Have you lived in the suburbs before? (Baltimore, highway, Dallas)
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I surprised we've gotten no one who's never lived in the suburbs. I've met people like this in real life. Rural / small town, college and then back to rural or big city. Only big city.
Though, since my sample is younger than average, there's less of chance they'd experience different living environments.
My grandparents (on mother's side) grew up in a rural / small town area and at some point early in middle age, it became suburbs. Never moved, the suburbs came to them. Involuntary migration to the burbs...
Since the big movement to the suburbs started almost 70 years ago, when you think about it, it's not *too* surprising that no one has never lived in the burbs. My mother-in-law grew up on a farm, married my father-in-law and lived in the city for 66 years. Six years ago, she moved to a senior apt. in the burbs.
Before I get into the post, can anyone tell me how to link to those Google satellite or G. Earth pictures? I tried to do that in a test post, but once I put the post on here the link went to the Google Maps site's front page, showing an image of the whole U.S., not to the place I had copied the address bar from.
So, now on to the text, without the links. If we define suburbs as primarily residential areas with mostly detached houses, located within metropolitan areas but outside of principal cities (or possibly in primarily residential sections on a city's outskirts, just within the city limits), then I've lived in suburbs most of my life. I've lived in four areas I'd think that most people would consider to be unquestionably suburban in character, and two others that might generate some debate about whether they were suburbs or independent towns.
First for the clear cut suburbs:
Unincorporated area just outside of Richmond: in my early childhood (late '50's to early '60's). A postwar type of area that had been there just long enough to seem new and fresh but no longer brand spanking new. Ranch houses, suburban-style colonials, some split-levels, lots of maybe 1/3 acre (totally an eyeball guestimate on my part). If you want to get an idea of the area's appearance, map out Blithewood Drive, Hathaway Road, Windsorview Dr., Marlboro Dr. (Richmond, VA). Scroll around in any direction from there and the nearby residential streets all have this same look.
As a young child I really liked this neighborhood. Our street intersected a main road maybe a five-plus-minute walk from our house. Just down that main road was a little shopping center that we kids would walk to by taking a path that cut through a patch of woods near the end of a nearby street. The shopping center had a couple of stores where we could buy toys, candy, ice cream. Between these treats, being able to move around the neighborhood on foot or on bikes (these were very much still the days when kids got together to play outside and roam the neighborhood), and hanging out at friends' houses to play in the yard or sometimes hang out inside playing indoor games and watching television, I had all the everyday entertainment a little kid needed. Mix in occasional family trips in the car, to movies, out to eat, downtown to the big stores, etc., and I liked this neighborhood just fine.
But we did drive everywhere for anything that was not right in the neighborhood, and what was right in the neighborhood in the way of shopping was mainly in that nearby shopping center. Aside from the above-mentioned attractions for children, my mother did most of our grocery shopping there. Otherwise we rode everywhere in the car. At that age, it was all I knew. Since the simple attractions of the neighborhood were fine for a young child, I didn't even think about other options. Now I would prefer to live in a place a lot less auto-dependent. The houses with yards would be nice. If instead of one little shopping center you had a similar residential character within walking distance of a downtown of decent size and variety, that would go a long way toward being a place I would at least view more positively than negatively.
Weston, MA (pop., 11-12k): where we moved from Richmond. I basically grew up there, and still have family there. To see my neighborhood, map Viles Street, Valley View Road, Brook Rd., Spring Rd., Longmeadow Rd., October Lane, Bakers Hill Rd. It's pretty low-density all around there, except for a short stretch of Brook Rd. near the intersection with Viles St., but if you look closely you'll notice lots generally a bit larger on the streets west of Conant Rd. (the main road through the neighborhood) than those east of Conant. That area west of Conant was postwar development, while the area to the east was older.
Weston is an old town, dating back to Colonial times. There are actually a few houses still standing there which were built in the Colonial era. A few neighborhoods also have many houses dating back to around the turn of the twentieth century, give or take. A fair number of the later neighborhoods were cut out of land that had been parts of farms. This was at one time a semi-rural genuine independent small town. That gives the town a look that does not fit the sterile image of the suburban stereotype.
Attractive, non-sterile appearance notwithstanding, this is leafy suburbia, and very spread out. A pretty good percentage of the town is beyond convenient walking distance from anything except houses, and there is no single neighborhood within convenient walking distance of everything one might want to walk to. You can live within walking distance of the elementary schools, which are clustered fairly close to each other, but that would put you two miles or more from the middle school and high school. If you live within walking distance of most commuter rail stations, you're a number of miles from downtown (little tiny commercial district with little more than the basics--grocery store, drugstore, couple of banks, dry cleaner, barber shop, post office, a few small office buildings, handful of little specialty shops, three or so little eateries) or any schools.
