How does a rich American village look and live?

Life brought me to the USA, and there to a typical rich American village, where I had the opportunity to live for several days.

My friend Andrei on the background of his house and car. Photo blisch.by

Of course, what we represent a village belongs to the United States to a lesser extent. The “villages” are different here, depending on their functional purpose, and there is no such administrative unit at all. Almost all settlements in America are called “cities”, even if a couple of hundred people live in a “city”. However, the city in the countryside and the city itself are logically separated - in the first case it will be mostly low-rise buildings, and the townspeople have enlarged land, in the second case mixed buildings - both private and multi-family, and business. In this city, people also work, in the de facto city they only rest.

My good friend Andrew settled in the USA a long time ago and bought a house this summer. Well, I bought it. He took, of course, a loan: for 30 years he would have to pay a tidy sum for the right to live in his own mansion. Fortunately, in the US, loans are truly available and buying a hut is not something extremely prohibitive.

It is not so easy to take and choose a specific place of residence. Depending on the "class" of the city, the owner of the house must pay taxes to the treasury of the municipal authorities. The value of this tax is very different and, as it is easy to guess, directly affects the state of the settlement. The richer the people live in it, the "thicker" the town will be - clean sidewalks, whole lanterns, the absence of asocial elements.

Photo blisch.by

Economic segregation in the United States is nowhere more convex, but this is perceived as absolutely normal. The “village” I lived in is called Waldwick and is located 40 minutes from New York. The annual tax on the right to own a house here is 10 thousand dollars a year. Worldwide in the fourth ten cities of New Jersey for quality of life. This is something average: not too high, but not so low as to complain about life here.

“A house is worth nothing,” my friend Andrei likes to repeat. - The main thing is the land. A land plot in Waldwick costs about $ 300 thousand, but, of course, the price depends on many factors. The house itself is a box with several rooms, a kitchen, a living room, a garage, two bathrooms, and an office. Suitable for families with children.

95% of houses in Waldwick wood, and this is true for the country as a whole. They are heated by built-in split systems, but on a cold day you can light a fireplace.

Photo blisch.by

Almost all houses are not fenced, the fence will be only in the backyard. Mowed lawns, inspected facades ... For sloppiness you can get a fine and public censure.

How to understand that Waldwick is not the highest standard of living? Well, for example, in the village there are no sidewalks for pedestrians.

Of course, in 100% of households there are cars or even a few (leased, of course), however, there are sidewalks in neighboring Ridgewood (4 in the state). It is pleasant in the evening to make a promenade around the village or jog maintain shape for.

A car in the American countryside is as necessary as a steady income and participation in public life. By car you need to go to the store (5 minutes), take the children to school and kindergarten (10 minutes), get to the train station (15 minutes). Without a car you can do it except in Manhattan, in all other cases, its absence will result in enormous difficulties. The USA is an automobile country, a person without a car is like an invalid here.

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Who lives in Waldwick? Perhaps IT professionals like Andrew. Also - doctors, engineers, lawyers, other “white bone”. Almost everyone will have a well-paying job in New York, and white skin.

- Of course, I could have become too “American”, but buying my home in the USA is like security, success, proof that you have achieved something. I like to live in not in the richest, but very decent town near New York.

Every morning, Andrew and thousands of other people from all over the neighborhood sit on trains to Manhattan to secure the right to live in a private house and quiet the province.

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