Did you ever live in or spend time in an all-inclusive-style neighborhood?

Rural communities are sometimes like that if you live in town. I’ve never lived in one.

I guess the closest I ever came to that was the year I spent in Bristol, England when I was first with my husband. Small supermarket at the “top of the road”, theaters and restaurants within walking distance and two jobs that I walked to. I loved it.

Right now I live in a small suburban area and can walk to a bakery, the post office, the train station and the ocean. I do know a lot of the neighbors but not all and the neighborhood is becoming more of a summer homes for New Yorkers area. It’s still pretty good but not ideal.

My sister just moved into one of those planned communities. Works for her but I could not do it. Not enough privacy.

When I was little, I lived in a suburb of NYC which was a little village. We had a car and would take rides on the weekend or go to visit my grandparents, but we did a lot of walking. Right next to the building we lived in was a pharmacy and a deli and a hairdresser. Down the block was a luncheonette/newstand. A little farther was a hospital, and that was in the village where there was a toy store, book store, supermarket, gift shop, stationery store, a few bakeries, some lunch places. It sounds idyllic and it was. The village is still there, still affluent, still exclusive. Oh, and it had a great park near the hospital which we would go to all the time. The park consisted of a path around a lake where you could sit on benches or walk around the lake. It wasn’t a planned community, it was just a holdover from the 1920’s when the buildings and stores were built.

@jca2: Yes, exactly. Not planned but village-like. I do think it is idyllic but am recently realizing how few people I know grew up like that.

@janbb: Where you live now sounds similar and very nice.

@snowberry: I hadn’t thought of that but that makes sense.

Seems a bit provincial to me, but now I’m older I might like it. Even a small hole in the road community with nothing but the usual convenience store, community center, a few houses and a Vol. Fire Dept. would suit me fine.

I’ve lived in Chicago neighborhoods like that. My favorite is Ravenswood and I would love to move back there. When I needed an air conditioner, I walked to Sears and carried it home on my shoulder. I walked to my guitar lessons at The Old Town School of Folk Music. There’s a movie theater. There are “regular” big chain groceries and a Trader Joe’s. There are dozens of restaurants and bars, from diners and taquerías to haute cuisine. It has one of the 3 big regional libraries in the city system. Across the street from the library is a huge neighborhood park, with kid and adult tournaments in softball, football, soccer, horse shoes, bocce, swimming and more. Two train systems can get you downtown or out to the suburbs.

Sorry to rave, but that’s not the half of it. I could go on and on. Life has other plans for me right now, but hope remains.

That sounds pretty great @Call_Me_Jay.

I live two blocks from the main drag in a suburb of San Francisco. I can go days without moving my car if I want to; the only thing we don’t have is a movie theater, but I can take rapid transit to the cineplex.

I lived in three different neighborhoods of San Francisco when I was kid. Each of the three was self contained, but if you were adventuresome you could always take the bus.

“What were your experiences with such places?”
– Many European and British towns and cities. (Also some Canadian and American ones, since I like walking even long distances in places I like.)
They were wonderful.

“Did you enjoy it?”
Very much.

“Find it too confining?”
No.

“Did you know everyone in the neighborhood? Was that good or bad?”
No. Good.

I think I’ve always lived like that, with the exception of my last place. There, I could reach everything but a café/restaurant, and I missed that a lot.

I don’t know everyone in the neighborhood (way too many people), but I’m friendly with the close neighbours and happy with that.

I live in a rural small town and love it most of the time. Everyone is very friendly usually and unless you choose to lead a more private life, there is never a lack of simple joys, like yardwork/gardening, school games, fundraisers, etc…

@HP Plenty of room. :)

I grew up in a similar neighborhood to what the OP described. I now live where I could walk to most anywhere I really needed to get to, other than checking on family members. Not having a car is manageable here because our public transportation is by appointment and really cheap. $2.00 per ride. They pick you up at home and drive you to wherever you need to go. They return to pick you up with a 30-minute window. If you are running late you call to delay them. I would not live in a large city and use bus or subway service.

I’m doing it now and I love it. All of my needs are met within two miles and we have variety.

My friends on social media complain about gas prices and I’m oblivious.

When I was little, I lived in a suburb of NYC which was a little village. We had a car but didn’t use it often. We would sometimes take it to visit my grandparents, but only if my dad was with us, otherwise we took the train. We could walk to the train stop. We only had one car for our family when we lived in NY. My dad usually used it to go to work.

So far I practically copied what @jca2 wrote. Lol. Her village wasn’t very far from mine.

Here’s where it gets different.

From our building we could walk a block to the grocery store. The downtown area was about a 5 to 10 minute walk depending what store you were going to. There were stores like a hardware store, shoe store, candy and toy store, I don’t remember them all. Also restaurants, the restaurant I remember the most is Larry’s pizza parlor. Plus, there was a movie theatre, a library, and as I mentioned above the train station. I went back several years ago and some of the stores were still there.

In a different direction from my building was my elementary school, which was also walkable, but we had a bus we could take.

There was also a big park close by with a playground, a running track/field and I think a baseball field too if I remember correctly. We had a small playground at our building, so we most often played there, but we went to the big playground quite a bit too. The community had events there like Easter egg hunts, Maypole on May Day, even state fair like rides for a few days a year.

It’s still a cute village right on the river. We had very little money, so being able to walk to everything was ideal, because my parents couldn’t afford two cars.

It wasn’t too confining from my little girl perspective. I wasn’t way out in the middle of nowhere, we could walk to the train and in less than an hour be at Grand Central terminal in New York City.

From that village we moved to Montgomery Village, MD when I was 9. From my house we could walk to the elementary and jr. high school, rec centers, swimming pools, play grounds and also tennis. 10 minutes walking was a local mall with a grocery store, and some shops and restaurants. Plus, medical offices were within walking distance too. The Village was larger than my corner of it, but our location in the town put us near of all those things. A good percentage of the houses were built close to the commercial areas and there were walking and by cycle paths to get to everything. Even tunnels so we didn’t cross a lot of road.

Now, I live in a community/city called The Villages in Florida, we call it “the bubble,” and it’s not small, but you can get to everything by golf cart.

I really like living in places that are very planned out and I can walk to a lot of things and see friends close by. I also like to be within an hour of a major city.

Couldn’t edit. Sorry for some typos above.

Thank you @JLeslie. That all sounds great. I agree with being within an hour of a city.