apple juice

One of the books I’m reading is The New Urbanism by Peter Katz. Sometimes I tell people that in my next life I’ll be an urban planner, but I think that mostly stems from playing a lot of SimCity. (When I was younger).

A passage I recently read stated that one of the things that makes great urban design is chance encounters with your fellow neighbors.

With that rolling around in my head, the Juice-ette and I walked down to the grocery store. We bumped into TEP. The next day we walked over to Lake Nokomis to watch the US Pond Hockey Championships (check out the photos in the sidebar). Three minutes into our arrival, we bumped into a co-worker. As we were leaving, someone yelled out, “AJ!” A co-worker from my last job.

I love our neighborhood. More simply, I love living in “the city”. The hardware store owner lets Yeti come in and shop with us. The owner of the coffee shop knows our names. I think there is something to be said for living in a density that supports small shops, allows you to run into your friends, and lets you leave the car at home fairly often.

Anyway, I’m just trying to brag, and a bunch of the rest of my friends are talking of moving to the suburbs. (You know who you are!)

Am I going to feel this way in a few years when we’re thinking about schools, letting our kids run around, or the inevitable brush with crime? (A neighbor got mugged recently in our alley.)

Half of me wants to move to an even higher density location, with a few more shops, restaurants and bus lines.

I don’t know how the future will play out, but I can tell you that right now, I love our neighborhood.