posted
I cringe every time somebody publishes a major article or book on Celebration, because they tend to be so hostile. This piece was not. It was fair and balanced, and largely gets things right.
He gets a couple of individual details wrong, involving price:
quote:Since a 22-foot townhouse is considerably less expensive than a free-standing house on a 70-foot lot, buyers have a choice of prices.
The townhouses in Celebration are just about the most outrageously priced property there. When I moved in, townhouses were running in the 450k range (WAY out of our price range), and that was before the 60% increase all of our properties have undergone in the last three years. I could certainly not have afforded that. The selling point for a townhouse is not affordability. Rather, it is location. Townhouses are generally located closer to downtown, and property near downtown is really at a premium.
On the other end of the spectrum, he says the bungalow on the last slide is selling for $450, and I rather doubt that. My house is bigger than that bungalow, and cost more than the bungalow did when I built it, and my house was appraised at $415 when I refinanced. So his estimate seems high.
I agree with his assessment of Graves's post office building. I didn't like the town hall at first, until I discovered the optical illusion. I have never heard it advertised, but once I discovered it serendipitously, I became convinced it had to be deliberate. The photograph there is almost but not quite at the right angle to see it. That building was described to me as being based on the parthenon, and I thought, yeah, except that it's brick and all the columns are skinny wooden columns. Then I noticed that from in front of the grocery shop, they line up to give the illusion of being real stone-type columns--at least a couple of feet thick. Very cool! Ever since I noticed this, I have thought the building was pretty cool. The building he describes as a visitors center has not been one for a good four years. It is currently a Bank of America. I think it's also a really neat building, but I'm dissapointed that the realities of teenagers and buildings with nooks and crannies made the town have to fence off the entrance to the little tower in front of the building.
I really hate the mediterranean houses that seem to be the author's favorites.
But, in general, even his criticisms were fair. I especially appreciate that he didn't speculate into the motivations (and intellect and politics) of those of us who chose to live here.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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After hearing you talk about it and then viewing the slideshow, I must say I'm impressed.
I hope that this:
quote:Celebration may push developers in the direction of denser, more varied, and better designed suburban communities, which will be a good thing.
takes place. Because I completely agree that it would be a good thing. The Bay Area would have much more robust neighborhoods and opportunities for first-time home buyers if there was more (well-designed) in-fill. Of course, better than in-fill is to do it right starting out. Unfortunately in the areas that are being developed (or have been developed in the past 20 years) that isn't happening.
I wouldn't mind at all paying an outrageous price for a small house if 1) the neighborhood had a nice community feel to it. 2) the schools were decent 3) there were plenty of public parks and spaces to make up for the lack of space in the house.
Unfortunately that's not the case.
Oh, and: I like the Mediterranean houses -- but I might feel differently seeing them in context.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Silly kat. Slate is soooo liberal the Washington Post had no qualms about buying it.
Clealry you've bought into the objectivity-myth that the liberal MSM tries to perpetuate in order to hold their monopoly on news in this country.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I read that piece they had around election time where the staffers confessed that 90% were voting for Kerry. If that didn't clue me in, the Dear Prudence column with the divorce-is-the-solution-to-every-marital-problem advice would finish it off.
Still, for some reason, I think there's slightly less spin and crap there. Maybe I'm a sucker for metanews.
Posts: 1163 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Well, in my case, I paid a price that seemed on the high end when I bought the house, but that looks very reasonable in hindsight. The problem with that bit of luck, though, is that, as my property value has gone up, so have my property taxes. My income, however, has not increased substantially.
One of the things that bugs me is that, being in Osceola County but not in Kissimmee or Saint Cloud, my understanding is that we pay a couple of special assessments in our property taxes to get services which other people in the county have included in their property taxes, such as garbage pickup. And so we actually pay at a higher tax rate than the rest of the county. But then, this county alternately hates us or sees us as the local cash cow. *sigh*
As to the schools, the jury is still out. I think they're pretty good. The K-8 school is an A school (in the local NCLB-inspired grading system) for several years running. Astonishingly, that has not protected it from having a class-action suit filed against it by several parents who feel it is inadequate. The high school is definitely going through some growing pains, because it is less than two years old, relatively huge, and it serves multiple local communities, with a population that is largely bused in. I personally believe that we are laying some good foundations, though, that will bear fruit within some time. I personally enjoy being here every day, and I wouldn't if it were some awful place. We also have a National Champion forensics program!
It's definitely safe, and it's a good place, I think, to raise kids. The biggest problem with raising kids here is that, as the article noted, Disney has not succeeded in keeping the town affordable, because prices have taken off. That means we have a lot of nouveau riche people living here, and sometimes their kids can have a warped sense of what is normal in terms of possessions, etc. Or maybe that's just my prejudice lingering from having grown up dirt poor but attending affluent private schools on scholarship. I really learned to hate rich kids, and now, arguably, I are one. There seems to be a casual assumption that I can afford to buy things at the drop of a hat for class projects for my kids with no notice, and that my kids will have an extremely wide variety of clothes.
But those are minor things. There is a lot that I love about living here.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
<---- major sucker for meta-news and RSS feeds are, unfortunately, very good at feeding my habit
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Then I noticed that from in front of the grocery shop, they line up to give the illusion of being real stone-type columns--at least a couple of feet thick. Very cool! Ever since I noticed this, I have thought the building was pretty cool. The building he describes as a visitors center has not been one for a good four years. It is currently a Bank of America. I think it's also a really neat building, but I'm dissapointed that the realities of teenagers and buildings with nooks and crannies made the town have to fence off the entrance to the little tower in front of the building.![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
There seems to be a casual assumption that I can afford to buy things at the drop of a hat for class projects for my kids with no notice, and that my kids will have an extremely wide variety of clothes.
