Why do people like the Suburbs?

[Mr Saturn64 742]

Really. I'm not sure why, I hate the suburbs. The main reason i hate it is because nothing ever happens. I'm not sure if anything has changed out here in the last 5 years. The city always has more personality, more diversity, and your lovable local restaurants and stores, while everything out here is a huge national (or international) chain. Another reason is that in the city, there are beautiful and big buildings. Here in the 'burbs, I live, work, and worship in a postwar box. I'm sorry, I just had to rant there. It's just that I'm fed up with postwar boxes and no change. What I don't know is why people like the suburbs.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

I really don't like the suburbs either but my mother and her fiance bought their house together in the suburbs and my college is in the suburbs.

--Ocram

[Easy Bakes 253]

the place were things are not happening  is were you want to raise your family

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

They're the perfect balance between personal space and being close to everything (especially important: a short commute).  White fence, clean sidewalk, street lamps...but still a back yard.  It's called the American Dream, and it is what Americans have collectively yearned for since 1945.

 

It's just a popular place to be too.  Don't underestimate popularity.

[Easy Bakes 253]

thats if you can find any new suburbs that have back yards

[The Pennsylvania Turnpike 252]

Really. I'm not sure why, I hate the suburbs. The main reason i hate it is because nothing ever happens. I'm not sure if anything has changed out here in the last 5 years. The city always has more personality, more diversity, and your lovable local restaurants and stores, while everything out here is a huge national (or international) chain. Another reason is that in the city, there are beautiful and big buildings. Here in the 'burbs, I live, work, and worship in a postwar box. I'm sorry, I just had to rant there. It's just that I'm fed up with postwar boxes and no change. What I don't know is why people like the suburbs.

Coming from someone who lives in a Philadelphia suburb. I like the suburbs around here for it's quick acess to Philly and NYC. It only takes 45 mins to get from Allentown to Philadelphia via 476. plus i don't have to travel far from my house to all the places like walmart and target. I do however like city city more as i plan to live in Philly in the future. But the suburbs are great places to live if you don't want city life 24/7. Places like Souderton and Whitehall are great places that are close to Allentown/ Philadelphia city centers and not too far from rural life as well. The traffic is decreased and living in a house is better IMO than living in a condo or apartment.

[Munchiez 74]

No suburbs here, Abingdon, Virginia baby! A nice historical country town that isn't far from Bristol. I wouldn't consider it the suburbs because it's not. I typically don't like living near congestion or large populations.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I have lived in suburbs that were eventually overtaken by the main city.  Suburbs are usually quiet and spacious with minimal services, but you clearly want good connections to the main city.  However, urban sprawl usually overtakes them.

 

I now live in a village which is at least an hour away by road from the big city.  Suits me.

[blade2k5 1,523]

Really. I'm not sure why, I hate the suburbs. The main reason i hate it is because nothing ever happens. I'm not sure if anything has changed out here in the last 5 years. The city always has more personality, more diversity, and your lovable local restaurants and stores, while everything out here is a huge national (or international) chain. Another reason is that in the city, there are beautiful and big buildings. Here in the 'burbs, I live, work, and worship in a postwar box. I'm sorry, I just had to rant there. It's just that I'm fed up with postwar boxes and no change. What I don't know is why people like the suburbs.

 

 Because I like room to breathe and I don't care for a vast majority of the population.

[TekindusT 3,809]

Well, for every North American person thinking like Mr Saturn64, there's a European person thinking they are fed up of living in a really old city historic quarter, in a historical and badly-kept W2W pre-war building, with old and narrow streets, badly laid sewage, traffic night and day and having to climb to a 5th floor without an elevator.

 

For all aspects in life, we always like what we can't have. And if you take a look to the CJ Section/Forum, you'll realize of that. 

[MandelSoft 2,769]

Suburbs differ from country to country. American suburbs are notorious for being sprawly and therefore boring as hell and far away from the "fun". Dutch suburbs are often more compact and closer to the city. In fact, you can get to any point in any dutch city within 90 minutes by bicycle (less than an hour if you don't count the four largest cities of the Netherlands). But it comes with a price: the majority of the suburb consists out of row homes with quite small gardens (mine is 100m²). It's a more compact way of living, and that's because we don't have much space and therefore, ground area is expensive. But I like this, because it makes the city feel more cozy and it's more efficient. It also keeps our cities smaller, and there's some space left for "nature" (although all nature is managed in the Netherlands) and agriculture.

 

A typical dutch suburban street looks like this. Pretty dense, eh?

