Your opinions of the suburbs? (Minneapolis, Bloomington: wood floors, apartment, rental)

[hopes&dreams]

Hey there,

What's your opinion of the suburbs or people from them? I grew up in one and though I enjoyed it while growing up, I never plan on living in one again. Too little diversity, close minded people, lack of culture, and urban sprawl.

Not until I moved away for college and became good friends with people from the heart of the city (or a city right off of them) did I realize that the suburbs got such a bad rep. I see why they do, but there are positives as well. Good schools, knowing that I could go almost anywhere and feel safe, even after dark, shopping malls, and a good community.

Anyways, I'm not trying to say either one is better. I just would like to hear your opinion. Especially from people that actually live IN the city.

**I also ask because I have seen on a lot of topics users telling people from the suburbs that their answer is not taken seriously or bashed on because they are answering in a "city" forum. I believe that I can answer many of the questions with my experiences.

[kuan]

I live in the suburbs and you are correct. I eat and shop almost exclusively in Minneapolis.

[Veridian]

Originally Posted by hopes&dreams

Anyways, I'm not trying to say either one is better. I just would like to hear your opinion. Especially from people that actually live IN the city.

Simple answer: they are not for me.

Longer answer- I don't really have an opinion on "people who come from suburbs" because there are just too many different kinds of people who live in the suburbs to make a generalization. Perhaps it is safe to say that people who like to live in cookie-cutter developments might lack imagination or an aesthetic sense, but I don't know if I would necessarily go that far.

I really like things that have "soul", but it's difficult for me to really convey the meaning of the term. It does often have to do with aesthetics, or having character or charm...but I've always found these terms to be too constraining for what I'm trying to get across. I'll just put it in terms of my experience: I had the fortune to live in Paris, France for a year and one of the things that I loved was that I could leave my apartment and just walk in any direction and invariably see something unusual or beautiful or....just plain inspiring. Now, no part of Minneapolis is like Paris in this regard, but there is enough quirkiness and beauty and the poetry that can only come with organic development over time that I can come across just enough things here that make me feel "inspired" or that is "evocative". Somehow, I find Eden Prairie Center to be neither.

[Slig]

I grew up in the suburbs and live in the city now, for alot of the same reasons as you. It's also one of the only places I could afford a home on my budget.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by hopes&dreams

What's your opinion of the suburbs or people from them?

Which ones?

I grew up in Minnetonka in the 60's and 70's, and I realized there was a rather large difference even then between the most classic sprawly suburban area I lived in and the somewhat more working-class town-like atmosphere in Hopkins with its main street, Raspberry Festival, and so on.

I'd say that not all "suburbs" are necessarily cut from the same mold.

The 12 years I spent in an apartment in east Bloomington (intersection of Old Cedar Ave and Old Shakopee Road) reinforced that for me -- I could walk to the grocery store, walk to get my car fixed, walk to get pizza or subs, walk to the liquor store, walk down into the river valley, or walk or bike to the Mall of America whenever I wanted. Very dissimilar from the area of Minnetonka I'd grown up in (where the only places we could walk with any frequency were the few restaurants along ... and on the other side of ... Highway 7).

I've also lived in three other suburbs. My wife and I had a townhouse in Eden Prairie for three wonderful years in a little townhouse association right next to the big soccer field off Franlo Road, we lived in the suburb of Smyrna, GA (NW of Atlanta) for a year in an older 1950's rental house with an unheated basement, beautiful wood floors, and a HUGE 2-acre yard like a jungle, and we've now lived in another NW suburb of Atlanta in a house of our own for just over three years.

I love suburban living. There are so many different types of communities to choose from in a large metro area -- old towns, cookie-cutter developments, more electic older housing in isolated areas, former independent towns now surrounded, etc. However, I'm also certain that I'd love living in uptown Minneapolis and other parts of Minneapolis as well -- I've had friends who've lived in various places along and a few miles south of Lake Street (on Bryant Ave and others) that I thought were cool, I had family in the Bryn Mawr area for a while (my Mom grew up there), etc.

I've just always had jobs in the suburbs, so I've decided to live fairly close to the area where I've worked.

