Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:20 pm
Amen, loftguy. To paraphrase a wise downtowner, instead of saying "they" should do something, go out and become "they" yourself.
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.AlbertHammond wrote: Lovable it ain’t, but it sure is a lot less annoying.
Seriously what is the point of this post?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.
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.
...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.KCPowercat wrote:
Seriously what is the point of this post?
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.AlbertHammond wrote:To stay urban, you need an above normal pet-peeve tolerance that few people have.
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.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.
AlbertHammond wrote:...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.KCPowercat wrote:
Seriously what is the point of this post?
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.
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:They never seem to think about the people crossing get the walk signal and then here comes someone blowing right by them.
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.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.
The first time I read this, I misread "cats" instead of "cars". Surprising at how much of it is true for both.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.
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."cknab1 wrote:Cats, that's funny.