Happy Sunday folks! In today’s issue, you’ll hear…
📝 Why and Where We Are Moving
🗓️ What’s Coming Wednesday:
Closing Shop, Headed Further South
In the late summer of 2021, I sat in the living room in the wee hours of the night of our quaint apartment in the Elizabeth neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina. We had recently learned we were expecting our first child and the feeling started to settle in that our time in our ideal walkable neighborhood was coming to an end soon.
Rates for a two-bedroom apartment were closing in on the mid-$1,900s in walkable areas and availability for anything immediate was scarce. Time wasn’t on our side as we knew we had less than six months to find a place and get settled just in case the baby decided to arrive early. The mission was clear: find somewhere affordable and close to both of our parents that didn’t force us to sacrifice every element of the walkable lifestyle we had become accustomed to.
I started looking up future bus rapid transit projects in the South and using Google Maps to zoom in and out of cities cross-referencing their bike infrastructure. I stumbled upon Greenville, South Carolina and my eyes couldn’t believe it. After videos upon videos, I finally fell asleep just before 3 a.m., rising just after 8 a.m. to share the news with my wife. We got ready and jumped on I-85 to see what all the fuss was about.
We parked downtown and I stepped into a public restroom (a rarity in cities nowadays) before embarking upon Falls Park. After spending time walking around downtown and driving through much of the city, we stopped at Carolina Bauernhaus, a brewery that specializes in some incredible sours, and other traditional brews like radlers and lagers. I sat with the beach-like sand between my toes while swinging from a hammock thinking, “I could get used to this slower pace of life.”
We ended up talking ourselves out of it. Factors mostly dealt with the political climate (Year of January 6th in a blood red state) but kept coming back to the idea that the chapter was never fully closed on this place that we felt eerily close to. With the birth of our second child, it is time we revisit that very chapter. I’d like to have my mother over for dinner or step out with my wife knowing our children are in great care. After completing the Sorensen Institute Political Leadership Program, I also feel more comfortable than ever having uncomfortable conversations with conservatives. This means the shop will be closing and our time in my hometown of Richmond will be coming to an end in 2025.
I’ve been able to experience Richmond as a child, as a 20-something-what-am-I-doing and a 30-something-I-know-what-I-want. While I’ve overcome my identity crisis, my birthplace has not. The realization of this couldn’t have come at a more convenient time. I’m content and in some ways, relieved. Whether it believes this or not. Richmond still has the bones and creative minds to be the best city in the South and I didn’t need CNN to cosign me on that. Whether it will become that or not, however, becomes more faint with time. Libby Hill would be my hill to die on to see it happen if it was just me to consider, but I have a family now.
What’s Coming Wednesday:
Free Subscribers:
We will be discussing climate anxiety.
Paid Subscribers:
I will break down three ways I personally cope with climate anxiety.
What You May Have Missed:
Youtube
I posted a Youtube Short using a clip from a podcast I appeared on about the lack of shade at most playgrounds. I have posted five Shorts this week alone and am determined to be as active as possible for the next 90 days. There is a huge disparity of people of color covering urbanism and/or lifestyle dad topics on YouTube.
Please consider subscribing here.
Substack & Twitter
I am back on Substack. You can read more on that here. Paid accounts there have been terminated and the payments have been unpaused here on Substack. I will be sending emails to those who were not paid subscribers on Substack before to ensure smooth transfers.
Sunday Specials newsletters will come weekly giving a preview of Wednesday’s free/paid newsletter.
I am also back on X or Twitter (@barrygreenejr), simply from the feeling that I have not been able to find anything close to the digital conversations built on the platform. There are still some great people pushing smart growth on the platform and they need all the help they can get.
Til, next time cut loose.
density dad is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber, sharing this post, or buying me a cup of coffee.
Like what you read? Feel free to forward this along and tell a friend.
Subscribe: Youtube
Follow me: Instagram
Interested in Sponsorship: email barry@density.dad.
New here? Access previous newsletters for free here. After 30 days, previous issues are archived for paid subscribers only. Become a paid supporter today!
density dad is brought to you by our generous paid supporters who believe in building infrastructure that includes families and vulnerable populations.
Your contributions make it possible for us to continue creating quality content. Consider becoming a paid supporter today.