[Talk-us] Neighborhoods / Zillow

[John F. Eldredge]

In Nashville, TN, where I live, most of the city's growth has been since World War II, and hence suburban in nature.  Some subdivisions have permanent signs, some don't.   Some have a discernable tree structure, some have a loose grid, a few areas have a rectilinear grid.  Plus, some areas combine later development with what used to be small towns, swallowed up as the city expanded.  Some areas have names picked by a modern developer, some are named after these old towns, and at least one area is named after a particular pre-Civil-War mansion that, for decades, was the largest house in the neighborhood.  So, the neighborhood naming scheme is best described as "all of the above".


Minh Nguyen <mxn at 1ec5.org> wrote:

> I've driven all over Cincinnati's northeastern suburbs collecting 
> subdivision names, the ones that adorn signs and gates at subdivision 
> entrances. I used to hear school bus drivers use the same names when 
> communicating their progress over the radio. These subdivisions are
> only 
> meaning of "neighborhood" that makes sense in an area with endless
> sprawl.
> 
> Upon returning to my armchair, I trace individual landuse=residential 
> polygons for each of these subdivisions. It's easy to discern the 
> boundaries because most subdivisions aren't connected. Where they are,
> 
> one can easily spot where sidewalks end, one cookie cutter
> architecture 
> gives way to another, or the pavement quality changes -- some cities 
> repave one whole subdivision at a time.
> 

-- 
John F. Eldredge -- john at jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria