Feminized urbanism: is there a name for this kind of neighborhood?

[MacheteJames]

Many of the village centers in my area are absolutely chock full of hobby businesses. It's a byproduct of all the money here. Some of these are actually run by men - for example, I know of a couple of upscale local bike shops with really weird hours and no staff to speak of but the owner and occasional seasonal help. These places don't sell your average Schwinn or Huffy - they specialize in high end $3,000+ bicycles.

I think this topic may be worth creating a new thread for... a "Planning in wealthy suburbs" thread, perhaps? I find the combination of uber-high property taxes, obscene wealth, a lack of a true middle class, and a litigious culture make planning in this area (Westchester County) a different beast from what I knew back in New England.

[nrschmid]

or gayborhoods?

[stroskey]

oh snapz!...

[Dan Staley]

Many of the village centers in my area are absolutely chock full of hobby businesses. It's a byproduct of all the money here.

The latest Harper's Index had a stat along the lines of ~31% of American men are out of work or not looking any more.

Let us also remember that Farmer's Markets are turning into these as well: more booths with hand creams and spa cr*p and beeswax lip balm and hempen baby binkies. And if you are going to open a business in a box with high rents, how are you going to recoup your investment? Be a boutique Dollar Store?

Just a fad. These will go away too just like what was in before them. Maybe faster if the economy continues the way it is going.

[Dan]

I'm not into link-only posts, but this seems to describe one key demographic of a neighborhood like West Highland:

Yoga moms

And one for SAC:

http://www.urbanbaby.com

[Otis]

It might seem degrading, but in my experience it's true. A business plan to sell Etsy-style handmade purses of a very specific style in a retail space leasing for $20 to $25 per square foot in a neighborhood that doesn't attract regional shopping traffic doesn't seem to make sense.

"Hobby businesses" are the bane of many small towns trying to revitalize their main streets, because of their irregular hours, lack of uniqueness and limited appeal. One never knows when "Grandma's Antiques" or "Patti Lou's Consignment Store" will be open, and just about every small town in Ohio seemed to be filled with the same types of businesses. How different can all the hundreds of antique and consignment stores be? At least in the breederhoods, the hobby businessess have regular hours, and they're unique.

I think the day spas, yoga studios and wellness centers can pull it off because they charge a fortune. Still, I've seen urban neighborhoods that have yoga studios everywhere, and I wonder how they all can survive?

The market will figure that whether it makes sense or not or whether they will survive pretty quickly. Meanwhile landlords are recovering their investments, sales tax is being collected for the cities, and people are buying things and services that they want, and the people who work there are getting jobs. What is wrong with that? And it seems like each of these shops is unique. None appear to be chains.

There are areas like this for lots of different store types. Think of gearhead areas (NAPA, Oil Can Henry's, etc.), for example, or auto rows, or restaurant rows (e.g. San Antonio's River Walk), or theatre districts, or even downtown financial districts. Before the big bookstores ruined bookselling, there were (and maybe still are in some places) neighborhoods with several small booksellers. They know that the only thing better than one bookstore is two bookstores. They feed off of each other and draw more people than either would alone. The same is true of antique stores.

Clustering businesses serving similar customers is good for the businesses and their customers. In the case of your pictured neighborhood the businesspeople seem to have noticed a demand and filled it, and in a quality way, too. That is a good thing.

[Zoning Goddess]

Jealous perhaps?

May I ask what's the alternative? Gentrification is sometimes a nasty word, but it's better than the alternative, in my opinion.

Nope, not jealous. Been in retail, never going back! It's the assumption that women "dabble" but men" own and run actual businesses". Who's to say half those shops aren't being run by couples, men with an obsessive interest in selling doggie treats, or, hey, gay guys?

It's like me assuming the Army/Navy store I lived near a couple years ago was financed by some rich babe wife because there were hardly ever any cars in the lot (as in, how in hell does he stay in business?). My assumption just based on it being a "guy" store.

[Michele Zone]

It might seem degrading, but in my experience it's true. A business plan to sell Etsy-style handmade purses of a very specific style in a retail space leasing for $20 to $25 per square foot in a neighborhood that doesn't attract regional shopping traffic doesn't seem to make sense.

"Hobby businesses" are the bane of many small towns trying to revitalize their main streets, because of their irregular hours, lack of uniqueness and limited appeal.

