2002-05-14 - 7:13 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: A choral version of "Hanerot Halalu"

ARGH!

In Virginia, we insured a classic VW, a 7-year-old pickup, and a 13-year-old POS for $990 a year.

Poindexter just called to get the rates for Philadelphia, and identical coverage is OVER THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

You gotta be FUCKING KIDDING ME.

Online articles seem to indicate that the problem is twofold: High rates of personal injury claims (four times as much as the national average, I think), and uninsured drivers. The latter, I'd imagine, is in a vicious cycle with the high premiums.

We can up the deductible, plus we're donating the POS, so that will help some. Not much -- sounds like we can only knock it down to $2500. Man. We hardly ever drive our cars here, and when we do, it's usually OUTSIDE Philadelphia, not within it, so this is just nuts.

So there's that. And then there's the wage tax: 4.5% of WAGES -- no deductions, etc. allowed. Since I do not work in the city, if we lived in the 'burbs I wouldn't have to pay the wage tax anymore. Then there's the higher costs of buying things here, helped along by asinine business taxes which tax GROSS RECEIPTS, not profits (so you still have to pay taxes on a business whose expenses are higher than its gross). Supposedly the auto insurance rates drop dramatically (by $500+) when you leave Philadelphia County.

It's just ridiculous. As I put it to Poindexter just now, "Is it worth, say, $400 a month in taxes and various fees to live here versus an inner suburb?"

Especially when you consider that many of the neighborhoods we like (Queen Village, in particular) are far enough away from his job and public transportation so that commute time is comparable to living on the train line outside the city. Not only that, but once you get away from center city, the number of neighborhoods with a significant number of nearby shops goes way down, so that in terms of walkability I might as well be living in the suburbs.

It is really killing me to have to acknowledge this, but I'm really not sure we can buy a house here.

I mean, it would be one thing if the taxes were doing something useful. But compared to the suburbs, the city services are terrible. If government money could save this place, it wouldn't be 90% slum. Even on general services for everyone, it fails miserably. Poindexter and I laugh every time we cross the city line and the road turns instantly from ancient pothole-ridden white city concrete to glassy-smooth black suburban pavement.

Taxes aside, there's the issue of housing values. The market here is really inflated for the neighborhoods we like. Houses that sold for $150K within the last five years are going for more than twice that right now, and I haven't been terribly impressed with the quality of the renovations I've seen. Once interest rates start going up, what's going to happen to those property values?

Sigh. I guess I'm just going to have to enjoy it while it lasts.

I think I'm desperately hoping to find that it's just as expensive, in hidden, insidious ways, to live in the suburbs. I already know there's not much point in living in New Jersey. Hm ... I wonder if I can cite wear and tear on the cars for the extra miles driving to my parents house? The suburbs we like are an hour's drive from my parents' house, versus only 40 minutes from Center City. Hm...

Poindexter says that if we found a house that we really, really loved, it would be worth it. It's just not worth it to buy any old house.

One thing we might do, though, is rent a house in the city for a year or so. That will give me more of a chance to decide if it's worth $400 a month to stay here, without the risk of paying too much for a house or losing value.

After all, the amount of interest we'd pay on a loan -- even after the tax savings -- plus the real estate taxes and homeowner's insurance, is comparable to the rents for similar homes. Not to mention we can be more flexible about houses -- we'd rent houses that we wouldn't buy.

And since it's only for a year, it's not like blowing $5000+ year after year that we could be investing. Something to think about. It would be like taking a $5000 once-in-a-lifetime vacation, or something. That's a little easier for me to swallow than steadily increasing taxes.

On the positive side, if we do have to buy outside the city, it's not necessarily going to be horrible. Finding a house in the inner suburbs on the train line will be a little difficult, but I think it's possible to find a place with a "small-town" atmosphere and walkability.

Two places in particular that I liked were Narberth and Jenkintown. Narberth is outrageously expensive -- many of the houses are well-kept mansions, driving up the cost of the smaller homes -- but Jenkintown and nearby Wyncote look a lot more reasonable, though Wyncote has its share of mansions, too. Poindexter is still rather enamored of Drexel Park, but I'm not big on it because most of its streets are over a half-mile from shops.

I suppose I could get a bike. Even that's better than driving.

I can't figure out why I hate using a car so much. I mean, I've been having a love affair with old Volkswagens for eight years now. I love driving mine. I think the reason I hate it is that it's not about driving anymore. It's one thing to take the car out for a Sunday drive on back roads, and quite another to use a car to idle at five fucking traffic lights on the way to the grocery store. I'd rather walk.

Sometimes I think it's silly of me to place such a high premium on walkability, given that I spend so much time curled up on the couch at home. But for whatever reason, I love walking, and I especially love walking when I can use it to run errands.

Maybe what I like, besides being outdoors, is that in a car I'm isolated. It's like Poindexter said once -- "I like to stay at home, but when I walk out the front door, I'm ready to interact with the world." When I'm out walking, particularly in an older neighborhood designed on a walking scale and not an automobile scale, I get to look at things up close. I can say hi to people, or even strike up a conversation. It's SATISFYING in a way that driving around in a car is not.

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