"Bloggers vs. Blight"

Here's an interesting blog from The Detroit News: "Going Home: A Journal On Detroit's Neighborhoods." And here's an article about the blog and the online community it has mobilized to fight back urban decay in Detroit: "Bloggers vs. Blight" (in the online Utne magazine).

Culture in the City

In 1938, Lewis Mumford wrote: "The city... is the point of maximum concentration for the power and culture of a community." I previously wrote about how the seat of government is found in the city. But how many of us think of it as the seat of culture?

Even if a metropolitan library has many branches, its main library will be downtown. The major newspapers usually operate out of the city. Concerts, ballets, plays, operas and musicals, they are all performed at theaters and halls in the city, or as close to it as possible. That is not to say that there are no cultural events in the suburbs, but they still tend to be concentrated in the city. Anyone living in or near the downtown area has a front row seat, so to speak, on any cultural events that come to or originate in town.

Now, being able to afford tickets to such events is another matter altogether. For the poor and working poor, even often for the middle class, these cultural activities are out of reach. So what good does it do to live near them? It's scary to think that generations of children are not ever exposed to cultural events such as those outlined above. Every performance should have a certain number of deeply discounted tickets for people who can't afford the full price. Schools should be able to buy up batches of affordable tickets so that they can take their students to the events.

Another negative aspect of cultural events taking place in the sity is that a lot of people won't go there because they perceive it as unsafe. The irony is that the more activities that take place in a city, the safer it is. I can't say what the experience is like in my city, because I haven't been able to afford to go to any cultural events there. But I don't think Columbus has a reputation for having a vibrant downtown. It was on its way a few years ago when a major indoor mall was built there with inexpensive parking. Suddenly, downtown was the place to go. But then one of our major developers opened a huge mall in a suburban area, and it became the all the rage to go there and to other outlying malls that imitated it. The downtown mall is all but closed now, and fewer people go downtown as a result.

No one activity can guarantee a city's success. It needs to be a muli-use area for it to truly come alive. Cultural events, workplaces, government offices, worship services, sports, educational experiences, shopping and living spaces, all need to be there for a city to be alive and healthy. A city with narrow prospects and perspectives is a city that is doomed to die.

Different Kinds of City Environments

Kyle Ezell (see previous post) delineates four kinds of city environments: Post-industrial urbs, Garden urbs, Eclectic urbs, and Blank Canvas urbs. Here's how he describes them:

You will most likely to be drawn to a post-industrial urb if you "want to live as close to downtown as possible" and don't mind the city hardscape I(few or no trees). You "prefer balconies and rooftops to patios and backyards." You favor loft-type living areas and modern design. You "like the idea of living in an avant garde, edgy environment."

A garden urb is ideal for you if you want an environment similar to a small town or even suburb, albeit with much smaller lots and a premium on parking. You want some kind of garden, no matter how small, but it has to be on your patch of land. You want a single family dwelling or town-house and lots of trees. You prefer a neighborhood that is almost exclusively residential (no mixed uses like commercial, industrial, manufacturing, etc.)

Eclectic urbs are for those who are easily bored. There is always something going on in an eclectic urb, usually right on the street. There are shops and restaurants and galleries and theaters. Eclectic urbs celebrate diversity of all kinds: people and architecture, activities and functions. You are usually the non-conformist type who embraces change if you are drawn to an eclectic urb.

The blank canvas urb offers the most extreme city living environment. This is for the urban pioneer, the person who wants to be first to rehab and revitalize, the one who has a vision that few others have. These are the areas that look the most hopeless: manufacturing and industrial uses mix with abandoned buildings and vacant lots. A blank canvas dweller is one who likes a challenge and is patient and persistent.

These are just short sketches of each kind of urban environment. Ezell goes into much more detail in his book as well as including real-life examples of each type. Columbus is a good case in point. There are lofts and high-rises right downtown, areas with the small-town feel circling the urban hub, mixed-use neighborhoods (commercial and residential) lining the main streets that criss-cross in the downtown area, and devastated areas which are targeted for clean-up and restoration. I myself live in a garden urb (albeit a lower-income area), but I am only a few blocks away from an eclectic urb and a bus ride downtown to the post-industrial urb. There are also many blank canvas areas interspersed throughout the city neighborhoods.

I would prefer to be a little closer to the eclectic urb. There are several garden urbs that are closer then mine is. But they tend to be a lot more expensive, real estate-wise, so I have to be content where I am for now. What I am hoping will happen is that the eclectic urb will fill in the area between the Short North and the University district along the main street that bisects Columbus from north to south. I'm only three blocks away from that area. It already houses the local branch of the city library and a major grocery store, a few pubs, a coin-operated laundry and a "dollar store." I'd like to see a few more shops, maybe a gallery or two and at least one restaurant. We're getting there, but in the meantime, I can still walk or take the bus to anywhere I want to go in the city. It's the best of both worlds.

