Urban Living Pet Peeves

New to downtown life? Have questions? Urban living expert, come share your thoughts.
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Eon Blue
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Eon Blue »

Amen, loftguy. To paraphrase a wise downtowner, instead of saying "they" should do something, go out and become "they" yourself.
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AlbertHammond
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by AlbertHammond »

This great thread reminds me why I love Overland Park.
Litter? Not a common problem.
Parking? Driveway at every house and parking lots with more space than needed.
Idiot Neighbors? We have enough space between us to ignore each other.
Sidewalks?....why would anyone use a sidewalk?
Loitering/indecent behavior? Not-so-much.
Add schools, crime, code violations, noise to the list.

All the same promises of the 1950s still attract people who can’t be bothered by urban pet peeves.
I know some of these problems are creeping into suburbs like OP, but not as a whole and not in more stable areas.
Lovable it ain’t, but it sure is a lot less annoying.
LenexatoKCMO
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by LenexatoKCMO »

AlbertHammond wrote: Lovable it ain’t, but it sure is a lot less annoying.
Debatable at best. I would rather have to see some dude piss on an emty beer can in the street every day if the alternative was that I had to get in the car and drive two miles to a soul-sucking strip mall just to get a cup of coffee.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by KCPowercat »

AlbertHammond wrote:This great thread reminds me why I love Overland Park.
Litter? Not a common problem.
Parking? Driveway at every house and parking lots with more space than needed.
Idiot Neighbors? We have enough space between us to ignore each other.
Sidewalks?....why would anyone use a sidewalk?
Loitering/indecent behavior? Not-so-much.
Add schools, crime, code violations, noise to the list.

All the same promises of the 1950s still attract people who can’t be bothered by urban pet peeves.
I know some of these problems are creeping into suburbs like OP, but not as a whole and not in more stable areas.
Lovable it ain’t, but it sure is a lot less annoying.
Seriously what is the point of this post?
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smh
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by smh »

loftguy wrote:Cathartic? Damn right. Kind of represents this whole forum, to me.

My biggest pet peeve? People who are against _______________!!!!

I'm much more interested in what you are FOR and far less what you are against.

I have a zero tolerance for my neighbors who are............ against the streetcar, against the Sly James administration, against taxation, against Kansas City/Johnson County/East of Troost/North of the River, against the police department, against liquor licenses, against dog off-leash areas, against more housing downtown, against _________________________, and yet they are making no effort and spending no time FOR anything that moves our city forward. In most cases people are so poorly informed and unaware of the complexity and nuances of issues, that they have formed a meaningless assumption and are ultimately the bulk of the problems that our city faces. These people are sucking life and energy out of our growth.

I feel like you only get to bitch about the problems to the degree you are somehow, somewhere, a part of the solution.

Otherwise, just shut up.

=D>
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AlbertHammond
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by AlbertHammond »

KCPowercat wrote:
Seriously what is the point of this post?
...just a reminder to the urban lovers that these mentioned urban pet peeves are sensed by everyone (urbanite or suburbanite), but those who flee to the suburbs are not willing to put up with it any longer. Not everyone has the same threshold of pet-peeve tolerance. Just because someone has a high urban-pet-peeve tolerance, does not make them any more holy, and because someone choses to live in the suburbs does not mean they do not love an urban atmosphere. They choose a different set of annoyances that grind on them less.

I have completed design projects for many, many homeowners in Hyde Park, Roanoke, etc. and work for them again when they move to the 'burbs. I always ask them why they moved and they always say the same two things: schools and the urban pet-peeves mentioned here. ALWAYS. I ask them if they miss urban living and the answer is always "no....we loved the old house/neighbors/convenience of midtown, but were fed up with (above listed pet peeves) and this (suburban living) is much more satisfying".

To stay urban, you need an above normal pet-peeve tolerance that few people have.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by KCtonic »

AlbertHammond wrote:To stay urban, you need an above normal pet-peeve tolerance that few people have.
Possibly true, but the same could be said for the opposite scenario. As a person who has lived in rural during youth, and then suburban during much of adulthood, and finally now urban I can say it takes a lot of tolerance for the stupidity in the burbs to continue living there as well. Each time I go to parts of the Northland, Lees Summit, Overland Park or much of JoCo I just shake my head at what suburbanites put up with and consider normal. The pet peeves of suburban living thread would be just as long if not longer.

My short list for the suburb pet peeves:
1. Bigger house is better no matter what one needs. Moar masonite siding for everyone!
2. Boat, RV, trailer, broken-down truck/car/junk in driveway, street or yard
3. Payday Loan Stores everywhere
4. Cookie-cutter houses. 99 Shades of Beige (I'm talking to you JoCoFo)
5. Tacky Make $$$ at home & political and buy this stuff signs on every pole & streetcorner
6. No way to walk to places someone should want to walk to instead of drive to
7. Strip Malls and "Upscale Shopping Centers" that are really glorified strip malls
8. Neighbors who drive in their driveway, never go outside and drive out of their driveway to do anything. People who don't care enough about their community to even get to know their community.

I could go on and on and on but that should do it for the moment. Now back to the original topic of the thread.

And for Loftguy, I'm all about solutions and the positive. Always looking for ways to make things better ;)
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by LenexatoKCMO »

It is also a bit of a disingenuous straw man to suggest some of these pet peeves are frequent or universal. There are vast swaths of the urban core that are established, even affluent, and where pantless bums shitting in your recycling are going to be a rare phenomenon.

