streetcar into downtown for more variety.
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