Get Urban!

Get Urban! The Complete Guide to Urban Living by Kyle Ezell is worth looking into if you are considering a move to the city. The author is a certified city planner working in Columbus, Ohio, which is where I live. He is also the founder of Get Urban America, an organization dedicated to the revitalization of America's cities. His premise is that you have to change American culture if you're going to get people to live in cities. I agree. All too often, people's objections to city living is rely on outmoded ways of looking at the world. We have been raised to believe that the all-American dream is to own a sizable home in the suburbs that circle the big bad cities. There are some major American cities that are attractive as places to visit, but "most" people wouldn't want to live in them. They are seen as little more than tourist destinations even though millions of people do in fact live in them. (Suburb dwellers think of these people as nuts.)

What most people are refusing to see is that space is at a premium, even in America. Granted, there are some areas where you can go miles without seeing another human being, but even in these areas, people tend to congregate in towns, if not cities. (Think Boulder, Colorado.) Cities make it easier to manage human life. Those who live out in the country have to be self-sufficient in many ways (and do a hell of a lot of driving). Of course there is the fact that cities have to be efficient in order to handle the numbers of people living in them. But it's still true that cities offer amenities that can only be dreamed of if you live in the wide open spaces.

I'm not knocking anyone's decision to live in the country. (See my post, "Five Environments.") Nor is Kyle Ezell. What we both want, though, is for people to stop demonizing cities. They can actually be at the core of our identities. I lived on the outskirts of Columbus for most of my life. I told people I was from Columbus, but I didn't really feel that I was until I moved into the city. Suddenly the cityscape became something that belonged to me. It felt like the city was there to meet my needs. I go downtown and think, "This is where I live. Not ten or more miles away in some generic subdivision, but just a mile or two up the street." It's exciting and satisfying. I'm home.

The Unfamiliar

When I take my dog for a walk here in the city, she goes wild. There's so much for her to sniff, she doesn't know where to start. I can relate. Living in the city keeps you alive, sometimes on the edge of your seat, with excitement about all the new things you're experiencing.

It doesn't matter how many times I walk down the streets, I always see something new. And whenever I see something new, it makes me use my brain. This is supposed to be good for you, especially for those who are getting older, like I am. My thoughts are always whirling as I try to fit the things I see into the worldview I already have.

When you live in the city, you are confronted with a myriad of things that you wouldn't be anywhere else. So many other places to live might are homogeneous in their population, their architecture, even their landscapes. The city is a veritable palette of people, structures and environments. I have had raccoons in the eaves of my roof, under the soffits, woodchucks and oppossums in my backyard and even seen deer crossing the railroad bridge. (Fortunately, I haven't seen too many rats.) And that's not even counting the birds. I'm not crazy about pigeons, especially when they, too, were nesting in our eaves, but bird song is everywhere, especially on a quiet morning in our big tree.

There are neighborhood parks, houses with carefully landscaped slopes and tiny courtyards, all manner of trees lining the city streets, and huge planters on the sidewalks filled with colorful foliage and flowers. Some of these things stay the same (except for growing), but there is always some kind of renovation going on as you walk through the neighborhoods. Not just of yards, but also of buildings: this one is being painted, this one gutted and rehabbed, this one torn down and another built in its place.

And the unfamiliar doesn't end there. It's fascinating to stroll through the business districts and discover what new shops have opened up or what new wares the old ones are displaying. There's always something new to look at, to sample, to experience.

And then there are the truly unfamiliar: the people. Most of those around you in the city are strangers. You may know some of the neighbors on your street (I know four), and you may recognize some regulars (people you pass on the street, or who pass by your house everyday, shoppers in the local stores), but the vast majority of people you encounter are likely to be people you don't and never will know. This always puts you in an interesting situation. Will they say hello? Should you? What do you think you can tell by the way that they dress or walk or talk? (You're most probably wrong.) I have said hi to the toughest-looking young men I pass briefly on the street and received a gentle hello in return. I've had sweet-looking high-school girls yell at me for having my dog outside. I've seen men pushing baby strollers and escorting their children to school. I've met people who are starting businesses who proudly show your their business cards. I've been approached by people I thought were beggars who just wanted a light. I've exchanged small talk with people at the bus stop.

