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An urban dweller writes a guide on living the metro life

Claudia Pearce March 14, 2004

If Kyle Ezell's vision comes true, Americans are on the verge of a mass movement back to the cities, and San Diegans are already leading the way.

Ezell maintains that the country's bored boomers, empty nesters and energetic 20-somethings are beginning to realize that there's an alternative to never-ending suburban sprawl. And he aims to help them exchange the long commutes, soul-deadening architecture, pressures for conformity and cultural homogeneity of the suburbs for the excitement, diversity and fulfillment of urban living.

Not that he's biased.

A Columbus, Ohio-based certified urban planner and dedicated urbanite, Ezell admits to being a cheerleader for city life. He's just written what his publicists describe as "the first self-help guide to transform your lifestyle from complacent suburbanite to exhilarated urban dweller."

Are you a candidate for city living? Take the test. Unabashed urban booster Kyle Ezell poses these questions in his book for those contemplating a move to the city: 1. Are you tired of cutting grass, driving everywhere for everything, taking care of a needy house and being a long way from entertainment, shopping and work? 2. Are you longing for a neighborhood with character and personality, closer relationships with people who live nearby, more convenience in your life, being connected to a special place and having easy access to shopping and fun? 3. Are you ready to engage with a diverse group of people, simplify your home life so you can be out more, leave your car parked for days and weeks at a time, walk to restaurants, theaters, bookstores, sports arenas and galleries, and never be bored again unless you want to be? If you answered yes to the questions above, you clearly meet Ezell's criteria presented in "Get Urban."

In "Get Urban: The Beginners' Guide to City Living" (Capital Books, 2004), Ezell helps his readers determine which of four main types of urban settings, or "urbs," is best for them.

He breaks down city neighborhoods this way:

Sleek post-industrial cultural communities (such as San Diego's East Village, downtown's former warehouse district);

Gracious, historic garden neighborhoods (such as San Diego's South Park, Mission Hills and Burlingame);

Eclectic, trendy arts areas (such as Little Italy, Hillcrest and Uptown);

"Blank canvas" neighborhoods awaiting a rescue or turnaround (such as the once dismal, X-rated part of downtown now recast as the Gaslamp Quarter).

In his book, Ezell profiles 47 examples of these four kinds of urbs that he has found in 35 American cities which he deems desirable places to live. Included prominently is San Diego's Little Italy neighborhood.

And he goes into urban survival skills, including searching for a city home, dealing with the threat of crime and, above all, learning the joys of walking instead of having to drive.

In a telephone interview from his home in Columbus, Ezell spoke about his book, his impressions of San Diego and his avocation as one of the nation's pre-eminent urban cheerleaders.

Although he's well schooled in urban planning, Ezell admits that the on-location research for his book was a bit of a whirlwind.

"I was planning to write this book and then 9/11 hit and I thought that no one would want to live in cities any more," he said. "But I decided to go ahead anyway. So I started flying around the week after 9/11, when all the flights were really cheap. I went to as many cities as possible, but not all of them ended up in the book.

"I flew to San Diego for $80 round-trip and thought it was one of the best, especially compared with some of the city "urbs" in the 'Bread Basket' that were so much farther (behind in renewal)."

He said he included San Diego in his book as a kind of over-the-top example of the best in urban planning.

"San Diego is so beautiful and perfect that I had to use it," said Ezell, "They do a great job of defining their urbs. They have these great big, cool signs that identify each neighborhood and help market and characterize it so people will have pride about living where they do.

"And Little Italy," he continued, "is a nearly flawless 'urb,' with the ocean, its Italian atmosphere and smells, jetliners rattling your insides as they fly overhead and a resulting high-energy feeling as you walk around."

Little Italy, like many of San Diego's evolving inner-city neighborhoods, may be a great place to live, but it's also pretty pricey.

What about the energetic 20-somethings he mentions? Most of them can't afford to live in San Diego's urbs without seemingly having to cram 10 to a loft in order to pay the rent.

Ezell admits that neighborhood gentrification can be a problem, pushing up rents and home prices. In fact, as he was researching his book, he got vociferous complaints from some city dwellers.

"They said, 'You're writing a book to teach yuppies to move into the cities and kick everyone out. How can you do that?' " said Ezell.

Their reaction was so strong that it almost caused him to stop writing. Then he realized that gentrification may be a phenomenon shared by coastal cities, but it's a foreign concept for cities in the Rust Belt that have been stuck in a downward spiral since their manufacturing industries folded.

