Will the outer suburbs become the next slums?

[Anonymous]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/02/AR2007060201025.html

Great article on the suburbs killing your soul.

[Anonymous]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06EED61338F937A3575AC0A9659C8B63

[Anonymous]

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-06/ff_heresies_01cities

[Anonymous]

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/080304ThomasWheeler.shtml

Just a little food for thought on suburban life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, it really is the whole suburban mentality that is driving this economic crisis. You all want no traffic, cheap gas, huge and cheap housing, close to Metro (though you'll never actually use it), great schools with all the "extras" and support for gifted students, special ed students and struggling students with learning disabilities. YET no one wants to actually PAY for these services!!! Everyone wants to keep their SUVs, drive into and clog city centers without paying any income tax in the city, have free or cheap parking and scoff at the idea of paying tolls or a tax to drive on commuter roads or into the city center. Really, everyone needs to get a grip and actually PAY for what they USE.

What will it actually take for people to change their attitudes? Their lifestyles? It's the sense of entitlement and selfishness that is driving this country and economy into the ground.

Wow, you're quite angry. Its too early to be so negative, that can't make you feel good.

Also, you apparantly know nothing about macro economics, I have no energy nor the will this morning to give you a quick tutorial on how the economy really works and what makes a market economy cycle up and down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, it really is the whole suburban mentality that is driving this economic crisis. You all want no traffic, cheap gas, huge and cheap housing, close to Metro (though you'll never actually use it), great schools with all the "extras" and support for gifted students, special ed students and struggling students with learning disabilities. YET no one wants to actually PAY for these services!!! Everyone wants to keep their SUVs, drive into and clog city centers without paying any income tax in the city, have free or cheap parking and scoff at the idea of paying tolls or a tax to drive on commuter roads or into the city center. Really, everyone needs to get a grip and actually PAY for what they USE.

What will it actually take for people to change their attitudes? Their lifestyles? It's the sense of entitlement and selfishness that is driving this country and economy into the ground.

YOU ROCK! Those are my same thoughts! BIGGER is not better-it's time for America to wake up and discover what's really important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know, it really is the whole suburban mentality that is driving this economic crisis. You all want no traffic, cheap gas, huge and cheap housing, close to Metro (though you'll never actually use it), great schools with all the "extras" and support for gifted students, special ed students and struggling students with learning disabilities. YET no one wants to actually PAY for these services!!! Everyone wants to keep their SUVs, drive into and clog city centers without paying any income tax in the city, have free or cheap parking and scoff at the idea of paying tolls or a tax to drive on commuter roads or into the city center. Really, everyone needs to get a grip and actually PAY for what they USE.

What will it actually take for people to change their attitudes? Their lifestyles? It's the sense of entitlement and selfishness that is driving this country and economy into the ground.

I had to laugh when I read your post! Do you really want everyone in the suburbs to move to DC? Wouldn't that cause some additional problems? Think about it! Are there enough jobs in DC to support the thousands of suburb dwellers so that we can avoid having to commute? Is there enough housing in DC for all of us? Sorry - but not all of us want to live in the city. Yes-I want great schools. We ALL want no traffic, and I have a feeling most people would prefer not to pay for parking. All the articles quoted earlier do not apply to many suburban dwellers. I, for instance, do not live in a Mcmansion. threfore, I spend 5 minutes cutting the grass as opposed to an hour. I don't need a cleaning person, I am close to shopping and only go out in the evening so I avoid traffic. I used to live in the city and that was fine before I had children. To me, it is much easier to drive to the grocery store, buy our food for the week, and come home as opposed to walking/taking metro to the market and needing to limit what I buy because I can't push a stroller and carry back a bottle of laundry detrgent and a big pack of Bounty. I use the metro anytime I need to go into DC. I know several people in DC that own cars, thus, clogging there own city. I have nothing against city living - I have nothing against suburban living. I do have something against anyone who makes biased assumptions to make themselves feel better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/080304ThomasWheeler.shtml

Just a little food for thought on suburban life

You've been quite a busy little beaver trying to build a case against suburban living. Keep building your case - you haven't convinced me yet! I love where I live! Great schools, close to shopping and restaurants, close to DC, nice house, small enough to be easy to manage yet big enough that we have someplace to store our out of season clothes and other necessities. Not all of us own Mcmansions and drive SUVs!

