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I agree....hence my question of besides the song being posted and referenced to in two of the posts here, how is this thread about "people" and not the "houses"? Even when the song was referred to...it was in relation to the housing styles being described in it.....not the people themselves.
Someone could very easily take a picture of the street I live on and make similar remarks....even worse is that they are all condos or townhomes built in an outside architectural style reminiscent of 1980's Berlin. Is that me being discriminated against? I don't feel it is. I suppose some of my neighbors could disagree but if any of them are from a protected class chances are they'd be more sensitive to that aspect of their lives being discussed by others.
Housing choices are made for a variety of reasons; a point you made earlier with which I definitely agree. I have yet to see anyone say "oh man the people who live in those houses must be XYZ..." If that were the tone of this thread I'd sound the alarm right beside you.
Don't confuse prejudice with discrimination.
Two different things.
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes#Reception
Reception
The profundity of the satire was attested to by a university professor quoted in 1964 in Time magazine as saying, "I've been lecturing my classes about middle-class conformity for a whole semester. Here's a song that says it all in 1½ minutes."[4]
The term "ticky-tacky" became a catchphrase during the 1960s, attesting to the song's popularity.[4] However, according to Christopher Hitchens, satirist Tom Lehrer described "Little Boxes" as "the most sanctimonious song ever written".[5]"
Well, Mr. Lehrer may have been over the top, but he was not in total error. It is far more about disparaging people than houses.
You hit the nail on the head here, and it's why we discarded the idea of a new build when we moved here. If I'm building a house I want to know everything about the builder, and I want to be onsite as much as possible to see what's going on. With all the other stuff involved in an interstate move with three young kids, that was the one thing we just couldn't manage. We also wanted land - and that wasn't gonna happen in our price range with a new build.
As far as these pictures - well, at one time just about every new development in the country probably looked these but time and tides do their work....google pictures of Levittown, NY in the 1950s and it will look like these....google current Levittown pictures and it won't look anything like this. On my street in NY all the houses at my end looked exactly alike inside and out....or they did in 1938 when they were built....in 2017, not so much. It's never been cost effective for builders to build completely different houses at the same time....and it's never looked good either. If you take a street where everyone builds their own house to the own specs, you'll see a street that doesn't really look very cohesive.
If you want an example of THAT, drive down Jenks Carpenter Rd where someone build 3 houses that are COMPLETELY different from each other. One looks like a mosque, the next is a traditional center hall and I can't even remember what the 3rd one is but they look ridiculous next to each other. Sorry.
Weren't post-WWII Levittown communities marvels of affordable housing, produced for GIs coming home?
They got the job done.
We worry about affordable housing, and we should, but then every requirement put on houses that produces no real living value runs costs up.
A few years ago, Cary passed a regulation gratuitously requiring more diverse elevations on houses. Someone has to pay for design, for production inefficiencies.
Weren't post-WWII Levittown communities marvels of affordable housing, produced for GIs coming home?
They got the job done.
We worry about affordable housing, and we should, but then every requirement put on houses that produces no real living value runs costs up.
A few years ago, Cary passed a regulation gratuitously requiring more diverse elevations on houses. Someone has to pay for design, for production inefficiencies.
Yes, and they didn't really stand the test of time - no basements, unfinished second floors, boilers in a closet in the kitchen...my parents lasted a couple years in Levittown, for many it was a stepping stone to the next house and those who stayed made the town a ragtag assortment of housing styles, with many houses added on to piecemeal and with zero permits acquired. It is not, currently, an attractive place. So that's kind of my point - what's the middle ground between "cookie cutter" and "was this neighborhood put together by people with blindfolds on"? I find the OP's quest interesting, but I am not going to judge people who live in these neighborhoods, most people whether they realize it or not, admit it or not, are attracted to a sense of order and housing is no exceptions. In 30 years west Cary will not look the way it does now. The OP should save his pictures, they might be historical at some point.
Weren't post-WWII Levittown communities marvels of affordable housing, produced for GIs coming home?
They got the job done.
We worry about affordable housing, and we should, but then every requirement put on houses that produces no real living value runs costs up.
A few years ago, Cary passed a regulation gratuitously requiring more diverse elevations on houses. Someone has to pay for design, for production inefficiencies.
Levittown was also very segregated and they would not sell to non-whites. Oh the irony.....
Yes, and they didn't really stand the test of time - no basements, unfinished second floors, boilers in a closet in the kitchen...my parents lasted a couple years in Levittown, for many it was a stepping stone to the next house and those who stayed made the town a ragtag assortment of housing styles, with many houses added on to piecemeal and with zero permits acquired. It is not, currently, an attractive place. So that's kind of my point - what's the middle ground between "cookie cutter" and "was this neighborhood put together by people with blindfolds on"? I find the OP's quest interesting, but I am not going to judge people who live in these neighborhoods, most people whether they realize it or not, admit it or not, are attracted to a sense of order and housing is no exceptions. In 30 years west Cary will not look the way it does now. The OP should save his pictures, they might be historical at some point.
Well.
That doesn't sound quite as "marvelous."
I worked in production building, mobiles and modular, for 20 years, and I can tell you that simplicity is a good path to quality. But, of course, that is dependent on good design.
Levittown was also very segregated and they would not sell to non-whites. Oh the irony.....
It is one of the whitest towns on Long Island, but it's also historically been a blue collar town. Long Island is pretty segregated though - as a whole I believe it has been called one of the most segregated suburbs in the country. But yes, the covenants for the area were not only no blacks, but no Jews either.
I used to hate the suburbs before I had kids. I was so anti suburbs that I moved to one before kids and felt out of place and wanted to move ITB. Well... fast forward to kids and the suburbs are perfect and safe for us. I can see the appeal now...although we are not in a cookie cutter neighborhood.
Mike, are you referring to me, for posting the lyrics to a song I was reminded of when talking about the sameness of housing? I posted it because of the prevalence of cookie cutter building, like the town I grew up in. I'm not ashamed of that, but I want more variety in our future neighborhood, more space. I don't think that's a bad thing. I didn't say I believed in every word of the song or poked fun at the people who live in these neighborhoods. Just because I posted something I was reminded of doesn't mean I'm prejudice.
Yes William J Levitt was a bigot who tried to prevent minorities from buying the houses in Levittown. No, this wasn't the case when I lived there as a child, and has changed even more since then.
I've seen some unexpected reactions in the time I've posted on this forum but I'm stunned and saddened that you seem to be insinuating this about me. I hope I'm wrong.
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