How COVID is creating opportunities in the suburbs

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

When we were kids we used to get out of our friend's hot tub and jump off the deck into the 3 foot pile of snow and the first one who ran back to the tub lost.

Somehow avoided hypothermia.

In spite of what people assume that is not really hypothermia-inducing behaviour. It is the basic idea behind Nordic spas which have existed for 1000 years.

We go to Nordic spas all the time in the winter and walk around with almost nothing on in sub freezing weather.

[chris08876]

The body gets acclimatized to cold quite quickly. Much quicker than to heat in my experience.

I f**** hate the heat. Global Cooling supporter here. Bring that summer like 32-40F weather. That's the sweet spot.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by chris08876

My gf has that same pool for her small cousins when they come over. Its a great little pool, gets the job done, quick to set up and maintain. And yeah, cheap too, like 100-150ish.

Did you get the water guns? Those are even fun for adults too!

yeah, it's freaking great for little kids.

and i can easily run a hose from our laundry sink in the basement out to the pool to fill it with warm water, which the kids love.

the gangway on the east side of our building is the perfect narrow little storage niche for it too, so i don't have to constantly inflate/deflate it. it has stayed blown up all summer long, tucked away in its cozy little crevice when wer'e not using it.

the only down side is that it takes about ~700 gallons to fill her up, which i would feel guilty about as a waste of water, but living right next to 20% of the world's surface freshwater, it's ok to fill and spill, over, and over, and over all summer long. lake michigan currently has FAR too much water as it is anyway, so it's actually a form of public service.


as for the water guns, my 4 year old son loves to shoot them. living in a chicago 3-flat, he loves to run up to the top of the back stairs and try to hit the el trains that roll down our alley with the water. he's not quite there yet on the distance, but maybe in a summer or two.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

This is, of course, for the uninitiated. For the serious, there's:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Club

This was Vostok's midwinter solstice greeting in 2015 (I was at Summit Station in Greenland at the time so that's why I have my hands on it... it was obviously midsummer solstice for me ):

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I don't see a lot of aboveground pools in the NY metro, though not always easy to tell from the street. Maybe it's more an Upstate thing?

I don't even know if it would meet zoning regulations in many suburbs, given the rampant NIMBYism.

My cousins used to have an above ground one in Queens when i was a kid back in the 80s. I dont know how common they are now.
Looking at that area i can still see some pools:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Qu...!4d-73.7948516

Neighborhoods like Howard Beach look like they have many pools of all varieties:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Qu...!4d-73.7948516

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by chris08876

The body gets acclimatized to cold quite quickly. Much quicker than to heat in my experience.

I f**** hate the heat. Global Cooling supporter here. Bring that summer like 32-40F weather. That's the sweet spot.

I like my hot sunny summers but don't mind the cold either.

I'd take the December snow and cold a couple of weeks earlier instead of the cold dark rainy crap we generally get for most of November, for example.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by dave8721

Neighborhoods like Howard Beach look like they have many pools of all varieties:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Qu...!4d-73.7948516

Wow, look at Howard Beach. And that's in NYC proper. I can't imagine the city permitting process for an in-ground pool.

Maybe Eyetalians are as gaga for pools as Quebecois? I had no idea. Places like Bensonhurst are too urban for pools, with no space, and I suspect a lot of the suburban Italian enclaves wouldn't allow it, but maybe the middleground neighborhoods tend to have them.

[iheartthed]

^I wonder if the city even cares? I've seen above ground pools in Queens before, and maybe in Brooklyn too. The houses I've visited in suburban NY with pools have always been in ground, though.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

^I wonder if the city even cares? I've seen above ground pools in Queens before, and maybe in Brooklyn too. The houses I've visited in suburban NY with pools have always been in ground, though.

I know someone with a (very small) inground pool in Cobble Hill, and it definitely took extensive permitting. I don't think any reputable company would put in an in-ground pool without city permitting.

I also know someone in Park Slope with a pool in their basement (their private home, not an apartment building), but that's super-rare.

But the above-ground pools, yeah, I doubt anyone cares.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I know someone with a (very small) inground pool in Cobble Hill, and it definitely took extensive permitting. I don't think any reputable company would put in an in-ground pool without city permitting.

