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Comment by temp8964 | Hacker News Reader

As someone grew up in similar environment, I don't miss this at all.

I would rather buy grocery once a week with a huge load put in the trunk and drive back home, instead of buy a little bit every next day and walk home carrying the bags. I don't want to carry a gallon milk or a Watermolen, or push/drag a cart on the street.

I think people who envy this kind of environment just don't know how inconvenient it is for a working family with a few kids. But it is kind of OK if you live with grandpa / grandmom, who will do grocery almost everyday, or if you don't do grocery just eat in restaurants or buy food online.

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Counterpoint: Many American parents spend a large portion of their time simply shuttling their kids between home, school, and other activities, because none are within walking distance and buses are all but absent in most places.

I'm now raising my kids in the Bay Area, and I'm fortunate because the kids' schools are within walking distance, but that's a luxury not enjoyed by most people around here.

Yes. You may have a few things in walking distance, but I don't believe you can have most things (schools, grocery, public library, gyms, bike ground, soccer ground, tennis court, etc.) in walking distance, you will need other transportations other than legs.

Around here in Europe, the kids ride the city bus along with the adults or hop on a bike/scooter. And in fact, most of the things you listed are within a medium walk or short bike ride from most urban neighborhoods in my city. It's not a particularly big or important city, about 400k, but has extremely human friendly urban planning (hooray communists?)

From where I'm sitting a 15 minute walks gets to two schools, a grocery store, the library, two gyms, a bike path, and a soccer field. The tennis court is 19 minutes away, and the high school would be the furthest, at 40 minutes.

And this is in a smallish town, one advantage of which is that things cannot be that far away in a town that takes an hour to walk across.

Not sure if your comment was confined to the USA or not, but I live in outer suburban London, and I have the schools, small Sainsbury's supermarket, libraries, a small gym, soccer grounds and tennis courts within an easy walk. Larger gym and larger supermarkets are an easy bike ride away. There is nothing at all unusual or remarkable about my particular part of London.

Counternarrative: I live a few blocks from a grocery store, with kid, and frankly, I don't mind it at all. Maybe kid does. But it's nice to be able to just walk there and not worry about parking, loading, etc. Looking to move to a place even, amusingly, closer to the grocery.

now, the kid might decide that he wants a huge SUV and to drive to the store every 1-2 weeks, that's going to be interesting. But for me, the parent, I like it.

There is almost no parking / loading problem for grocery in U.S. suburban. Grocery stores have huge parking lots.

We have two kids born and raised in Seoul. It is a bit of a pain, but also the price, quality, and quantity of prepared food outside makes it way more feasible to bring that burden down somewhat. If your children are small, I could see it being a pain. We did have the help of a grandma, though pretty inconsistently.

When I grew up, we didn't have food market close, except for breakfast. Grocerying was constant pain when the weather was not perfect, like too hot, too cold, or raining, snowing etc.

As someone who lives in Tokyo and cooks regularly I for one don’t mind this at all and in fact prefer it to my life in the USA where all the produce tastes like nothing and all the food is packed with preservatives to last long beyond their natural expiry dates to accommodate said lifestyle.

This actually I do agree, USA food are almost tasteless on everything.

I think even in a very walkable city it can be inconvenient not to have a car. I enjoy buying groceries for the next day or two and making multiple quick trips per week in tiny stores. I also like taking the car over to the hypermarket and loading up on heavy, bulky and pantry items. I also sometimes get free grocery delivery instead. It's really about choice. In the US, often your only choice is Walmart.

I agree. This is why I'm excited to have a house where I can buy in greater bulk and do groceries less often. Even doing groceries once a week is a hassle

it's one of those things that you get used to and it actually helps you live a healthier life.

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