[Anonymous]

If you want to live somewhere that there aren't people who live far away driving in, you'll need to be in a smaller city than DC. That whole post was ridiculous. I personally hate when people who live in the city think they're somehow "better". You made a choice for your life. We all live in the DC Metro area and we live where we live for one reason or another. I'm glad that my friends who live in DC don't act like this. They see Gaithersburg as just another place people live and I live there and they live in the city limits. It's not a contest! What the hell are you talking about anyway that people don't want to pay for these things? Do they not pay for their homes and their taxes and their cars and their commute times? Your DC taxes are not paying for any of these things for me and I'm not sending you a bill for my mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and by "that post was ridiculous" I didn't meant the OP, I meant the post about entitlement.

To answer the OP: I think it will be less affluent, but not a slum because the houses are still huge and they are only less expensive per sq. ft. and not actually inexpensive overall. Also, there is business in these areas.

[Anonymous]

I don't see where the poster said she wants everyone to actually live in the city. I think the poster is referring to paying for the services you use and stop complaining about it all, which is valid, whether the poster is angry or not. Someone who moves 20 miles outside of the city and then complains abotu commute time and gas prices are pretty spoiled sounding, aren't they?

[Anonymous]

If people are really interested in this discussion, I would highly recommend reading the article in the Atlantic Magazine that a previous poster referenced: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime

It is interesting as it talks about the DC area - how Reston is a great example of mixed use space - and what is happening in Manassas with vacant properties.

[Anonymous]

That's what I got from the post. I hear people complaining all the time at work about gas prices and commuting. They're driving honker SUVs and live 40 miles out for the BIG house-yes it's true-and I turn a deaf ear. You made those decisions-live with them and stop complaining. Not everyone complains, but I hear a lot.

[Anonymous]

I live 20 miles out of the city, in a house built in the 60's and commute to the town in which I LIVE and so does my husband. My home is just under 1,800 square feet and is so efficient it cost me a WHOPPING $100/mo to cool.

I have NO DESIRE and I mean NONE WHATSOEVER to have to hump my groceries all over the city in either blistering heat or freezing cold. I have NO DESIRE to live in a tiny tiny condo with no yard for my childern to play in. I have NO DESIRE to be piled on top of one another and I have NO DESIRE to deal with DCPS or the crime and grime.

Just about everyone I know works and lives around here. It is a very slim minority that have to drag themselves way into town.

Last time I checked, I pay pleanty of taxes for the services, roads, and good public schools. Of course we all want lower taxes...I don't hear anyone screaming for taxes to be raised, either in DC or in the burbs. If anyone should be irate it is DC residents who pay some of the highest taxes in the country and have horrible schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see where the poster said she wants everyone to actually live in the city. I think the poster is referring to paying for the services you use and stop complaining about it all, which is valid, whether the poster is angry or not. Someone who moves 20 miles outside of the city and then complains abotu commute time and gas prices are pretty spoiled sounding, aren't they?

I'm 10:26 and while I don't disagree with this post, I don't think it's quite the same as the post I was talking about. I guess we just read it differently. I think people complain. Everyone complains about something. I don't see how it's "spoiled" sounding anyway. Spoiled to me is more like "I live in a huge house and I'm angry I can't take a vacation to France this summer and have to go to Florida because my child's private school is raising their price 5%". I'm not saying that I'm innocent of sounding spoiled though, even though that is not my particular complaint. Living in the city doesn't mean that you wouldn't have to commute. Many people work 20 miles outside the city. I just think people should stop being so angry about where other people live. It's so irritating in this area between states, cities, towns, counties people live in getting all judgemental.