So what's it like where you live?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

In nned of interesting conversation here!
What’s your local area like, anythinf of note or infamy about it?

I live in Kensal Green, North West London, search NW10 5EL on Google Earth.
Generally quiet with some good local Pubs, restaurants, Cinema etc.
very good transport links, subway, (tube), satation 2 minutes walk and an overground railway and about ten bus routes within 5 minutes walk.
The occasional shooting, 1 annualy within a 2 mile radius but generally very safe.
An ‘up and coming’ area, close to rather more expensive Queens Park neighbourhood.

Kensal Green Cemetry is just south of me in which are buried I.K. Brunel the Engineer, Charles Babbage the designer of the first programmable mechanical computer, Alexis Soyer Chef, Wilkie Collins Author etc…

Great place, just wish the Supermarket was closer and that it wasn’t raining so heavily.
Peter:rolleyes:

2

Nothing at all of note or infamy about where I live: a medium-sized New Jersey town a short commute from Manhattan (I can see the Empire State Building from the top of my street).

It was a summer retreat town in the early 19th-century, then a working-class Italian-Catholic town, and more recently a Yuppie commuter town. No car needed, which is why I like it: I can walk to the train, the grocery store, library, Laundromat, post office. Architecture is a mix of 19th century Queen Annes, early-20th century bungalows, ugly new McMansions. Great old cemetery in the middle of town I like to wander through.

Basically, a nice, quiet, boring, fairly crime-free little town. I would love to move into NYC, but there is no way I could afford it (I have a large two-bedroom–for what I pay here, in NYC I could not rent a paper bag in the middle of the road).

3

I live outside of a ski resort area way way up in the mountains. We are about 20 minutes south of Breckenridge Colorado. Copper Mountain, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Vail are also close by.

I don’t ski. :smack:

We have no neighbors and live on a dead end road. We have 2 acres. Our property abuts national forest, so taking the dogs for a long walk is quite easy. In fact, a friend of my Wife’s is coming over to snowshoe this morning. We will leave right from our deck and go behind the house.

I like how peaceful it is and our amazing views. The winters are real long and the summers very short. I can take the winters. But we have to cram a lot into our short summers which are just beautiful. We have a fire pit in the yard and it has become one of our favorite activies.

4

I live right on the border of Scottsdale and Phoenix. We live on a 1 acre property with Horse privileges. Many of our neighbors have horses, but we don’t - although we did have a Llama for many years. We have three dogs, and they love all the land. We grow 20+ varieties of citrus, so we always have fresh fruit in the winter. The area is older, and civilization has grown around the neighborhood, so we have excellent shopping, dining and entertainment less than 1 mile away. We are also close to some very nice resorts and the high-end shopping and restaurants that go with them. The weather is spectacular 8 months of the year, although it is pretty damn hot in the summer.

We have never been able to come up with another place we would rather live that we can actually afford (I’m gunning for Tuscany…).

5

I live in Forest Hills, an outlying area of Queens (one of the 5 boroughs of New York City)well served by public transit. The neighborhood includes apartment buildings and many single family homes as well as a busy shopping/restaurant district.

-One of the Son of Sam serial murders was committed in the neighborhood.
-Anthony Weiner, the US Congressman who was ousted by a somewhat lukewarm sex scandal, was our Representative, and also lives in the neighborhood. (At the ironic address, 1 Ascan Ave)

6

If we stand on our roofs and jump up and down, we can probably wave at each other over Manhattan!

