Do you think in the next 50 years people will abandon the suburbs and move back to the cities?
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Yes, I think people are already moving to the cities in droves. I read an article that talked about how today's young professionals are moving to the cities because they grew up watching Seinfeld and Friends on TV where you see the good side of the city. Before that, people knew the cities from shows like Cops lol! Just 1 reason of many. I moved to the city last year (DC) and love it. I'm moving to NYC next and have no car anymore. It's just great to be able to walk everywhere. It's healthier, better for your social life, and more convenient. Those are 3 things people are always going to be looking for. I think the move to the cities will improve the nation's health, lower crime, and increase happiness overall. However, with people leaving the suburbs, traffic will get better out there so I think it will level off at some point.
I'm not sure people are moving to the city in "droves". These articles make it sound like everyone is doing it. The 2010 census will tell something. In most cities, the schools have to get better before people will consider staying once their kids are school age.
I'm not sure people are moving to the city in "droves". These articles make it sound like everyone is doing it. The 2010 census will tell something. In most cities, the schools have to get better before people will consider staying once their kids are school age.
My personal experience was that city life was great in my mid 20s when I started making money and having disposable income, a social circle, and still single. Being able to walk to bars and restaurants, meet people, bring home women, it's really an ideal lifestyle at that age. To me it's a stage of life and not a stage that extends throughout adulthood.
Eventually I got married, and stopped caring about the "singles scene" and a lot of the walking to bars, etc. just became less relevant. That said, I still like nice meals and going out to shows and nightlife, but it serves a different purpose now. I became interested in gardening, and coming home to a quiet place. For me, a "downtown" type lifestyle was a bit outdated, but a big house 25 miles from the city was also not what I was looking for.
I then moved to a "city/suburban" type neighborhood with a smaller, historic single family home but still close to a lot of the "action," but not right on top of me, either. IMO it represents a very ideal "30s" type of lifestyle where you have a lot of the benefits of city life but a lot of the benefits of suburban life. Eventually you get tired of partying in the city and want something a little slower paced, but you still want amenities of being in the city. I think that's why the outlying city neighborhood and inner ring suburbs will really become more popular and the ones that aren't nice will become much nicer.
All that said, the trendy city neighborhoods I've lived in where quite expensive, and the "city/suburban" type neighborhoods are also quite expensive. This house another 10-15 miles away from LA would be half the price (and still be a safe, nice neighborhood). The only city neighborhoods that are really cheap are the ones that are in bad areas.
A quality urban house in a "semi-decent" neighborhood will be much more expensive than in an equivalent suburban neighborhood in a large majority of cities (IMO). People get around that by buying in "bad areas" at a discount. Sometimes that pays off, and sometimes it doesn't. You generally have to put up with a substandard lifestyle for quite some time before the neighborhood turns around, and sometimes they never do (especially in this kind of economy). But make no mistake about it, cities are more expensive than suburbs for a similar quality place. There are, however, a lot of bad places or places in bad neighborhoods to choose from in cities. The average quality of a place will be much lower in a city than a suburb.
Unfortunately, in many of our bigger cities, strong, powerful, controlling anti-development, neighborhood groups have literally taken over many cities, which adds to the high cost of housing in some of our inner cities. They all but dictate what gets built, what doesn't, height restrictions and all. How dare they look snobbishly down from their urban perches on suburbanites, when they've helped, inadvertently, to create surburbs, exurbia.
And the historical preservationists are no help either.
And they all know their property values will continue to stay high, if they continue to control all development in their cities, like San Francisco, Southern California coastal communities, Minneapolis, to name a few areas.
I think urban blight will sweep a lot of suburban towns.
People move from their suburb from the first sight of crime, and than a domino affect of pathetic wussies move away dropping real estate pricing, allowing poorer people following a life of crime to take over.
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People ask me where I live and when I say "Hackensack" they're surprised because they assume the stereotypes are true, which is that it's all black and Hispanic and poor and dirty and I'm the only white boy in town.
I mean yes, more than half the town is minorities, but 39% of it is white.
And even with it's 61% Minority rate, it's crime is still lower than national average, and my neighborhood is safe, and my neighbors are friendlier than any rich town I can imagine.
It's like more people rely on stereotypes than actually researching or touring a place.
I think urban blight will sweep a lot of suburban towns.
People move from their suburb from the first sight of crime, and than a domino affect of pathetic wussies move away dropping real estate pricing, allowing poorer people following a life of crime to take over.
~
People ask me where I live and when I say "Hackensack" they're surprised because they assume the stereotypes are true, which is that it's all black and Hispanic and poor and dirty and I'm the only white boy in town.
I mean yes, more than half the town is minorities, but 39% of it is white.
And even with it's 61% Minority rate, it's crime is still lower than national average, and my neighborhood is safe, and my neighbors are friendlier than any rich town I can imagine.
It's like more people rely on stereotypes than actually researching or touring of a place.
Something similar has happened to suburban Clayton County, outside of Atlanta. In the past 15 years it has gone from a very nice, quiet suburb to a notoriously crime-infested pariah.
Just one neighbor or two from hell, oh the power they can have to destroy any neighborhood, unless you take steps to stop them dead in their tracks through Neighborhood Watches and, if all else fails, using your imagination and creativity.
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