5 ms·

Not everyone lives in pleasant climates for walking around on foot and doing errands. Sure, maybe in the Bay Area or New England it’s fine, but you do not want

by xwdv 5y ago

Not everyone lives in pleasant climates for walking around on foot and doing errands. Sure, maybe in the Bay Area or New England it’s fine, but you do not want to go run errands outside in the sweltering heat of the south. And do you even know what the Midwest is? Young and restless.

simiones 5y ago
You're greatly overestimating the difficulty of living car-less in a city designed for it. Even in all the places you are discussing, people used to do this all the time in the times before AC was invented. It's true that there are places like Phoenix, AZ, where it's not really possible to survive (or at least thrive) without constant AC, but this is currently the exception even in the South.
detaro 5y ago
really, your response to parent comment is ... "but it doesn't work for everyone"?
DoreenMichele 5y ago
I was born and raised in Georgia. I am a former military wife. I have lived in Kansas, Texas, Germany, California and Washington state. I currently live without a car in an area that gets 76 inches of rain annually. I typically describe it as biblical flood levels of rain. It's a lot of rain. I routinely go outside in a t-shirt and sweatpants in all kinds of weather, including freezing temps and snow. Weather is intimidating to people who spend almost all their time indoors and in a vehicle. If you actually spend time outside, you know how to stay warm enough, how to mitigate exposure to wind, rain, etc. And I'm seriously handicapped by a condition that is known to negatively impact my ability to effectively modulate my body temperature. So I'm not especially impressed by such arguments. I don't think they have much, if any, merit. Though I would like to see more awnings in the downtown area where I live. I would appreciate that as a means to limit my exposure to rain and I think it's very doable.
- stavros 5y ago
  I live in Greece and our weather ranges from 40 C to -20 C. We walk to get groceries in all kinds of weather. Sure, you won't go in the middle of the day during a heat wave, but after the sun is set is not bad. As you said, you just learn to handle the weather. Walking to the super market is a very everyday thing for us.
  - ido 5y ago
    Unrelated but where in Greece does it routinely get to -20c? I'm wondering because was born and raised in Israel (similar climate to Greece) and even at the mountain tops -20c would be very rare (and there are generally no settlements of significant size at the peak of the tallest mountains, most people live in the valleys or coasts). Even in Germany where we live now (1000s of kilometers further north) -20c is very rare.
    - stavros 5y ago
      It routinely goes to -20 C every winter in my hometown, near Florina. Granted, that's in the night, but we do walk around in that kind of weather. Luckily, it's not very humid, or it would have been extremely hard to go out. AFAIK Israel is quite a bit warmer than Greece, since you guys are much closer to Cyprus (and Cyprus has a noticeably warmer climate than us), no?
      - ido 5y ago
        I think on the greek coasts the climate would be quite similar to both Cyprus and (coastal) Israel. And either way closer to that than where I now live (northern Germany)!
        stavros 5y ago
        In general, Cyprus has much warmer summers than even Crete, for example, and much warmer seas. This is all anecdotal, but everyone I've heard (and from when I've traveled there), they're always having more and longer heat waves than us, and everyone comments about how warm the sea there is.
SECProto 5y ago
> Sure, maybe in the Bay Area or New England it’s fine, but you do not want to go run errands outside in the sweltering heat of the south. And do you even know what the Midwest is? This thread was talking (in part) about the weather in Japan. Atlanta would be a similar climate to Fukuoka or Kagoshima - even Tokyo isn't too far off, it routinely gets into the high 30s with 75% humidity, yet somehow everyone still manages to get around just fine without a car. The only thing that makes a car seem so mandatory in north america is because we've built whole cities around the assumption that everyone has one and it's the only way to get around - this damage will take decades to fix.
- thriftwy 5y ago
  Novosibirsk is a walkable city and people routinely walk to school, buy groceries and run errands on foot. Yes you do need some winter clothing.
mypalmike 5y ago
Is "young and restless" your signature? Name calling? A favorite TV show?
- latortuga 5y ago
  It's a combination of "do you understand that weather in the Midwest has huge swings" combined with a line from Kanye West's song "Jesus Walks".
bserge 5y ago
Damn settlers and their air conditioned cars, those natives never stood a chance :D
krageon 5y ago
> in the sweltering heat of the south Do you imagine that folks living in the tropics always go and get their food by car?

