Suburbs are dying....Urban living is growing (Jacksonville, Miami: fit in, 2013)

[DoctorRain]

Originally Posted by KerryB

I tend to agree. You'll always have the types that enjoy that sort of suburban living. Although I do also think that the urban movement will make significant strides in the next few years. Thats mostly because its been so one-sided for so long, things have been way outta whack (too much suburbs while downtowns crumble). They both have their place in any decent sized city.



Thats about as dumb a statement as his, so congrats to you both.

BTW, I know all kinds of people who's cars get broken into in the 'burbs (including mine). And these are considered really safe areas.

And to his comment, its true that not all suburban people are "boring". The problem is you'll never know because its so much harder to get involved in suburban communities & to even meet people in these types of car-centric surroundings. Its not like Im gonna meet these people on the highway while driving or spark up any meaningful conversations at Target.

Yea whatever.. anyways yes she made a dumb response as well and probably dumber than mine. I will admit maybe what I said was overboard, however what you said was right.
There may be cool people in the suburbs, but you will just never ever know who exists. That should have been what I said in reality because on the surface, all I see is boringness from people and style of homes. There may be someone cool, I WILL JUST NEVER KNOW! People might also be afraid to express their beliefs by throwing stickers on their cars too. Again, another person I could know better but didnt get to because they didn't throw that extra sticker on their car or because people only sleep there and live somewhere else most of the day. Damn shame our world is like this.

[fsquid]

don't all of us that are employees live somewhere else most of the day? That was the same when I lived in the urban core of Memphis and charlotte.

[stevep]

I think it's hard to compare Jacksonville with other cities. I'm not sure if you call the beaches, intracoastal and southside area suburbs, but if you do, it totally blows away the suburbs from other cities and there's no comparison. The bigger city suburbs were originally farmland with nothing around them and they're basically neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood. Here, you have the beach, the intracoastal, boating, fishing, restaurants, etc. all within a couple of miles from you home.

[fsquid]

I think when people talk about "suburbs" they are talking about the poorly planned developments from 1980 to now.

[Robyn55]

Overall - there aren't a whole lot of people here who live in a truly urban environment - like downtown. And our downtown is really dumpy compared to major urban environments like Manhattan or central London or Tokyo (the last being almost 100% urban until you leave the metro area). Even Springfield is a suburb - albeit an early one. But - since it's almost all single family houses - I don't think of it as an urban environment. It is to JAX what parts of the Bronx (with single family houses) are to Manhattan. Robyn

[fsu813]

Few places compare to Manhattan, London, and Tokyo.

[KerryB]

Comparing Jax to Manhattan is being way too extreme. I'm not taking up for Jax though. For the population size, it's urbanism is pretty pisspoor. I've been around enough to know that there are plenty of similar & smaller sized cities that beat the crap out of it in this regard. It's just so bloated that it's gonna take a while to reel that back in.

However, I do like the push towards it here & think it'll get there eventually. It's a more slow going process than I'd like though & sometimes seems like I'm in bizarro world. Take Springfield for instance. It baffles me that locals don't know what they have with this place & that it's taking mostly transplants from other cities to build it back up.

If it were up north or out west, it would have been turned out quicker than you could have blinked.

[Robyn55]

Transplants from places other than Florida - especially from up north - are more likely to be attracted to places that look like the places they came from. And are less likely to be on top of local housing issues ranging from termites to windstorm insurance. FWIW - this is true everywhere in the metro area - not only Springfield - which is why we wound up having to build our house with a 7/12 roof pitch (instead of the 5/12 or 6/12 that we wanted). And why our neighborhood is loaded with Sycamore trees - which look like garbage by the end of August. And why people in our neighborhood are more interested in double pane glass to save on heating bills during our short winters than energy efficient house features that will reduce A/C consumption during our long summers.

I know there are some people who really get a kick out of rehabbing old houses for themselves. Not my cup of tea - but good for them if it's their cup of tea. They are few and far between IMO. I think a lot of people who have bought houses that were updated by speculators in recent years will probably not be happy in the long run with the quality of the renovations (I've seen a lot of renovations - both completed and in progress - doing things like RAP tours). Note that I also think there's an awful lot of non-quality newer construction as well. "Protect yourself at all times" is a silly slogan that comes to mind when I think about Florida construction/renovation in general. Robyn

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by fsu813

Few places compare to Manhattan, London, and Tokyo.

Agreed. And Tokyo is my favorite of the three . Robyn

[fsu813]

Architects say goodbye to suburban McMansions, and say hello to the more historic, electic styles that grace Jacksonville's urban core:

"I think there's this sense of what a home looks like," he said. "Proportions will become closer to something that looks classically driven; the scale of homes will be more pleasing to the eye. There's been a lot of movement in the directions of neighborhoods that are more into the Avondale, Riverside, San Marco design."

&

Jacksonville's chief planner plans to focus on the urban core, rather than sprawling suburbs, following the nationwide trend:

"...That's what William 'Bill' Killingsworth, director of the city's Planning and Development Department, has said. He foresees a future in which aging areas of the city are redeveloped into new higher-density developments, ones close to shopping and public transit.
Baker said different parts of the country take different approaches to where to build. But trends seem to indicate one thing.

'There seems to be more interest in proximity to something else rather than splendid isolation,' he said."

from: In the future, houses will look more like a home | jacksonville.com



(how long will some people keep thier heads in the sand about this....?)