7

Thanks good people, I’m curious still though, and jealous, esp. of enipla, although I agree long cold Winters are very trying.
Would it break some unwritten protocol to give zip codes?
My post-code covers about twenty houses so is hardly very specific, just wanted a vicarious view of other’s locations to persuade me/make me envious of life in ‘The Smoke’*

Peter
*Victorian slang for London

8

Hello Hello again,
a quick search says that Forest Hills was partly based on the Garden Suburbs concept in London. Does that mean in over invasive community commitee checking the colour of your front door or when you last mowed your lawn?
I lived in Bedford Park, (Chiswick, London), and was pestered by some locals wandering around at night taking pictures of which property had put out their rubbish too early or failed to coppice their trees. I took a little revenge by telling the seceretary of the Society that the new BMWs had the facility to change the car alarm sound like a mobile/cell phone, drove her potty!
Peter

9

I live in Malden, a city of about 60,000 just north of Boston. In 2009 it was voted “Best Place to Raise Kids”, an honor it responded to with a rash of shootings. I strongly suspect that the pudgy, bicycle-riding Guardian Angels who hang around since then aren’t exactly striking fear into the criminal element. (All of that said, I’ve never felt unsafe here.)

My neighborhood is an overbuilt collection of two and four family homes. The crazy naked disco-loving Russian kids who live across my 14 foot wide driveway are allergic to window coverings, so we’ve become quite close.

Significant upsides: My rent has been the same for ten years. Everything I need is within walking distance. Malden is the birthplace of the Chuck Taylor, of Erle Stanley Gardner, and of Frank Stella.

10

Hello Diana, Malden looks to be rather nice, English understatement, crazy naked disco-loving Russian kids I think I could probably do without though.
Your rent comment is very important, I’ll give you my figures but I don’t expect anyone else to follow, £350 per calendar month, Housing Assiciation, for a one bed ground floor flat/apartment, cheap for London but pricey for life outside cities I think.

So what were your neighbours really like last night?
Do you answer the door/turn off the lights/find your gun when your doorbell rings on Halloween night?
Regardless of their Party do you trust your local representatives?
Would your neighbours recognize your Cat/Dog or in the worst of circumstances children if they were lost?
Is there some point in the week when it is quiet, really quiet. Enipla, post 3, I so envy you!
Peter

11

Ames, Iowa (2010 pop. 58,965), is the home of Iowa State University, the institution at which I currently study. My family and I have lived (intermittently) in Ames since 1970. It is one of a vanishing breed of vibrant small cities with notable cultural and community involvement and a crime rate that is, I dare say, alarmingly low.

I live in one of many walkable neighborhoods of small houses, unusual for dating to the 1930s depression when very little was being built anywhere. I am 10 blocks from downtown, including my grocery, drug store, coffeehouse and bank, and about 15 minutes’ bicycle ride from the university. (Ames was an early adopter in bike path construction, dating to the mid 1970s.)

The surrounding countryside is largely agricultural, alternating flatlands and gently rolling lands. Development is modest except north of town, where midpriced housing is sprawling. Private sector business is dominated by research and technical firms, many with ties to ISU or federal agencies such as the National Animal Disease Center.

Weather is Ames’ only real drawback. As part of the upper midwest we tend to get the full force of winter (high snowfalls, extreme cold, dangerous wind chills) and summer (severe storms, century plus heat, high humidity). Much of town is also on lowlands of the Skunk River and Squaw Creek, which caused considerable damage to those areas after the floods of 2010.

Ames is the birthplace of Billy Sunday, the legendary evangelist and former bush league baseball player; Peter Schickele, composer-musicologist-satirist best known as the discoverer of P.D.Q. Bach; and the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, which is how I’m writing this and you’re reading it.

12

There is a part of Forest Hills that is actually private streets and you can only park there by permit. I’m not sure exactly how it works in that area, but the house ARE all immaculately kept, but then they are also large, and expensive. In some ways its only technically a part of New York City because most city services are not provided there (no bus stops, no snow plowing in the winter, etc.) But outside of that, no overly meddling neighborhood associations that I’m aware of.

On the map, its a rectangle just south of the commuter rail station, centered on Ascan Ave, countinuing a few blocks to the west and bounded to the east by the Jackie Robinson Parkway.