I also know someone in Park Slope with a pool in their basement (their private home, not an apartment building), but that's super-rare.

But the above-ground pools, yeah, I doubt anyone cares.

My bad, I misread. I thought you said above ground pool.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I call it the "experiential" vs. "material" difference. Québécois are more "experiential" in their pursuits than other Canadians.

While a backyard pool can be viewed as a material thing, it's actually more linked to experiential preferences: having friends over for drinks by the pool, kids hosting pool parties, late-night skinny dipping, etc.

A lot more than purely material things like brand-name watches or clothes or luxury cars.

I always thought that the reason more Quebeckers have pools is because fewer homes have central A/C, owing to the fact that most homes are heated, room by room, with baseboard electric heaters.

Ironically, a province that is the Saudi Arabia of hydropower and cheap electricity doesn't have extensive air conditioning, because air conditioning in a climate with big seasonal differences is best done through a forced air system that heats with gas in the wintertime.

Here are the stats on A/C ownership compared to Ontario, which has a similar climate. (EDIT: click on geography, select province)

[Crawford]

Wait, only 60% of Canadian households have A/C? Outside of Vancouver/Victoria, isn't all of populated Canada hot or muggy in the summer?

Maybe Americans are just wimps. The only person I know in the U.S. without A/C lives right on the Pacific Ocean.

[hipster duck]

The majority of Canadians do live in places with hot and muggy summers, if only because the majority of Canadians live in Southern Ontario and Quebec.

Outside of that, Manitoba is hot and muggy and the interior of British Columbia is hot and dry during the summertime.

The rest of Canada is merely warm in the summer (days above 85 F are considered to be a heat wave), or even cooler, and most people can get by without A/C.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I always thought that the reason more Quebeckers have pools is because fewer homes have central A/C, owing to the fact that most homes are heated, room by room, with baseboard electric heaters.

Ironically, a province that is the Saudi Arabia of hydropower and cheap electricity doesn't have extensive air conditioning, because air conditioning in a climate with big seasonal differences is best done through a forced air system that heats with gas in the wintertime.

Here are the stats on A/C ownership compared to Ontario, which has a similar climate. (EDIT: click on geography, select province)

Interesting theory. I have lived in a house with a pool but no AC before (though this was not in Quebec), and I didn't find having a pool made up for not having AC. Especially not on hot humid muggy nights. It was terrible trying to sleep.

[dave8721]

My old brownstone apartment in Boston had no AC. It was an oven in the summer. I remember going into a lot of places in Boston with no AC. Summers there were so icky.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Maybe Americans are just wimps.

We certainly are.

And ubiquitous A/C has made us so.

I spent the first two decades of my life in this world growing up in a house in suburban chicago with no A/C (we didn't even have window units because "I'm not wasting my money on such foolishness" in the words of my thrifty father).

It didn't kill me, but I have absolutely no desire to return to that very dark time (fuck those sweltering sleeples sweaty summer nights, the kind where you actually turn off your bedroom fan because it's just blowing more hot sticky-ass air at you).

For my first two city apartments in my 20s, I had get by with window units because that was what my price point allowed back in those days, but ever since then, "central air" has become a 100% non-negotiable for me.

[JManc]

As a kid in NY, all we had were box fans in the windows on a hot day. Still can get away with that on most summer days but an AC is a must for those few weeks of miserable humidity and heat.

[dc_denizen]

Growing up in Ohio we had no ac. Anyone remember the drought of 1988? That was rough

Sleeping with no ac is part of a Midwest summer experience

[chris08876]

If a home has a house fan system (one on the ceiling), its a good idea to put it on when the outside temp is 74 F or below. Humidity pending.

Good way to save money versus having the AC on 24/7 as it usually cools at night.

Just make sure you open the windows up, as to not create a vacuum inside the home and cause an explosion.

[craigs]

We lived in San Francisco apartments without air conditioning of any kind for 19 years; this house is the first time we've had central air in nearly two decades.

As our electric bill is already $500/mo, we turn the central air off at night and run the window unit in our suite--no need to further ring up the bill cooling rooms that we don't set foot in overnight. Since it looks like our blistering 112-degree days are finally over and the low temps are now below 70, we'll just open the windows overnight as soon as the smoke clears.