Posted on 02/20/2006 5:19:12 AM PST by Clemenza
Half a century ago, millions of young white couples left America's central cities for greener places to build homes and rear families. Their move created booming commuter communities and a new way of life.
But that idealized picture has been transformed and the future of those pioneering suburbs is in jeopardy, according to a study issued yesterday by the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I live in what would be called a "first suburb" outside of Boston, and good public transit has led to gentrification. The people who lived here when it was a slum hate us, but we've kept the houses from falling apart and the tax base from melting away.
It's kind of weird to group old working class cities with old suburbs, but I guess they have similar social dynamics. There has been a lot of crossover as working-class people aspire to cape cod houses on 1/4 of an acre a little further out and professionals like me like multi-family houses on 1/10 of an acre very close to work.
I drove in to the office today. It took me 10 minutes.
Don't worry. Nobody is going to be building a subway in Montgomery or Mobile anytime soon.
If you folks want to sit in traffic burning gas and refilling your tank at $60 every two days, be my guest.
Go west, young man go west!
Did you settle on a place yet?
Until my recent unemployment, my commute took ten minutes. On foot. With stoplights.
Similar situation when I lived in a D.C. suburb and in Southern California.
Therefore said neighborhoods are either taken over by upwardly mobile immigrants, who knock the old houses down and build McMansions up to the property line, or they are rented out and subdivided. Texas, on the other hand, is a place where you can get a mansion for $300K and there are no zoning laws to worry about. I've never seen cheaper housing in my life.
Here it is very common for immigrants to buy a 3-4 bedroom house and pack several families into it. There goes the neighborhood...not because of race or ethnicity...but because the type of people who are willing to live like that devalue adjoining properties. If a professional suddenly has four families move into the house next door, he'll sell in a heartbeat and move.
As for Texas having inexpensive property, two key reasons: (1) the ability to sprawl the suburbs because there is plenty of available land to do it; and (2) many still remember how the market collapsed in the late 80s with the oil bust and the S&L scandal. Prior to that bust, there was actually a neighborhood in Dallas that had the most expensive residential property in the country...people were bragging that it cost more to live there than Beverly Hills.
I remember that farmhouse. I seem to remember it being fenced about 1982-1983 or so. Used to pass it on the way to Tent City, where I would buy my scouting gear.
Yes, the older generation who grew up in Irvington could look down on those whose parents stayed in Newark, and now neither of them can go home again. Irvington's probably worse off than Newark, at least Newark's corrupt politicians actually get things done on occasion.
Agreed on Section 8. I haven't had the pleasure of encountering that program up close and personal. Up here, the big backlash against gentrification has come in the last two years because speculators are buying up 2-family rentals to convert to condos, evicting working-class people who paid their rent with their own money. Before that, people didn't like their neighborhoods changing, but it wasn't happening because of eviction or speculation, just normal turnover where older people moved out and "Yuppies" moved in. We did bid up the price of houses when it came on the market but that is true in every town and city near Boston, something a lot of the complainers don't acknowledge.
Are you looking to buy in NJ?
First, I need to get a firm offer. The a-sholes I was dealing with retracted their offer, after four rounds of interviews, due to a corporate "restructuring."
Would you mind if I rented your couch in Yonkers for awhile?
Perhaps in Texas, but not necessarily so in the NYC Burbs. Take the City of Port Chester in Westchester County, for example. Twenty years ago, the main drag primarily consisted of boarded up store fronts. Now, nearly every store is leased and the downtown business district is happening with a decidedly Latin flair. My only regret is that many of the immigrants who are rebuilding Port Chester are illegals.
A man with his finger on the pulse!!!!
A friend of mine has a two family house in Morris Park. Instead of putting local families in there who could pay like $1,200 a month or so, he went for Section 8 leeches who he gets like $1,800.00. not only are these bum low class, but they use and absue drugs ect.
His neighbors hate him for it, and rightfully so. I have nothing but disgust for his actions.
Back in 1958, my great aunt told my grandfather that she was leaving Downneck for Irvington, telling him that he should get out of "that slum." Downneck Newark remained an OK place, while Irvington makes East Orange look like Millburn. ;-)
As for buying in Jersey, I'm still saving for a down payment for a place in Bernardsville. Until then, its condos in Connecticut.
Check cashing shop closes, Brazilian bakery opens up. I can't see the downside in that.
I can barely fit myself in downhere, but you are welcome to stay on the cot a night or two.
CT is very nice. I worked in Stamford breifly but it was too much culture shock for me.
Depending on where you go, it can be kinda strangE for a true Nu Yawka to be.
I worked for a WASPY jerk who thought he was better than everyone. It lasted all of about 4 months. I then went down to White Plains and now, Yonkers.
My dad had a friend who owned some Section 8 houses in Newark. He told me the slightly higher rents the government paid weren't worth the aggravation.
From personal experience, I know that in both Philly and D.C. each new bus or rail stop added to the suburbs tends to boost crime in the surrounding areas. Spoke recently with a top cop in a major Dallas affluent suburb regarding the same. He's considered one of the best in his field and teaches at the FBI Academy in Quantico from time to time. He said that they're hiring in his suburb 10% more police officers just to deal with the crime that is associated with the DART (metro) rail stops that have been added to his suburb in the past two years.
-Eric
No kidding. He had one fat disgusting animal in there who wasn't going to her "meetings". I guess they require the Section 8'ers to go meetings or something to get the benefits. Anyway, Section 8 stopped sending him checks because of this and he is asking me what to do since she barely every pays her portion and now Section 8 has stopped paying.
I told him his greed is coming back to haunt him. He has no clue why I say that.
Have a business associate who was raised in Van Nest and Yonkers, but who now lives in New Canaan. Loves the place, but hates the snobbery.
always said that the Bus Stop right on Willimasbridge Road and Morris Park is what changed that area.
Look at what hangs out at the corner in an otherwise nice area. Thugs.
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