How to lure people back to the urban core?

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Permalink Reply by Miss Maia on February 4, 2008 at 1:07pm

My commute to work is 50 miles one way and 50 miles back. I spend a ridiculous amount of money on gas per month and the mileage on my car is quite high (at this rate my car might breakdown before it's paid off). I don't live in suburbia, I live in a rural area. I would very much like to live closer to my workplace, but I just can't afford the the rent and the cost of living near my workplace is very high. I have considered working from home, but my current position and daily work duties do not allow this. What do those of us who want to be closer to the urban core do when the urban core we live and work nearest to is "trendy" and unaffordable?

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Permalink Reply by Chantal on February 5, 2008 at 10:01am

Right on, Maia. This is a struggle for any of us lacking Texas oil money, que no?

I feel that it's a complex problem whose solution would require multi-use urban planning, a shift here in the West from a land-development economy, and lowered expectations on the part of Americans, just to name a few factors. Imagine how hard it will be, though, to tell someone that they can have an apartment in the city or a house in the 'burbs. Most people would probably overvalue the house and undervalue the amenities of urban living. It's a tough sell.

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey V. on February 7, 2008 at 10:07am

There's a book - Reinventing Los Angeles, Nature and Community in the Global City
by Robert Gottlieb - that has some insight into the issues of the emerging urban environmentalism.

"Reinventing Los Angeles is a unique blend of personal narrative (Gottlieb himself participated in several of the grass roots actions described in the book) and historical and theoretical discussion. It provides a road map for a new environmentalism of everyday life, demonstrating the opportunities for renewal in a global city". - quote from The MIT Press

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Permalink Reply by Chantal on February 7, 2008 at 12:27pm

What a great reading recommendation! Thanks, Jeffrey.

Have you ever read Jane Jacob's classic: Death & Life of Great American Cities

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey V. on February 7, 2008 at 12:51pm

Yes, I remember coming across her book at a Minneapolis bookstore in my high school years. I've thought about something from the book often over the years (to paraphrase) - sidewalks are nothing by themselves, they need to be used.

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Permalink Reply by Afriendof B on February 7, 2008 at 6:17pm

From a radical ruralists perspective I hope we can figure this out. It makes me crazy to see the farms in my area being sold off for condo sites and subdivisions. If we are to have any hope of ever creating a sustainable local economy we must save some of this land close to the urban centers. Maybe if people valued rural land because they were truly connected to it and the products it produce for them they would be less likely to tolerate seeing it turned into housing developments.

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Permalink Reply by Kimberley on February 10, 2008 at 8:07pm

I live in the remote suburbs of Houston, Texas and what appeals to me has nothing whatsoever to do with a big house. There are fields where I live...water...pastures...green spaces. If I could buy a larger house in the city, I would still choose to remain where I am, even though I am in deep agony over what it means to the environment that I am consuming resources to get from where I live to where I work. I could not maintain my sanity without the green spaces I live in every day.

I also hear and appreciate what A Friendof B says about how our precious rural landscape is being eaten up by development...but I cannot help but feel the sting of "I am here and want to shut the door behind me." kind of sentiment there. I don't want to see any more of our natural landscape being consumed by hideous invasive development, but does that mean that if we are in the city, we are just stuck here?

I think luring people back into the city may require something that the current mindset, at least in Houston, is not ready to embrace, and that is the "rewilding" of urban landscape. If we return some of this back to nature, we will make the urban landscape a more livable place for everyone.

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Permalink Reply by Chantal on February 11, 2008 at 11:19am

Kimberley, this is a really thoughtful response and I've enjoyed reading it.

I struggle with the larger issues of individualism that's so entrenched in our American culture. Truly, placing a higher value on individual comfort than the long-term value of civil societies. Does this truly reflect our cultural values? Or have we simply built our cities in ways that don't allow both.?

For example, have you ever seen the amazing urban parks in Rome? So few of our American cities provide both the creative energy of dense sustainable urban cities AND the restorative beauty of green spaces.

Is there an urban planner on board here ;-)?

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Maron on May 8, 2008 at 9:28am

Thanks for starting this discussion, Chantal. I'll apologize in advance for the long post, but you touch on an area about which I've been doing a lot of thinking. I think that there are several reasons why someone would choose to move out of a city (or never move in) and any combination of them may be relevant to any person's choice:

- Cost of living
I live in SF where rents are high, homes are unaffordable, and gas is the close to most expensive in the country. We are about to lose rent control thanks to a new state proposition (vote No on 98, Yes on 99!) which will drive rents up. If move into one of the outlying suburbs, my rent will go down 25-50%, which more than covers my increased gas usage.

