ChiTownScion
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,247
- Location
- The Great Pacific Northwest
Suburbanization is beginning to reverse, but the unfortunate aspect of it is that it brings gentrification to the cities, as old working-class neighborhoods are colonized by "upscale" types looking for the "authentic experience" and their longtime occupants are driven off. Eventually the yupsters will all live in the city, and the rest of us will have to be satisified with the abandoned and deteriorating remains of suburbia. Unless, of course, we figure out how to build tumbrels.
Doing the urban pioneer thing when we were married a year (1986) was a lot of fun. Bought a large Victorian that had been previously owned by a cop with eight kids, and he had re- muddled it ubiquitously with a really cheap grade wood paneling. We weren't there 48 hours before my wife was ripping off paneling, steaming off layers of old wallpaper, and trying to get at those old plaster walls. I learned the meaning of "sweat equity" and gave up many weekends to do the unskilled aspects, and then we called in the pros. Rediscovering leaded and stained glass, and even a long covered fireplace.. it was all great fun. We'd have never moved to the 'burbs had it not been for the need for decent schools for a special needs son. Had we stayed put, the mortgage would have been burned a long time ago, and my understanding is that the value of the place now is in the seven figures.
A lot of the neighborhood was "working class" people: cops, fire fighters, building tradesmen. But there were a number of yuppie types as well, and no denying we placed in the latter. My guess is that things are pretty much the same now in that regard.
For us it wasn't so much about an "authentic experience" as an affordable place to live and proximity to our jobs. I didn't see people "driven off" so much as "trading up," selling homes for 4-5 times what they'd paid for them and cashing in on that equity for another property. Again: this was 31 years ago and the 80's days of mega- return on real estate are history- but I'd imagine that unaffordable property taxes are about the only thing that could actually drive anyone off.