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According to a Pew poll that was recently published, nearly half of Americans surveyed want to live somewhere else. Although many people residing in rural areas are content where they are, "most city dwellers think the grass would be greener in a suburb, small town or rural area." Americans prefer a pace of life that is slow, which may be why the South and the West are more appealing than New England and the Mid West. Out of the top ten metropolitan areas, seven cities are in the west and the other three are in the south. These cities share a few traits: warm weather, a casual lifestyle, and rapid growth. Cities are less than ideal for middle-income Americans and those "on the lower rungs of the income ladder," many of them preferring to live somewhere else. The survey results also suggest that a majority of Americans want to live in a place where they know each other well, akin to the picturesque small town and rural communities.
More and more people are enticed by "developments with an urban flair," combining housing, stores and offices in a neighborhood setting. There is a growing movement advocating "traditional neighborhood development" that encourage both cities and towns to create livable downtowns rather than separate parks - "office parks," "shopping centers," "housing developments," and "industrial parks," all of which require a car to get from one to the next.
This is some-what true for me. As a restless twenty-something that currently lives with my parents in a rural town that takes at least fifteen minuets by car to get anywhere worth going, I am considering leaving the nest to find myself a place that is more exciting. I thoroughly enjoy a downtown area, with sidewalks that line streets filled with mom-and-pop shops, quaint restaurants, corner stores, and apartments on the floors above, mixed with modern office buildings and parks, monuments, and important buildings like the town/city hall and libraries.
I was raised in towns in southern New Hampshire. Every time my family moved, they were to inch further away from the Massachusetts border. I have temporarily lived in other places - an even smaller NH town where my college was located, a summer spent in an apartment in Portland, Maine with constant visits slightly north to a small, hippie community, the beautiful Vienna, Austria. Now I am seriously considering moving to Worcester, MA.
I will always feel at home in New England, with access to both the mountains and the sea, to lakes and valleys, all within a reasonable drive. Although this winter has been exceptionally harsh, I enjoy all four seasons, particularly the fall and spring.
However, I do not want to stay in the middle of nowhere. I need to be in a small city where there is plenty of culture and other young people, a walkable downtown, and where I do not need to depend on a car to get around.
* El Nasser, Haya. "Pew: Almost Half of Americans Want to Live Somewhere Else" USA Today 29 Jan 2009.
* "For Nearly Half of America, Grass Is Greener Somewhere Else" Pew Research Center. 29 Jan 2009.
More and more people are enticed by "developments with an urban flair," combining housing, stores and offices in a neighborhood setting. There is a growing movement advocating "traditional neighborhood development" that encourage both cities and towns to create livable downtowns rather than separate parks - "office parks," "shopping centers," "housing developments," and "industrial parks," all of which require a car to get from one to the next.
This is some-what true for me. As a restless twenty-something that currently lives with my parents in a rural town that takes at least fifteen minuets by car to get anywhere worth going, I am considering leaving the nest to find myself a place that is more exciting. I thoroughly enjoy a downtown area, with sidewalks that line streets filled with mom-and-pop shops, quaint restaurants, corner stores, and apartments on the floors above, mixed with modern office buildings and parks, monuments, and important buildings like the town/city hall and libraries.
I was raised in towns in southern New Hampshire. Every time my family moved, they were to inch further away from the Massachusetts border. I have temporarily lived in other places - an even smaller NH town where my college was located, a summer spent in an apartment in Portland, Maine with constant visits slightly north to a small, hippie community, the beautiful Vienna, Austria. Now I am seriously considering moving to Worcester, MA.
I will always feel at home in New England, with access to both the mountains and the sea, to lakes and valleys, all within a reasonable drive. Although this winter has been exceptionally harsh, I enjoy all four seasons, particularly the fall and spring.
However, I do not want to stay in the middle of nowhere. I need to be in a small city where there is plenty of culture and other young people, a walkable downtown, and where I do not need to depend on a car to get around.
* El Nasser, Haya. "Pew: Almost Half of Americans Want to Live Somewhere Else" USA Today 29 Jan 2009.
* "For Nearly Half of America, Grass Is Greener Somewhere Else" Pew Research Center. 29 Jan 2009.