Greater Denver metro area chiming in, this is so true. Add in unpredictable mass transit (including a train that we’ve paid for but hasn’t yet been built…) and it’s just a crapshoot for meeting up with people. Meanwhile, our particular flavor of sprawl has not been conducive to community-building. Some neighborhoods are more tight-knit t…
Greater Denver metro area chiming in, this is so true. Add in unpredictable mass transit (including a train that we’ve paid for but hasn’t yet been built…) and it’s just a crapshoot for meeting up with people. Meanwhile, our particular flavor of sprawl has not been conducive to community-building. Some neighborhoods are more tight-knit than others, and I think that has a lot to do with the vibe check (often wealthier people who probably would know each other anyways from social/professional networks, or older folks who are connected through mutual volunteering and sheer length of time of living in the same region together) and the long-existing infrastructure (old micro-Main Street areas that have managed not to be totally razed).
How do we make community easier here? Density. Give me a community coffee shop I can walk to from my house in ten minutes. Give me bikeways to get everywhere else in 20 minutes. Give me affordable housing options so I don’t have to live on the literal opposite side of downtown as my friends. There are efforts toward these things, in fits and spurts, but it is not unified or strategic on the metro-wide scale.
Greater Denver metro area chiming in, this is so true. Add in unpredictable mass transit (including a train that we’ve paid for but hasn’t yet been built…) and it’s just a crapshoot for meeting up with people. Meanwhile, our particular flavor of sprawl has not been conducive to community-building. Some neighborhoods are more tight-knit than others, and I think that has a lot to do with the vibe check (often wealthier people who probably would know each other anyways from social/professional networks, or older folks who are connected through mutual volunteering and sheer length of time of living in the same region together) and the long-existing infrastructure (old micro-Main Street areas that have managed not to be totally razed).
How do we make community easier here? Density. Give me a community coffee shop I can walk to from my house in ten minutes. Give me bikeways to get everywhere else in 20 minutes. Give me affordable housing options so I don’t have to live on the literal opposite side of downtown as my friends. There are efforts toward these things, in fits and spurts, but it is not unified or strategic on the metro-wide scale.