Commuter communities are are being abandoned

[Vanje]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89803663

"... in most of these major metropolitan areas, the trend is the same. The longer commute, the steeper the drop in prices.

Stiff says home buyers attitudes have changed. The old rule was, "Drive 'til you qualify" —meaning that buyers should go out from the city until they could get what they wanted at a price they could afford. "

[Warpy]

1. The exurbs to the south of the two big cities

in north central New Mexico will probably remain attractive to buyers since Gov. Richardson got a north-south commuter train off the blueprints and into operation. It will extend from the central Rio Grande valley up to Santa Fe by the end of 2008, a year ahead of schedule.

He was raked over the coals for the first five years by locals who called it a boondoggle and total waste of state funds (and this is a poor state). Now he's looking like the visionary he always was.

That's what it is going to take for exurbs to survive all over the country, mass transit into the cities. The years of that hour commute by car are now over.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is running a series on just that phenomenon

http://www.startribune.com/projects/17847774.html

[devilgrrl]

15. What's up with this quote?

"All these mortgage companies are going down because of people like me who don't pay their mortgages," he said. "I'm partly responsible for that."

:wtf: is that supposed to mean?

:crazy:

[musiclawyer]

3. Stockton and Modesto CA are dying right now.

They are in the top 10 nationwide in foreclosures. Why? Because you are an hour or more into Sacramento by car, and two hours in the bay area at rush hour. Unless you work there, the cost in time and gas will not cover the cheaper housing price. Poeple under estimated the cost of the commute, both in time and dollars. That was the premise of the NPR report. Stockton has a train, but it's not an express, so it has to leave virtually in the middle of the night to get you to the bay area in the morning. Modesto has no train to the bay area at all. These places will come back. They have infrastructure and water (a big thing here in CA); some employers in the big cities that do not need to be there will move inland eventually; and the polulation growth in CA is relentless. But first, each of the places need a fast, commuter train that goes right into Oakland and/or the BART feeder system. Until then, and that's decades, they are screwed.

[enid602]

4. trains

They'll get the trains going eventually. In the Inland Empire (So Cal's equivalent of the Central Valley), the SB and Riverside MetroLinks get you to Union Station faster than you can drive. Riverside County is currently adding a couple of lines to the Riverside MetroLink; one to the Perris Valley, and the other to Palm Springs.

[Raksha]

8. It's good to know they are adding more lines.

I live in the Inland Empire and I didn't know that, but maybe that's because I haven't taken the Metrolink in quite a while.

[musiclawyer]

9. I grew up in LA and attended UCR and there were no trains then

I am please that the LA had the foresight to get the MeroLink going. It was always controversial. But it's still not enough. You all need more MetroLink lines, and the vast immigrant dense inner city areas and west side need more "colored" lines. The yellow line or wahtever it's called going to Pasadena will be a huge hit one day I'm sure. They need a pink or purple line out to Santa Monica and a second one to the airport that goes more as the crow flies, among many others. Perhaps another line going and following HWY 2. LA needs to put out that bad karma they got for selling out to GM, Firestone, and big oil decades ago when the original, expansive, and efficious red line was destroyed.

[enid602]

10. rail

I think the E LA subway line opens this summer; that will add thousands of traditionally transit dependent folks to the grid. I, too grew up in LA, and am so proud of the progress they're making with re: to rail, expecially in this era characterized by a lack of inrastructure improvements/maintenance. Now, if they could just quit their bickering and decide on which route for the 'Subway to the Sea.'

[MadHound]

5. Great, so now all these ex 'burbanites will be moving back to the cities

Gentrifying neighborhoods, using eminent domain to reclaim real estate, and driving the poor out to the fringes where now they will have to commute in. Once again, the poor will get shafted. Sad, really really sad.

[AngryAmish]

6. So where should they live

in the cities or in the exurbs. People have to live somewhere.

[MadHound]

7. Frankly I think that some sort of mixed residential housing could be worked out

Sadly though, that's not going to happen. The cities will allow market forces to do the dirty work, and the poor will be screwed again. At least with those monster houses in the 'burb, they'll be able to house more than one family to a house, saving on those costs. Hopefully those savings will be enough to fill their gas tank.

[musiclawyer]

11. It's really going the Euro-route

where the cities are for people who earn a lot and the working class have to get up early and take the train from the exhurbs. Perhaps it won't be as bad here in teh USA because most state and local general plans do require a % of new contruction/renovations to be low-income. I'm not sure even the Europeans have such laws in place. Tell me if I'm wrong.

[wordpix]

13. suburban McMansions destined to become multifamily & flat roofs in cities will grow gardens &

orchards. That's what make sense but who knows how it will work out? :shrug:

[KamaAina]

12. Did you know? DU has a Public Transportation and Smart Growth group

devoted to discussing just these kinds of issues.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=398

[wordpix]

14. YEAH!