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I grew up in 80's the time where almost everybody played in parks and fields. But I can't give that to my own son of 7. I realize it's not possible for everybo

I grew up in 80's the time where almost everybody played in parks and fields. But I can't give that to my own son of 7. I realize it's not possible for everybody, but there are areas where this is still possible. Even in the suburbs. My current "town" - Reston, VA - is like this. I can walk to all three schools (~1 mile), two lakes (~2 miles), a shopping center (~1 mile), community center (~1 mile), ball fields (~0.5 miles), and miles of wooded trails without crossing a single street at grade (we have pedestrian tunnels). And you can buy a decent TH for ~$600k (that's "affordable" for DC metro). It always amazes me that people willingly choose newer/bigger homes with crap infrastructure for families to live locally over older/smaller homes where the QOL is, by my measure, so much higher.

mattgreenrocks 3y ago
Hello fellow Restonite! Reston is a gem. It's not perfect by any means, but it was intentionally designed to be something other than unmitigated suburban sprawl. And it helps a lot. There's still a big reliance on cars to get around, but the wide availability of trails is fantastic.
- alistairSH 3y ago
  And it definitely varies based on which side of Reston you're in. Being bisected by the Toll Road has some advantages, but really limits the ability to fully link (by foot or pedal) the entire area.
  - mattgreenrocks 3y ago
    If only the briefly-proposed casino could've brought us together!
    - alistairSH 3y ago
      They can have the casino if we can keep the golf courses.
bluGill 3y ago
Newer homes tend to have better park infrastructure in my experience. No modern suburb will allow a development without the developer donating some of the land to the city for a park. Older developments didn't have that and so parks are much farther away, and much more likely to be across busy streets. (exurb developments also don't have parks - but when you have enough land for horses you can find room for your own playground) there is a lot of bad urbanism about new suburbs, but the parks are a bright spot.
- alistairSH 3y ago
  Newer homes tend to have better park infrastructure in my experience. From what I've seen, there may be parks, but they rarely seem to be walkable, and if they are, they're just a swing set (and not a full field with room for older kids to run). Lots of disjointed sidewalks, where the developer put sidewalks in/around the cluster of homes, but failed to link it anywhere useful.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    It really depends who the developer is trying to sell to. There are properties being developed around here that would bog down an invading army, and there are others that are clearly developed for seniors, and some that are obviously aimed at families. The latter two often are quite walkable and even advertise it as a feature. It depends on what is selling. As house prices level off, expect to see developers throw more money at things like walkability and parks, as they hate to ever have to reduce prices in a development or an area, and would rather "throw more on".
underlipton 3y ago
>And you can buy a decent TH for ~$600k (that's "affordable" for DC metro). That's not affordable, not even for DC metro. Houses in Greenbelt (one of the nation's original walkable planned communities) can be had for less than $400k. $600k is "large colonial" money, or "walk to UMD's campus" money. Even those numbers are not necessarily comfortable swings for the median worker.
- alistairSH 3y ago
  The median household income in Greenbelt is significantly less than Reston ($82k vs $135k). The average home sale for all of DC Metro, for all home types, is right around $600k. And average new homes in Fairfax County is around $1 million. That's why I had "affordable" in quotes - it's not cheap, no debate there, but it's reasonable for the area given the demographics (and you can spend less, but get a less desirable home design or location). Lots of teachers and SAHM/Fs in my neighborhood, which you're less likely to find in Ashburn or McLean.
  - underlipton 3y ago
    >https://wtop.com/business-finance/2024/02/dc-metro-home-prices-up-29-since-before-the-pandemic/ https://wtop.com/business-finance/2024/02/dc-metro-home-pric... AFAIK it's never been $600k. NOVA prices have always been inflated and overweight the average (for super-fun reasons I won't get into but that you can probably guess), not a norm that MD prices fail to reach. This mortgage calculator (https://themortgagereports.com/mortgage-calculator https://themortgagereports.com/mortgage-calculator) pegs a $600k home at ~$3700/m, which is going to be about 45% of the post-tax income (assuming a take-home of about $100k from that $135k), or ~1/3 of pre-tax. Depending on who you ask, that's just on the edge of affordability; it leaves no wiggle room, particularly if you've seen or will see transportation or food or other costs rise (so it makes sense that the actual median is lower). It's perhaps advantageous for some to project the idea that a $600k median is reasonable, because they derive certain privileges from both the rising figures and the delta with what people in the area can actually afford comfortably, but I guess my point is that it's not actually reasonable. It puts a strain on household budgets and redirects funds that should be going to things like infrastructure, disproportionately affecting the less well-off. (It's also a bit of a feedback loop, as higher housing values can be borrowed against, and the debt used to bid up the prices of other goods.)
stephencanon 3y ago
Yup. College towns are especially great for this, because college kids walk all over the place, so there's a critical mass of pedestrians and drivers expect them. We live in Hanover NH, and packs of six-year-olds run all over our neighborhood.