Don't get me wrong: I've also had downright unpleasant experiences, or things that are so weird I can't wrap my mind around them. Or at least I couldn't at first. Like the man with long dreadlocks who would stride down the nearby streets every day as if in a hurry, all decked out as a woman. Or the terribly skinny and raw-faced white woman who panhandles on the street (she's always looking for bus fare) with two biracial toddlers and a baby in tow. Or the con-women that come to the door claining that they're collecting money for a woman's charity one time, and for something else the next. (And if you give them money once, they keep coming back, regular as clockwork until you finally stop.) Or the mugging that took place two blocks away in broad daylight, where the perpetrators ran away and were caught by the police, but the person who had been mugged was afraid to press charges because he lives in this neighborhood and he was afraid of retaliation.

But the more I'm around the unfamiliar, the more it becomes familiar, until I find myself missing the man/woman when he stopped appearing in the neighborhood, or the old man who always tipped his hat and proudly told me about his computer business, or the little kids who used to come around and offer to help me with things in exchange for money. Not everything is understandable or comfortable, but it's the unknown that keeps us searching for answers to life's most interesting questions.

City Schools

Yesterday, Salon.com published an interview with Sandra Tsing Loh, author of Mother On Fire, about the public school system. Loh, who works in public broadcasting, came to the realization after having her children that she couldn't afford to send them to private schools. So she looked into the public schools and was surprised by what she found there. She likens them to Costco, where nothing is fancy, but you can find some amazing things there.

This is a topic that I have rather irresponsibly ignored in my discussions of the pros and cons of urbia. Public schools can be either. But most people are afraid of city schools. They have terrible reputations, which is one reason why so many parents are avoiding them, either by moving out of the city or by never going there in the first place. I've often thought that as much as I love city living, I don't think I would have chosen to live here when my children were small. And in fact, I didn't. We moved into a school district outside of the city limits where my children were able to walk to school and live in the same neighborhood as all of their friends.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. The problem was, it wasn't a top school district. My children did okay (one of my daughters was a National Merit Scholar), but they didn't have the prestige of a private school or better school district to put on their college applications. Would a city school system have made a difference? I honestly don't know because I don't know enough about ours (which is in Columbus, Ohio).

Years ago, I read Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities, a book about our American school system. While the book got me on fire about the inequitable way that we fund schools, it also made me deathly afraid of city schools. The conditions he described were appalling. This has been an age-old problem and not just since busing was instituted in the 70's. But it has a lot to do with how we fund school districts, an issue Loh only indirectly refers to in the interview. Where property values are high, school districts are better funded. Usually. But city school districts pool all the property assets from the entire city. This includes areas where young professionals live and where houses start in the $200,000 range. Counterbalanced by the poorer areas, like where I live, the money gets spread thin. And yet this still adds up to a lot of money.

I confess that I don't know that much about our city school district. I do know that there was enough money to build a state-of-the-art elementary school across the street from me and that that was just one of six or seven that was built or is being built recently. I've been in a couple of the high schools. They were older and had some graffiti but I had no reason to think that they weren't good schools.

Loh makes a good point at the end of her interview. She said that it is time for us to start thinking communally instead of competitively. Our schools shouldn't be about which one is the newest or has the most amenities. Education is more about good teachers and good programs. And involved parents. Any school can be a good school if enough people put the time into finding out what is going on and are willing to do what they can do to make it better. We don't have to settle for bad schools, but it will take effort on our part to improve them.

Diversity

When I walked to the bookstore today, with my grandson in tow, I was struck, as I always am, by the many different kinds of people who live in my neighborhood. I don't know all the demographics but I do know that there are large numbers of African-Americans and Hispanics--most of the children you see around here are from one of those two groups. But these are on the residential streets and in front of the apartment buildings; the closer we get to the main street that runs through downtown, the more whites we see. By the time we get to the shopping district known as the South Campus Gateway, the crowds are predominantly white. Of course, as the name implies, we are close to the Ohio State University.

But in my own neighborhood, not only is the diversity racial and ethnic, it is also socioeconomic. Only 14% of its inhabitants are homeowners and this area has the highest ratio of Section 8 housing in the city. A rehabbed house is often next door to one that is vacant. There are a fair amount of cars, but a high percentage of people walk or use public transportation. This is perhaps the most significant kind of diversity. It means that the area is highly transient and that there are a lot of people on the streets. It also means that those who own homes are often discouraged by the lack of care shown by renters toward their own dwellings.

But what is the most significant to me is that there is so much sameness in all this diversity. Mothers and fathers still walk their kids to school. Whole families walk to church on Sunday (and sometimes during the week as well). Children and teens flock to the local library to take advantage of its many programs, including help with their homework. Fathers as well as mothers are seen with their children in tow as they go about their business. Flowers are planted in front of apartment buildings (by the tenants, not property management). Parents bring their children to the local day care center. The sounds of schoolbuses and hordes of children resonate on the grounds of the elementary school. People walk by and compliment me on my garden.

