The Village
About 14 years ago, we moved out into the rural suburbs. I loved the quiet, the abundant wildlife, and our proximity to farms.
I didn’t realize just how often doing anything at all would require a car.
The Sprawl
Absolutely nothing was walkable. We lived at the very top of a very high hill, so things weren’t really bikeable either.
Groceries, restaurants, entertainment, friends, the library, and so on… you need to get in a car and drive at least 15 minutes for all of it.
And as a result, we became homebodies, and spent a lot of money buying a lot of stuff to make our home a place we had to leave as little as possible.
Bad Zoning
In a city, any particular block will include a mix of apartments, businesses, and maybe a park or school or playground. No matter where you live, you can walk or bike to get around and get what you need.
By contrast, suburb zoning laws in North America usually prevent this kind of mixed-use development.
Homes are allowed on one side of town. Businesses are allowed on another. They’re typically pretty far from each other.
This means that unless you’re right on the border of these two zones, you need a car to do anything.
Your options are:
- Walk and bike places, but live in a noisy, busy, crowded space.
- Get quiet and peace, but need a car to get anywhere.
But there’s a third option!
The Village
In much of Europe (and small pockets of America), you can find villages.
These are suburban spaces. They’re relatively quiet, and have homes with lawns and lots of wildlife around.
But they’re also walkable and bikeable.
The zoning of these spaces allows for small businesses to coexist alongside homes. More restricted commercial use than a city, but far less so than a typical sprawling suburb.
They often have narrower roads, which slows down car traffic, making them more pedestrian friendly, too.
Making a Change
We recently decided we were done with the sprawl, and moved from a rural suburb in Massachusetts to a small coastal village in Rhode Island.
The change in lifestyle that comes from being in a walkable/bikeable area has been transformative, and I’m going to talk all about it in part two!