 

Suburbs as you see in America are practically non-existant: only a few with only mansions exist on small scale in wealthy municipalities.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Well, I commute from a "bedroom community" that was originally planned to be a suburb of industrial Tacoma, to a community college, halfway between Tacoma and the airport (Seatac). My mother works in Downtown Seattle and has a 2 to 3 hour commute by bus from home to office. One absolutely must drive to get to anywhere (except the shuttle bus and the boardwalk+beach restaurant, but the boardwalk is a good 1/2 hour walk), there is crime everywhere (our cars have been broken into so we must keep all of them in our garage or behind a locked gate), and there are no streetlights or sidewalks. We used to live in an upscale low-density neighborhood within the city limits, which had a short walk to the village, a slightly shorter walk to the library, and an even shorter walk to the bus, and we knew almost everyone on our block.

 

When I can afford to live on my own, I would absolutely love to live in Downtown Seattle, Bellevue, or International District in a nice apartment towards the top of the building.

 

 

--Ocram

[47ply 1,100]

I live in the country. three miles of dirt road to get home to my ten acres of half woods half smooth grass. no pizza delivery's some times the roads don't get plowed for days 4wheel drive all the way. I drive past suburbs everyday and think glad that's not me.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thorough and complete cultural and civic desolation?

 

Hooray for suburbs!!

[Mr Saturn64 742]

I'm also thinking it doesn't help commute times that much.  Would you rather...

A. Live near work and have to walk for 5 minutes

B. Drive down Market Street in a huge rush hour under the elevated tracks? 

 

When I go downtown (or Center City, as "downtown" is South Philly) either

A. I'm stuck on traffic on Market or Chestnut Streets, or

B. I'm on a shady side street.  Neither is ideal.

[Munchiez 74]

Traffic is a big factor though, some places have it worse than others. In Miami it wasn't horrible all the time, but living in Coral Springs (The Suburbs of That area in FL) was pretty bad itself.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I'd just as soon stay away from big city suburbs and live in a smaller town (like I'm doing now, more or less).  Big cities are interesting to visit, but to actually LIVE in one?  No.  No way.  I've lived in Tokyo and Osaka, and there is NO WAY you could make me do that ever again.  Compared to even a medium-sized city like Toledo, OH (my hometown), there are no trees, fewer parks, shadier public education systems (including a wider variety of less-than-stellar students), traffic is horrendous, mass transit is a nightmare of stinky people and being a slave to the schedule of others and tied to a subway station.  A suburb or smaller town provides yards with back yards at a reasonable cost, breathable air, reasonable traffic, trees, parks, more desirable school districts, fewer shady neighbors, safe places for my kids to play when I'm not watching them.  Big city life is NOT for me.  Easy Bakes nailed it up the page, the places where things aren't happening is where you want to be to raise a family.  That's where I want to be to raise mine.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Suburbs only work if the only way to get to the city is by public transit.  Once you install a freeway, all is lost.

[GMT 389]

raised in a 35k suburb of a 200k central european town, here's my take on it:

 

it depends on age and what you want from life.

 

if you're younger, downtown is where the action is, bars, clubs, shops and so on. you wanna live there cuz you got short commutes, good public transport, depending on the size you might even have everything literally round the corner and can just walk there. you don't need a car and probably dont have one either. you're most likely a college or university student and have a couple roomies.

but there comes the time where you want to or actually do found a family and settle down, think about having kids and this is where downtown living really screws up. your job stresses you out, your kids need room to develop and safe grounds to play, which really can't be found in the streets of downtown. speaking of room to live you also need to scale up your living area to accomodate your family and affordable property in the correct dimension is basically inexistent in cities, unless you move to "less desireable" parts of town... which again aren't the best places to raise your kids.

and the bigger the city the worse these problems are.

suburbs are a prime choice for young families. less traffic, probably less crimes, less noise, fewer ppl, more room, better air quality and generally less stress which really is a factor also for your health.

 

I would never ever consider living downtown. not in my town and certainly not in any town that's bigger. the smaller the city the more suburbish the living is but even in this direction, there's a limit for me because I wouldn't wanna live in a 200 souls village far out in the woods either.

a nice single family home in the suburbs, not too far away from everything, preferably slighty uphill so i can enjoy a view towards downtown, with a patch of green in the back and maybe even in the front, with my kid's (or kids') bike/s blocking the driveway... yes that's so much higher on my list than a way too expensive but certainly damn old condo on the 5th floor of a non-elevator appartment block on main street, with a light rail rushing by every soandso minutes and 5 digit daily traffic count 24/7/365, with drunk ppl annoying the peace out of me every weekend... eeew

[Jasoncw 11,840]

raised in a 35k suburb of a 200k central european town, here's my take on it:

 

it depends on age and what you want from life.

