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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The Grave Problem with Living Near Your Workplace

posted by on August 14 at 17:55 PM

One of the most e-mailed stories at the Seattle Times right now is “Living near work? Great idea, in theory”. Doesn’t that sound like a promise to dismantle arguments about how lovely and convenient and economical and environmentally friendly it is to live near your work?

Actually, it’s an article about how developers built mixed-use “urban villages” at the outskirts of the outskirts of towns (Snoqualamie Ridge, eg), equipped them with services (a bank, a Starbucks), and waited for the jobs to come. They didn’t, but people and traffic did. Surprise!

It’s still a good idea to live near your work. But you can’t just build a house and wait for the work to come to you.

RSS icon Comments

1

You're right. The title should have been, "Living in a newish suburban subdivision? Great idea, in theory".

Posted by Tiffany | August 14, 2007 6:28 PM
2

I just moved my office from Belltown to West Seattle about 2 months ago, and I have to say it has been great since I also live in W Seattle.

However, I'm in a very small minority. I own my own business, it's not really location or downtown dependent (although work still takes me downtown) and it made financial sense. None of my employees live in W Seattle. They all live on Cap Hill or in N Seattle. One who takes the bus spends over an hour getting here from the U-District. Even within the city getting around is hard to do without a car. In the car it takes him 20 minutes and he's not stuck either coming or going.

Look at Microsoft. It eats up more land to grow larger and larger, yet the zoning around it is largely 5000 SF (or larger) single family homes. People just starting out there on the least amount of money are probably the least likely to live close simply because they don't have 500K or the need for a 4 bedroom split level.

20, 30 and even 60 mile commutes are here now and will only grow in the future. The key isn't necessarily living close, but have different modes of transport that is quick and efficient. Until we grab that idea and run with it, particularly in the inner city (which I consider West Seattle to be a part of) we will continue to suffer from transportation gridlock.

Posted by Dave Coffman | August 14, 2007 6:35 PM
3

Yeah, that was a pretty stupid article with a misleading headline.

I live a block from my work on Capitol Hill- let me tell you, it is the best! I get to wake up just 30-45 minutes before work, go home for lunch, and have so much free time after work to read and relax. Even the thought of walking downtown to work now seems lame!

Posted by Agreed | August 14, 2007 6:36 PM
4

Yep. I love my 15 minute round trip bike commute. Too short to get stinky!

Posted by Anon | August 14, 2007 7:01 PM
5

I love living 6 blocks from work. I take 10 minutes to walk to work, go home for lunch, and am only minutes from school. I couldnt be happier. Now comes the saving for a 30k downpayment on a condo

Posted by Bellevue Ave | August 14, 2007 7:28 PM
6

I work from home. It's totally fucking awesome.

But back to the 99% of people who aren't lucky enough to work with their own bathroom and dog at hand, it seems to me that this would be a zoning issue. You'd place commercial centers in one place, and surround them with housing that was affordable to the people who work there.

Posted by Gitai | August 14, 2007 7:30 PM
7

The funniest commute I know of belongs to someone Groot K knows as 'hurricane.' She's played drums for us many times, only appearing on vinyl once in the mid-80s with Gresham based KORDRAH (hard rok spelled backwards.) Many a story of her files and fibulations.

She lived half a block from Providence hospital, and worked there graveyard shift. Some nights after having a couple of beers, while she prepped for the shift and told me her alltoo amusing perspective on issues, I'd opt to crash there as opposed to vehicle flipping. I'd often slip in and out of dreamtime, because not only did she come home for lunch, but also her two 15 minute breaks! But she's a dynamo about hygeine what with all the bacteria, viruses and assorted microbes she came in contact with.

Posted by Garrett | August 14, 2007 7:38 PM
8

The trick, of course, is not to live too close to work because then you feel like you never get away. Half hour walk or a 12 minute bike ride is just right: close enough to not really have a commute and far enough to make the work/home transition.

Posted by tim | August 14, 2007 8:04 PM
9

I live 3.5 miles from my job (long by this group's standards) but used to live 50 miles from work and I have to say, my standard of life has gone up so much. I would love to live even closer.

Perhaps in an area where I could walk to get everything...

Posted by Dianna | August 14, 2007 8:13 PM
10

I choose my work based on where I live. Currently I walk 8 blocks to the office. It rocks.

But I agree the title to that article is misleading.

Posted by genevieve | August 14, 2007 8:29 PM
11

I have always lived in or near downtown and worked downtown, so I never had much of a commute.

Unfortunately I now work for Your Friendly Utility, which means I have to commute from Beacon Hill to 97th and Aurora. I hate my commute. Absolutely fucking hate my commute. It's boring and makes me feel stupid every time I do it.

