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The New Englanders on this site tend to be really sensitive, and visitors to New England on this site tend to only visit the quaint parts.
Very true. People visit parts of New England that are largely irrelevant to the majority of New England E
Area. Except Boston. And even then they're only going to a few spots.
I'd second New England. It's much more urban and diverse than given credit for. Southern New England is 11.5 Mol of the 14 Mil and is very different than northern NE.
It does have some significant value though, hence why the vast majority of developed around the world (including modern ones) are built the way they are. Having the option to not have to hop in your car and drive across town on the highway to get to those mid-afternoon meetings can have a huge impact on quality of life in a city.
That being said, users on this forum tend to have better understanding of the more technical aspects of urbanity compared to the general RL population. As in, exact knowledge regarding what makes or breaks a good urban/tourist environment.
Teaches you a lot about America, lol. I do agree with your assessment. There is only a small percentage of American cities that provide unique walk-able, urban, historic and architecturally significant qualities, and sadly those qualities aren't on many Americans radars.
My personal opinion, I have yet to see any appeal to a city like Charlotte, yet people keep moving there. I'm sure corporate relocation has something to do with it, but I would never even consider most US cities unless there was a once in a lifetime job opportunity.
I think Philadelphia certainly is underappreciated in real life for what it offers, people on here generally give it positive feedback. I think Pittsburgh falls into the same category for your mid-sized US cities.
And you post is fair. But at the same time I could never see myself living again in Brooklyn or New England again (Maybe metro Boston). I think greater NYC is not worth what it costs to live there and enjoy it. Philly is fun and interesting but would not want to live there or Pittsburgh.
I think many people that eschew super dense, walkable cities do so beacuse of the often poor infrastructure, weather, COL (A huge one) where you often get, shall we say "less than desirable" dwelling while paying premium prices. I know, I know, all the "cultural amenities" that you are getting in return. Well, to that I would say I can just visit higher cultural places and live in an affordable area which ticks off most of my personal boxes. This is why I've chosen to live in the sunbelt now and have zero regrets.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Call me an idealist and I am in no way saying some of the cities I am about to mention are even remotely the equivalent of the walkability or amenities of NYC, CHI or even SF, but some sunbelt cities I am familiar with have made nice gains in terms of urban walkability, etc over the past decade or two.
A few of these sunbelt cities include portions of Miami, Miami Beach, downtown San Diego, downtown LA and Santa Monica. One can walk to 90%+ of their daily needs and get by without a car (Uber more an option these days, anyways) in these areas. I’m certain there are more others will name. Some of these cities also have decent public transit options—trolley (rail/street car or bus called trolley), rail, golf cart taxis, water taxi, etc).
Walkability and warm weather is a win win for me. I walk an average of 5 miles/day and only drive 4K miles annually (though I worked from home until my recent retirement).
Last edited by elchevere; 02-27-2019 at 01:14 PM..
yeah, I think there's a lot of mean spirited hate from CDers who live in cities that are similar to Austin in size, or are Texans who hate the hype Austin gets, or cities that don't grow as fast. Ever notice, nobody really defends Austin here? I'm like the only one and I don't even live there. And Austinites have never claimed that their city is some urban oasis. They acknowledge the sprawl.
1. When you have kids, walkability isn't quite as important.
2. Weather and jobs. More jobs in the south and most prefer that weather.
3. I'm a huge fan of Pittsburgh
I have kids, and walkability is arguably more important. If I had to load the kids in the car to go to the playground, I’d do it less frequently. We walk to the supermarket, shops and restaurants. When they get old enough to go places on their own, I won’t have to drive them. When they’re in HS, I won’t have to buy them cars.
I TRULY think people on this forum underestimate how many Americans have an aversion to cold weather, though.
>>Most Americans? As long as they can drive their SUV's to Walmart, work, and Applebee's in a relatively brief amount of time they're happy campers.<<<
Elitist snob much? Why do you so dislike middle class Americans?
I have kids, and walkability is arguably more important. If I had to load the kids in the car to go to the playground, I’d do it less frequently. We walk to the supermarket, shops and restaurants. When they get old enough to go places on their own, I won’t have to drive them. When they’re in HS, I won’t have to buy them cars.
I TRULY think people on this forum underestimate how many Americans have an aversion to cold weather, though.
Everything about this is accurate.
It's the reason why on weekends, we spend much of our time in the urban, walkable parts of Orlando (downtown, Winter Park, Thornton Park, etc.)
Having to get in the car to drive everywhere is a nuisance on several fronts.
I have kids, and walkability is arguably more important. If I had to load the kids in the car to go to the playground, I’d do it less frequently. We walk to the supermarket, shops and restaurants. When they get old enough to go places on their own, I won’t have to drive them. When they’re in HS, I won’t have to buy them cars.
I TRULY think people on this forum underestimate how many Americans have an aversion to cold weather, though.
Good points. Sometimes I think of walkability as areas for 20 and thirty somethings to party and hang out, but obviously it's not all like that.
>>Most Americans? As long as they can drive their SUV's to Walmart, work, and Applebee's in a relatively brief amount of time they're happy campers.<<<
Elitist snob much? Why do you so dislike middle class Americans?
I'm an elite snob and proud of it. Thanks.
I'll continue to walk to my office back-and-forth while others gripe about how long their commutes into the city in their ecologically-unfriendly SUV's take from the exurbs and how expensive it is to park Downtown. I'll continue to be one of the few and the proud 300,000 in my city that is surrounded by 2,000,000+ suburbanites, which is why we have some of the nation's worst traffic congestion.
For the record by the metrics of this forum I'm not even a middle-class American, as I make ~$45,000/year. Most on here seem to make $100,000+ and consider themselves to be "middle-class", which, I suppose, makes me "working-class".
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