Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with neighborhood

I need general advice about bicycle commuting and specific recommendations for Seattle.

GPF — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:11:27 -0800

I need general advice about bicycle commuting and specific recommendations for Seattle: where to live for commute to UW, bike shop recommendations, must have equipment, neighborhoods to avoid, good routes and trails, and the like. I'm planning a move to Seattle. Lots of good threads on the green about Seattle info and bicycling info. The Seattle department of transportation maps and guides seem fantastic -- any personal experience you could add to using them would be much appreciated.

I'm considering using a bicycle as my main commuting vehicle to the University of Washington. Obviously, closer is better but closer means higher rents and more undergrads -- right? In searching for places to live, I'm trying to gauge how far from UDub I can get and have a tolerable commute. I'm a pretty good judge of my fitness and stamina for it, but I don't have any idea which neighborhoods make for a convenient ride. As in, I'd prefer an hour long ride on an easy trail to a twenty minute ride on a hilly five-lane road. Are there any definitive architectural encumbrances (e.g. bad bridges, freeway crossings, etc.)?

Bonus for family friendly parks nearby and cheap rents. Double bonus for specific apartment or landlord recommendations.

I'd also love some recommendations for bike shops - especially ones that trade in used gear and cater to the commuter.

New residents of Seattle. Please help us choose a neighborhood to buy a house.

valannc — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:35:59 -0800

Seattle region filter: We are new residents of Seattle, from New Jersey, enjoying our exploration of this wonderful city. We are house-hunting and have narrowed down our choice of neighborhoods. Any opinions or advice? Criteria:
- Commute is less than 30 minutes to South Lake Union.
- Quiet streets and beautiful light. We really like the light in the areas close to Puget Sound.
- Re-sale value. We have no kids, but we prefer good schools and desirable areas -- for resale value.
- Walkable friendly community.

Neighborhoods, in order of preference:
1. Richmond Beach. Wonderful quiet neighborhood seems like a retreat from the city. But not a bad commute. However, there is the Point Wells development looming. It could change the whole character of the community.
2. North Beach. I like the relaxed feel of the neighborhood.
3. Blue Ridge. I think it's a bit too spruce and upscale for us. But there are some beautiful houses.
4. Sunset Hill. What a lovely community! But the lots and houses tend to be small. Houses are selling quickly in Sunset Hill, despite the "buyer's market."
5. Magnolia. Shorter commute to South Lake Union, but homes are more costly, and the area is kind of isolated from the rest of Seattle.

Also, is there any advantage/disadvantage to living in Shoreline vs the city of Seattle?

How do I act tough on the street?

wastelands — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:10:05 -0800

How do I reduce the amount I'm threatened on the street in an urban environment? I am a tall, young male, but about one a month on average, I get hassled by people on the street. No one has outright attacked me, but enough people "test" me by blocking my way, lunging at me (pretending to attack), yell at me and challenge me, etc. that it bothers me and makes me nervous.

I'm not so much interested in "how to defend my self"; there's plenty of that kind of material out there. I'm interested in how to not look so weak and nervous -- how to head off attacks before they even begin by projecting a tougher attitude.

For me personally:

* I definitely have some agoraphobia; I feel uneasy when first going out, especially after being cooped up for awhile. I tend to be a hermit on weekends and evenings unless I have something social planned or the weather's especially nice
* I wear glasses (i.e. nerd association)
* I dress nicely, yet sometimes walk through areas that have street people who probably resent the fact that I have money
* I enjoy walking fast, just naturally, but maybe that can be interpreted as being afraid.
* I'm bad at making eye contact

But I hope this thread is useful for people in general who live in rough areas, so please, any general tips are great too.

Things I'm doing or plan to do:

* I am trying to not look down at the ground so much, trying to look straight ahead more
* I really want to get into better shape and join an MMA gym (not just for self-defense, but because martial arts is fun for me, just haven't done it in ages)
* I'm trying to stand up taller and not slouch or hunch my shoulders so much
* Eventually want to get contacts, to look less nerdy and just because glasses are a PITA sometimes

Thanks!

