Slumburbia?

[Overstreet]

Arlington, Regency and those areas inbetween were built on farm land and woods. The regency area, ie sand dunes,  was part of the flux mining back during WW2. That mining extended from near the river to J Turner area. My ex-law great aunt and uncle had property out that way. He also worked on many of the South Side Estates houses. It was not as "hot" thirty years ago(1980) as it was in the 1950s and 1960s  when they built a lot of houses during the  marketing to the returning GIs boom.  

[Shwaz]

Exactly, this has nothing to do with the housing bubble.

[Shwaz]

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?topic=4456.0

[reednavy]

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?topic=4456.0

Affordable my ass.

[Shwaz]

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?topic=4456.0

Affordable my ass.

Huh? You can buy brand new for less than $100 per sq ft - compare that to Riverside / Avondale or Springfield.

[tufsu1]

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?topic=4456.0

Affordable my ass.

tell that to the folks in DC, Boston, and California...or even our friends in South Florida!

[Overstreet]

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?topic=4456.0

........Affordable my ass..........

It is if you make the median income listed in the article. That was the highest I've seen the median income for the area. For most it is a nice place to live outside of Duval county.  

Then again if you are selling that other thing you mention in your comment they have a place for you on the thread about Hamsterville.

[reednavy]

tell that to the folks in DC, Boston, and California...or even our friends in South Florida!

Well that's a no shitter right there.

[JeffreyS]

The suburbs here are great. The advantage of being human is we can learn from others experiences. We do not have to rely on instincts or our own trial and errors to learn something new. So we have only experienced small pockets of abandoned homes and deflated values.  We can do something before it gets worse because we have seen how the pattern has played out elsewhere. Do we want to sprawl until only suburbia remains here? No urban or rural lifestyles in NE Florida is not for me.

[reednavy]

Oh, the one big flop so far has been Rivertown. The most epic waste of land I've ever seen. Plowed down forestland on a SCENIC DRIVE ROUTE, and now only about 10 homes were ever built, the rest is just weed and pipes sticking out of the ground.

IMHO, the developers should be taken to court and be forced to turn the remainder of the land back into what it is was like before, at all costs. If that means trucking in full size trees and all, so be it.

[JeffreyS]

Rivertown is funny because they did not want the outer beltway to come near them. I guess that developer needs sprawl 101.

[stjr]

Look to parts of Arlington and a few other suburban hotspots and say that 10 times fast! 

I guess I wasn't very clear here using the word "hotspots".  I intended it to refer to criminal hotspots, not economic hotspots!

[copperfiend]

Look to parts of Arlington and a few other suburban hotspots and say that 10 times fast! 

I guess I wasn't very clear here using the word "hotspots".  I intended it to refer to criminal hotspots, not economic hotspots!

But Arlington is nothing like the neighborhood in the posted article.

[stjr]

But Arlington is nothing like the neighborhood in the posted article.

As already noted, Arlington has a 30 year head start.  At one time, much of it was the "insta-neighborhoods" referred to in the article.  The article is saying that today's new developments may one day face the issues that parts of Arlington faces.

The point being made is not dependent on the economic level of the neighborhood as much as a pattern of poor planning and design.  See the "urban planning" lessons the writer points to in the end:

In the meantime, during these low, ragged years, a few lessons about urban planning can be picked from the stucco pile.

One is that, at least here in California, the outlying cities themselves encouraged the boom, spurred by the state’s broken tax system. Hemmed in by property tax limitations, cities were compelled to increase revenue by the easiest route: expanding urban boundaries. They let developers plow up walnut groves and vineyards and places that were supposed to be strawberry fields forever to pay for services demanded by new school parents and park users.

Second, look at the cities with stable and recovering home markets. On this coast, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and San Diego come to mind. All of these cities have fairly strict development codes, trying to hem in their excess sprawl. Developers, many of them, hate these restrictions. They said the coastal cities would eventually price the middle class out, and start to empty.

It hasn’t happened. Just the opposite. The developers’ favorite role models, the laissez faire free-for-alls â€" Las Vegas, the Phoenix metro area, South Florida, this valley â€" are the most troubled, the suburban slums.

[Shwaz]

But Arlington is nothing like the neighborhood in the posted article.

As already noted, Arlington has a 30 year head start.  At one time, much of it was the "insta-neighborhoods" referred to in the article.  The article is saying that today's new developments may one day face the issues that parts of Arlington faces.

The point being made is not dependent on the economic level of the neighborhood as much as a pattern of poor planning and design.  See the "urban planning" lessons the writer point to in the end:

In the meantime, during these low, ragged years, a few lessons about urban planning can be picked from the stucco pile.

One is that, at least here in California, the outlying cities themselves encouraged the boom, spurred by the state’s broken tax system. Hemmed in by property tax limitations, cities were compelled to increase revenue by the easiest route: expanding urban boundaries. They let developers plow up walnut groves and vineyards and places that were supposed to be strawberry fields forever to pay for services demanded by new school parents and park users.

Second, look at the cities with stable and recovering home markets. On this coast, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and San Diego come to mind. All of these cities have fairly strict development codes, trying to hem in their excess sprawl. Developers, many of them, hate these restrictions. They said the coastal cities would eventually price the middle class out, and start to empty.

It hasn’t happened. Just the opposite. The developers’ favorite role models, the laissez faire free-for-alls â€" Las Vegas, the Phoenix metro area, South Florida, this valley â€" are the most troubled, the suburban slums.

I disagree. The article drove the reality of mc mansion communities off the grid that never got off the ground and never will... resulting in high crime rates and a community that resembles the 9th ward post katrina.

Not about a thriving community that in 30 years may become abandoned and crime ridden.