 

if you're younger, downtown is where the action is, bars, clubs, shops and so on. you wanna live there cuz you got short commutes, good public transport, depending on the size you might even have everything literally round the corner and can just walk there. you don't need a car and probably dont have one either. you're most likely a college or university student and have a couple roomies.

but there comes the time where you want to or actually do found a family and settle down, think about having kids and this is where downtown living really screws up. your job stresses you out, your kids need room to develop and safe grounds to play, which really can't be found in the streets of downtown. speaking of room to live you also need to scale up your living area to accomodate your family and affordable property in the correct dimension is basically inexistent in cities, unless you move to "less desireable" parts of town... which again aren't the best places to raise your kids.

and the bigger the city the worse these problems are.

suburbs are a prime choice for young families. less traffic, probably less crimes, less noise, fewer ppl, more room, better air quality and generally less stress which really is a factor also for your health.

 

I would never ever consider living downtown. not in my town and certainly not in any town that's bigger. the smaller the city the more suburbish the living is but even in this direction, there's a limit for me because I wouldn't wanna live in a 200 souls village far out in the woods either.

a nice single family home in the suburbs, not too far away from everything, preferably slighty uphill so i can enjoy a view towards downtown, with a patch of green in the back and maybe even in the front, with my kid's (or kids') bike/s blocking the driveway... yes that's so much higher on my list than a way too expensive but certainly damn old condo on the 5th floor of a non-elevator appartment block on main street, with a light rail rushing by every soandso minutes and 5 digit daily traffic count 24/7/365, with drunk ppl annoying the peace out of me every weekend... eeew

 

Room for kids to develop and play? Safe places? Kids in the suburbs get to play in parking lots and that's it. To get to the closest good parking lot to play in you have to cross wide and fast roads. There was an intersection (with a walk light, which don't happen very often) and about 80% of the time when you walked, someone would turn onto the street and make a dead stop in the middle of the intersection when they saw that there was someone crossing. A lot of suburban areas don't even have sidewalks to walk on!

 

For little kids who want more than their backyards, they can have their parents drive them to a park (for pretty much all kids, to get anywhere requires your parents to specifically drive them there, no independence at all). Kids who are young enough to want to go to a playground are too young to safely walk there without getting ran over.

 

Kids who are old enough to go there have outgrown playscapes. Probably about 90% of the social activity in my area was: Going to 7-11 to buy slurpees. Getting high in someone's basement. Wandering around pissing on things and setting dumpsters on fire. If you weren't doing one of those things you were probably sitting in your room at home alone.

 

As far as I know there's no such thing as youth clubs in the US like there is in the UK and I think other countries. The closest place to listen to a band was 4 or 5 miles away. The only cool shops (and I think we were relatively lucky) was a small skateboard shop and a lame record store. Kids weren't welcome at the handful of cafes and diners. There was literally no where for kids to go by themselves and be independent. There's a reason there's a whole sub-genre of "angry suburban kid" punk rock.

 

Pretty much any child development specialist will say that kids need a gradation of environments that are appropriate to different levels of development and independence.

 

A backyard or the area right outside the home works for young children. As children get older they want to be able to walk around the block and play with other kids on their own, with passive supervision from the collective neighborhood (suburbs don't really have high enough density for there to be a neighborhood full of kids, and doesn't have the built form for parents to supervise from within the home/kitchen).

 

Then when kids are 10-13 they want to be able explore more and find their own spaces. This is something nice about rural areas, kids have lots of nature and space to discover for themselves and make their own. This isn't possible in suburbs because almost all land is accountable, manicured, and explicitly unwelcome to kids. In urban places there are more residual spaces, like alleys. There are also parks within walking distance, and enough density for those parks to actually be active social spheres for kids to be a part of.

 

And teenagers need hang out spots to socialize at, places to meet up at, shops and other places that they can identify with. And they need places to basically be independent and have their own lives and identities, but with the knowledge that their parents and the neighborhood are still there if they need help or support. Urban areas have density, which means it's more likely for there to be enough kids in an area to sustain places meant for them. And there's transportation which lets kids venture out further, but independently, without their parents driving them.

 

 

Suburbs have more traffic than urban areas. In an urban area you walk to a transit stop and have a relatively short commute, and during that time you can socialize with people or read or something. In surburban areas you spend 20-40 minutes sitting on the freeway in rush hour to get to work. Suburban areas have more tedious maintenance things to deal with, like mowing the lawn, maintaining all of the cars, etc. Housing in urban areas is more expensive but you save money on transportation costs, you live a healthier more active lifestyle, so you have less medical costs, and you're actually part of a community, with chances to interact with people outside of work, which reduces stress. If you have any cultural or intellectual interests, you'll be completely alone in the suburbs because people there don't know about those things (people who like those things live in cities). If all you want from life is to drive your car and watch tv, the suburbs are fantastic. Aside from that, there's been enough research to find that suburbs are not a physical from very well suited to mental heath and personal fulfillment. The cliches about it turn out to actually be true.

[Munchiez 74]

I do wish there would be a perfect mix of suburbs and homes with the city restaurants and the occasional big city stores. 

