I'm sorry, I don't mean to be difficult, but other than the front porches and the rear garages, the photographs you have included look like any other soul-sucking suburb I am familiar with. I'm 100% a City girl, and lived and raised my kid in the City - Richmond, Virginia - even when crime was a huge deal. In fact, we were notably the per capita murder capital of the U.S. for a period - YAY us!
- a title facilitated in large part by the crack epidemic, our location on I-95 in between Miami and NYC, and our (still) lax gun laws. And I chose to live in the City when our schools - outside of a few notable elementary schools - sucked. As an aside, they still suck, for the most part.
Is there something I am missing here? I don't hate developers either. I sell real estate for a living. I know there need to be choices. I'd love to see developers build truly new urbanist suburban communities. But that....doesn't look like it.
This may have been a newer part of the neighborhood where the street trees are not established (or older photos). We moved here in 2022 in the newest part of the New Longview, and the older streets have a mature street tree canopy now - along with an easy walk to the town center (and a movie theater). Showing his trademark humility, Kevin also forgot to mention that the neighborhood preserved an historic working farm. Our block has a nice mix of empty nesters and young families where the kids walk to the elementary school two blocks away - an adaptive reuse of an historic horse barn. The community also has a mix of housing types - including multifamily and a bungalow (cottage) court, in addition to our alley-loaded single-family. I appreciate the great work that Kevin and David Gale did here - not just as an urban planner, but also as a resident!
I'm sorry, I don't mean to be difficult, but other than the front porches and the rear garages, the photographs you have included look like any other soul-sucking suburb I am familiar with. I'm 100% a City girl, and lived and raised my kid in the City - Richmond, Virginia - even when crime was a huge deal. In fact, we were notably the per capita murder capital of the U.S. for a period - YAY us!
- a title facilitated in large part by the crack epidemic, our location on I-95 in between Miami and NYC, and our (still) lax gun laws. And I chose to live in the City when our schools - outside of a few notable elementary schools - sucked. As an aside, they still suck, for the most part.
Is there something I am missing here? I don't hate developers either. I sell real estate for a living. I know there need to be choices. I'd love to see developers build truly new urbanist suburban communities. But that....doesn't look like it.
Hardcore "city people" like yourself are a small % of the market. Most people simply won't put up with what you describe for any length of time.
As to New Longview, you'd have to understand it in the KC context. Compared to most suburbs here, it's vastly different.
This may have been a newer part of the neighborhood where the street trees are not established (or older photos). We moved here in 2022 in the newest part of the New Longview, and the older streets have a mature street tree canopy now - along with an easy walk to the town center (and a movie theater). Showing his trademark humility, Kevin also forgot to mention that the neighborhood preserved an historic working farm. Our block has a nice mix of empty nesters and young families where the kids walk to the elementary school two blocks away - an adaptive reuse of an historic horse barn. The community also has a mix of housing types - including multifamily and a bungalow (cottage) court, in addition to our alley-loaded single-family. I appreciate the great work that Kevin and David Gale did here - not just as an urban planner, but also as a resident!