To the Editor:
As more people work from home, some businesses are struggling in Albany. To address that issue, one solution is for people to move closer to the cities. Here are advantages of that transition:

— 1. Lawns take a lot of water, time, energy, and money. When residents live closer to the city, they have either no lawns or very small lawns to worry about. They aren’t spending their weekends tending to their lawns — they’re doing a lot more interesting things like tending to their community; 

— 2. Another benefit to living closer to the city is that kids ages 7 to 16 become more independent. They don’t have to be chauffeured to each event and activity. Near the city, kids can develop superior communication skills with the local shop owners;

— 3. Living closer to the city saves gas, due to the shorter driving distance required — also less wear and tear on the vehicles;

— 4. Additionally, living closer to the city develops a better community. Residents live closer to their neighbors and therefore are more involved with improving where they live and improving people’s lives; and

— 5. People create community. If you live in a place where your lawn is so big that you have no way of knowing your neighbors, how can you create community? Living closer to one another near the city solves that issue.

In his book “Home From Nowhere,” Saratoga writer James Howard Kunstler says people need to build places that human beings feel good in. Let’s get back to the business of nurturing community. We can do that by living closer to the city. 

Elaine Doremus

Albany