Some people wanna live near their friends and family. They had it in college, and then in dense cities post college. Then maybe they move to the suburbs. And their friends move to other cities for jobs or relationships. But then they aren't near their existing friends, and it's less walkable. Just at the time when they most start to care about it being walkable because maybe they have kids! They want it to be car-minimal and nature-rich. So maybe they think about getting their friends to move near them, moving to a more walkable city together, buying land and building together, going back to the city near them, etc. My biggest wish is for the people that want this to have more options. More: car-minimal housing developments, sets of houses built around shared mini parks, family friendly buildings in the city built around playgrounds and parks, etc. This is my updated guide from what I've discovered so far for people who want that kind of "bestie row" "living near friends" "village vibe". ![[GyKNmjTaEAEEAQW.jpeg]] *Originally posted on [@chrisbarber](https://x.com/chrisbarber/status/1955283736565780582) and there are some good comments on twitter.* ## Places that are particularly suitable for this: ### Year round 1. Parts of Stockholm, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain (search YT for '\[city name] walking tour') 2. Escondido Village at Stanford (Graduate student housing for families, "Family Courtyard Communities" - ground floor units built around a shared playground) 3. Culdesac ([@ryanmjohnson](https://x.com/ryanmjohnson)) in Arizona, Santa Barbara State St, Serenbe in Georgia USA 4. Co-housing communities in Denmark (search on YT for denmark cohousing) ![[GyKNunjaEAALtoT.jpeg]] ### Pop up 5. Edge City ([@JanineLeger](https://x.com/JanineLeger), [@timourxyz](https://x.com/timourxyz)) ### Future 6. CA Forever ([@jansramek](https://x.com/jansramek)) 7. Esmeralda ([@devonzuegel](https://x.com/devonzuegel)) ### More 8. [https://x.com/devonzuegel/status/1619752203320967169](https://x.com/devonzuegel/status/1619752203320967169) ## Options 1. Rent/buy near friends in a walkable neighborhood 2. Buy a plot of land together and build houses (or one house with multiple wings and only one kitchen, if laws make separate houses a no-go) 3. Join an existing third space 4. Create/rent a third space with friends (a clubhouse) What else? ## I hope for more: 1. Town squares (e.g. Healdsburg Plaza) 2. Walkable car-free main streets (e.g. State Street in Santa Barbara) 3. Sidewalk cafes and restaurants 4. Courtyard apartment blocks with shared gardens and zero parking lots 5. Narrow tree-shaded or building-shaded streets 6. Walkable places with lots to do and no cars - Disneyland, college campuses, but we need more 7. Shopping malls with walkable car-free parks in the center 8. Places that add a lot of nice touches for residents (e.g. apts where you can't hear neighbors or street noise, great signage for deliveries, etc. list: [https://x.com/chrisbarber/status/1947003290744770673](https://x.com/chrisbarber/status/1947003290744770673)) 9. Housing developments with houses on the outside and a park on the inside 10. Rings of houses built around a shared playground (car-free center) in kid-friendly areas ![[GyKNorSbsAAeB9U.jpeg]] ## Project ideas for anyone looking: 1. A video directory of the coolest most walkable places worldwide 2. Interviews with developers (and funders) of walkable projects (perhaps video interviews while walking around things they've developed) 3. Interviews with people who work in the city planning depts with tips on getting regulations changed 4. A site that lists the regulations in each town, so motivated citizens can see the current status in their town, and the easiest wins and how to fix them (more things like UrbanForm) 5. A directory with photo examples aimed at developers, so they know what is possible in their country, can discover local architects. Photos, site plans etc of beautiful walkable places 6. A kickstarter for coordinating moves 7. Regular cohort classes for people that want to live in a setup like this 8. A volunteer led group with local chapters that works on changing development regulations in their city to make it easier to build nice walkable places (Coby tells me that private civic organizations spearheaded a lot of the regulation improvements in Santa Barbara, Charleston, and Santa Fe) (wishlist of changes: [https://x.com/chrisbarber/status/1946589019233833322](https://x.com/chrisbarber/status/1946589019233833322)) ## Observations: 1. Demand seems strongest after leaving college (if not walkable to