I'm hoping to transfer to the south end location. Otherwise, I will probably look for a new job here soon.

Posted by catalina vel-duray | August 14, 2007 10:12 PM
12

I, too, choose my employ based on where I live. In years past I did the hour-long commute thing, though, and there are plenty of benefits to that as well as long as you're not driving yourself. The bus/train/personal jet makes everything easier. I used to get so angry and impatient in the car trying to get to and from work on time... Now, if I'm late, it's Metro's fault and everyone understands!

Posted by Katelyn | August 14, 2007 10:29 PM
13

Living near where you work is the way to go if you can pull it off, but even people who make a concerted effort to do so still have to deal with the fact that your (or your significant other's) job or residence can change, and totally pulling up stakes is a hard thing for a lot of folks to pull off.

And - to push my own editorial agenda - this is why just emulating New Urbanist forms in the distant suburbs (and - to some extent - the City) doesn't usually reduce car trips much.

While older 'burbs like Kent and Bellevue that have a lot of jobs and job growth actually do have some walkable areas, even the distance between those places (let alone Seattle - where a goodly portion of their employees live) and the places where the jobs are is largely too much for an easy walk or short bike ride.

I sure did appreciate my UW band shack to UW commute, though.

Posted by Mr. X | August 15, 2007 12:52 AM
14

We need New Urbnist forms esp. in urban areas where the jobs are but also in the 'burbs. Even if they can't walk to work, they can walk to the PO, the dry cleaner, hopefully a grocery store, a school, etc.

These outlying folks have traffic issues not just in their longish commutes but also to go anywhere outside their homes.

And of course we need better transit (within walking distance of these "urbanist" suburban forms), accommodation of bikes, walking and e-cars rather than Hummers, more buses everywhere, and the right zoning -- allowing ofices and shops and homes to be mixed and disallowin so much 7500 SF single family zones next to megaemployers likeMS next to freeways like 520. All this is socially enineered, even our curent sprawl, and we can produce any forms we want.

Like Europe.

Posted by Cleve | August 15, 2007 7:15 AM
15

Because nobody drives in EUROPE. They all walk to the cafe in their berets with their poodle dogs tucked under their arms while smoking a Gauloise in EUROPE.

Posted by Fnarf | August 15, 2007 7:46 AM
16

To be a bit more clear, 'hurricane' has played many times in our band, The Antibodies, which was christened one night when we woke up from jamming stupor and realized 6 of the 8 people were Puget Sound Blood Center employees. Groot K is my project per se with involvement of the some members. Lately, it's *Kosmanots*. This name will go on the demo tape that's being dropped off to Bop Street Records. They've had some great shows there in the past, and the worker says they're booked for a month or so, but you may see the Kosmanots logo pole post come September with dates, times, dress code and the usual hullaballoo.

Back to the subject, a day of work ahead with a gosh darn real 'handyman'. He virtually lives out of his 80s Vanagon with tools, ladders, a jerry rigged cruise control, a jer-rig air con, speaker sys, splish-splashed blah blah, kinda messy. The van is about 1/4 of the room he rents in a Maple Vally house.
Yep, gonna try to earn an honest wage today. Agenda: haul rocks and rehearse grateful Dead harmonies.

Posted by Garrett | August 15, 2007 7:52 AM
17

Light rail construction is well under way. Soon, you'll be able to live along MLK and ride light rail to downtown and to the airport. That will be like living close to work.

Posted by we_need_real_transit | August 15, 2007 8:54 AM
18

Who else is thinkin' that the people that staff all those "urban village" amenities (coffee shops, banks, salons, etc.) all probably live elsewhere and drive in to serve the folks that live there and work somewhere else? Brilliant system!

Posted by Levislade | August 15, 2007 9:32 AM
19

Is living in West Seattle and working dt living near where you work?

Posted by WSdweller | August 15, 2007 10:16 AM
20

My shortest commute was when I worked at Microsoft Redmond and lived in an apartment across 40th St. Next shortest was when I lived in an apartment complex that adjoined the east side of the Microsoft campus. Of course the campus was big enough that it was still a mile walk once I was on campus ... and about half the time my car would be parked in the office garage to make running errands during work easier.

In my experience, living near work is easier when you rent.

Posted by JenK | August 15, 2007 1:13 PM
21

I was in the Ballard QFC today (which is a sad excuse for a QFC, by the way) and the cashier was bemoaning the fact that it costs $65 a week to drive from her home (in Des Moines) to the Ballard QFC.

My question was why? Why would anyone do that? Surely the Des Moines QFC (or Burien QFC, or Tukwila QFC or one of the Federal Way QFC's or the Renton QFC, or a West Seattle QFC) would have work available.

Maybe I'm missing something here.....

Posted by catalina vel-duray | August 15, 2007 7:25 PM

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