Population Explosion
My husband and I have been married almost eleven years. When we first married, we were both working at dead end jobs. Within a year of the marriage, he received a job offer in San Jose.
We could have stayed in the same podunk town forever and never gotten anywhere or we could have moved. The choice was a relatively easy one.
After we had lived in San Jose for about three years, we decided to buy a home. Ha ha. Right.
Our budget was less then $200,000. and townhomes started at $300,000. It was not feasible to fulfill our American dream in a town that we had grown to love.
My husband got a transfer through his company and we moved to where we are now. It doesn't have the energy of San Jose but it was nice to get to the grocery store a mile away in less then twenty minutes.
Our idea of moving here was not original and soon many more Bay Area residents began coming this way. Some wanted merely to afford a house. Some sold their homes in the Bay Area, paid cash for a house, and had dough left over. Lucky bugs!
Well the area has had growing pains. Anywhere there was once an empty spot, something has been built. The traffic has become more congested. People are grumbling about how much their commutes have lengthened.
Many empty areas have been filled with cookie cutter tract homes. They are all painted the same shades of brown and tan. The appeal is obvious. There are sidewalks, families with small children and usually a neighborhood park.
There are also some things I don't like about them such as being so close to your neighbor you can hear him sneeze.
These communities are springing up all over the place, like mushrooms in cowpies. The builders attempt to give their subdivisions fancy names. There are just a few I want to share.
Yesterday's blog mentioned the office buildings that were called Creekside Village. There was definitely not a village in site.
I passed some called Cameron Glen Estates. What is a glen? I looked it up. A glen is another name for a valley. We live in the foothills.
I saw one called Empire Ranches. Ranches? There was not a cow, horse or even a chicken in sight. They're probably not allowed either.
My very favorite, though, was Travois Homes. I was pretty sure I knew what that word meant. I looked it up to be sure.
Travois: A conveyance formerly used by Plains Indians (native Americans for those of you who are politically correct) consisting of a frame slung between poles and pulled by a dog or horse.
Some developer must have said, "Hey this word sounds French. I bet we can get $500,000 a home easy with this fancy sounding word. Sadly, he was right.
I've got a great idea for a subdivision. Name it McMansion Meadow. Well there was a meadow there once, right?
We could have stayed in the same podunk town forever and never gotten anywhere or we could have moved. The choice was a relatively easy one.
After we had lived in San Jose for about three years, we decided to buy a home. Ha ha. Right.
Our budget was less then $200,000. and townhomes started at $300,000. It was not feasible to fulfill our American dream in a town that we had grown to love.
My husband got a transfer through his company and we moved to where we are now. It doesn't have the energy of San Jose but it was nice to get to the grocery store a mile away in less then twenty minutes.
Our idea of moving here was not original and soon many more Bay Area residents began coming this way. Some wanted merely to afford a house. Some sold their homes in the Bay Area, paid cash for a house, and had dough left over. Lucky bugs!
Well the area has had growing pains. Anywhere there was once an empty spot, something has been built. The traffic has become more congested. People are grumbling about how much their commutes have lengthened.
Many empty areas have been filled with cookie cutter tract homes. They are all painted the same shades of brown and tan. The appeal is obvious. There are sidewalks, families with small children and usually a neighborhood park.
There are also some things I don't like about them such as being so close to your neighbor you can hear him sneeze.
These communities are springing up all over the place, like mushrooms in cowpies. The builders attempt to give their subdivisions fancy names. There are just a few I want to share.
Yesterday's blog mentioned the office buildings that were called Creekside Village. There was definitely not a village in site.
I passed some called Cameron Glen Estates. What is a glen? I looked it up. A glen is another name for a valley. We live in the foothills.
I saw one called Empire Ranches. Ranches? There was not a cow, horse or even a chicken in sight. They're probably not allowed either.
My very favorite, though, was Travois Homes. I was pretty sure I knew what that word meant. I looked it up to be sure.
Travois: A conveyance formerly used by Plains Indians (native Americans for those of you who are politically correct) consisting of a frame slung between poles and pulled by a dog or horse.
Some developer must have said, "Hey this word sounds French. I bet we can get $500,000 a home easy with this fancy sounding word. Sadly, he was right.
I've got a great idea for a subdivision. Name it McMansion Meadow. Well there was a meadow there once, right?
posted by Caro at 3:03 PM
5 Comments:
we have one around here called Fox Pointe. Not a fox in sight - must have been scared away by all the bulldozers - and what's with the "pwant" anyway? Pittsburghers can't even pronounce DuBois correctly and they're going for Pointe??
How about Slough City? It wouldn't even have to be in Iowa.
We have places called Lake View down here. 1. You can't see the lake from those places. 2. The lake is man-made and so crappy why would you want to see it?
My favorite accent has to be a Boston accent. Maybe because I grew up there. I love it when people say "Mahtha Stewaht".
;)
Oh, I meant to post this on the entry where you talked about the New York accent. Oh well!
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