"Some of these cities are practically dead," said Ezell. "There are conditions that are so deplorable and empty that if we don't get people, no matter who, to move in, then the cities are going to disintegrate. Why would they scream about yuppies moving in their neighborhoods? It's exactly what they need.

"For those of you who love San Diego's urbs but can't afford them," he said, "I call on you to move to Tulsa, Okla., and buy a house for 10 percent of what you'd pay in San Diego and spread the wealth and the energy. A lot of these (cities) are great places to live."

But what about the winters?

Ezell laughed and admitted that the weather in Columbus right now is icy, windy and slightly below freezing. But it's still a great place to live, he insisted.

"I think of cities like normal people think of bungee jumping or sky diving," said Ezell. "There's a new adventure around every corner, interactions with new people every day and an energy level that makes me so happy that I want to share it."

While Ezell would love to see places like Tulsa and Detroit get a major infusion of urban activists with cash in their pockets and a vision of what the cities could become, he admitted that not everyone is up for such a challenge.

In his travels, Ezell found many places with high-quality urban living and low housing prices.

"The northshore in Chattanooga (Tenn.) is like living in an ultra-urban version of Boulder or Aspen (Colorado)," he said. "It's surrounded by mountains, with an outdoor-oriented lifestyle, and it's really environmentally conscious. It has free electric buses, the longest pedestrian bridge in the world, and on top of everything else, the housing is really cheap.

"Buffalo's Elmwood Village provides farmers' markets and festivals inside wide street medians, and it has lots of cool, alternative stores. It's a funky, compact neighborhood in one of America's most beautifully planned cities, and very affordable.

"Then there's Shockoe Bottom in Richmond, Va., with surprisingly low housing costs in spite of its proximity to (Washington,) D.C. It's a Southern SoHo emerging from old warehouse shells along a spectacular river walk."

Other places he points to include The Strip in Pittsburgh, with its great historic neighborhoods; Milwaukee's historic Third Ward; Phoenix's historic Roosevelt District and Old Louisville (Ky.), a Victorian inner city of trees.

But Ezell's favorite urb, not surprisingly, is the place he chose to live: The Short North in Columbus.

"It's really funky and arty, comparable to Greenwich Village and San Francisco," he said. "It's very diverse, eclectic and high-energy, and you'll see everyone from soccer moms to purple-haired, pierced people, all mingling. And it's cheap. I think it's one of the best places to live in the country."

Although he grew up in the small town of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., Ezell, 35, is a longtime Midwesterner. He long ago lost any trace of a Southern accent and today mixes idealism, optimism and a complete lack of cynicism for his topic.

The son of a mom who worked for the local chamber of commerce and a dad who worked at a bicycle factory, Ezell has always been interested in cities.

"Since I was a kid, I've collected atlases and memorized population statistics. And I would always talk my parents into taking me to Nashville (Tenn)., Birmingham (Ala.) and Memphis (Tenn.) (the three big cities closest to his hometown) whenever I could."

A popular lecturer on the urban-planning circuit, Ezell is used to speaking what he calls "urban-planeeze."

His job as a city planner "has me working in 'blank-canvas urbs,' Ezell said. "Among other things, I sell crack (cocaine) houses for the mayor of Columbus."

As Columbus's project coordinator for urban revitalization, Ezell works with community groups, bureaucrats and businesses to get abandoned buildings and other blighted properties sold for rock-bottom prices and transformed into new businesses and living spaces. And he has seen communities he has worked with change from isolated enclaves marked by fear and helplessness into dynamic neighborhoods.

In researching the book, he cast aside his planner's hat and tried to focus instead on a work that would appeal to those grappling with the decision of whether or not to live in central city neighborhoods.

"I didn't want to write an academic book, so I wrote what apparently is the first how-to book for city living. Americans are ignorant and wary of cities. They grow up thinking they're bad and scary places. Well, maybe not in San Diego, because it's so beautiful.

"But many of the country's downtowns in the heartland resemble giant Wal-Mart parking lots. We need millions of people to move in and revive them."

That's why he finds cities like Detroit and Tulsa so exciting.

"They have the potential to become major Cinderella stories," he said.

Vibrant cities benefit the suburbs too, said Ezell.

"If the major cities are not healthy, it hurts the whole region, including the suburbs. I think demonstrating the grand benefits of living in the city and what it can mean to your life is one of the best things I can do," he said. "If you have the will, the financing and enough people, you can turn a city into anything you can visualize."

Claudia Pearce is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.

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