Earlier quoted context omitted.
My town is also in Catalunya, 60 miles north of yours :)
This is random, but I’m wondering why if you’re both Spanish why use miles and not km?
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Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
441–450 of 517 posts
Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
#442> 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…
So I live in a big city in the beltline area around the core and the problem is it's a car culture and we all have detached garages. This means a big majority never use their front door, they enter their garage via the alley and go in the back. The suburbs typically have garages at the front and people who are driving to work are likely to leave and return at the same time so this increases the odds of bumping into y…
I live in a big suburb outside downtown Denver with the alley situation you describe but we have a thriving community with monthly or bi-monthly events. Previously lived in the Bay Area for 15 years.
Factors that help:
-Every house is within two small blocks of a park.
-We don’t have individual mailboxes so most people walk to the park daily as part of the USPS CBU initiative
-Every park has a different theme and two different age appropriate activities
-Walking trails around the suburb
-Amazing community pools
-Very well run HOA with transparent communication, minimal intervention, low ($50) monthly dues.
-High number of families with young children
-Walkable grocery store and bike paths
Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
#443Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to live in a suburb. I met people the same way you meet people anywhere: common interests. A dozen or so people with dogs met at the park every day. We knew each other, watched each other's houses/pets on vacation, and sometimes did dinner or BBQs. A few people organized a DnD group after advertising on nextdoor (which is a cesspool but only 70%). Of course those with kids the same age often knew each other be…
My suburban neighborhood is great. They have a voluntary group that you can join with a donation, and all that group really does is organize parties and events. It's not a HOA and doesn't have rules. We have a full community get-together event every two months or so, with volunteers who host at their houses. We also have once-a-year events like a community-wide garage sale event, and a car show. I've also lived in ne…
Out of curiosity, did you know the neighborhood was like that before moving in? Or was it luck?
I agree there's a huge variety in neighborhoods in the suburban umbrella, which is unfortunately ignored in urban/suburb discussions. We're house shopping and want to find a "good" neighborhood, but short of knowing someone in the neighborhood already or spending significant time in the neighborhood it's hard to get a good indication of vibes.
Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
#444This seems so foreign for someone living in Norway. The "what kind of weirdo are you" - vibe would be so real if someone did this.
Germany as well.
Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
#445> 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.
I've lived in both settings, and my own experience has been a mix. In the (walkable) suburbs I've lived in, I've connected with my immediate neighbors, strength of connection rapidly dissipates with distance. We are friendly, occasionally have a BBQ or meal together, and lots of random chats while going for a walk or doing yard work.
When I've lived in cities, it's been a much larger and more active community where the connection is less about proximity of our homes, and more about being in the same place at the same time since our daily errands and living were generally on foot. For those and the simple reason of small homes, we were more likely to meet somewhere or do an activity. I was also FAR more likely to run into someone I knew in my city than I was in my suburbs.
Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
#446Earlier quoted context omitted.
> My 69-year old neighbour just knocks on my door at random interval and asks if I want a coffee. That is a dream of mine that I have yet to make happen.
Don't let your dreams be dreams! Go knock on their door and ask them if they want a coffee.
I know. I do more and more initiate conversation but knocking on a door of someone I don’t know yet even a bit is a bit scary honestly.
Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
#447Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 descr…
You're right that people in practice use the word "suburb" to talk about all these different things, but that just reinforces that the word isn't very useful. Oak Park and Naperville are both "suburbs," but this reveals nothing to us. In fact, it mostly obfuscates.
Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
Suburbs often have physical constraints with the way houses are laid out making this "stoop coffee" approach more difficult, if anything. Houses laid out in a way that you're more likely to drink your coffee on your back patio surrounded by a fence or hedges to avoid being seen. And even if you are sitting in front of your house, neighbors are more likely to be driving by instead of walking so not very likely to stop…
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...
When I lived in Canaryville (South Side neighborhood of Chicago) in the late 90s, people regularly sat on their porches and drank coffee.
Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
#449this is peak vietnamese culture
Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
#450Earlier quoted context omitted.
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".
Nobody I know would call that street the city. In my mind, "the city" is, minimally, houses that are a few feet apart, small yard in back/front, pretty much nothing on the side. Frequently, it's 2-3 story buildings, with whole floors rented out as an apartment. That's my "least dense" vision of a city. Anything less than that (ie, full yards) falls into my vision of suburb.
Some US cities incorporated their lower-density "streetcar suburbs" over the years and other US cities didn't. This is why "Kansas City" proper has literal farmland [0] within its city limits, while "St. Louis" proper [1] on the other side of the state doesn't even include most of the skyscraper development that's occurred there within the last 40 years.
This is entirely arbitrary and knowing whether a particular place is technically part of "the city" doesn't really tell you anything about it. As you might expect, this causes a ton of unnecessary confusion.
[0] Part of Kansas City proper: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9B9rhVzAtSykLhUs5
[1] "St. Louis" but not part of St. Louis proper: https://maps.app.goo.gl/xXM7A2fQYY2Kh3vY6