Levittown and the right = enforced conformity

dys- When I lived in NY, we were not too far from Levittown L.I. Whenever I passed through there, I was amazed. Although all the houses started out looking roughly the same, time and personal tastes had changed each house, so that they had their own personal characteristics.

At the time, Levitt provided what the soldiers returning from WWII needed................an inexpensive, clean, safe place to raise their families.I can remember the housing shortage after the war. Young couples were renting basements in one family houses on my block, and were happy to get it.

Levittown provided a way for young couples to begin their lives together in a place of their own.

Many of the restrictions they had remind my of a Stepford Wives sort of community. Certain colors, certain days to do the wash, how to maintain your yard, etc. Yes, it was a way for GI's to afford housing, but they didn't seem to realize that they were giving up their freedom by living according to someone else's rules.

No thanks.

Pretty much the same rules that apply to your average Military Housing developments near bases all over the country.
Funny, that.

As well as every condo complex, co-op, historic district and every community under the auspices of a homeowners association.

Yeah, yeah. Just five colors allowed, huh, Diane. And a sea of Kentucky blue grass around every house.

Hah, Roger, you are remembering Highlands Ranch and Dys's rant. JUST FIVE F**KING COLORS!!!

Magus, yep, military housing all the same, just think...

Fishin' I wouldn't be surprised if Levittown started all the covenants and restrictions.

Happy thanksgiving to all. We will be in Denver until Saturday.

"Eyes RIGHT!"

I grew up in a small neighborhood in rural Connecticut. All the houses were 18th or early 19th century farm houses (and all were white), everyone had approximately the same income, attended the same church (Methodist) all the children were within 10 years of each other, we all attended the same school, the cultural and moral standards we were held to were clearly understood and enforced. In many ways this was not too different from Levittown. I think Levittown reflected the experience and expectations of many Americans in the mid 20th century. It is the explosion of cultural diversity of the last 40 years that has made it look oppressive.

I like what I think of as lite track housing..

as in the old days, when, in some places, one builder built one or two or a few houses that had same or similar plans, usually somewhat less than a dozen and should he have done well financially, did another batch somewhere else. What I like about those, though I didn't have the background to assess it at the time, was that diversity in housing type occurred, and the occasional diversity in people. More on that later.

To skip to the chase and say where I am coming from, I spent most of my beginning years in landscape architecture doing planting and irrigation, and construction plans - working drawings - for 96 or 132 or 67 houses at once, and that would just be phase one. On other days I would design gardens for those individuals, often in Bel Air or Brentwood or Palos Verdes, who could afford to hire a landarch, and those included pools and spas and decks and parking courts and tennis courts and pergolas, oh, and well worked out planting plans, plus the underlying grading and drainage.

Hardly any inbetween, and I have always been interested in the inbetween places - there is a big vacuum for ordinary people without cushioning funds to hire a designer. (Though a sharp designer who specifies clearly can save money, it does cost to work out the design you are happy with, and many can't make that jump, or get bullied into a design they don't want.)

Not that tract houses are so inexpensive... they are out of range for many people now.

I think many of the older tracts did change over time; there have been reviews of Levittown, however you spell it, that show the changes. I've seen that in the Rattery tract, or one of the Rattery tracts, in West Los Angeles, from the '50's to the '90's. But ... they could change, I don't think there were the massive cc+r's on those tracts that happen in some places now. And the older tracts were smaller and often less separated.

Gregory Ain's tract in West LA covered three blocks by four blocks, with similar scale housing all around those blocks. Not an island.

Since the time I was involved in the giant tract kind of design, I'd finally gotten to Europe, at fairly late age - I was 48, to be specific. Well, not so much Europe, I've only been to Italy and got my enthusiasm all in a bunch for the one country. What I cottoned on to was the street life. And that is what I don't like about giant tract neighborhoods. No piazzas! Little street life. Off and on community, with the adults often off to work in the daytime.

I've written on this, it's part of my studies on piazzas - town squares, but not always the big fat squares that people in the US think of... more like ordinary small spaces with a shop or two and a tree and a bench and a fountain, that people walk their dogs to and/or get a newpaper and an ice cream or a glass of wine. I've more to say on the subject but will stop short there. Well, in a minute. I add that I am interested in what I call 'pedestrian culture', a phrase I think I coined, which is about what happens when you can walk without a whole bunch of fear, though perhaps some, of being run over by a car, in places you pass your neighbors walking, jogging, or on bicycles.

My idea of saving part of our world happens to coincide with - first, Jane Jacobs, and, later, the now popular new urbanism.. which, however it is voiced by the proponents, is meant to get some of the good parts of urban connection back into new site design. And retrofit it into old... site design.

Someone remind me to talk about the walk streets of Venice....