from Playborhood Palo Alto / Menlo Park

Social Class and Neighborliness

Posted: 03/04/08 12:14 AM

The neighborhoods with the nicest homes in Palo Alto and Menlo Park (CA) are very quiet.  Very, very quiet.  I’m talking almost-never-talk-to-your-neighbor quiet.  So, they’re not Playborhoods (i.e. neighborhoods where kids go outside and play), regardless of whether kids live there or not.

That’s the conclusion my wife and I have come to, by and large, after two plus years of house hunting here. 

Of course, we want a house in a Playborhood, and as for the house. we would like lots of interior space - at least 3000 square feet.  We’ve discovered that finding both of these things is nearly impossible.  We’re square pegs trying to fit into a round hole.

The fact is that, overall, the owners of these 2+ million dollar homes are not very “neighborly,” at least when they’re compared to owners in other neighborhoods with much less expensive homes.

Continued on Playborhood Palo Alto / Menlo Park

by Mike Lanza

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