I forgot to mention, in notable things, that the US Open used to be held at the Forest Hills Tennis Club – an incredibly anachronistic Country club with Faux-Tudor clubhouse, pool, and like 12 courts in all surfaces.

13

I live in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, about 5 blocks from City Hall and 2 blocks from UC Hastings College of the Law. This has me very close to the Civic Center BART Station where there were a number of protest in 2011. The UN/Civic Center Plaza is also where protest and festivals take place.

The Tenderloin is a sad and poor neighborhood. Lots of SROs. Lots of crime and open drug use. On my block is a stretch of sidewalk that I cynically refer to as a Thieves Market, as I assume that most of what is being sold is stolen. The police will chase the sellers away, but they come back as soon as the cops turn the corner, same with the drug dealing. Walking the few blocks near my building is challenging as there is always people hanging about at nearly all hours of the day or night. You have to watch where you step as there are often syringes, used condoms and feces. I have never had a problem with people, but I’m a big grumpy guy and most people leave me alone. Sometime one of the street sellers will try to convince me he has clothing in my size. :dubious:

I live in a hotel run by a non-profit as supportive housing for people with mental illness.

14

Oh, I rather like the Russian kids most of the time. I don’t know what they were up to last night, because I am *not *allergic to window coverings.

I pay $1,225 a month for a second floor two bedroom, which was the pricey side of normal ten years ago and currently is *very *reasonable for what I get. It really is a good sized apartment, big rooms (my daughter has two beds, two nightstands and dressers and two chairs in her bedroom, and I even have an office) and it’s a very pretty apartment, hardwood floors, high ceilings, lovely woodwork.

The first two years I lived here I kept the light on for Halloween but only got one or two trick-or-treaters, so I stopped bothering.

Two years ago, my cat went missing for a week, and was found and returned to me by the crazy naked Russians. :slight_smile: The other tenants in my building (same tenants for ten years, btw, I’m actually the newest addition!) definitely kept tabs on my daughter when she was young.

I’m pretty indifferent to local politics, but the newly elected mayor is someone I went to high school with, and is a good guy.

And no, it’s never really quiet here. It’s the city, with all of associated city noise.

15

Deed restricted community in Charlotte County, Florida, spared by Hurricane Charley. The two towns east of us, in Charlotte Harbor, were devastated.

10 miles to any real civilization, unless you count an almost dead strip mall that contains a Subway, a restaurant, an optician, a carpet/floor company (which might have gone under too), a liquor store, a nail salon, and a laundromat. We have 2 banks and 2 churches in town. Up the road a bit is another small town. It has a Publix and some restaurants. The town that surrounds us is considered a beach resort and the snowbirds descend every winter. It is called Englewood, but referred to as “Wrinklewood”. Nice beaches, but don’t go in the winter, unless you want to see pasty old people in bathing suits that should never have been sold to them <shudder>. Alot of houses for sale and alot of foreclosures in the area…

16

Hello all,
Don’t want to be a ring-master! but,
I’m fascinated by the American idea of small towns. When I was a child I loved Wells, Englands smallest city which I know well. in the UK unless your town had been called a city by Parliament you only had that accolade if you had a Cathedral, sorry I am too incompetent to post a picture of Wells Cathedral but trust me it’s good and only has a population of 10,000.
Beware of Doug, excuse me for my ignorance, genuinely it’s twenty years, 84’ and 90’, since I went to the U.S. are all blocks the same size? I’m 100 yards from the tube, Subway, 150 from Delis, newsagents, ATMs and a Library. As for the weather Brrrr. What was the Canadian city that tried to move it’s Mall underground, was it viable. I used to volunteer for a charity for the homeless, (West London Churches project), run by a Canadian and the stories he told me about winter in the northern part of the Continent had me reduced to tears. I suppose it’s not so much the extreme cold but the seasonal swings summer to winter that make things ‘fun’.
I’ll have a good look at the ABC computer, deserves it.