college friends) and then once someone has toddlers 2. People tend to move for jobs, to go to a bigger house, for a relationship, to move near family, for college, and for their kids' school 3. Most people are location locked due to their job, their kids' school, their relatives, and perhaps their visa/citizenships 4. The most flexible are self-employed people who homeschool or plan to homeschool ## The bottoms up approach 1. More things like Fractal U ([@Prigoose](https://x.com/Prigoose), [@\_\_drewface](https://x.com/__drewface), [@TylerAlterman](https://x.com/TylerAlterman)) 2. Network states ([@balajis](https://x.com/balajis)) 3. Live Near Friends ([@levin\_phil](https://x.com/levin_phil)) 4. Host lots of events in your existing neighborhood ([@nickgraynews](https://x.com/nickgraynews)) 5. Join or rent an existing third space first (a clubhouse) ## Resources 1. Supernuclear by [@gillianim](https://x.com/gillianim) and [@levin\_phil](https://x.com/levin_phil) 2. Co-housing books by Durrett (co-housing is basically - private houses, plus shared common-spaces, as opposed to co-living which is more often a roommates type situation without private spaces) I also shared this on twitter and there's some good additional resources [in the comments there](https://x.com/chrisbarber/status/1955283736565780582). ## People to follow who tweet about walkable places * [@AustinTunnell](https://x.com/AustinTunnell) * [@Cobylefko](https://x.com/Cobylefko) * [@berkie1](https://x.com/berkie1) * [@damonhemmerding](https://x.com/damonhemmerding) * [@Tesho13](https://x.com/Tesho13) * [@bobbyfijan](https://x.com/bobbyfijan) * [@devonzuegel](https://x.com/devonzuegel) * [@levin\_phil](https://x.com/levin_phil) * [@aaron\_lubeck](https://x.com/aaron_lubeck) * [@jansramek](https://x.com/jansramek) * [@davegordon14](https://x.com/davegordon14) * [@JonathanHillis](https://x.com/JonathanHillis) * [@Chris\_Smeder](https://x.com/Chris_Smeder) * [@UrbanCourtyard](https://x.com/UrbanCourtyard) ## One pathway 1. Host lots of events in your city 2. Find a walkable area in your city 3. Move there 4. Invite your family members and friends to move to within walking distance of you 5. Repeat for a few years, continuing the event hosting, and the inviting people to move Or more simply: move somewhere walkable, then invite old friends and new friends to rent or buy within walking distance. Is there an easier path I'm missing? ## When picking your next house and area to move to, ask 1. "How many spots that you'd enjoy visiting on a \~daily basis are within a 15 min walk?" 2. If you have kids or might soon: "How many spots where I could safely let my kids run around are within a 15 min walk?" 3. "How easy and safe (i.e. from cars) is it to walk from my house to the spots, with toddlers and/or strollers?" ![[GyKNyDgaEAA7JfL.jpeg]] ## Questions: 1. Why aren't there 100s of these (courtyard blocks in cities, car-minimal housing developments in suburbs, friends buying plots and building together, communities acting as kind of within-walking-distance villages, etc)? Is it a lack of demand (and willingness to pay a premium) from renters and buyers, is it a lack of developers building these things, is it a regulation issue? 2. How could we get 100s of these? What are the highest leverage things that'd get more places like this? Coordinating legal changes (regulation), coordinating people who want this (demand), helping developers coordinate (supply), something else? 3. Why aren't there more shopping malls with car-free interiors? There are some, but not that much greenery. It'd be awesome to have the parking on the outside, then the shops around the edge, then a park in the inside. Is it a cost thing? 4. What'd be needed for a volunteer citizen group with local chapters to successfully update local development regulations in local towns? 5. What types of people are most compelled to live like this - is it location-independent (e.g. self-employed types who plan to homeschool kids and aren't locked to a city due to a job) people who want to move somewhere more walkable and kid friendly now that they are starting a family? If you're actively looking for or making this in your city, what's your situation, when did it go from a nice-to-have to a must-have? 6. Is it just a coordination problem? Are there lots of families that'd wanna move walkable to each other, and could logistically move (no location-specific job), but just don't because it's hard to coordinate? 7. Have pop up villages like Edge done 3+ month or even year-long villages? Why/why not? 8. What aspects and questions and resources am I missing?