Perhaps the greatest lesson for me from living in this neighborhood is how alike people really are. We may live in different types of dwellings, earn different levels of income, have varying degrees of education, work at a wide range of jobs, and come from different backgrounds, but we all want our children to be safe, to live in nurturing environments, to have a place we can call home. We share this neighborhood and together make up its special atmosphere. But the basics can be found anywhere.

Five Environments

A story I picked up on the Internet:

“There are Five Environments you can live in on this planet. There’s The City. The Desert. The Mountains. The Plains. And The Beach.

“You can live in combinations of them. Maybe a city in the desert, or in the mountains by the ocean. Or you could choose just one. Out in the plains somewhere, perhaps.

“But you need to get out there and travel, and figure out where you thrive.

“Some places you’ll go to and you’ll feel yourself wither. Your brain will fog up, your body won’t respond to your thoughts and desires, and you’ll feel sad and angry.

“You need to find out which of the Five Environments are yours. If you belong by the ocean, then the mountains will ruin you. If you’re suited for the blue solitude of the plains, then the city will be a tight, roaring prison cell that’ll eat you alive.”

And I would add: if you lean toward the city, you'll be bored silly anywhere else.

Crime

When I used to drive through the area where I live now,I was scared to death that I was going to get caught in the crossfire of a gang war or be the victim of a drive-by shooting. And when my daughters moved into this area, I was certain they were going to get mugged or raped or worse. But they survived and even thrived in their inner city apartment. Their proximity to Ohio State University and large numbers of young people. I told myself that they were young and didn't mind living in a dicey area. I'd been young once, too, and I could remember the appeal of old homes with character and interesting architecture, high ceilings, wide wooden baseboards and trim, bay windows, towers, and large front porches. Not to mention the huge old trees that lined the streets.

When I went looking for a house I ended up in the same general area because it had more affordable housing than anywhere else in the city. Of course there are reasons for that. And one of the reasons is crime. But crime didn't even enter my mind when I found my house on a quiet side street. The house was as nice as many I'd seen in the suburbs, but it was half to one-third the price. The house prices on the other side of High Street were astronomical, but that didn't stop people from moving there. I figured that the crime rate couldn't be that different since the neighborhoods were just blocks from each other. (I know, I was naive.)

That's the nature of city neighborhoods. One area might be really safe and two streets over you have rampant crime. I've never witnessed a shooting from my front porch but down the street and around the corner a seventeen-year-old kid was gunned down at 3:30 in the afternoon, when children were walking home from school. That was several years ago now, but you never forget it. And that's not the only murder that has occurred in the area.

When you live in a high-crime area you can't worry about what happens on the streets around you. It's quite possible for there to be pockets of safety in even the worst city neighborhood. We happen to live across the street from an elementary school, and outside of the noise issues, we feel that the frequent police patrols do quite a bit to make us safer. Also, there are severe penalties if you're caught with drugs within a certain distance from the school property.

The most frequent crime is burglary, but that can be true of any neighborhood. Sometimes the more affluent neighborhoods are hardest hit. Not too long ago, a better neighborhood north of us was subject to a windshield smashing spree. That's not fun, or inexpensive, but it's better than being mugged or hit by a bullet. You have to learn to prioritize what you're going to worry about.

I've lived in my house for over ten years now and haven't been burglarized once. We don't have one bit of graffiti on our property. Maybe I've been lucky. Maybe it's the fact that until recently I had a dog. Maybe it's the sign for the alarm system that is posted out front (and the actual alarm system that backs it up--some people just put up the signs!) Maybe it's the police presence in my neighborhood. I had a drunk try to kick in the door and force open the windows once, but my neighbor yelled at him and he ran off.

I'm sure I'd have a much better picture of the criminal activities in my area if I talked to a policeman. But from what I've experienced and been able to observe, most of the crime is in my head. A woman comes to the door and wants money which I refuse to give her and I'm afraid she's going to retaliate against me in some way. But nothing happens. A guy stops me in the street and asks if I have a cigarette and when I say I don't, he says "thanks" and walks away. A mean-looking man passes me on sidewalk and says, "Hi, how ya doin'?" and keeps on walking. A bunch of kids hang around my house wanting to know if I have any jobs they can do for money, but when I say no, they stop coming around.

A lot of people I know can't understand why I live in the "ghetto." They tell me cautionary tales all the time. Some think I should never answer the door. Some think I should get a gun. Some warn me about giving out money. Some tell me to keep my shades drawn all the time. But I refuse to live like a prisoner. This is my home and it's been a good and safe one for some time. If I were to worry about something awful to happen all the time, I might as well not venture outside of the house. I like to work in my garden. People walk by and comment on how nice the garden looks. This is a neighborhood. Families live here. Kids play on the sidewalks. It's not an ideal place to live crime-wise, but is any place really?