Living in an urban area doesn't necessarily mean you have to live out on a frontier edge of neighborhood reclamation if you aren't up for it.
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WinchesterMysteryHouse
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by WinchesterMysteryHouse »

Urban living is increasingly suburban living.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by shaffe »

Jaywalkers.

KC does not have particularly long blocks, so walk an extra 20 yards to a stop light and cross when you're supposed to. I know sometimes it's not all that busy downtown, and maybe on a weekend you can actually get away with it, but c'mon people.
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Eon Blue
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Eon Blue »

AlbertHammond wrote:This great thread reminds me why I love Overland Park.
Litter? Not a common problem.
Parking? Driveway at every house and parking lots with more space than needed.
Idiot Neighbors? We have enough space between us to ignore each other.
Sidewalks?....why would anyone use a sidewalk?
Loitering/indecent behavior? Not-so-much.
Add schools, crime, code violations, noise to the list.

All the same promises of the 1950s still attract people who can’t be bothered by urban pet peeves.
I know some of these problems are creeping into suburbs like OP, but not as a whole and not in more stable areas.
Lovable it ain’t, but it sure is a lot less annoying.
But the name of this thread is "Urban Living Pet Peeves," not "Urban Living Dealbreakers." I'm sure if you started a thread of suburban pet peeves, the urbanites posting in this thread could shoot down most items on your list as not much of a concern in the city. I know that I gladly put up with the pet peeves in this thread to avoid things like mandatory driving, poor walkability, onerous HOAs, poor transit service, deer in the streets, traffic and so on.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by aknowledgeableperson »

This world is made up of various people with their likes and dislikes. By a few small town and rural living people now. I am sure they could say a lot negative things about urban and suburban living. We all travel to the beat of a different drum.
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chaglang
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by chaglang »

Mapping these pet peeves would be really interesting. Not many of the complaints have resonated with me so far. We don't see a lot of litter.

My list is:
-Abandoned/neglected property
-Petty theft (occasionally something disappears off the front porch)
-Cars speeding on side streets

One positive about urban living is that I've learned how to get things done with the city. Learning how to get resources directed your way is a skill that is passed from older resident to newer resident. It requires more work than my suburban friends put into their neighborhoods, but there's a nice sense of accomplishment when things get done.

+1 on Loftguy's post about people who bitch and refuse to help.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by KCPowercat »

AlbertHammond wrote:
KCPowercat wrote:
Seriously what is the point of this post?
...just a reminder to the urban lovers that these mentioned urban pet peeves are sensed by everyone (urbanite or suburbanite), but those who flee to the suburbs are not willing to put up with it any longer. Not everyone has the same threshold of pet-peeve tolerance. Just because someone has a high urban-pet-peeve tolerance, does not make them any more holy, and because someone choses to live in the suburbs does not mean they do not love an urban atmosphere. They choose a different set of annoyances that grind on them less.

I have completed design projects for many, many homeowners in Hyde Park, Roanoke, etc. and work for them again when they move to the 'burbs. I always ask them why they moved and they always say the same two things: schools and the urban pet-peeves mentioned here. ALWAYS. I ask them if they miss urban living and the answer is always "no....we loved the old house/neighbors/convenience of midtown, but were fed up with (above listed pet peeves) and this (suburban living) is much more satisfying".

To stay urban, you need an above normal pet-peeve tolerance that few people have.

Just a reminder that the things you find great in OPKS are real dealbreakers for many of us to ever live out there....it's the right decision for you, doesn't mean we have to be more tolerable and not have as "satisfying" of a living environment....that's what annoyed me about your post.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by pash »

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Last edited by pash on Fri Feb 10, 2017 7:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by cknab1 »

Cars are my biggest pet peeve. Blocking crosswalks, speeding, running red lights, especially turning left after it goes to red. They never seem to think about the people crossing get the walk signal and then here comes someone blowing right by them. And the parking habits of so many have been mentioned before.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by aknowledgeableperson »

They never seem to think about the people crossing get the walk signal and then here comes someone blowing right by them.
Much like a car just because you have the green light it doesn't mean you are safe to go. For example, if you are stopped by a red light which then turns green you give it the gas and boom, a car hits you. You could be held partially responsible because you did not check to make sure it was safe to enter the intersection. Wiki helps explain this somewhat better:
In some jurisdictions, including most American states, a vehicle already in the intersection when the light turns red legally has the right of way, and vehicles who have green must yield to the vehicle in the intersection.
When I walked I just didn't assume that when I went off the curb and onto the street everything was safe-to-go, I checked and made sure it was safe. I knew that even if I was in the right I would lose in a collision between my body and a moving vehicle.
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chaglang
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by chaglang »

cknab1 wrote:Cars are my biggest pet peeve. Blocking crosswalks, speeding, running red lights, especially turning left after it goes to red. They never seem to think about the people crossing get the walk signal and then here comes someone blowing right by them. And the parking habits of so many have been mentioned before.
The first time I read this, I misread "cats" instead of "cars". Surprising at how much of it is true for both. :D
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by cknab1 »

Cats, that's funny.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by bobbyhawks »

cknab1 wrote:Cats, that's funny.
If anyone knows of a way to keep cats off your front porch that does not involve a bb gun, I am all ears. Cat Scram did pretty much nothing but make my garden smell like a different type of urine. I'm allergic and can't keep them off my porch furniture. I guess the neighborhood cats are the "kids on my lawn."
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