-Quality of schools
Sadly, with the advent of loft and condo housing, which often skirt the property taxes that fund schools, schools are struggling even more. Those with children, or who want to one day have children, do not trust the public schools in urban areas and can't afford private ones.

-Sense of safety
This covers a wider range of issues than just fear of crime or personal safety, though those may top the list. I'm talking about a more general sense of comfort. In the city, you feel like you put on a suit of armor every time you leave your house to protect you from things that drain you or threaten your well-being: a constant barrage of homeless people, many of whom are mentally ill or drug-addicted, who radiate suffering that can't be assuaged; drivers who seem to operate in a constant state of road rage; leering looks and propositions from strangers; really any number of unwanted, uninvited interactions with other people. A lot of people, myself included, yearn to take off that armor and never have to put it on again. Is it entitlement that makes us feel we deserve better?

-Pollution
My city is dirty. Dirty streets in neighborhoods where people were not indoctrinated with the same anti-littering propaganda as I was as a child. Noise...so much noise from construction and trucks and buses and people whose disenfranchisement expresses itself in an almost pathological need to shout and be heard, often in vulgarity. The night sky is orange from light pollution which prevents us from seeing stars and forces us to buy dark curtains in order to sleep. The air here, even though we are bordered by water on three sides, is often smoggy, exacerbating allergies and respiratory conditions. And while I have no scientific data to back this up, it seems to me that if you aren't breathing clean air, you aren't getting enough oxygen, and are therefore constantly running at a mild energy deficit. (I have asthma, so perhaps this is only true for people like me).

-Cities don't seem to offer equal attractions for different age groups
I'm not in my 20's anymore. I don't go to bars, prefer dinner parties to clubs, get tired of the glamtastic image and energy of the city. I don't want to live so much in the public life that is offered here, and it feels like that is the main reason for paying such ridiculous rent. So much of the cities attractions are commerce-based, too...maybe it's just me, but as I get older, I am less willing to buy experience (or drink it!) and more interested in creating it with my established social circles. I want to spend my money on things that will last...nesting items. And I can't even imagine growing old here. If I don't eventually find love and partner up, will I be a 60 yr old still living with roommates, as I do now at 35? I will never be able to afford to live alone here, as I'd like to.

-Yearning for real community
This could be a book unto itself, but I think it boils down to knowing and being known by the people in your immediate area. Being part of an established and trusted support network. Cities are defined by transience, so this is challenging. I can name a dozen communities of shared interest, but real support is more challenging to find or establish.

-Access to nature
I am moving into a stage of

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Maron on May 8, 2008 at 9:37am

Darn it, I went to correct a typo and lost the last bit of my post. Well perhaps that's the universe's way of telling me to shorten my wind.

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Permalink Reply by Chantal on May 13, 2008 at 9:27am

Hi Nicole,

Love your well-thought response! Thanks for sharing it.

Part of me wonders whether some of the fear of cities that I frequently hear is the result of targeted marketing by the American Homebuilders Association designed to lure people into participating in sprawl.

Have you ever read Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American...?

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Maron on May 14, 2008 at 9:42am

That's a good question, Chantal. And thank you for starting this terrific conversation. I haven't read that book but I'll check it out. I must admit that ever since I got my new laptop, my reading time has suffered and I often struggle with the dryness of books I know I *should* be reading. But my multi-media induced short attention span is an entirely different topic.

I agree that in general, our perceptions of realities and possibilities are unfortunately largely shaped by mass media and other propagandistic sources. Yet looking out my bedroom window (I live right on Mission Street in SF), several of the reasons why people flee from cities are illustrated in technicolor and surround sound pretty much all day and night. But how much of that discontent is due to the fact that the American Dream promises that I should not have to deal with any strife or negativity?

When we look at the suffering in other parts of the world -- and how much of it is due to US corporate forces aggressively protecting its political and economic interests -- we can't help but wonder at the ease at which we sink into denial. Because to admit that we as a nation carry responsibility for the oppression of other peoples is to admit that we condone it so ensure our access to what is still relatively cheap fuel, and our relatively safe and rich lifestyles.

The move to the suburbs is bound inextricably in entitlement; that we have a God-given right to live in safety and comfort is unquestioned and whatever we need to do, whether creating wars or turning a blind eye to slave child labor or steadfastly refusing to accept scientific and economic evidence that we are consuming so much more than our "fair" share of our planet's resources, we'll do it because we deserve to go home and be completely undisturbed by the world outside out front doors.

I struggle with this myself -- I mean, who *doesn't* want to turn off the outside world at the end of a long day? Safety is a primal need, and we can't deny it, but perhaps we can reframe it to accept standards of safety that are less detrimental? Must safety mean isolationism, whether as a nation or as a need for a 4000 sq.ft. home or an SUV? What do we *really* need to be safe and comfy?

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