Hello Again, how big is the area you call home? I can, but don’t, drive and I measure my parish* to be anywhere I can walk to and back in a day. I should add I have a reasonable street sense and probably think that walking tall, 6’ 3’’ and only165 Lbs my long legs would get me out. Seriously big Cities are a bit to dangerous to walk around, although my walk around, avoiding v. iffy areas is possible. It would take me a week to totaly circumnvigate the smoke.
Foggy, I presume from your post that you live in the area/locale because of somone elses decision, that’s hard work my friend, it’s strange but after this post blah-blah rubbish virtually anywhere English speaking seems like an improvement on NW10 5EL, GoogleEarth.

It’s common to conurbations to be offered to buy the very things that have been stolen from your house in previous days, weird, esp if you have insurance.

A friend of mine had his flat broken into during the Brixton riots in 82’-83’? and a pair of expensive active speakers, (with amplifiers built into the cabinets), were stolen. he claimed the insurance and then found the same speakers for sale in a secon-hand shop for £10 the pair, he’d received over £200 in repayment.

Diana, ‘the city with all the associted city noise’, doesn’t that kind of sum it up? Your Cat is gorgeous, THESE WORDS ARE BEING DICTATED BY BILLY THE CAT WHO CONTROLS PETERS BRAIN, btw. is ‘crazy naked disco-loving Russian kids’ an aphorism for something else?
I can honestly say I like where I live ‘I become crazy naked disco-loving Russian kids’ is only replaced by: crazy naked disco-loving Polish kids. Hey ho. All cities and towns eventually become:

Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!
I’ve grown accustomed to her face.
She almost makes the day begin.
I’ve grown accustomed to the tune that
She whistles night and noon.
Her smiles, her frowns,
Her ups, her downs
Are second nature to me now;
Like breathing out and breathing in.
I was serenely independent and content before we met;
Surely I could always be that way again-
And yet
I’ve grown accustomed to her look;
Accustomed to her voice;
Accustomed to her face.

BTW good local websites also very welcome!

As an aside is your neighbourhood compact enough to get most things locally?
The above is probably caused by the Hermit post X-mas, 2012 anti-climax.

17

Nope. They’re Russian, they’re frequently naked, they loudly and often play disco music. “Crazy” is a term of endearment in this case, not a medical diagnosis. :slight_smile:

18

Misinformation,
Evening and happy new 2012,
sorry a for silly question but what is a Deed restricted community? Please be kind I’m English…
I went to the Keys for a month in 84,’ glorious place, and I remember weekly practise Hurricane Sirens, and the way that Floridians virtually ignored them, more background noise perhaps.
Dead strip mall, hmmm, if you had the UK’s population density it would probably have been taken over by the Ministy of Defence as a firing range.
I grew up in the Lizard in Cornwall, UK, where the local population relied almost on the grokels, local word for tourists-means ants, people only counted their money in the winter.

19

I live in Tucson, AZ. It’s the dead of winter, and the kids are playing in the backyard in shorts in 77 degree weather.

20

I live in Regina, Saskatchewan, the capital of the Province. In winter, when the leaves are off the trees, I can see the dome of the Legislature from my house. We’re five minutes walk from Wascana Park, one of the largest urban green-spaces in North America. I walk to work when I feel like it, and the Piper Cub hasn’t delayed us too much in the morning. I’ve experienced 75° C temperature ranges - lowest I can remember is -40° C (not counting wind chill), and the highest has been around + 37° C.

It’s currently about -14°C, which is seasonal for this time of year; it’s been a very mild winter, with periods above freezing in December. Late January is the coldest time of the year. Fortunately, the days are already starting to get longer again, so it’s not dark on the way to work and dark on the way home.

Regina and Saskatchewan are booming. House prices have been taking off for the past 5 years, just as the housing market began tanking in most of North America. The province has had one of the highest rates of immigration in Canada in recent years, as people come here looking for work.