This reminds me of a book I read some years ago. The author had studied a particular type of business, usually run from home, usually part-time, sometimes done as a kind of outsourced employee so the employer did not have to foot the cost of medical benefits and all that jazz. It was almost always a woman doing this. The book ranted and raved about the "victimization" of these women. I thought it was ridiculous. Most of them were married, with kids, looking to increase their income, had medical coverage under their spouse and needed cash more than benefits. It looked to me like most of them weren't being taken advantage of at all. It looked to me like a sweet deal for many of them. The ones who were single moms were typically SOL. Being a single mom without adequate support from the community (ex husband, family, etc) is always a tough row to hoe. That doesn't prove that job type is some kind of victimization of women.

Generally speaking, women in business do follow a different profile from men in business. Many of them are looking to supplement income. They are more likely to be looking for something that fits around their family obligations of raising kids, cleaning house and so forth than something to "make a career out of". They are less likely to take out loans. More likely to work from home than rent an office. Typically bootstrap the business. Etc.

[likesbikes]

Well, the issue is that while these types of neighborhoods are pretty and fun to walk around, you have to get in your car and drive a ways to get to anything useful. I would like to see this type of environment mixed with places that also function as a necessity for everyone, or at least good public transportation to such an area. Now, that is just an assumption on my part that this doesn't already have that in place, but just from my experience with other similar neighborhoods, that's a problem. And, I'm writing this as I sit in my chic little bookshop/cafe, so...
But I guess if you can't afford this type of lifestyle, you wouldn't be living near it anyways.

[natski]

I actually never said that i disliked this neighbourhood. I would be the type of person to frequent it in fact. I was just discussing it from a demographics point of view.

[skyfire]

Well, the issue is that while these types of neighborhoods are pretty and fun to walk around, you have to get in your car and drive a ways to get to anything useful.

Where I see these types of business districts is where it has been near impossible to get something "useful" to locate there. Much of the household/hardware/clothing/grocery sales has been franchised or big-boxed to be "affordable". These chains won't locate in non-standard spaces, such as older, historic, commercial buildings. They want their standard footprint with at least a certain square footage, etc., that these areas don't provide.

Our local downtown is being revitalized in part by women-run (and one daddy-track-male-run and one couple-run) businesses whose contractor husbands or friends helped reduce the cost of the remodeling of the space.

Better to have something bringing activity to these areas than nothing. (or something less attractive, like pawn shop, speedy income tax, etc.)

[Rygor]

The market will figure that whether it makes sense or not or whether they will survive pretty quickly. Meanwhile landlords are recovering their investments, sales tax is being collected for the cities, and people are buying things and services that they want, and the people who work there are getting jobs. What is wrong with that? And it seems like each of these shops is unique. None appear to be chains.

There are areas like this for lots of different store types. Think of gearhead areas (NAPA, Oil Can Henry's, etc.), for example, or auto rows, or restaurant rows (e.g. San Antonio's River Walk), or theatre districts, or even downtown financial districts. Before the big bookstores ruined bookselling, there were (and maybe still are in some places) neighborhoods with several small booksellers. They know that the only thing better than one bookstore is two bookstores. They feed off of each other and draw more people than either would alone. The same is true of antique stores.

Clustering businesses serving similar customers is good for the businesses and their customers. In the case of your pictured neighborhood the businesspeople seem to have noticed a demand and filled it, and in a quality way, too. That is a good thing.

Ah yes, the "cluster effect".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_effect

Definitely a good thing in most cases. The only time it is not desirable is if it happens with undesirable uses (such as porn shops/theaters, etc. or types of businesses that will attract crime).

[Suburban Hell]

These street level activated pedestrian friendly areas are great and good for the city. We have several in Nashville: Hillsboro Village, East Nashville Five Points, 12 South, 8th Avenue South, Berry Hill, Elliston Place, Eastland Avenue, Belmont, Granny White Pike at David Lipscomb University and others are springing up all over town. Most of the shopping is geared to females especially in the college areas around Vanderbilt University and Belmont University.

This type of urban infill and redevelopment beats the hell out of the suburban shopping model where walking anywhere puts your life in danger...thus my moniker Suburban Hell.

[Gotta Speakup]

There is this large "market" every Sunday during the warm months across the street from my condo. The stuff is almost all geared toward women. Its ok. Why should we complain? I don't complain about tire shops either. It does occupy retail space, and that is good. I just don't go into those places (how is that for a tolerant attitude?).

Note that the icture in the post that sets this whole thread going has a barber shop!

[smccutchan1]

It may have already been said and I didn't see it, but I believe an important factor in what we see here is the number of woman opening their own businesses and doing what they believe other women want. Some of these businesses may be owned and operated by men, but I would guess the vast majority are women owned and operated.