by xwdv 5y ago

simiones 5y ago

You're greatly overestimating the difficulty of living car-less in a city designed for it. Even in all the places you are discussing, people used to do this all the time in the times before AC was invented. It's true that there are places like Phoenix, AZ, where it's not really possible to survive (or at least thrive) without constant AC, but this is currently the exception even in the South.

detaro 5y ago

really, your response to parent comment is ... "but it doesn't work for everyone"?

DoreenMichele 5y ago

I was born and raised in Georgia. I am a former military wife. I have lived in Kansas, Texas, Germany, California and Washington state. I currently live without a car in an area that gets 76 inches of rain annually. I typically describe it as biblical flood levels of rain. It's a lot of rain. I routinely go outside in a t-shirt and sweatpants in all kinds of weather, including freezing temps and snow. Weather is intimidating to people who spend almost all their time indoors and in a vehicle. If you actually spend time outside, you know how to stay warm enough, how to mitigate exposure to wind, rain, etc. And I'm seriously handicapped by a condition that is known to negatively impact my ability to effectively modulate my body temperature. So I'm not especially impressed by such arguments. I don't think they have much, if any, merit. Though I would like to see more awnings in the downtown area where I live. I would appreciate that as a means to limit my exposure to rain and I think it's very doable.

stavros 5y ago
I live in Greece and our weather ranges from 40 C to -20 C. We walk to get groceries in all kinds of weather. Sure, you won't go in the middle of the day during a heat wave, but after the sun is set is not bad. As you said, you just learn to handle the weather. Walking to the super market is a very everyday thing for us.
- ido 5y ago
  Unrelated but where in Greece does it routinely get to -20c? I'm wondering because was born and raised in Israel (similar climate to Greece) and even at the mountain tops -20c would be very rare (and there are generally no settlements of significant size at the peak of the tallest mountains, most people live in the valleys or coasts). Even in Germany where we live now (1000s of kilometers further north) -20c is very rare.
  - stavros 5y ago
    It routinely goes to -20 C every winter in my hometown, near Florina. Granted, that's in the night, but we do walk around in that kind of weather. Luckily, it's not very humid, or it would have been extremely hard to go out. AFAIK Israel is quite a bit warmer than Greece, since you guys are much closer to Cyprus (and Cyprus has a noticeably warmer climate than us), no?
    - ido 5y ago
      I think on the greek coasts the climate would be quite similar to both Cyprus and (coastal) Israel. And either way closer to that than where I now live (northern Germany)!
      - stavros 5y ago
        In general, Cyprus has much warmer summers than even Crete, for example, and much warmer seas. This is all anecdotal, but everyone I've heard (and from when I've traveled there), they're always having more and longer heat waves than us, and everyone comments about how warm the sea there is.

SECProto 5y ago

> Sure, maybe in the Bay Area or New England it’s fine, but you do not want to go run errands outside in the sweltering heat of the south. And do you even know what the Midwest is? This thread was talking (in part) about the weather in Japan. Atlanta would be a similar climate to Fukuoka or Kagoshima - even Tokyo isn't too far off, it routinely gets into the high 30s with 75% humidity, yet somehow everyone still manages to get around just fine without a car. The only thing that makes a car seem so mandatory in north america is because we've built whole cities around the assumption that everyone has one and it's the only way to get around - this damage will take decades to fix.

thriftwy 5y ago
Novosibirsk is a walkable city and people routinely walk to school, buy groceries and run errands on foot. Yes you do need some winter clothing.

mypalmike 5y ago

Is "young and restless" your signature? Name calling? A favorite TV show?

latortuga 5y ago
It's a combination of "do you understand that weather in the Midwest has huge swings" combined with a line from Kanye West's song "Jesus Walks".

bserge 5y ago

Damn settlers and their air conditioned cars, those natives never stood a chance :D

krageon 5y ago

> in the sweltering heat of the south Do you imagine that folks living in the tropics always go and get their food by car?