Have you lived in the suburbs before?

[pvande55]

There is of course a wide definition of suburb. I heard a resident of one, 40 miles from Chicago's loop, protest that definition. True, that place is farmland on two sides, but in fact had commuter rail to the city.

[AJNEOA]

I lived in a fairly suburban neighborhood growing up (about 18 years), but it bordered on the rural side. As a young adult, I spent 6 years in a terrible suburb (apartment next to a four lane road, two miles from all the big box stores you could dream of, and no sidewalks).

[kjbrill]

I have always lived in the suburbs, but only two. Growing up and for 13 years after marrying I lived in what was initially a village called Madeira outside of Cincinnati. It started out quite walkable as there was a compact grid of streets with small lots and sidewlks. We walked to school, to the grocery, the butcher, the bank, drugstore, dry cleaner, virtually everywhere. After WWII it exploded in subdivisions to provide housing for the people GE was moving to Cincinnati for their large jet engine plant. It was ripe for expansion having available land, a defined infra-structure, and reasonable distance to GE's huge plant. It rapidly reached city size. Along the way it stood out as having good schools, which I attributed to the number of GE engineers and other professionals who lived there. It did lose much of the walkability as many of the new subdivisions had no sidewalks, and the ranch style homes were much larger and on larger lots.

After attending University of Cincinnati and commuting, I married, rented an apartment in Madeira, and shortly after purchased a small 3-BR house. We had 2 kids quickly and after few years they were going to school in Madeira. We then had the 3rd child but she was still at home. After 10 years had passed the wife announced #4 was on the way and we needed to move as the house was too small and she wanted 5 bedrooms.

After much searching we ended up in Mason, Ohio which at that time was quite rural, population just over 5,000 in the next county north of Cincinnati. The wife got her 5 bedrooms in a nice two-story on a 1 acre lot. I wanted the lot because I had always liked to garden and here I could have a big one. I commuted to my place of work in Norwood, Ohio which is a city totally surrounded by Cincinnati. After a number of years my company decided to sell their old factory in Norwood which was very expensive to maintain and build a new completely environmentally controlled facility. They selected a site in Mason about 3/4 mile from my house as they were guaranteed a say in what other high-tech companies would be in the industrial park. Of course I was jumping for joy, no more long commute. I stayed working for them until I retired.

Over the years Mason has exploded, with a current population around 35,000. I am not going to try and say it meets any definition of walkable, as it does not. But they have done a good job of providing paved jogging and bicycle paths throughout much of the city. The Kings Island Theme park is located in Mason, as is the Lindner Family Tennis Center which hosts the second largest tennis tournament in the country next to the US Open, and which is one of the only 9 tournaments making up the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series.

So I do not feel the scourge of urban sprawl, but frankly privileged to live in such a great suburb with recreational opportunities among the best in the area, schools ranked among the best in the state, great city parks, a beautiful City Community and Recreation Cneter, and friendly people everywhere I go.

[dunno what to put here]

I've never lived in the inner city, but I'm thinking about renting an apartment somewhere in the inner city in a desirable area, that can't be cheap.

[urbanlife78]

I grew up in the suburbs and have no plans of ever moving back to them, though when I do start a family i would like to raise a child in a semi dense area outside of the most urban areas, but in an area that still functions like a walkable community.

[the city]

Lived in Oxnard as a child and Los Angeles (Northridge) as an adult, so yes to both. But spent the majority of my life in a low-density suburban area in a rural community.