I’ve lived in suburban Los Angeles my whole life, with the exception of my first four years. I didn’t think much about living in the ‘burbs’ when I was a child, probably because I didn’t travel much more than a mile or two on foot or on a bicycle. As I got older and remained in the same area, I often thought about moving, mainly for a change of scenery. But, something always held me back, whether it was school or a job or a boyfriend. In the end, I met my husband here and we chose to stay put. Lately, I have read a few articles about how most suburban communities are horribly laid out. I’d have to agree.

I first noticed this suburban set-back years ago when I got my first job 15 miles from my house. I had to take the one and only freeway that ran close to my new job, the dreaded 405. I realized then that our city was not planned for the massive quantity of people that would eventually settle in LA County. However, within a year I changed jobs and took one closer to home so that I didn’t have to inch along with the thousands of others heading south on the freeway. I forgot about freeway congestion and was content with where I lived for the time being.

Then, two years ago, I really got interested in bicycling. I remembered how much I loved it as a kid and the freedom I experienced as a pre-driving-teen. I purchased a Raleigh Comfort bike and cruised the neighborhood. Soon, I was bicycling to work 6 miles north. What I also noticed was how much our streets and communities are completely car-oriented. Very few clearly marked bicycle lanes exist, even fewer drivers look for bicyclist, let alone pedestrians. I came to the conclusion that our suburban streets are dangerous for anyone not in a car. This, however, has not dissuaded me from riding  my bike. On the contrary, I feel that when I ride my bike I set a good example to others that might be thinking about riding their bike.

Urban Sprawl Repair Kit from Inhabitat Reader

My biking experience has made me realize how poorly city planners designed suburban areas. When I look at the houses in my neighborhood, all built in the early 1950′s, the garage is the predominant feature. I know that during the 1950′s almost everyone was proud to own their first car, cars were looked at as a status symbol. Young men returning from World War II were given incentives to purchase houses in the quaint suburbs, and had enough money left over to purchase the car that would get them to their distant place of work. The little wife would stay home and tend to the children and the housework. Perhaps in 1952, this seemed like the ideal life.

I wonder if they had been given a glimpse into the future (bumper-to-bumper traffic, smoggy sky’s, not a single child playing outdoors, the majority of the population suffering from obesity, hours spent commuting to and from work, large paved parking lots in lieu of greener pastures, people secluded inside their homes barely knowing their neighbors)  they would have thought twice about excepting the idea of suburbia as a great place to live. Inhabitat often posts solutions to suburban sprawl and even encourages readers to submit their solutions. Here is one solution that seems reasonable.

Maybe city planners will someday incorporate some of these innovative ideas into our towns to encourage more utility of space. If more businesses functioned in a suburban area, people wouldn’t have to travel as far to work, reducing traffic. If people worked closer to home, they could ride their bike or walk instead of drive. Our streets would become safer if more people walked or rode their bike. It would be great if this happened in my lifetime, then I could feel safer riding my bike in my community.

Money, the all mighty dollar...or Benjamin!

So, here I am pressed for time, but really want to make sure I keep up with my posting. I tried doing this yesterday, but then got on a topic that I couldn’t stop writing about; kids and financial education. However, today I am behind on a paper for school, so I will keep it simple and to the point. I like being frugal, my husband is learning to like it, though I don’t think it will ever be as fun for him. There are way too many things he ‘wants’, the list is endless. He frequently reminds me of a small child who wants everything he sees or hears about. But this is a whole other subject! Moving on, here are some frugal, and painless, tips I’ve learned through reading other posts and through my own experience:

