I'm with you. We live on the edge of a very large US city, and I've also lived in Germany and Canada. In the US, although I'd like to live closer to where I work (and I've lived in Philly, San Antonio, DC and Honolulu), now that I have a family I wouldn't dare. US inner cities are dangerous and the schools are terrible. When I lived in Canada and Germany the cities were livable because they have planned for co-existing commercial and residential purposes. As a kid I could go anywhere--other towns, museums, shows, etc. because there was a safe, efficient reasonable public transit system in place. I think lots of suburban families would choose to liver closer to where they work if they could be assured of a safe environment with decent schools. Who wants to spend 3 hours a day commuting to work? Believe me, it's much nicer to be able to get to work in 15 minutes and be so close to restaurants and shopping that you can walk, and even have a drink or two with dinner. Instead we are being stuck with this soul-less cookie cutter enviornment that is leaving us nothing to tie ourselves to, and look at what it's doing to the kids who are raised in these environments. I'm not sure that we really have much of a choice here. The big winners are the developers--the rest of us lose.
That's mostly the result of who lives in American central cities vs European and Canadian cities. Until recently (the Muslim problem), they have not had a welfare dependent underclass there. So the cities are nice and safe--at least they were ten years ago when I spent much time in Germany.
If you made the central cities in America nice (cute shops, urban malls, starbucks, loft housing etc), it would require moving the underclass out. Because if the underclass stays, all the cute little urban malls and renovation mean nothing. It will still be a dangerous place that the residents trash within a few years.
The underclass has to live somewhere. Where do we put them if the Starbucks class retakes the central city? I guess we send them to exurbs.
I've lived in a lot of places from Texas to Oregon. Occaisionally I've gone back to towns where I once lived and looked for the places I remembered. In towns where there was a lot of change few places from years past were recognizable. It's almost like those parts of my life never existed since no evidence remains.
There's a small town in Kansas, Council Grove, that remains much as it was in the 60's. As my father said, "This town must seem pretty boring to most people, but it's a good place to raise a family."
I agree. Back in the 60's, Waco, Texas had a thriving downtown. There was a J. C. Penney's, a Sears, several five and dime stores, four theaters, quite a few restaurants, some governmental buildings, and tons of specialty television, furniture and office shops. The bus system was very healthy. Several things happened. First, the Feds offered Waco a ton of money for "downtown revitalization." Part of it was used to close the main street, Austin Avenue, and make about six blocks of it a "walking mall." They tore up the streets for four or five years, during which time about 80% of the businesses went bankrupt. This was also when forced busing came to Waco. Downtown property prices went through the floor, and most of the buildings sat vacant for years.
Downtown Waco became a dangerous place. In the last few years it's come back some, and the area by the Brazos River has turned into a neat little combination shop and restaurant area. However, the reason is because the police started actually patrolling, and private companies started turning the old warehouses into lofts for Baylor students. It's a shame that the place had to die, originally. My uncle was one of the people who lost his business thanks to the "planned development." A house in Woodway, which is a satellite city of Waco, costs about $20,000 more than the same house in Waco, because of the school system and the low crime. Waco has started growing again, primarily because there are now quite a few private schools.
Downtown Austin, when I lived there, had the same problems at their parks, which are some of the most beautiful anywhere. Transients urinating in public and homosexuals using the bathroom meant it was not an environment people wanted to take their children to.
I agree. Walled communities with homes 2 feet apart and security at the gates and countless, redundant mega-merchandisers within 20 minutes driving on packed hiways...urban sprawl is a problem. Planning is the key, unfortunately, planning goes out the window when tax hungry city governments are put in charge of development.