421–430 of 517 posts
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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.
I lived on a street in Cihangir for three years. In the walk to and from work I'd pass several shops and cafes, and got to know all of the owners and regulars.
I just feel the need to point out how ridiculous the lack of socio-economic diversity appears to be in these images. California and the Bay Area specifically is suffering and this kind of privileged whimsical time-killing project comes off as insanely tone-deaf. To me at least. Just my opinion as someone born and raised in that city.
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Why is that easier with affluent people?
Perhaps it’s not. Perhaps the people in my building are just particularly pro-social. But that seems self-aggrandizing. While I was able to find nice things to do and my neighbors have done nice things for me in the Excelsior, the Mission, Glen Park, and the Sunset none of those places had the frequency and scale of this civil interaction. And certainly my life in the TL was characterized by gladness for lack of nega…
I do see a tie to perceived threat - people who feel they are in danger don't want to risk interactions. First, a rule of the street is, 'don't get involved'. Second, you don't know if the person next to you is crazy.
But few places are that dangerous; if you do get to interact, the only varient seems to be the seemingly arbitrary subculture of that particular neighborhood.
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Well, if a guest gives off a dangerous vibe, the clerk can make judgement call.
Well, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't but the idea that a local store owner wouldn't give me if I were to give off a "dangerous vibe" would be somewhat concerning. But maybe I have ancestry etc. where I just don't give off that vibe. More generally, I guess I'm just pretty used to lodging where a delayed flight doesn't mean I can't get in.
If the person had a history at denying the keys at random for no good reason, people wouldn't trust them with the keys anymore.
Anyway, it's way more likely that they would call the home owner instead of just denying. People are mostly reasonable.
> 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…
> 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. This post and the comments here are genuinely interesting to me, because it shows how much people have different experiences in "suburban" and "urban" living. That, in turn, puts a whole new spin on everything I read about NIMBYism and urban devel…
Small villages, street car suburbs that have individual houses but walkable, and small developments seem best.
The biggest differentiator I have found is: do the majority of people consider this place their long term home or a temporary home? an apartment or town home people know they will only live 2-4 years or so, makes different behavior with a house that everyone plans to spend the next 20 years in.
I think suburbs with porches and stoops help as well, too much garage/car focus means people dont spend time in the front of their house.
I admire the tenacity of the OP. If you look at the pictures, they're occupying a space that is clearly unfriendly to their goals.
In cities, I think a lot of the motivation for this change is anti-homeless sentiment: good places to hang out and chat with your neighbors are also good places for homeless people to sleep. But this contributes to increasingly isolating residents as well. It's one of the subtle ways in which the war on the homeless has negatively impacted those in homes as well.
As a renter that is priced out of the market where I want to live/work, the greatest obstacle I've seen to long term communities are "transplants" or those who live for a few years and move. It is difficult living in a community where the overwhelming majority of your neighbors are all cycled in 5 years. We've found "transplants" are effectively anonymous :/
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But there is usually a code with some app and all of the social aspects have been removed. It’s not much different than being a higher scale realtor key box.
Well, if a guest gives off a dangerous vibe, the clerk can make judgement call.
I paid the money, give me the key. Plus at no point did I pay them any money -- they're just, essentially, key escrow.
It's good marketing for them since being in and out of a pizza place means someone will likely buy a slice, but as a BnB customer IDGAF what they think outside of giving me that bloody key.