The one area where you can live near the town center and also be within walking distance to a train station, to get to either you'd almost certainly have to walk along one or another tight, twisting, kind of busy main road. Some stretches of those roads don't have sidewalks. Even where there are sidewalks, it can feel a little dicey to have cars suddenly coming into view around curves and passing along the narrow road right next to the narrow sidewalk at forty miles an hour or so.
Obviously this is not a pedestrian-friendly town except in a few small corners. This didn't bother me a bit as a little kid. For a number of years after we moved there, I was still young enough to be entertained by roaming the neighborhood with friends the way I had in Richmond, plus there were woods to explore in our neighborhood in Weston, and that made for some great adventures. In my late teens, driving everywhere was not only not something to object to, but in fact was a pleasure. You know, brand new freedom the new driver's license brought, being able to go places without the family, and all that. Also, I lived a few minutes from a train station, so as an older teenager I also made occasional trips into the city without those overbearing 'rents around. Early adolescence was kind of rough, though. Too old to view roaming the neighborhood as the great adventure it had seemed to be a few years earlier; too young to get anywhere out of the neighborhood except when my parents were available to drive me. Kind of boring.
It was at that age that I especially appreciated visits to my grandparents in my mother's home town, which was an independent small town with a downtown that was an easy walk from my grandparents' house. That was a small town, where the offerings of downtown got to seem boring once I hit my later teens, but in my early teens it was a little slice of heaven compared to the confinement of my completely residential neighborhood at home. It was at that age, during those visits to my grandparents, that I began to have the first inkling of appreciation for the kinds of places people now refer to as "walkable." Though I prefer some degree of breathing room, and enough yard to use as something other than a little decorative greenery, today I'd much prefer these "walkable" areas, with some commercial activity very close to my neighborhood, over a leafy suburb like the one where I grew up.
Post is getting long. So . . . more about my other suburban residences later.
Before I get into the post, can anyone tell me how to link to those Google satellite or G. Earth pictures? I tried to do that in a test post, but once I put the post on here the link went to the Google Maps site's front page, showing an image of the whole U.S., not to the place I had copied the address bar from.
Click the "Link" button (the one next to the printer icon that looks like part of a chain). Then you can copy & paste the link of the image you're looking at (You can also check the "Short URL", but it won't make a difference either way).
I hope this thread puts to rest the idea that a lot of posters have "misconceptions" about the suburbs. We may generalize from our own experience as children/teenagers, and lack the perspective of different suburbs (or a mortgage-paying adult in the same area), but we all seem to have some first-hand experience.
I grew up in a car-centric small/medium sized city (100k now, about 60k when I lived there) that is the largest city in its county and metro area. It is too isolated from any major cities to be considered a "suburb" - and though it is suburban in appearance, it is pretty dense (most census tracts are between 5k-15k) and has many problems that a typical urban area would have, like a high crime rate and bad traffic.
I went to college in the ultimate bedroom community, just outside of Los Angeles - completely car-centric, very little public transportation (Here is their "transit center"). At the time I didn't mind living there all that much, though it was incredible boring and the locals... .
Thousand Oaks looks like a mini Santa Clarita in all sorts of ways.
I would like to participate in this poll.
Could you please define "suburb".
I'm a bit unsure of whether or not the places where I lived count as suburban or urban too. I mostly grew up in the city of Toronto in the municipalities that weren't in the definition of the city of Toronto pre-1998 but were, after the amalgamation (where Metro Toronto became the city itself). In addition, some of the places themselves have gotten denser I think (if I'm not mistaken).
I've lived in suburban style houses and lot sizes, but always within walking distance of the main blvd. of the town, small or large city that I've lived in (except for a couple of years in Cambell, CA, and one year in Falls Church VA as a kid).
Whether in the small city in the central valley or tiny town in the foothills of CA, Hollywood and Palms Springs or here now in San Diego I've never been more than one or two miles from the heart of downtown and that's the only way I would have it. I have the best of both worlds, quiet, beautiful neighborhood and decent sized house and lot, but I can experience the area/city I live in on foot if I want to.
I'm a bit unsure of whether or not the places where I lived count as suburban or urban too. I mostly grew up in the city of Toronto in the municipalities that weren't in the definition of the city of Toronto pre-1998 but were, after the amalgamation (where Metro Toronto became the city itself). In addition, some of the places themselves have gotten denser I think (if I'm not mistaken).
That example makes the suburb vs city definition debates even more complicated! Have you lived outside of the present-day city limits of Toronto?
If so, I'd recommend going for the "never lived in the suburbs" before, if only to make the poll less skewed. Maybe you could also go by the density and/or location of where you live(d)?
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Early adolescence was kind of rough, though. Too old to view roaming the neighborhood as the great adventure it had seemed to be a few years earlier; too young to get anywhere out of the neighborhood except when my parents were available to drive me. Kind of boring. 
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