Its condescending to just characterize these businesses as places for affluent bored moms to get out and conspicuously consume. More importantly they characterize more women entrepreneurs catering to what they believe women like themselves want in the marketplace.

[Dan]

A bump of a somewhat old thread:it seems like I'm not the only one who noticed that the West Highland/Berkeley/Northwest Denver area is something of a "breederhood".

Westword: The Highlands Mommies are raising babies and raising Cain in northwest Denver
http://www.westword.com/2010-12-16/n...thwest-denver/

The Mommies, after all, are a powerful group. Its sheer size — there are 2,874 members — and its geographical concentration make it a formidable organization.

5280: The Mommy Club
http://www.5280.com/magazine/2008/05/mommy-club

Why is there such a large number of new moms in Highland, the northwest Denver hodge-podge of Victorians, bungalows, midcentury ranch homes, and scrapes? In recent years, young, mostly white professionals have been streaming into Highland, West Highland, and the surrounding neighborhoods of Berkeley, Sunnyside, and Sloan Lake in record numbers, drawn by relatively affordable housing, the proximity to downtown, and the diversity of the urban neighborhood, which has historically been home to Italian-Americans and, more recently, Latino families. Instead of fleeing to the suburbs, these well-educated, middle-class, predominantly liberal couples want to raise their kids in a hip urban environment, and Highland—until recently—has been one of the most affordable places to do so.

Basically, it's Denver's version of Park Slope.

[ThePinkPlanner]

I would think the opposite is true, with guilt-ridden working moms running amok to rationalize their existence through spending too much on silly crap for themselves and babies. Most likely this is the kind oof dual income neighborhood where everyone is broke the day before payday, and they don't put away $$ for retirement.

There are a lot of generalizations called out in this post, but this one seems to stand out to me for any number of reasons. You find me a working mom who has time to run amok anywhere, much less downtown through overpriced, targeted shops, leisurely with a venti latte and a fancy stroller. Most working moms I know barely have time to shower much less do such a thing. I'll also never understand why the words guilt-ridden and working are thrown together so often.

[stroskey]

I'm a straight male and I like these neighborhoods and these kinds of shops. I like the feel of a streetcar suburb neighborhood, the stability they often provide, and the quirkiness of the shops. Through in a few pubs, hardware shop, and pizza parlor and I'll move in. I would rather live in their neighborhood than most places, actually.

And why are the "work from home" companies always geared towards women? Scentcy, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Amway, "girl-product" parties, jewelery parties, etc. Do men not buy frivolous things?

[ColoGI]

Basically, it's Denver's version of Park Slope.

Nevertheless, its not really an urbanism label per se. Rather, it is simply a collection of merchants.

If you can show that the sidewalks, architecture, and landscaping are different and a particular new land-use constructed I'll buy in to a new term and formal discipline. Merchants agglomerating in extant buildings isn't an ____ urbanism. You wouldn't call a block of golf, cigar, detailing, hardware, big screen TV, bowling shirt, and Homer Simpson memorabilia shops in extant buildings ManCaveized Urbanism, right?

;o)

Jus' sayin'.

[DetroitPlanner]

There are a lot of generalizations called out in this post, but this one seems to stand out to me for any number of reasons. You find me a working mom who has time to run amok anywhere, much less downtown through overpriced, targeted shops, leisurely with a venti latte and a fancy stroller. Most working moms I know barely have time to shower much less do such a thing. I'll also never understand why the words guilt-ridden and working are thrown together so often.

Did you prefer the generalization I was responding too with my post?

You could be a guilt ridden working dad too, buy your kids giant SUVs to be toted around in and not save a dime for retirement either. Truth is I never understood how any of this fluff was able to find a market. Be it targeted to either sex.

[PennPlanner]

Think outside the box for a bit, or look beyond the boundaries of your neighborhood.

The US has a sizeable upper middle class. While most mothers work, even in this income bracket, it's quite normal for upper middle class educated young mothers to take 1-3 years off from work with their first child, or switch to part time work.

Second, every demographic group has its interests and preferences. The upper middle class women in these areas aren't necessarily performing a social act different from lower income women. It's just the location - a hip urban shopping area versus a down at heels mall in a working class neighborhood - that differs.

There are a lot of generalizations called out in this post, but this one seems to stand out to me for any number of reasons. You find me a working mom who has time to run amok anywhere, much less downtown through overpriced, targeted shops, leisurely with a venti latte and a fancy stroller. Most working moms I know barely have time to shower much less do such a thing. I'll also never understand why the words guilt-ridden and working are thrown together so often.