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Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

supernuclear.substack.com

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Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#331

Post by lolinder »

azdle wrote: post #95
tptacek wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in an inner-ring suburb of Chicago (Oak Park) and stoop coffee would be much easier to do here than in San Francisco (where I lived many years ago). This is what my suburb looks like: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9014246,-87.791197,3a,75y,17...

There's no official definition of what the "the suburbs" means, but when people say that they usually mean "areas that follow a post-war suburban style of development". Think culdesacs and no sidewalks. The area you linked looks to me more like an older "streetcar suburb", which I think most people would just call "the city".

> but when people say that they usually mean "areas that follow a post-war suburban style of development". Think culdesacs and no sidewalks.

Define people?

When most people I know say suburb they mean this: You're far enough the urban core that you probably have to drive to get to shops and jobs, but close enough to the urban core that you don't pass through farmland to get there. Some suburbs are like what you describe, but most are exactly like what OP links to.

I'm not at all sure what the utility is of a using a definition of suburb that excludes most of the not-high-density but not-rural US and only counts the absolute worst-designed spaces. It just means we're all talking past each other, with some of us saying "not all suburbs are terrible" and others insisting that suburbs are by definition terrible and anything that isn't terrible isn't a suburb. It's a bit of a True Scotsman fallacy and doesn't make for very useful dialog.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#332

Post by LeonB »

balfirevic wrote: post #320
geverett wrote: post #238

I'm the co-author of Supernuclear and editor of this post. We've been writing the blog for almost five years now, you never know what will go viral! I've spent my adult life living in Istanbul, New York, San Francisco, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In Istanbul it sometimes felt like my neighbors knew too much about me - they would comment on who slept over (I had a lot of friends visit!) and once when I went out of town…

> they would comment on who slept over > landlady said she nearly let herself into my home to make sure I hadn't died because no one had seen me in a few days. You sound way less bothered by that than I would be. I'm annoyed just reading it.

I’ve lived in scenarios where people saying either of these things would be a huge violation, and I’ve lived in scenarios where people saying either of these things would be natural.

Living in the latter scenario is a far better place, and nothing like, the former scenario.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#334

Post by DavidPeiffer »

pkamb wrote: post #65
bilbo0s wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope this commenter is being facetious. How do you read that post and have the first thing in your head be, "Hmm? How can I monetize this?"

It's not about monetizing friendship, it's about providing comfortable places where events like this can happen all over the city/country. People want this community but it kinda sucks to do (and mostly won't happen) if you're meeting up monthly on chairs in a city street. If small neighborhood pubs and coffee shops were legal to build...

I have heard about areas in rural Wisconsin where front porches have been converted into very small bars. Low overhead, serving primarily to your neighbors, and no doubt creating community.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#335

Post by dqv »

skyyler wrote: post #155
timewizard wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you missed the OPs point. I believe he's suggesting that this couple has it on "easy mode" because of the affluence of the area they already live in. If they tried this same technique in a more working class neighborhood they would likely have a harder time creating and maintaining this group.

>I believe he's suggesting that this couple has it on "easy mode" because of the affluence of the area they already live in. That's actually even worse than I thought. Working class neighborhoods already have stuff like this happening. Cookouts and block parties are pretty common! I'm not sure why it would be more difficult if the people were poor.

You're getting dangerously close to describing labor aristocracy when you use established working class communities to suggest that affluent people don't have an easier time starting and maintaining communities. What the original commenter is saying - and they are correct - is that, when you can afford to live in a place, you have way fewer obstacles to starting/maintaining community.

If you have to move every 6 months, work second and third shift, and are constantly having vehicle problems and other emergencies, you are going to have a way harder time. Obviously. Let's not create a mythos of the working class that obfuscates reality.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#336

Post by hinkley »

afavour wrote: post #2

> my husband Tyler and I wanted that sense of community that feels like it’s only possible in the suburbs, but we believed we could achieve this while living in San Francisco. This genuinely threw me because in my experience the suburbs are the antithesis of this, just lots of people occupying neighboring space and rarely talking to each other. Still, a heartwarming story all the same. And yes, this is _exactly_ what…

Little boxes on a hillside

Little boxes made of ticky tacky

Little boxes on a hillside

And they all look just the same.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#338

Post by dyauspitr »

Eh sorry for being curmudgeonly but the themes are just not attractive to me. Pancake party, dips party, coffee, all those task assignments are just not doing it for me. It doesn’t have an interesting edginess to it like the fraternities and their secret rituals or dedicated niche fanatics like stamp collectors or D&D. It’s all so pastel and milquetoast.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#339

Post by msapaydin »

geverett wrote: post #238

I'm the co-author of Supernuclear and editor of this post. We've been writing the blog for almost five years now, you never know what will go viral! I've spent my adult life living in Istanbul, New York, San Francisco, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In Istanbul it sometimes felt like my neighbors knew too much about me - they would comment on who slept over (I had a lot of friends visit!) and once when I went out of town…

Greetings from Istanbul. Unfortunately what you describe in your blog post sounds impossible to me in (at least many districts of) Istanbul. The only place to "socialize" in a neighborhood is to sit at coffee shops.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#340

Post by guhwhut »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #19

I'm glad to hear a story of someone constructing a community they enjoy. And this approach does have the virtue of drawing in the kinds of people who are enthusiastically interested, rather than those who aren't. In general, I and most people I know have largely found more fun and more sense of community in groups whose membership arises from intentional joining through some common interest, rather than groups whose…

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