Lost Cat in New Neighborhood

SociologistTina — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:06:23 -0800

If an outdoor-access cat moves to a new neighborhood, what are the chances that she would get lost and not be able to find her way back after about half a dozen or so forays into it? I have lived in this location for 6+ weeks, but most of that time she has been inside, although she was an outdoor access cat in my old place (thru a slit in the window screen.) I just got a new kitty door in my new apartment. I decided to just got to bed at about 3AM last night because she really seemed to want to roam and I couldn't get her.

I'm not totally sure she had the concept of coming into the new kitty door-- she has never had one before. I probably would not have heard her if she came to the regular door while I was sleeping, but the kitty door was definitely open and accessible.

I did spend some time teaching her how to go in and out of it yesterday.

Do you think she will be able to figure out how to get back to my apartment? She has in the past, but the most she was gone was about 3-4+ hours.

I'm very anxious about this. She's been gone almost 14 hours, although in the old place she occasionally was gone a day or 2 or so. I'm worried that she tried to get in the regular door, but since I was asleep and couldn't hear her, maybe she freaked.

She doesn't wear a collar or ID tag.

Some of my neighbors think that coyotes could have gotten her, but I just think that she's too smart and quick for that.

New York, the final frontier. Help me understand the geographic lingo.

milqman — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:04:41 -0800

New Yorkers seem to have an incredibly detailed implicit and explicit knowledge of their city. I want to know more. New York has burrows, streets, neighborhoods, mass transit, parks and all the rest of it. New Yorkers seem to have all of this knowledge deeply ingrained in their psyche. You always see statements on AskMe like:
"oh, there is a ridiculously tiny shop that does that exact thing on broadway at fifth" (just making that intersection up, I don't even know that it exists)
-or-
"You are going to have a hard time getting an apartment at that price in that part of town below 53rd"
-or-
"Oh yeah, just take the orange train to 6th, then transfer to the M line southbound, hop on the #562 bus, and get off exactly 2 minutes and 45 seconds after the stop by that excellent bagel shop."

1: How does this knowledge become so ingrained? Do people really just answer questions about the parts of town that they travel through everyday or is it that New Yorkers all use he same basic language to communicate geography?

2: How (or where online) would I learn about the neighborhoods/areas of New York without actually going there? To a New Yorker, it means something if you say "I live on the Upper West Side, on 10th". I have no idea what that means. Does that mean they are rich or does that mean that they live in a roach infested half-condemned hovel? Is there any sort of reference for this kind of "meta" information? Like which neighborhoods are safe to go out at night, which neighborhoods mean that you are an i-banker or executive?

3: Which areas are where for that matter? For example, the Upper east side, where is that? When someone says they live in Queens and commute to Manhattan, how could I get an idea about what their commute is like, how long it takes, what areas they go through, and whether that is a popular route for that kind of person to make or if it is a very atypical arrangement of work and home?

Generally speaking, when someone uses any of the top ten or so geographic locations in NY, where are they referring to, and what are the connotations associated with that location?

References would be excellent, personal opinions and listing would also be perfect. Help me understand the lingo better.

Seattle, West Edge neighborhood. Need suggestions on where to buy stuff, services, parks, etc.

valannc — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:44:57 -0800

[Seattle filter] We just moved to the West Edge neighborhood in Seattle, near Pike Street Market. Need suggestions on where to buy stuff, services, parks, etc. We've been in Seattle for two days and we love it. 1. Need place to stock up on groceries, cleaning supplies, paper products. Neighborhood prices are way too high. Where can we drive to get lower prices on these things? Not Costco. We don't have space for a pallet of toilet tissue. Looking for a big supermarket with good prices. I'm OK with driving a distance, if the selection and prices are good.

2. Cheapest place for gasoline (brand name only)

3. Parks. My poor old dog is missing the green grass of the suburbs. Is there a nice quiet grassy park nearby -- with easy parking? (No dog parks. My dog doesn't like other dogs.)

4. Pike Market! Fabulous! What are the best stalls for produce, fish, meat? Best quality and prices?

5. Is there an excellent chiropractor in the neighborhood?

6. Yoga classes? I see lots of choices. Any recommendations?

Good examples of neighborhood/community websites?

octothorpe — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:28:51 -0800

Examples of good urban neighborhood community websites? I'm webmaster for my city neighborhood association's website and right now it's pretty rudimentary in its content. and I'd like to see what some other places have on their sites. We live in a small (~500) resident historical downtown neighborhood in a old rust belt city. I volunteered to update our website and I'm OK with the technical aspects and I'm going to re-use the existing design but I'd like to get a better idea of what a good community organization website has in it.

