Walkable

One constant comment I heard from my mom when she came to visit: "Wow! I love this. You can walk everywhere!"

I don't live downtown, but in what some people would refer to as an inner suburb. Boston is a small big city, so I would probably be within the city if it was any other big city. My whole youth, though, was spent living in the suburbs. The contrast between my life then and my life now boils down, to a large extent, to transportation.

In the suburbs, we drove everywhere. The only places we could walk to were school, a friend's house, and, if you were in for a hike, the pool. None of these three choices were easy-breezy walks, but they were doable. Now, in the city, I walk or ride mass transit everywhere. We own a car (leftover from our days in the suburbs), but we've never used it here. And I love how easy it is to get around. I walk to the library, the bank, the laundromat, the park, the grocery store, the post office, restaurants ... I can't think of anything I need that would require a car.

A good number of suburbanites stress the importance of owning a home, having their own backyard, and being near nature. City dwellers, in turn, seem keen on being close to amenities (walkability), always having something to do, and being part of a community. Interestingly, I've been reading about the history of suburbs and I've found that our fascination and ultimately desire for suburban living is partly based on the pastoral ideal and the competition of ownership. On one hand, suburbanites find more difficulty with being connected and being part of a community (a factor inhibited by cars and individual ownership). On the other, city dwellers tend to move out to the suburbs for better schools and more space.

I wonder how much of this issue could be solved by better planning. Planning often focuses on the city, but with the large majority of Americans living in suburbs, perhaps planning should be focused on these regions. If multi-use zoning was allowed or even (gasp) encouraged, suburbanites would be able to walk to more places. If suburbs had a plan before they sprouted, we could inhibit the sprawl of suburbs into exburbs, begin systems of mass transit, and base the community around a town center.

On the same token, better planning for cities could create more greenspace, providing a sort of community backyard, a sense of more living space, nature, and perhaps increasing the number of people moving into the city. The school system, well, that's another story.

Walk this way

What's your walk score?

Pacing

I could get used to this three-day work week thing. Why save it just for holidays? Let's make every day a jolliday.

Not only is having four days off, three on nice, but so is the pace. Everyone seems less rushed -- even the notoriously bad Boston drivers. I actually heard an "excuse me" out of a businessman's mouth when he hit me with his umbrella. Wouldn't it be lovely to capture this feeling of relaxed spirit and spread it throughout the year?

I wonder if the lower concentration of people in the city affects moods in a positive way. Certainly having open green space has a positive impact, and that could be related to space in general. Or it could be related to quality of air, the physical possibility of escape, and a variety of other things. I know I personally feel more comfortable and relaxed when I have a little more space in my environment than I actually need. I'm not talking about McMansions or even today's standard American house ... but sitting every other seat on the subway is much nicer than being crammed in like sardines. I've noticed I pay more attention to proxemics than most people I talk with, so perhaps this is just me.

I'm listening to Oscar Peterson play on YouTube. I'm not a big YouTube fan, but it's a classy little number.

The Nest of Arlington

I live outside of the Boston/Cambridge area in an inner suburb that realtors still consider "hot." The Boston Globe recently published an article toting this tidbit. It's not that surprising, considering its proximity to the city. Having recently moved here, I can say I'm relieved to be living here and not where we were before, now that I'm pregnant. This town is very family-friendly. But as much as that's a relief, it also concerns me. From what I can tell, as the town becomes more affluent, the typical results surface ... rich, white neighbors with moderate or conservative values. This certainly isn't Wellesley, but it's also not very us. And it's getting more expensive by the minute, in an already overpriced city and housing market. When the baby comes, we may have to move again. And it may be further out from the city. This is not the pattern I value, this sprawl. But as long as it takes my husband to finish his degree, we have to be near Boston, and with a child, that might mean further out. I keep dreaming, as I have for years, of going more rural, having my own organic veggie garden, raising our kids on nature and sunshine and friendly neighbors without any serious worries about money or having a traditional job. All of this preferably in a contemporary, sustainable small home in the middle of a beautiful wooded area but near enough to neighbors "just in case." And now that this baby is coming, I feel this dream even more strongly. I want this nest to be ideal, and ideal isn't a cramped, expensive attic-floor apartment near public transit.
I also have an overwhelming desire to find some secondhand furniture. How can we bring a baby home when we don't even own a couch? Silly I know, but that's how I've been thinking. And I've been researching places like Marlboro, Vermont; Madison, Wisconsin; Asheville, North Carolina; Fort Bragg, California; etc. like a madwoman. Especially mad since hubby has at least a year and a half left of school.