I could move to the suburbs, but I'd be giving up everything else that I love about living in the city, and I might not be any safer. I might not see as much graffiti or trash, it might be a little quieter, there would (presumably) be less guns. But I would also miss the atmosphere, the liveliness, the sounds of life, and the convenience. I might be more protected (maybe), but I'd be infinitely more bored. It's a trade-off. There are definitely worse ways to live. You just have to pick the right one for you. (See next post.)

Negatives: Noise, Pollution and Trash

There's no denying that there are negatives about city living. While crime is probably the number one concern, noise. pollution and trash are daily nuisances that can make city living a less attractive option. As for noise, it is not always seen as a negative. Some people like the excitement of living in an urban environment, and view the sounds of fire engines, ambulances, traffic, horns, and people as proof that they do indeed live where the action is. But even the most ardent city dwellers tire of the noise level at times and find themselves yearning for some peace and quiet.

I live across the street from an elementary school where the noise of children and schoolbuses bombard me daily. But you can live near a school in the suburbs, too, so it's not really a urban issue. When I bought my house, I didn't think about the school being noisy (I first saw the house during Christmas vacation and owned it before the New Year.) But it's quiet on the weekends and during vacations and the noise is usually over by five o'clock on school days.

I live near a firehouse, too, which accounts for some of all the sirens we hear. But the only time sirens bother me is when I'm sleeping with the windows open, which isn't very often. You get used to them after a while.

Then there are the helicopters. I can't ignore them as easily. There are the news helicopters every day reporting on in-town traffic, but they're generally pretty high up and I rarely notice them. But we do occasionally have helicopters flying low over this neighborhood, sometimes with spotlights, presumably looking for some kind of fugitive. That's a little scary but kind of exciting, too, especially when the police talk through a loudspeaker to talk to the would-be criminal down on the ground. I'm not really afraid that the person they're chasing could end up in my backyard; I always see the situation as "out there" somewhere. But I suppose it could happen.

One noise that really bothers me is when people walking by our house are fighting--or sound like they are--it's hard to tell sometimes. That makes me a little nervous because I'm afraid one of them is going to pull a gun and shoot someone.

And that leads me to the sound of gunfire. That's definitely not a welcome noise. But I've only heard it once where it actually led to someone being shot--that I know of. There have been shootings that I never heard, or wasn't aware that I was hearing. It's not always easy to differentiate between gunshots and backfires, fireworks, and other loud noises. But this type of noise, as well as that of helicopter searches, are more disturbing because of their connection to crime than because of their actual noise level.

I could have grouped noise and trash under pollution, but by singling it out, I meant to refer to the pollution that is not always visible--except when you dust (the dust tends to be black). It's hard to measure the effects of or the amount of pollution that is in the air, but it's a no-brainer that there's more of it in the city than in the suburbs. I developed a phlegm problem after I moved to this house, but I suspect that has more to do with my smoking than with city pollution. Fortunately there is no major industry near where I live. I recognize that this is not always the case when you're living in the city. So I would have to say that pollution is a valid concern for anyone contemplating a move to the city. Of course, if you live in a climate-controlled high-rise, it's going to be less of an issue. But most city-dwellers don't have that option.

The third negative, trash, is the one that bothers me the most. Perhaps because it's the one people actually have control over. I have a pet peeve about people leaving trash on the ground anyway. In my mind, there's no excuse for it. I'll put trash in my purse or my pocket till I can get to a trash can, before I'll drop it on the ground or throw it out a car window. In all fairness, some of the trash is blown around from dumpsters. But most of it is deliberate and that makes me crazy. And when I see trash in someone's yard, I wonder where they're pride is. Maybe they don't care because they're renting. But that's no excuse.

A few years back I participated in a trash clean-up program in this neighborhood, but I'll never do it again. It was disgusting. We wore gloves, but still. I can sort of see picking trash up from the streets but when it's in someone's yard or on the sidewalk in front of their house, I just get mad. Why should I pick up something that they should take care of?

Sometimes when I drive through a nicer city neighborhood (mine is borderline) or the suburbs, I look longingly at the trash-free yards and streets. But I live here partly because it's what I can afford (like so many city-dwellers), so I have no choice put to take care of the trash I can control, and look the other way at the trash I can't control.

That's pretty much the only choice you have with any city-living negatives.

Green Cities

Green spaces are usually at a premium in the city. Those cities that have incorporated trees, gardens and parks into the urbanscape are considered to be more desirable. But most urban areas have a long way to go in this area.

