I have come to the conclusion that we need to go back to neighborhoods, where you live where you work and shop. But this has to happen organically. The attempts I've seen to "manufacture" neighborhoods have failed. They happened organically when transportation was an issue. Guess what. Transportation is an issue.
A year ago we moved back to Houston. A large city universally despised for its traffic. But our kids are there. They live two miles apart way out in the southwest suburbs. We thought about buying a house near them but not really into the suburb thing as older adults. We raised our kids out there and it was great. But that was then and this is now.
We chose to move in instead of out. We found an older townhouse on the near westside. It was cheap. Which was good because we really weren't sure about this at all. Everything is close. HEB one mile east. Kroger one mile west. Within two miles we have a Walmart, Home Depot and hundreds of restaurants, a half a dozen that we can walk too. Two indoor shooting ranges. Movies. Academy Sports & Outdoors. Two Spec's (Houston's discount liquor store chain). Even my medical clinic is less than two miles away.
The wife likes theater (I do too but not like she does) and we are close enough that it's easier to just Uber/Lyft downtown where we get dropped and picked up at the door. No hassle parking and safer than walking around down there.
All in all, it works really well. Which is good because we didn't move here for the scenery.