[The Pennsylvania Turnpike 252]

I'm also thinking it doesn't help commute times that much.  Would you rather...

A. Live near work and have to walk for 5 minutes

B. Drive down Market Street in a huge rush hour under the elevated tracks? 

 

When I go downtown (or Center City, as "downtown" is South Philly) either

A. I'm stuck on traffic on Market or Chestnut Streets, or

B. I'm on a shady side street.  Neither is ideal.

Wait, market street has an EL track? anyways, every center city is congested, even here in Allentown due to the arena construction.  I like the suburbs for being able to give people a place to live, hang out, and basically live day to day if they don't want to live in a Big City. But when i can afford a home for myself, i'll be looking for a place close to pat's king of steaks.

[Mr Saturn64 742]

I'm also thinking it doesn't help commute times that much.  Would you rather...

A. Live near work and have to walk for 5 minutes

B. Drive down Market Street in a huge rush hour under the elevated tracks? 

 

When I go downtown (or Center City, as "downtown" is South Philly) either

A. I'm stuck on traffic on Market or Chestnut Streets, or

B. I'm on a shady side street.  Neither is ideal.

Wait, market street has an EL track? It starts and ends in West Philly then goes back up after Center City until Frankford Transportation Center.

And I realize that suburbs are better for older people. There are differences.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Suburbs full of SUVs and other large vehicles are for the people with large young families.  Old folks like myself prefer small towns and villages with MURBs such as the one I live in, which is restricted to people over 55 years of age.  We live here with our pets (if any), quietly going about our business (retirement) and enjoying what is left of life.

[Alejandro24 575]

Suburbs are an authentic and terrible problem in my hometown. Because they're too far and there's no good quality in the services. Compared to the more intermediate zones and the downtown, suburbs are terrible options to live.

Fortunatelly the housing politics changed in Mexico. The last 12 years were about build suburbs around the cities and it created an authentic chaos, principally in the most biggest cities, since in the small ones are still an viable option but not for much time.

 

But most all the actual nieghbourghs started as suburbs, even considering all the old towns around.

[Duke87 1,070]

With regards to suburbs being friendly to children, there is a very important thing that has not been mentioned: schools. Families who choose to raise children in the city fall into one of two camps: they are either wealthy enough to send all their kids to nice private schools, or they are working class and live with their kids going to gritty urban public schools because they can't afford to buy a house and move to the suburbs.

 

This may be different in other countries, but in the US, public schools are pretty universally of superior quality in the suburbs than in the city, because the suburban schools have towns operating them who collect more tax revenue per capita, parents who are more involved and more concerned with their children's education, and lower crime.

 

So, social implications aside, the suburbs are definitively a better place for children and teens in the US to go to school.

 

As for social life, people complain about teenage suburban life being horrible... but objectively, what is there to do as a teenager in the city that isn't in the suburbs? Answer... not much, except maybe for museums. I think a lot of the limits on social life teenagers suffer from are imposed less by where they live and more by 1) lack of money and/or 2) lack of being old enough to do some things that adults in cities do (like go to bars and clubs). Really, the angsty suburban teenager is just a subspecies of the angsty teenager. Those issues are inherent to that stage of life and will be seen regardless of where you live.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I grew up in Bedford, MI outside of Toledo, and my cousins grew up in Sylvania, OH just outside of Toledo.  While there certainly are areas that could be described as worthless/detrimental-to-the-human-race sprawl in both towns, they felt more like small towns than the horrible suburbs everyone hates.  Okay, well perhaps Bedford is- *ahem* was a bit more rural, but whatever.  To expand on what Duke just mentioned, I also know that between the junior high school I spent a year in in Toledo and Bedford JrHS, Bedford was superior in just about every conceivable way (although I was miserable, but that was because I was a friendless teenager in a new school, oh well).  My friends and I found things for ourselves to do, and comparing the space and openness we were provided compared to my experiences living in Tokyo (well, the extension of Tokyo that falls in Saitama) and Osaka, I would choose Bedford or a Bedford-like area every time to settle down and raise a family in comparison to huge cities like Tokyo and Osaka.  I don't like mass transit.  I don't like having hundreds of thousands of people piled upon me every minute of every hour of every day.  I don't even want to work in a big city.  I'd rather just avoid the whole thing.  It is possible to live a healthy, well-balanced life and not live in a major urban area.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Teens are always the sophomores of life.  They know a little, but not enough.  Just enough to be dangerous.

[Leofdæg 4]

The city which I am currently in right now is on an island so small that there is technically no such thing as suburbs. If you want to find one you have to go overseas (literally). Guess where I'm referring to. (To the mods and admins: don't cheat!)

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Isle of Sark?  Some small Erse island off the coast of Britain?  Somewhere in the Hebrides?