Some urban neighborhoods are known as garden districts, according to Get Urban! by Kyle Ezel. They are usually made up of single- or double-family homes which have yards (usually tiny yards, but nevertheless, there is enough room for trees and small gardens). Many of the streets are lined by trees and there are often parks sprinkled throughout. If you took these neighborhoods out of their city environments, you could mistake them for small towns or older suburbs (which is what they were before the city swallowed them up). These neighborhoods are usually close to main arteries of transportation and within walking distance of stores, boutiques, restaurants, art galleries and movie theaters. They are a good compromise for people who want the convenience of city living but don't want to be surrounded by "hardscape."

But when you get closer to downtown, green spaces are usually at a premium. There may be open plazas and pedestrian-only avenues but grass and trees are often forgotten in favor of large planters or hanging baskets of flowers (which are better than nothing, but don't quite satisfy the soul's longing for nature. And that's not even taking into account the roles trees play in offsetting pollution.) Many people figure that lack of greenery is just the price you pay for urban living, but it doesn't have to be that way. Even New York City has Cental Park.

Americans could do worse than to look to Europe for inspiration. In many countries trees are planted in every conceivable place. They are even liberally sprinkled throughout parking lots--what a concept! People are more prone to planting gardens in containers on their balconies and in the smallest patches of land in between buildings and along sidewalks--and they take care of them, too. All too often, we leave the job up to municipal entities instead of doing what we ourselves can do to make our environment as green as possible.

"The Urban Gardener," in the urban area of Columbus, Ohio known as the Short North, does a brisk business helping people to bring greenery into their city scapes. It's a relatively small nursery built on a former parking lot and it's literally a breath of fresh air. It's largely geared toward container and small gardens, but at least it makes it more convenient for city gardeners to get most of what they need to plant them.

Columbus has invested a lot of money in planting trees along city streets, but park space is still at a premium in the city proper. There are a fair number of small parks but not that many large ones. We do have the Franklin Park and its Conservatory, but it's two miles east of downtown Columbus. Still, it's 88 acres of green space and a popular place for weddings.

You can find out about the parks in any city by visiting its department of parks and recreation.

What's Happening?

One of the criticisms of urban life is that it is noisy and in your face. There's no respite from it as soon as you step outside of your building. Even where I live, which is basically a residential neighborhood made up primarily of single-family homes, there are people walking by at all hours of the day and even into the night. They're not always noisy, but they're out there. You can't sit on your front porch and not see at least fifty people a day walk by. Some say hi or comment on your garden or your dog ("You need to get that dog into your house!"), but most are silent. But they're active. There's always something happening.

If you're into people-watching, this is a dream come true. Sometimes I wish for more privacy, but mostly I enjoy seeing who is out and what they're doing. I think I would enjoy it even more if we lived in a more congested area of the city. I think I'd like looking out my window and down at the activity on the street. (My husband, however, likes a little more solitude.)

Unfortunately, illegal activity--or at the least, socially unacceptable behavior--is also a part of urban life. Or at least it's more obvious than in the suburbs or the country. The prostitutes and drug dealers, gangs and burglars, shooters and murderers--you can kid yourself that they're not around, but the news often brings you back to reality. I wince when I hear on the evening news that a shooting occurred in our neighborhood, or other inner-city areas. I know that these occurrences give city living a bad name. And rightfully so; I'm not so naive as to say that anyone can stomach that part of urban living.

I used to drive through the neighborhood where I live now in terror, sure I was going to become the victim of crossfire in some kind of gang war. Now I walk these sidewalks without fear (although not at night--that's just asking for it). Not long ago there was a shooting in a parking garage on the edge of the university district (which is approximately seven blocks away from our house). The result was a fatality and the shooter ran away into the surrounding city streets before he finally gave himself up. We weren't even aware of it happening until we saw the evening news. Yes, we could have been in that parking garage--there's a movie theater attached to it. But how do we know that it couldn't have happened in any parking garage? You just have to trust that you're going to be safe as long as you don't do something stupid. That might not always be true, but safety can be uncertain in the suburbs, too.

For the most part, you are safe in the city. There are some areas you want to avoid at all costs, but that's not the kind of city living I'm talking about. You do have to use some common sense when you move to a city neighborhood. You might be surrounded by a lot of activity, but not all, or even a majority of it, is illegal. Only you can decide what kind of activity you're comfortable being around. But if you're like most city dwellers (at least the ones who are there by choice), you'll thrive in the environment.

"Urban" Decorating

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Getting Around by Foot

Here are the places I can walk to with ease: a grocery store, several carryouts, the library, Ohio State University, a movie theater, a Barnes and Noble bookstore, Panera's, the bus stop, an ice cream shop, various boutiques, nightclubs, bars and restaurants (including a sushi restaurant and a tea house, three churches, one mosque, three parks, Starbucks, a check-cashing store, art galleries and a nursery (yes, right in the city--it's called Urban Gardener's). If the weather is bad, I'd want to resort to a car or bus for some of these destinations, but most of them are practically at our front door.

