Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
that doesn't look substantively different from my street, except for the fact that some of the front yards are fenced off from when daley was on his big wrought iron fence kick back in the '90s. our building's yard is fenced off. i'm half-tempted to bring up the idea of ripping out the fence to our condo association. the fences don't seem to serve much purpose, other than being a visual blight.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9657...7i13312!8i6656
many people from eastern cities will look at the above as quite suburban and "open", but it's important to remember that on a functional level, my census tract still maintains a very respectable density 26,000 ppsm, which is as dense as any tract in a "tighter" city like pittsburgh. it just looks different because the housing units are all stacked vertically into flats to open up more ground space, as opposed to the housing units taking up more horizontal ground space as in a row-house hood.
different looks, but similar functional densities.
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Yeah, to my eyes, it looks pretty suburban. I don't mind small setbacks, but I like them to be taken up by front porches or flower beds. I hate hate
hate having grass in a front setback, because then there's this social obligation to keep it maintained and trim it every week, while you can let your back yard go to pot for 2-3 weeks and no one will ever know.
I live in a streetcar suburban neighborhood here in Pittsburgh. My home is set back approximately 12 feet from the porch to the sidewalk, but I have what is locally called a "high side" home, meaning there is a small hill with about a 45 degree slope covered with ivy which takes up most of the frontage. Plus of course several sets of steps. If there wasn't a street light directly in front of my home, I could dig out my front yard and put a garage door going directly into my basement with minimal grade change.
I sometimes hang out on my porch in nice weather, but there's literally nowhere flat in my front yard where I'd just hang out, so I'm never out there unless I'm weeding or something. I honestly can't imagine just hanging out in the front for everyone to see, but I know a few families down the block with flatter lawns do it on occasion.