The website needs to address two different sets of users: people who live there and people who are visiting. For the residents, I'd like to have things like: information about city services, the historical review process, information about the neighborhood council, a calendar of meetings, urban foresting information, etc. For visitors it would be information about neighborhood events/tours, self guided tours, information about businesses in the area, directions, parking information, etc.

I'm planning on converting the site which someone else made a few years ago with Adobe Page Mill to run on a CMS system, probably Wordpress or Drupal so any sites that you point me to that are running either of those would be great.

Help me find a quote/poem/proverb about friendship and neighbors.

librarianamy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:16:13 -0800

Please help me find a quote, proverb or poem, about friendship and neighbors. I am putting together a recipe book as a gift for a group of ladies in my neighborhood that I meet with on a monthly basis. Prior to knowing these women, I didn't really have a sense of "neighborhood" and now I love our area so much more - learning the past and working together for a better future for our little part of town.

I'd like to include either a series of quotes/proverbs about good friends making a neighborhood better, but am having a hard time finding anything - beyond "good fences make good neighbors" which really isn't my point. Or a nice short poem about how knowing them has made where I live a better place to be. We span ages and ethnicities and politics, so I'm open to pretty much anything. (I've googled. I'm not a wild fan of poetry as a general rule, so I'm really struggling. Bartlett's has been only minimally helpful.)

Help with House

CollectiveMind — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:29:25 -0800

Under financial pressure. My house isn't selling. I want to avoid foreclosure and don't care about making a profit. It's the original mortgage; a 30-year fixed at 5.5% in good condition (attractive older house and well maintained) in a decent neighborhood (property values steady as those in more expensive neighborhoods fall). If I price it only to pay off the mortgage and cover commissions, would it attract buyers? Doing so would drop its price 20% below comparables. This would undercut the neighborhood, but not like a foreclosure would. Advice?

DCFilter

bad grammar — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:48:06 -0800

Where can I find information about the history of Chinatown in Washington, D.C.? Called the smallest Chinatown in a major metropolitan U.S. city, the area, once grubby and unsafe, is rapidly being "gentrified" and replaced with mall stores and chain restaurants. I want to find out more about the original ethnic neighborhood before it disappears.

Help me prepare for a neighborhood-exploring, apartment-hunting trip to Washington DC.

medpt — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:21:21 -0800

Help me prepare for a neighborhood-exploring, apartment-hunting trip to Washington DC. My girlfriend and I are moving to DC soon. We're visiting later this week to decide what neighborhood we want to live in and to look at apartments. We'll have four full days to wander around (Thursday-Sunday). Here are the neighborhoods we're considering:

* Dupont Circle
* Logan Circle
* Columbia Heights
* Mount Pleasant
* Clarendon (in Arlington)

Our goal is to spend a morning or afternoon wandering around in each neighborhood and hopefully get a feel for what it's like to live there. We would be very grateful for recommendations from locals: restaurants or shops to visit, specific streets to walk down, etc. Help us experience, to the extent we can in a few hours, what's unique about each neighborhood.

What do you like about your neighborhood & community in the LA/greater LA area?

tinygiant — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:17:29 -0800

For those of you who live in LA or the greater LA area (Long Beach, especially) -- what do you enjoy most about your neighborhood, and how have you created a personal space for yourself in this sprawling city? I am currently a court reporting student, 27 years old, single, and live in the suburbs with family to save money. I *can't wait* until i'm actually licensed, which I'm guessing will be in about a year, and want to look into different agencies now so that I can possibly work for them even before I can start reporting.

I want to live in a place with lots of life and community and want to base my search for agencies around this. I'll have some flexibility, to be sure, because you take depositions from all over and aren't actually restricted to the area you live in, but ... I guess I'm a little impatient and would love to start looking into possibilities of where i'll be able to live now. :-)

Would love to hear how you've created your own personal community, how you've met new people, what kinds of people you've met, what you like/don't like about your neighborhood ... any details you care to share on how your neighborhood suits you and how you've had to adjust to it. AND, if you've lived in any other bigger city, how it compares as far as creating your own community.