My husband and I had no car for several years, but most of the time we made out just fine without one. Sure, we had to walk to the grocery and the library and lug home groceries and books in backpacks and tote bags. And it took a few extra minutes to get there and back. But the grocery and library are less than five blocks away from our house. Driving seems almost pointless, unless we're really in a hurry or have too much to carry home. Unfortunately, now that we have a car, we rarely walk anymore. But we can if we want to.

Walking in the great outdoors is great exercise, but so is walking in the city. And it's less boring.

Proximity to Downtown

One of the hassles of modern life is the hoops you have to go through every time you have something to do with the government. To add insult to injury, you usually have to travel to the downtown area to go to court, make a police report, pay a fine quickly, get a license or visit any government bureau or entity. If you live in an outlying area, the commute alone can take up half your day. And then you have to pay for parking.

As I said in my last post, I can be downtown in 1o minutes and if I go by bus I only pay $3 for the round trip. The downtown area being fairly compact, I can walk anywhere I need to go in minutes. Dealing with the government can be intimidating enough without worrying about getting there to begin with. And who wants to spend any more time than is necessary on a government errand?

Columbus happens to be Ohio's capital, so there is even more to see and do that pertains to the government. It's nice to know that I'm so close to the Capitol Building and the state legislators if I would want to visit them. Most of the state departments are situated downtown, or if not, are not far for someone who is starting from the inner city area.

Being close to government entities is probably not one of the main reasons a person would want to live in the city (unless, of course, he or she happens to work for one), but it is definitely one of the perks.

Getting Around

City living cuts your commute, sometimes drastically. If you work in the city, you're already there. Even if you work in a more outlying location, you can get there in a reasonable amount of time because you're usually starting from a central location and have easy access to the freeway system.

Most cities evolve from a hub and spread outwards. Some cities are so large they have multiple urban neighborhoods, but still only one downtown. These neighborhoods were usually once suburbs that were at the end of a railroad or trolley line, making them easily accessible from the city proper. Now freeways continue that tradition. But it's still true that the closer in you are to the city center, the less traveling you will have to do.

I live in one of those urban neighborhoods. Technically, I don't live "downtown," but I'm still only a couple of miles away. I could walk to the center of the city in forty minutes (and I walk slowly!). I can take the bus and be there in ten minutes, tops. The area I live in is made up of single family dwellings, duplexes and apartment buildings that were built between the 1890s and the 1910s. At that time it was a suburb. The city gradually crept north up High Street, leaving behind neighborhoods and districts like the layers of an onion. My neighborhood is known as Weinland Park and is located between the Short North and the University District. I can walk to Ohio State in 15 minutes and be there by bus in five. (It's almost embarrassing to get on the bus for such a short ride.)

I used to live on the southeast edge of the Columbus metropolitan area and it took me forever--okay, close to an hour-- to travel to the northwest where my sister lives. Even with the freeway. Now I can be there in twenty minutes. I don't have the lot size that I used to have, but I do have two parking spots and enough yard to garden in (and a lot less grass to mow). Our house is as big as the one I used to own in the suburbs, if not nearly as new. (It was built in 1915 as opposed to 1995.) One thing I don't have is the high cost of transportation. With gas prices being what they are today, that's a tremendous plus. (I don't know if I could afford to live in the suburbs these days.) This makes city living a better choice economically, if nothing else.

Characteristics of City Living

There are all kinds of ways to live in the city: lofts, studios, high-rise condos, town or row houses, garden districts, industrial conversions, residential hotels. And of course, homeless shelters and Section 8 housing. There are also all kinds of reasons to live in the city. Some people live in the city by choice, some because there is nowhere else for them to go. Some live there because they don't have a car and need to be close to mass transportation systems. Some want to be close to work, or to the night life, or to other amenities a city has to offer. Some like to get lost in the crowd; some like to watch the crowd. Some people even feel safer where there are lots of people, notwithstanding the city's reputation for crime.

For these reasons and many others, it's hard to generalize about city living. The experience gap between the professional person in a penthouse and a homeless person on the streets is about as wide as it can be and still be within the same square mile. This diversity is one of the leading characteristics of an urban environment. Only in the midst of the downtown area can one find the mix of activities, occupations, education, incomes and housing that we traditionally think of as typifying city living. Being in proximity to the downtown does not automatically make one's lifestyle an urban one. But there are some characteristics common to all types of city living.

