I think you're completely correct. This is really a suburban issue more than anything else. Think about suburbs:
() Each part of your existence is cordoned off into unique zones. There is the work zone, the shopping zone, and the home zone.
() None of these 'zones' are close enough together to walk. So you get into your car (with tinted windows!) and drive from zone to zone.
() Your house has a big fence (it's a 'privacy fence').
() Your house is huge. So big that you have rooms dedicated to things like excercise and 'media'. You don't have to leave your house...ever! You can excercise at home. No need to go to the movies. That gourmet kitchen can feed 200...
() Look at your street. In suburbia the streets are curvy and twisting... why? Go stand out on your front sidewalk. Notice how when the street twists it looks like you only have a handful of neighbors? That's why...
() That subdivision has a name. I bet it's something ranch, or
something glades or some other name designed to make you think you're living far out in the country away from everything (a great post on the subject: http://denverinfill.com/blog/2006/09/guide-to-suburban-denve...)
Everything about suburban life is designed to isolate. You drive in your tinted car to the giant grocery store. You nod at the cashier, hurry back to your car and drive home. You park as close to the store as you can.
You'll find that folks in suburban areas are obsessed with security. That's what their being sold. 'Come live here and you'll be so isolated no one can ever do anything bad to you ever!!'. Of course the cynic in me takes a trip back to the 60's and hears 'Come live here and you'll be so isolated you'll never have to deal with those black people in the cit...ever!!'
So ya... living in that environment you're bound to be unhappy. I've done that. I've lived it. It sucked.
Contrast that with my current situation:
() Small house with a small fence.
() Nice front porch
() Streets on the city grid.
() Grocery store is a 5 minute walk away
() (lots of) Restaurants, shops, and parks are all within walking distance
() My wife and I own one car, but we almost never use it. Our bikes get us around quite nicely.
() We both take public transit daily.
It's amazing. When we're walking or riding the bus we are nearly constantly interacting with other human beings. Walking down the road we'll meet new folks and pet their dog. More than once we've invited folks inside for a drink... It's really a pleasant way to live. I'm sure that we're statistically slightly less safe (our house was broken into once, and cars are occasionally robbed on our street) but we're 100% more happy.
I've noticed that the kids in the neighborhood (and there are a LOT) are also much better adjusted and well socialized as well. When we lived in the suburbs it became comical. We had tons of trouble finding places to eat. We'd go to $30/plate restaurants that would still have kids running around like it was Chuck-E-Cheese. I really think that the lack of daily socialization breeds a child that is fundamentally self-interested.
Urban kids do much better. Sure we've had the occasional problem... but it's been far less frequent. It just seems like a more natural and overall better way to live.
Grew up in a suburb, cannot agree more. You'd have to beat me with a very large bat to get me to go back to that kind of lifestyle. It's not a way to live.
It doesn't have to be this way, though. Part of the urban conversation that happens in America is diluted by the polarizing notion that you either have the twisty, identical, soulless gigantic suburb, or the gardens of glass and steel that is high-rise condos. The people on either side see the opposing extreme as the alternative - but it needn't be so.
Walkable suburbs are entirely feasible - you don't need big concrete high-rises to be dense and transit-friendly.
I totally agree. As a matter of fact I live in a neighborhood that IS a suburb. It's one of the original 'streetcar suburbs' in Denver.
The big differences:
* houses align to the city grid (well a city grid, Denver actually has two.. it's complicated;) ). This is really important as the grid is far more friendly for pedestrian access.
* mixed use: There are integrated retail spots throughout the neighborhood. I don't have to leave the confines of my neighborhood to take care of almost anything
* Ready access to transit. I have a bus stop 2 bloycks away
* Proximity : I'm about 2 miles out of Downtown.
I still have a house (albeit much smaller than out in the burbs). I have two dogs. I have a yard. So in many ways I have the same trappings as those houses farther out, just less space.
Really when we talk abut 'suburbs' we're talking about 'exurbs' or extra urban areas.
That said, it can be very difficult to get this right. Here in Denver our old Airport gave way to a 'new urban' development called Stapleton. To me it's an absolute tragedy. The planners took 'walkable' to mean, quite literally, 'able to easily walked'. They forgot that you have to actually have things to walk TO. They built a neighborhood that sort of mashes up the two concepts. The houses are on the grid (for the most part), but the retail centers are highly zoned off. So they failed to actually integrate the retail into the neighborhood itself. They sit on the edges of the development. It has nice wide sidewalks and a really big park, but most people live at a pretty good distance.
So the results are mixed. You do get a lot of leisure walking going on. On a day like today (almost 80 degrees and sunny) you'll see a lot of folks out and about pushing strollers and the like. However, most people find themselves packing up the car when they want to eat or go to the grocery store.
Contrast that with my neighborhood where half the streets don't have sidewalks that go all the way through. Yet it's highly trafficked all day and well into the evening simply because we have lots of places worth walking to.
note: As you can tell, this is one of most favorite topics to absolutely geek out about:)
() Each part of your existence is cordoned off into unique zones. There is the work zone, the shopping zone, and the home zone.
() None of these 'zones' are close enough together to walk. So you get into your car (with tinted windows!) and drive from zone to zone.
() Your house has a big fence (it's a 'privacy fence').
() Your house is huge. So big that you have rooms dedicated to things like excercise and 'media'. You don't have to leave your house...ever! You can excercise at home. No need to go to the movies. That gourmet kitchen can feed 200...
() Look at your street. In suburbia the streets are curvy and twisting... why? Go stand out on your front sidewalk. Notice how when the street twists it looks like you only have a handful of neighbors? That's why...
() That subdivision has a name. I bet it's something ranch, or something glades or some other name designed to make you think you're living far out in the country away from everything (a great post on the subject: http://denverinfill.com/blog/2006/09/guide-to-suburban-denve...)
Everything about suburban life is designed to isolate. You drive in your tinted car to the giant grocery store. You nod at the cashier, hurry back to your car and drive home. You park as close to the store as you can.
You'll find that folks in suburban areas are obsessed with security. That's what their being sold. 'Come live here and you'll be so isolated no one can ever do anything bad to you ever!!'. Of course the cynic in me takes a trip back to the 60's and hears 'Come live here and you'll be so isolated you'll never have to deal with those black people in the cit...ever!!'
So ya... living in that environment you're bound to be unhappy. I've done that. I've lived it. It sucked.
Contrast that with my current situation:
() Small house with a small fence.
() Nice front porch
() Streets on the city grid.
() Grocery store is a 5 minute walk away
() (lots of) Restaurants, shops, and parks are all within walking distance
() My wife and I own one car, but we almost never use it. Our bikes get us around quite nicely.
() We both take public transit daily.
It's amazing. When we're walking or riding the bus we are nearly constantly interacting with other human beings. Walking down the road we'll meet new folks and pet their dog. More than once we've invited folks inside for a drink... It's really a pleasant way to live. I'm sure that we're statistically slightly less safe (our house was broken into once, and cars are occasionally robbed on our street) but we're 100% more happy.
I've noticed that the kids in the neighborhood (and there are a LOT) are also much better adjusted and well socialized as well. When we lived in the suburbs it became comical. We had tons of trouble finding places to eat. We'd go to $30/plate restaurants that would still have kids running around like it was Chuck-E-Cheese. I really think that the lack of daily socialization breeds a child that is fundamentally self-interested.
Urban kids do much better. Sure we've had the occasional problem... but it's been far less frequent. It just seems like a more natural and overall better way to live.