What's it like around Downtown Crossing (Boston)?

Perplexity — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:12:19 -0800

What's it like around Downtown Crossing (Boston)? We're thinking about moving to a building right at Downtown Crossing (on Washington Street, between Winter/Summer and Temple Place). How's the neighborhood? We really like the apartment, and the location within the city, but we're a little worried about the immediate neighborhood. It seems a little sketchy, and we weren't even there that late. Is it safe at night? Thanks in advance for any input, positive or negative.

How did you play sports in your neighborhood?

Joey Michaels — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:48:02 -0800

What alternate rules did you follow when you played specific sports as a kid? So, my wedding anniversary is a month and my wife and I are going to treat our friends to a big outdoor party in a local park. We've been talking about activities that would be a little more unusual than the normal summer park activities.

Writing up this comment in the Blue got me to thinking about how much fun I used to have playing three person whiffle/tennis/baseball. I'm thinking it might be fun to abandon the adult rules of some traditional sports and play by playground rules at our cookout thing.

So, when you were a kid, did you have specific rules for playing sports that were, to the best of your knowledge, unique to your town or neighborhood?

How to browse a neighborhood?

underwater — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:32:15 -0800

How can I "browse" a neighborhood online? I just moved to a new area and I want to "browse" it with an online map, by which I mean I want to be able to use a zoomed-in map and see every store, restaurant, gas station, etc. so I can get a good sense of what's around here without just driving randomly. I don't care about actual satellite imagery; I just want some sort of map image that has streets and names and information of businesses (maybe with pop-up balloons on hover). I couldn't find a way to do this in Google Maps. Does such a service exist?

If I Make This School Better, I Can Change the World! Um, right?

jeanmari — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:45:43 -0800

I'm looking for some research or (last resort) anecdotal stories about the effect of improved/improving schools on communities/neighborhoods. I'm putting together a project that would try and encourage local community members to adopt classrooms/teachers in an urban school.

I'd like to be able to describe to people other than parents how improving a school can help to improve a community. I have a hunch that it helps with property values, but I don't have the data to back that up. Effects on crime? Effects on local businesses? Etcetera, etcetera.

Unfortunately, I'm working from home these days and don't have access to the good old university database that I'm used to. And it's been difficult to find what I need on Google.

Anyone have leads on where to look for this type of research, if it exists?

Just how sketchy is it anyway?

zachlipton — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:42:51 -0800

SeattleSketchynessFilter: I've just been informed that for the next few months, I'll be living on the 1000 block of East Terrace Street in Seattle. While I know that Seattle is generally a pretty safe city, the address in the International District, along with the close proximity to the city's sole remaining major public housing project is setting off some alarm bells in my mind. At the same time, it's quite hard to figure out how how sketchy a neighborhood is online. So before I raise a stink and try to move someplace else, I ask Seattle Metafiltes: just what kind of a neighborhood is this, and might I, as someone who enjoys being able to walk to restaurants/shops, find it a decent place to live?

Where to stay in Barcelona?

junesix — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:14:59 -0800

Pair of mid-20s friends looking for a place to stay in Barcelona in early June. I've read up a bit on the neighborhoods and it sounds like the popular, touristy area is near Las Ramblas. However, many of the modern tourist attractions are farther to the northeast. Help! I'm having trouble nailing down a neighborhood to find a hotel to stay. I love being in an urban neighborhood that's great for walking around day and night, cheap eats, and great shops. Since this will be our first time to Barcelona, we'll likely be heading to the big tourist spots as well which seem to be northeast of the old town center. So far I've picked out Hotel Del Mar just north of Las Ramblas but near a good metro station. What do you think? Should I go closer to the center or farther? Any suggested hotels for 6/1-6/6? Budget max is $200/night for the 5 nights.

Cities with software industries like SF bay area but not so expensive?

bumpybear — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:40:54 -0800

What US cities have a strong, diverse software industry, multicultural makeup, affordable housing, and walkable neighborhoods? We love the San Francisco bay area, but just can't see our way to staying here long term with the housing prices (650k for 2bed in bad neighborhood). SO and I are both in the software industry, like to eat Asian food, and enjoy living in neighborhoods where the library/grocery store/restaurants are within a 15 minute walk. Bonus if it has a liberal slant and is not cold.

