Rich and Strange Aeons

People say they value balconies, but do they use them? This seems debated beyond my blog comments. I found a couple of Reddit threads asking that, and answers were a mix of "no", "thought I would but no", "yes because of covid", "yes, but briefly" (step out for air or a smoke), and "yes, all the time". I won't try quantifying them. Answers also included a couple uses I hadn't thought of: letting a cat/dog/toddler go "outside", and increased ventilation, since doors are longer than windows. Someone explicitly said that they could be benefiting from the balcony without being out on it. And I was reminded that a friend uses hers as a bird feeding platform.

"thought I would but no" included complaints about construction noise and dust buildup.

After that, I took a walk through University Village, to take a more careful look, and found: ( Read more... )

In my previous post, I got a comment questioning whether people really use balconies, based on his experience. Not sure where he's from, but I went on a Street View binge, as you can see in my reply. You can go there to see all the evidence, but in short: ( Read more... )