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Do you like the neighborhood you live in?


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I like my immediate neightborhood. It's rural here, with one house about 100yds away on one side, and the other neighbor about 300 yds away from ours. We have 8 acres of land, with about 3 acres of grass and the rest treed mostly in longleaf pines along with sassafrass, various strains of oak, two magnolias, and three sweet gum maples. It's an amazing place to come to and relax.

But, the city to which our area is assigned (Tyler), is not really my cup of tea. It's still just a little bit closed-minded for my tastes, and runs on the church good ol' boy network. The county is still technically a dry county, although full bars are available at clubs and restaurants. Racism is not overt, but it exists here. Though I only feel enmity towards myself if I mention I'm from California, if I do not mention it I feel a certain unease from people as I believe they don't really know what to do with anybody who doesn't look Texas, talk Texan, or act Texan (me, in other words). I'm not enamored of the climate here, and the "safety" inspections required yearly on motor vehicles is a huge hassle at times.

On the positive side, traffic is waaaaaaaaaaay lighter than what I'm used to, gas is cheap, and the network of top-notch state-maintained highways from Tyler is a dream. Also, it's a good location about halfway between shopping in Dallas, TX and gambling in Shreveport-Bossier City, LA.

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I absolutely love my neighborhood, my neighbors, beautiful old Spanish house and garden right on Balboa Park within walking distance to the village and downtown.

First ring trolley neighborhood, mature trees, beautiful homes and a very established and hip village commercial district with no chain stores allowed. It is the type of neighborhood that new urbanists desperately try to create but ultimately never really succeed because an interesting neighborhood is one that has been established over time and has a history.

http://www.southparkscene.com/

Our very first house is our last unless something really drastic happens. If I won $50 million in the lottery I would not move; of course I would travel more.

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Yikes! Its a pretty large city with some fantastic vistas and more than a few pretty California girls that might make you forget her. Even if she were here you would not likely see her.

You have those nice Texas fields and horizons to contemplate where you're at so I'm sure you will work through this just fine.

Peace.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southside,_Gr..._North_Carolina

http://www.cityviewatsouthside.com

I live in the Southside Neighborhood in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. The neighborhood has received several national awards and back in the 1980s its was an inner-city neighborhood of decay plagued with crime, prostitution and loitering winos. Today the neighborhood has $500,000 townhomes, luxury apartments and an upscale wine cafe with streetside dining and live Jazz three nights a week. One thing you will notice about the neighborhood is the mixture of people from all races and age groups. The main artery of the Southside neighborhood is Martin Luther King Jr Dr. I am a resident in the CityView Apartments and a future phase for the apartment complex calls for a restaurant with outside cafe seating, retail and a small upscale grocery story. The Southside neighborhood is very walkable and its just a 5 minutes walk from the neighborhood to nightclubs, bars, theaters and restaurant core of downtown. The neighborhood consists of townhomes, condos apartments, live-work dwellings and single amily homes. Some of the single family homes were built in 1887 and have gone through historic renovations while many other are brand new with authentic early 20th century style architecture. Also some of the single family homes have detached garages that have living space above the garage complete with living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Its like a second home on the property. So you could actually rent the living space above your garage out if you wanted to or it could just serve as a guest house. Southside has received several national awards including the 2003 Outstanding Planning Award, the 2004 National Award for Smart Growth and in 2005 the Sierra Club named the Southside Neighborhood in the top 12 as one of America\'s best new developments. Here are a few photos I took of my neighborhood.

Southside (downtown Greensboro)

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these are some interesting lofts

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These are actually apartments....I know It looks like a home :)

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The Tower homes

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Bedroom and Kitchen inside the Tower Homes

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CityView Apartments

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The view from apartment :)

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my space......I love this neighborhood

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Nice pics cityboi. I love that yellow house. I'm going to have to visit your city!

My neighborhood... I like my neighborhood. It has shaped me and my life. I have lived in this house since they brought me home from the hospital. My grandmother and her siblings were born in our front room between 1915 and 1929. We don't know exactly when the house was built, but the neighborhood, named Woodville, was planned after the Civil War in 1869. The first lots were purchased in 1870 and those lots have small one-story "shotgun-like" Italianate houses on them. The original houses were either Richmond's version of the Italianate style or simple non-descript structures. It was a close-knit community centered around the church and school and a lot of the families had members marry into others. It was one of Richmond's predominately black suburbs annexed into the city in 1942. Several later styled houses such as Bungalows and a few Colonial Revivals were built on vacant lots and between existing houses. There were corner stores and still open farm land. Then in 1957, 2/3 of the original neighborhood was demolished for a public housing project. Some of the houses were moved to some of the still vacant lots while others were moved many blocks away.

Since most of the community was destroyed, the community was fragmented. The church moved to a building in another neighborhood and a new school was built outside the original neighborhood but still in an addition to Woodville. Seeing the old pictures as a child fascinated me. I was proud to live in one of the old houses left. It was my reason for being interested in historic preservation and Richmond's history. I always felt awful that I never got to see many of the places that I hear the dwindling older folks talk about. However, I was elated at least to be able to see the footprints and the original grid of the neighborhood on Sanborn maps.

Now, unfortunately because of the projects and low-income and beginning to become rundown apartments, the people who call these places home are very suspicious and possibly dangerous. Ever since I was first stuck by the fine houses I saw in the old pictures (which look like sections of Church Hill), I have longed to see the day when the mistakes of the past are righted. There has been talk of finally demolishing the public housing projects in Richmond in favor of mixed-use communities. I can't wait! I want to encourage the preservation of the cluster of old houses left and the design of whatever is to be built echoes them like the new houses in some other old neighborhoods are. The streets should be straightened and renamed to their original names where possible. There are some repeats in the city so maybe "Old" in front would be good. However right now, new houses are going up and they're almost suburban in style. At least there's new hope for the neighborhood and the new houses being built may be in anticipation of a better neighborhood to come or the return of the original one.

So, despite having a public housing project as a neighbor, I love my neighborhood, although my love has been mainly for the older houses. I wouldn't want to leave because we were here first. This lot has been in our family since 1871. The house supposedly is the second on lot built probably 100 years ago. It is our family home and I have a deep connection with it that I can never walk away.

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