1) Closeness to the arteries of the city's transportation systems (including freeways).
2) Closeness to government entities.
3) Ability to walk to many types of enterprises and activities.
4) Constant activity (legal or illegal).
5) Open spaces are at a premium.
6) There is generally more noise, more pollution and more trash.
7) Crime is a major concern.
8) A diverse population.
9) Exposure to things that are unfamiliar.
10) Easy access to more cultural experiences.

I will discuss each of these characteristics in upcoming blog entries.

Wouldn't Want to Live There

"Fifty-nine percent of Long Islanders could never imagine themselves living in an apartment. Asked which type of neighborhood they preferred — one where you could walk to stores or one that required driving — 56 percent said they would rather drive. Meanwhile, only 7 percent agreed that 'creating ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods' was the major advantage of building more affordable housing. Asked what the worst disadvantage was, 20 percent said 'bringing in the wrong kinds of people.'"

This is a quote from an op-ed piece in the New York Times on January 29, 2008, "The City is the Future of the Suburbs, and Other Heresies." In it, writer Lawrence Downes is protesting the optimism of some city planners about what suburbanites will accept as solutions to the housing crisis on Long Island. The survey that found the above statistics also found that "a significant number of Long Islanders (38 percent) said they could see themselves living someday in a downtown apartment, condo or townhouse, forsaking the old Levittown ideal for something walkable, interesting and, above all, affordable. Half of the respondents could imagine a child or parent doing so. Sixty-one percent supported building more homes and apartments in some downtowns, and 49 percent said they would favor taller downtown buildings — up to four stories, from two." Mr. Downes points out that these statistics hardly depict wholehearted support for the urban lifestyle.

What is really happening is that the two kinds of responses, pro and con, were given by people with radically differing views of urban living. Living in an upscale apartment building with security and maybe even a doorman is worlds apart from living in the projects. Being surrounded by theaters and art museums bears no resemblance to living in close proximity to drug houses. Gentrification adds a veneer of respectability to an urban neighborhood, but it also pushes out its former residents, begging the question: where do they go? To another "undesirable" urban neighborhood, of course.

City planners have long struggled to find a way to reconcile both types of urban dwellers. How do you provide affordable housing in city neighborhoods without bringing down property values? Is it even possible to get the poor and the rich to live side-by-side? In my experience, you can't. Oh, you can mix things up, but the poor and the middle and upper classes will never meet on common ground. Each group acts as if the others don't even exist. Some neighborhood civic associations are geared to attract homeowners; renters are not encouraged to participate. Others focus on the needs of the transient. The homeowners don't feel that these organizations apply to them. The needs and wants of the various groups rarely overlap.

But there are some things that everyone wants. One is to be safe. This doesn't just refer to crime, but also to unsafe and non-hygienic housing. And whether it seems like it or not, everyone wants surroundings that are pleasant and attractive. (We just differ at times about what constitutes "attractive.") But pleasant, attractive, safe--all require money: for repairs, a police presence and remodeling and landscaping.

Columbus, Ohio has a program called "Home Safe and Sound." Basically, the program provides no or low interest loans for home rehabilitation in targeted neighborhoods. A family has to make 80% or less of the HUD recommended income guidelines to qualify and the repairs needed must be to protect health and safety or prevent deterioration of the property. I live in such a neighborhood and qualify for the program, so I called and put in my application. I don't know if anything will come of it.

We're typical of a lot of the homeowners in the area. We're house-"rich" and cash-poor. We can keep up with some repairs, but not all. And in a house that was built in 1915, there are going to be a lot of needed repairs, most of which are not even cosmetic. For instance, we have missing soffits around the perimeter of our roof which make perfect homes for pigeons. Our sidewalk which lies under the roofline is encrusted with pigeon droppings, and the only way to get rid of the pigeons is to take away their home. We had an estimate of what it would cost to fix the soffits and some missing gutters and it was $2700. So we have to put it off for lack of money. It would take us more than a year to save that much money, if then, and that's assuming that other repairs or purchases will not be needed. With a combined income of $38,000, there's not a lot of wiggle room in our budget. We don't even have two cars and we just got the one we have two years ago (after five years of marriage). And we probably have it better than most in this area. Some bought their homes thirty or more years ago and might be able to make a good bit of money from their equity if they sold their homes, but then where would they live as cheaply? They're often on fixed incomes. There has been a little gentrification although there are signs that more is coming. We live just blocks away from some areas that have been highly gentrified and the property values reflect that. But we have the highest percentage of government-subsidized housing the in the city and that makes for a lot of instability both in property values and daily affairs.

These are the realities of the kind of urban living I live and write about. I'm sure this is not the kind of urban living that the survey respondents approved of. And yet this is the way to revitalize and reclaim neighborhoods instead of using up more resources building new ones. There are a lot of reasons why I live in an urban neighborhood, but that is certainly one of the major ones.