• Make your own household cleaner: Vinegar and Baking Soda are excellent cleaners. If you add vinegar and baking soda to a spray bottle full of water, you can clean counter tops quickly and inexpensively. Another great inexpensive cleaner is Borax. Borax does a pretty good job on porcelain, it makes it sparkle with a little elbow grease.
• If you really don’t have the time or patience to make your own household cleaner, try buying a large jug of Simple Green. If you buy it in concentrate, it will last years. Ten years ago I bought a large jug, every weekend I fill up my spray bottle with 1/2 Simple Green and 1/2 water. I just ran out of that jug of Simple Green last weekend! It only took 10 years.
• Mend the frayed bottoms of pants and jeans with trim. I’ve never been much of a clothes shopper to begin with, so it isn’t difficult for me to say, “I don’t have the time or money to go shopping right now!” Instead, this past year I have mended the bottoms of frayed pants with scrap fabric by sewing on another hem. Measure out the fabric around the bottom of the pant leg, and fold it in half (one half inside the leg, the other outside). Then, iron the scrap fabric to make a crease. Using a sewing machine, stitch around the pant bottom. I don’t own a sewing machine, so I borrowed my mother’s. This worked wonderfully, since she was able to assist me in my mending escapade. When you are finished, if you measured evenly, you should have decorative pant bottoms.
• Take your own lunch to work. This is much healthier anyway. Who needs all that grease from fast food restaurants?
• Ride your bike or walk. For short distances, you can save money and gas by walking or riding your bike if you are traveling within a 2-3 mile radius. Also, this tip is for parents; recently Treehugger posted an article about how kids can’t navigate their neighborhoods anymore. They spend so much time in the car, they have no clue how to get to school or to the grocery store. Get outside and walk your kids around the neighborhood! It’s great exercise for the both of you.
• Purchase a Netflix subscription. Netflix has really affordable membership rates, starting as low as $8.99 a month. You can’t beat this price, it’s less than the cost of one movie ticket. This will reduce the money spent on going to the theaters.
• Ditch your lawn. I recently wrote a post about Losing the Lawn. Lawns are water-thirsty plants! They need a lot of water and water is becoming an expensive commodity. There are so many great alternatives today, if you live in a region where rainfall is scarse or not as frequent as it use to be, this may be a great money saving option.
• Search for coupons before shopping. There are so many coupons available on the web now, it’s silly not to first look to see if there is a coupon on an item you are thinking of purchasing. Look for coupons first, like Coupon Cabin, before spending that hard-earned dough!

These are just a few of so many! Please excuse my poor grammar, I didn’t have a lot of time to double check myself. Hopefully, you can use some of these in your everday frugal life.

With thoughts of purchasing a home in the next few months, my husband and I have begun to have conversations about what we like about our current neighborhood. These conversations are helping us build an idea about what we want in a neighborhood. What we like about our current neighborhood where we’re residing:

• Older homes have more character than the newer “cookie-cutter” versions (older homes may have been cookie cutter’s years ago, but subtle changes over time have given them more character)
• Within a mile of our house are some stores, a Starbucks, and some fast-food restaurants that we can bike to
• Three miles from our house are a few nicer restaurants (a college is near this area, so Chili’s is the “nicer” restaurant of that I speak)
• Two miles from our house is a park with bike paths (though, the bike paths don’t necessarily lead anywhere expect around the park)

However, our current neighborhood also has some drawbacks like low-rent apartments, graffitti, and very few clearly marked bike paths. Though I like the character of the older homes, some of the homes have been neglected for many years and, unfortunately, bring down the value of the neighborhood.

One item my husband and I would really like in a neighborhood is to be able to bike, on clearly marked bike paths, to nice restaurants or bars for an evening out. With this in mind, I began to research walkable neighborhoods using the Walk Score website. A neighborhood that clearly stands out for us is Canoga Park, an adjacent neighborhood only 4 miles from our present location. Many small antique shops, a couple of diners, and a theater have revitalized this once old neighborhood. Five blocks, on both sides of the street, are made for walking and the outlying half-mile or so are also quite pedestrian friendly. Canoga Park has a walk score of 72 out of 100, with 100 being a walker’s paradise. (see below for a comparison of cities)

On the other hand, a community with newer homes (and these aren’t really all that new) has a much lower walk score. Granada Hills is rated at a 49, anything under 50 is considered car-dependent on the Walk Score website. The design of these communities focuses on block after block of houses without a store or restaurant in sight. I can think of many contemporary suburban communities that are similar to this. Somewhere in the urban planning process, being able to walk somewhere was forgotten.

Walk Score has rated cities walkable.

Obviously, most urban communities are very walkable; think New York City or San Francisco. Yet, in many suburban cities and outlying urban areas, you can find pockets of walkable neighborhoods. Finding bikeable cities, however, is another task that I haven’t yet conquered. Of the bike-friendly cities I know of, none are within a few miles of where my husband and I live and we will unlikely move for that reason alone.

A few other reasons my husband and I prefer an older neighborhood is that they have more mom and pop type stores and not just big box stores. Since we are entrepreneurs ourselves, we like supporting other small businesses when we can. We also like that older neighborhoods have a more diverse population; cookie-cutter neighborhoods tend to draw cookie-cutter couples with their two children and their dog.

So, our search continues for the pedestrian/bike-friendly, quasi-suburban, affordable, character-rich neighborhood that may only exist in movies. Does anyone know of a bike-friendly website like Walk Score? Can someone recommend a neighborhood in suburban Los Angeles that they absolutely love?