I expected this article to be much more inflammatory and generally wharrgharbl than it turned out to be.
But I hate suburbs, personally, so my opinion might be biased.
edit: a few more thoughts.
I live in a fairly 'typical' US smaller town (not a small town). Here, new houses are jammed on their 1/2 acre with a minimal back yard, row after row after row of them. They are made poorly and there are no trees lining the streets. Streets curve round and round, making it difficult to travel from place to place. New apartment buildings follow a similar fashion, but are very small: suitable for student roommates in size, not suitable for more than two-three single people living together (or a married couple).
Contrast this with the older downtown, where houses are somewhat original, trees are planted (leading to shady sidewalks), and the streets are straight, leading to easy travel.
I was thinking about this on a recent trip to Seattle's downtown. There, not only are there trees and original buildings, but the businesses as housing are intermingled, plus they go up, allowing a much greater compaction of space. I would believe there is quite a nice economy of infrastructure scale going on there. Further, it is not like you have to travel between Zones to go shopping or go out to eat: you wander on down half a block, and you're there. Both my town's downtown and downtown Seattle present a much nicer experience than the row housing suburban monotony.
I live on Capitol Hill in Seattle, a fairly dense neighborhood just east of downtown. I can walk to no less than two supermarkets, one Trader Joe's, and one food co-op. My job is a ten minute walk on foot. I am surrounded by terrific restaurants and bars. I actually get irritated when I'm required to get into my car to go somewhere now.
When I first moved to the Seattle area, I lived in Microsoft corporate housing in Redmond, a smaller suburb about 12 miles east of Seattle. The area felt depressing, isolated and uninhabited most weekends.
I spent a month in Seattle this spring (coming back in July for a bit), and I can confirm this. Queen Anne Hill is also really walkable. Two grocery stores, loads of coffee shops, restaurants, etc within a 5 minute walk on Queen Anne, plus an easy walk to downtown, Fremont, or Capitol Hill. Such a wonderful city.
Of course, if you tell most Seattle-ites that you walked from, say, Queen Anne to Paseo in Fremont, you'll get weird looks.
I stayed in Madison Park? region, and wandered over to Capitol Hill a bit. I liked the liveliness of the area! I really, really, really like the jumbling of businesses and homes.
I used to live on Capitol Hill, on 12th across from Seattle U. Then I moved to Tucson for grad school. The city is a giant suburb; you effectively can't walk anywhere. I miss Seattle.
A friend of mine from Seattle moved to Phoenix for grad school last year and says the same thing. Very unfortunate.
Surprisingly, another friend of mine who moved to Los Angeles for grad school a year now lives in a neighborhood of LA that she compares quite favorably to the Hill in terms of walkability. That, I would've never expected to hear.
I love living in Capitol Hill so much (I've been living here in Seattle for 5 years). I got rid of my car and now just use Zipcar the 4 times I year I need a car.
Interestingly, when I go south to visit relatives in Tacoma or Olympia I feel a little like I'm going back in time about a decade, or visiting some underdeveloped country (bad food, bad transportation, almost no entertainment other than TV, malls, movie theaters and TV, etc.). They don't understand how I can live in a tiny studio with my gf and I can't understand how they don't go insane living like they're in something that feels only slightly more real than an episode of invader zim.
I'm not sure if this perception of the world is to my credit or not.
when I go south to visit relatives in Tacoma or Olympia I feel a little like I'm going back in time about a decade, or visiting some underdeveloped country (bad food, bad transportation, almost no entertainment other than TV, malls, movie theaters and TV, etc.).
I'd be curious to hear your further thoughts regarding that.
I am looking for an apartment on Capitol Hill tomorrow (June 28 2011). I'm going to get one as soon as possible, within 2 days. I'd love to move nearby a fellow hacker. Do you have any advice for which apartment complex(es) to look at?
Seattle's downtown areas are nice, but living here for a few months gives you more of a balanced perspective. The whole area is filled with vagrants and crackheads.[1] Businesses don't often stay open late. Much of downtown is overrun by tourists, so you have fewer shops that are actually useful to people living there and more shops for the tourists. Groceries are not easy or affordable to come by without driving to one of the surrounding neighborhoods. (Yes, Pike Place Market has a lot of decent produce, fish, and meat, but if you work during the day you never have the chance to shop there.)
As aaronbrethorst pointed out, Capitol Hill is closer to what you're talking about.
[1] Much of Seattle has some style of beggar, but the downtown ones are the worst. There's a bit of a crackhead-hippie continuum, and the downtown beggars definitely fall more on the crackhead side.
It's true. Downtown Seattle and its attached "chic" neighborhood Belltown are both IMHO wastelands - and not at all the urban paradise they are advertised to be. Homeless folk, crackheads, petty criminals of all varieties, and a complete lack of pedestrian traffic pretty much defines downtown.
Queen Anne, Fremont, Capitol Hill, and Ballard are much closer to the new urbanist ideal than anything else available in the area.
But I hate suburbs, personally, so my opinion might be biased.
edit: a few more thoughts.
I live in a fairly 'typical' US smaller town (not a small town). Here, new houses are jammed on their 1/2 acre with a minimal back yard, row after row after row of them. They are made poorly and there are no trees lining the streets. Streets curve round and round, making it difficult to travel from place to place. New apartment buildings follow a similar fashion, but are very small: suitable for student roommates in size, not suitable for more than two-three single people living together (or a married couple).
Contrast this with the older downtown, where houses are somewhat original, trees are planted (leading to shady sidewalks), and the streets are straight, leading to easy travel.
I was thinking about this on a recent trip to Seattle's downtown. There, not only are there trees and original buildings, but the businesses as housing are intermingled, plus they go up, allowing a much greater compaction of space. I would believe there is quite a nice economy of infrastructure scale going on there. Further, it is not like you have to travel between Zones to go shopping or go out to eat: you wander on down half a block, and you're there. Both my town's downtown and downtown Seattle present a much nicer experience than the row housing suburban monotony.