Portland sounds like our kind of city, but doesn't seem to have much of a software industry. Any ideas?

Local geo-slang???

hummercash — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:17:39 -0800

LISTS of neighborhoods, local landmarks and local slang names... an example of each in the Philadelphia area would be Chestnut Hill, Fairmount Park and Philly. Is there any place I can go to get a list of these items per state (or for the entire US)? Free is good, but I wouldn't be opposed to paying for it. If someone from Ohio was going to be going to Philadelphia for the weekend and they wanted to have some familiarity with local terms for areas of interest, where would they go?

I'm not just looking for info on major cities either... If the situation was reversed and I was heading to a small town in Ohio, where would I find the same info?

TIA!

.//chris

neighborhood weblog HOWTO

bukvich — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 08:08:12 -0800

I would like to start a neighborhood web log. Something vaguely resembling metafilter. I don't want to spend much money on it. Is there a prototype you would recommend? Where to put it? What kind of usage terms to post? &c.

City of neighboods, right?

a robot made out of meat — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:33:17 -0800

Chicagofilter: West Loop 101. I live here, now what? I lived until recently in Humboldt Park. Ms Vegetable (she objects to being called Ms Meat) and I never spent a lot of time downtown, and now we find ourselves living at about Adams (200S) and Jefferson (600W). It's pretty intimidating. We're looking for neighborhoody restaurants and hangouts like we had back in the north west. Around here I see tons of chains and uber-expensive joints. Everyone likes live music, but we cherish places that we can talk to friends rather than yell. Where should we be looking to be regulars? Is there a neighborhood scene around us or has downtown sucked it up? Other general our-area recommendations are of course welcome.

where should I live in san francisco?

I like to eat meat — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:53:03 -0800

What neighborhood should I live in SF? Hello. I'm looking to move to SF soon, and I'm having some trouble deciding where to live.

I'm young (just graduated from college), and work at a tech company in the south bay, to which I would be commuting to via caltrain.

I'm looking for a warm, sunny neighborhood with a lot of restaurants, bars, young people, artsy stuff, interesting shops, etc. I could bring my car up there or bike to the caltrain stop in the morning, so some place on the eastern part of the city near the stops would be great. Also, street parking would also be nice.

The mission looks pretty cool from what I've seen, but I'm afraid of the crime. Is it really that bad? I can't really afford to replace a window on my car all the time if someone breaks into it, and I would probably crap my pants if i got mugged.

I've also heard the lower haight is fun, but is it any safer than the mission? Is it just like mission-lite?

If there are any other cool neighborhoods, please let me know. Thanks!

Help Me Write A Church Survey Question

ThePinkSuperhero — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:06:34 -0800

My church is writing a survey to get some information on the neighborhood, and we're having some trouble with the wording of one of the questions. We want to do one question that will determine what neighbors think about our church. We wouldn't want to bias their answers- if the church has a reputation as being the best, worst, nicest, meanest church in the neighborhood, we'd like to know. I have the feeling, based on neighborhood demographics, that a large number of the people we'll survey will not know anything about our church. What's the best way to word this question to get to the heart of the matter?

A few things to consider:
-This survey will most likely be done in person by members of our church, either by visiting homes in the neighborhood or surveying outside local businesses. It is far from scientific, and that's fine. Nevertheless, if someone thinks our church is a bad, nasty place because of XYZ, I wouldn't want them to not tell us because they like the little old lady they're talking to.
-We're not looking for information on what people think about churches in general; we're looking for what people think/know about this particular church.
-This is an informative survey for our church, not an evangelism tool.
-The survey itself is quite short- we have a total of 6 questions, including this yet to be written one.

What's this SF neighborhood?

aladfar — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:17:25 -0800

Name this San Francisco Neighborhood! I'm in the process of moving from Chicago to SF and am considering an apartment on Geary between Baker and Lyon. It's been described as being in "Lower Pacific Heights", but I've since learned that this is something of a misnomer - a way for realtors to make the place sound more impressive than it is. So where is this apartment in actuality? Also: While Geary seems heavily trafficked and barren (my nearest neighbor is a Best Buy) the apartment itself is quite pleasant and boasts a happy little garden in the back. I'd appreciate any info about the neighborhood, places to hang out, transit options, etc. Thanks!