COMMENT OF THE DAY: MOVING FOR KIDS “. . . You obviously aren’t part of the “younger†generation. As a part of the mid-upper end, I can attest that the allure of townhomes wanes around the time the first child starts walking. [It’s] a pain to haul everything up and down the stairs and keep a kid from tumbling down. Heights and the close in ‘burbs like Oak Forest, Garden Oaks, Braes Heights, Westbury are appealing to many because they are closer in-town. I’m surprised no one has figured out how to clean up Sharpstown yet. No one wants to spend alot of time in their car.” [justguessin, commenting on This Draft of Changes to the Preservation Ordinance Is Different, Somehow]
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but these are conveniences that everyone can put a cost against and as millions of folks around the world could agree, these are luxuries not necessities in a big city. at some point the convenience of a yard, no stairs etc. neartown isn’t worth the money. of course i don’t consider anything out of the loop close to town anyhow so i was only referring to the heights.
even upper income folks don’t like the prospect of either building a new home or maintaining an 80yr old home that is nothing but a money pit because the land itself is worth more than the home. at that point they’re nothing more than rental homes.
this may be a long ways off of course, but you have to consider the long term when discussing things like “historic designations” and its guaranteed that these neighborhoods will meet the wrecking ball at some point. only tourist destinations can make “historic” a worthwhile venture.
I don’t care for most townhouse layouts. Ages ago when I had one, a party guest rode a flattened cardboard box down the stairs, crashed into my front door and broke it.
Like there aren’t stairs in every suburban home, lol. I think most people flee because they think they need yards for those kids, and with X amount of money you can either buy a house from the 50s on a lot or a townhome from the 80s to now on a microlot. I have a five year old and moved from my last two homes on lots (including Lazybrook) to a townhome in the 77007 and couldn’t be happier. We live next to the biggest, most amazing parks in the city, the arboretum, etc – why would I mow my own yard when I can walk a block to that?! This is turning out to be a better place to raise my kid than any of those neighborhoods were