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There are MANY people raising families in the city and there is nothing wrong with it. Chances are your child will obtain a much more well rounded education being in a multi-ethnic environment, community resources, parks, movie theaters, arcades etc.. I feel Suburban life leaves you detached from everything and everyone, you can only stare at the walls for so long and the cookie cutter homes (much like the neighbors) seldom change. There's a heavy price you pay for a slightly lower Mortgage and to me it's not even worth considering. Oh and let's not forget being stuck in traffic each day for three hours commuting back and forth and what if that car breaks down? Oh no, God knows what else. In the city you don't have to worry about this as there are resources at your disposal.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that suburbs offer all of the things you mentioned such as multi-ethnic, community resources, parks, theaters, arcades you just have to drive to get to them-all that with better public schools, affordability, lower crime across the board.
What an exageration, 3 hours? Maybe in extreme cases but the average commute is less than 30 minutes. And what of extreme weather and coldness/hotness? I would rather drive in my car to work for 20 minutes than walk/ride the metro for the same amount of time in 15 degree weather.
I'm interested in the whole urban/suburban thing so out of curiosity, what city was your suburb nearby? The way you describe it makes it sound terrible. Are you sure it was'nt more in the exurbs? Far flung neighborhoods with miles separating each other aren't purely rural but you can't consider them suburban either.
supernova, let's just say I disagree with you. If you think the suburbs have no culture, no diversity, no parks, no community involvement, etc, you are just plain wrong. I have lived in many suburbs, and they all had those amenties. Many cities have cookie-cutter houses, too. Someone posted a picture of Chicago on one of these forums, all the houses in the picture looked alike. Denver has neighborhoods like that as well. Not every city home is a one of a kind, master-craftsman built house.
I don't mind suburbs like Oak Park, Illinois, or old Town Alexandria, Virginia, or Evanston, Illinois. I do mind Schuamburg, Illinois and The Woodlands, Texas. Reason, they look just alike. I find most of these post WW2 suburbs that I just mentioned boring, soulless, cookie-cutter, copycats. Most of them look alike. Giant big box stores with huge parking lots, long strip malls or plazas AGAIN with huge parking lots, boring office parks, neighborhoods where you'd be laughed at if you even walked to anywhere that takes you 3 blocks, nothing but chain restaurants, with annoying gate communities. I really do not like where you have to use your car for EVERYTHING. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem using a car because I like to go on car trips sometimes. But I don't want to use my car to go to a friends house or a store that's only down the street.
But that's just me. I prefer the city. My mom prefers the suburbs. I prefer those attached houses like you'd see in Georgetown in DC or even the brick homes you see in North East DC. My mom prefers the ranch style single family homes with a backyard and front yard.
Ok, now Mike's explanation makes more sense. If you like sprawl and being far away from everything than this is your ticket. Which do you prefer Suburbs or rural communities Mike?
Either is okay with me. Suburbs offer pretty much everything I want, so I rarely need to go into the city. I usually don't have to work in the city itself either, which is great for traffic.
Many suburban subdivisions are very cookie-cutter, but many homes in older, more established city neighborhoods look similar as well. Since they are "historic" or whatever they don't get stigmatized.
One of the other things that bothers me about cities is paying city taxes and small lots. I refuse to buy a home with less than a half acre and also refuse to buy property where I am sharing a wall with someone.
Now, I should probably say where I'm coming from. I grew up in the heart of a smaller city (70,000) and have never lived in the suburbs. However, I'll soon be buying and I am trying to get away from where I came from. I
Many suburban subdivisions are very cookie-cutter, but many homes in older, more established city neighborhoods look similar as well. Since they are "historic" or whatever they don't get stigmatized.
I agree. I have posted this many times over on the forum. The houses start to look different after the landscaping grows, the paint colors change, additions are built, etc.
pittnurse70 - so true. I grew up in the burbs, and I had a myriad of neighbors and friends who were Indian, Pakistani, Hispanic, African American, African (there were two kids in my school from Nigeria), and so on (in fact, most of my suburban schools were barely majority African American with a pretty good mix of just about everyone). The notion of the 'burbs as as a bastion of white-bread homogenity is just nonsense.
However, most of our houses looked alike. They were all little 2-3 bedroom post WWII boxes
I love dense cities when single. For raising kids, I like the outer suburbs. My main reasons are: I like taking care of a yard, having room to stretch, and I like a little more land than the regular suburbs have to offer, just so my neighbors aren't always right on top of me. The big city is close enough that we can get what we need out of it. Not to mention that it's necessary to be choosy about California schools. It may be different in other states, but in CA, the general trend is closer to the city = worse schools. I also enjoy driving, and a hobby of mine is collecting cars. Dense cities wouldn't give me many options for driving them/storing them/working on them as I like to do.
I'm glad that there are people here who feel as I do. Not everyone wants to live in a stinking, dirty city. If you want to live in a city that is fine and I support you in doing so because that is where you want feel you should live. BUT, don't chastize those of us who want to live in suburbs.
I'm glad that there are people here who feel as I do. Not everyone wants to live in a stinking, dirty city. If you want to live in a city that is fine and I support you in doing so because that is where you want feel you should live. BUT, don't chastize those of us who want to live in suburbs.
My experience is that those in the suburbs often make blanket statments about cities being "dangerous or crime-ridden", often ignoring the fact that they may be in specific areas or neighborhoods. Whereas major metro residents often have an elitist complex about living in the "big city."
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