Right now we have nice neighbors, we have trees, our whole neighborhood is at the bottom of a tree-covered valley so we're far away from the sounds of traffic and turmoil, and the main thing we can hear over the bugs in the summertime is the whistle of the occasional train running along the tracks about a mile away. We can't hear the train itself -- it's on the other side of a rather large set of ridges. We do have to drive places, but we're close to work with very little in the way of commute, and the area is peaceful and secure.

Atlanta has its own version of in-town versus suburbanite culture, by the way -- ITP versus OTP, or those who live "inside the Perimeter" versus those who live "outside the Perimeter", the Perimeter being the I-285 freeway.

I think such rivalries are interesting but silly if taken too far, personally. We have nice theatres and office buildings in the suburbs just as you can find in the city itself. Just not so much noise.

[uptown_urbanist]

I think people tend to use "suburbs" as shorthand for broader stereotypes, stereotypes based more on generalizations than on realities. When I break down and talk about not liking the suburbs what I mean is that I don't like streets without sidewalks, poor public transportation, dependence on cars for most errands or activities, and winding streets lined with modern houses that all look the same. It goes without saying that this is a lazy and unfair way to discuss bigger issues, and I try not to do it. There are areas of Minneapolis that are more "suburban" in feel than are some actual technical suburbs. Some suburbs have high crime rates and poor schools; some also have beautiful old houses, core shopping districts or downtowns, and streets lined with trees and sidewalks.

On the other hand, there are also plenty of people who equate "city" with crime, gangs, lack of green space, grafitti, and and bad schools. City living also doesn't necessarily mean diverse, walkable, good public transportation, or readily available cultural opportunity. People live in places for many different reasons and its an unsophisticated argument to diminish someone's arguments based purely on preconceived notions dependent on home address -whether that address happens to be urban, suburban, or rural.

[nick is rulz]

It depends a lot. Just lumping "suburbs" into a singular category is unfair. Apple Valley and Richfield are both suburbs, but they are worlds apart from each other.

I appreciate the suburbs on the Minneapolis grid system or something comparable (Abbott to Zane, Adair to Yukon). I appreciate the older inner ring suburbs that have history. I like the ones where you can run across a small family restaurant or hole in the wall bar. I would buy in St Louis Park, Crystal, New Hope, Richfield, Golden Valley, Robbinsdale etc etc if I could get a place for cheap.

The ones I cannot stand are the mostly new construction built in ten years towns that seem devoid of any sort of culture or soul. Same old restaurants every place has, a mall, similar style of housing. Its just uninteresting and unappealing on every level. I would choose Brooklyn Center over Eagan any day of the week.

[Katiana]

^^^IMO, given time, the newer areas will acquire their "soul". The landscaping will mature, additions will be made to the homes, paint colors changed, and the houses will lose their cookie-cutter look. I have found that most all suburbs in all the cities I have ever visited have a few local eateries, that type of thing.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by nick is rulz

It depends a lot. Just lumping "suburbs" into a singular category is unfair. Apple Valley and Richfield are both suburbs, but they are worlds apart from each other.

I appreciate the suburbs on the Minneapolis grid system or something comparable (Abbott to Zane, Adair to Yukon). I appreciate the older inner ring suburbs that have history. I like the ones where you can run across a small family restaurant or hole in the wall bar. I would buy in St Louis Park, Crystal, New Hope, Richfield, Golden Valley, Robbinsdale etc etc if I could get a place for cheap.

The ones I cannot stand are the mostly new construction built in ten years towns that seem devoid of any sort of culture or soul. Same old restaurants every place has, a mall, similar style of housing. Its just uninteresting and unappealing on every level. I would choose Brooklyn Center over Eagan any day of the week.

If you look at pictures of most Minneapolis neighborhoods from the 1940's or so, they look like cookie cutter neighborhoods with no soul or charm as well. Established neighborhoods don't happen overnight. Do I like our blah house, it's a place to live that has the things we wanted. Would I rather have our 1860's build house we used to have, you bet, but I am not willing to sacrifice the quality of education we get in the suburbs just to move to an old house in Minneapolis. I am also not willing to have to put up with petty crime like people breaking into my garage or worrying about my kids playing outside after dark.