Well, maybe I should lurk less and post more. Here goes.
I rent a high rise apartment in the Beltline. And for me it's all about accessibility and the financial impact.
I grew up in Temple, and while it was a fine place to grow up, I didn't really experience neighbourhood life as much as many do.
When I was looking to move out of home in 2001, I came up with an accessibility model, measuring weighted walking distances to key amenities; my work, of course (which was downtown), as well as grocery stores, transit, libraries and so on. I think the best possible location for me to live was a block from the building I actually moved into. (I wonder if I still have the spreadsheet?)
Of course, the reason I used walking distances was that a key part of my plan was to go carfree. I never really enjoyed driving, and I only owned my own car for about 18 months (the last year of University, when I was really busy, and also because I knew that many jobs for newly graduated Civil Engineers involved going to remote job sites.)
I love the Beltline; there's loads of interesting things to see, lots of great places to stroll around. Always something interesting, with a real urban feel.
And, of course, almost everything I need is within walking distance. For the things that aren't, I have an entire mobility portfolio:
- Biking to inner city areas, at least six months of the year
- Transit is centred on downtown, and almost every part of the city has a good connection, especially going there after work
- Taxis are generally pretty easy to get, which is mostly for airport trips or the occasional time I'm just in a real bind
- I have a CATCO carshare membership, which is mostly "mobility insurance"; 3 or 4 trips a year where transit is unacceptable (working a charity night at the Deerfoot Casino, for instance) or where I need to buy a lot of stuff
My 1 bedroom apartment is adequate. I'm not a real do-it-yourselfer or decorator; I can hang up a few pictures, and plant tomatoes on my balcony, and that's good enough for me. The walls are concrete, so I only hear loud noises from the hallway or (much more frequently) from the CPR. And I grew up under the 10/28 flightpath, so I learned to tune that out.
Okay, so there's the occasional drunk dimwit yell-a-thon at 2 AM, and the occasional hobo hanging around. But if that's what it takes to keep rent down, I can deal with that. My building has changed (especially in the last two or three years) to become ever more multi-ethnic, particularly with a lot of Koreans and a burgeoning African population. There's usually some awesome cooking smell in the hallway at 6 PM.