mattgreenrocks 3y ago

Hello fellow Restonite! Reston is a gem. It's not perfect by any means, but it was intentionally designed to be something other than unmitigated suburban sprawl. And it helps a lot. There's still a big reliance on cars to get around, but the wide availability of trails is fantastic.

alistairSH 3y ago
And it definitely varies based on which side of Reston you're in. Being bisected by the Toll Road has some advantages, but really limits the ability to fully link (by foot or pedal) the entire area.
- mattgreenrocks 3y ago
  If only the briefly-proposed casino could've brought us together!
  - alistairSH 3y ago
    They can have the casino if we can keep the golf courses.

bluGill 3y ago

Newer homes tend to have better park infrastructure in my experience. No modern suburb will allow a development without the developer donating some of the land to the city for a park. Older developments didn't have that and so parks are much farther away, and much more likely to be across busy streets. (exurb developments also don't have parks - but when you have enough land for horses you can find room for your own playground) there is a lot of bad urbanism about new suburbs, but the parks are a bright spot.

alistairSH 3y ago
Newer homes tend to have better park infrastructure in my experience. From what I've seen, there may be parks, but they rarely seem to be walkable, and if they are, they're just a swing set (and not a full field with room for older kids to run). Lots of disjointed sidewalks, where the developer put sidewalks in/around the cluster of homes, but failed to link it anywhere useful.
- bombcar 3y ago
  It really depends who the developer is trying to sell to. There are properties being developed around here that would bog down an invading army, and there are others that are clearly developed for seniors, and some that are obviously aimed at families. The latter two often are quite walkable and even advertise it as a feature. It depends on what is selling. As house prices level off, expect to see developers throw more money at things like walkability and parks, as they hate to ever have to reduce prices in a development or an area, and would rather "throw more on".

underlipton 3y ago

>And you can buy a decent TH for ~$600k (that's "affordable" for DC metro). That's not affordable, not even for DC metro. Houses in Greenbelt (one of the nation's original walkable planned communities) can be had for less than $400k. $600k is "large colonial" money, or "walk to UMD's campus" money. Even those numbers are not necessarily comfortable swings for the median worker.

alistairSH 3y ago
The median household income in Greenbelt is significantly less than Reston ($82k vs $135k). The average home sale for all of DC Metro, for all home types, is right around $600k. And average new homes in Fairfax County is around $1 million. That's why I had "affordable" in quotes - it's not cheap, no debate there, but it's reasonable for the area given the demographics (and you can spend less, but get a less desirable home design or location). Lots of teachers and SAHM/Fs in my neighborhood, which you're less likely to find in Ashburn or McLean.
- underlipton 3y ago
  >https://wtop.com/business-finance/2024/02/dc-metro-home-prices-up-29-since-before-the-pandemic/ https://wtop.com/business-finance/2024/02/dc-metro-home-pric... AFAIK it's never been $600k. NOVA prices have always been inflated and overweight the average (for super-fun reasons I won't get into but that you can probably guess), not a norm that MD prices fail to reach. This mortgage calculator (https://themortgagereports.com/mortgage-calculator https://themortgagereports.com/mortgage-calculator) pegs a $600k home at ~$3700/m, which is going to be about 45% of the post-tax income (assuming a take-home of about $100k from that $135k), or ~1/3 of pre-tax. Depending on who you ask, that's just on the edge of affordability; it leaves no wiggle room, particularly if you've seen or will see transportation or food or other costs rise (so it makes sense that the actual median is lower). It's perhaps advantageous for some to project the idea that a $600k median is reasonable, because they derive certain privileges from both the rising figures and the delta with what people in the area can actually afford comfortably, but I guess my point is that it's not actually reasonable. It puts a strain on household budgets and redirects funds that should be going to things like infrastructure, disproportionately affecting the less well-off. (It's also a bit of a feedback loop, as higher housing values can be borrowed against, and the debt used to bid up the prices of other goods.)

stephencanon 3y ago

Yup. College towns are especially great for this, because college kids walk all over the place, so there's a critical mass of pedestrians and drivers expect them. We live in Hanover NH, and packs of six-year-olds run all over our neighborhood.