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Sorry, you make your quality of life. Just because someone chooses to live in a cookie cutter community doesn't mean they or their quality of life is dull. Don't let your surroundings define you.
We make our own quality of life by choosing where to live.
I don't let surroundings define me. But I prefer to live in areas where I can walk and experience different things. In the burbs it's often impossible without getting into a car (often in a large development) driving through a highway through 3 stop lights to strips malls.
I've lived in Northern Virginia and SoCal in the past.
"Dull by design" is apt for me. I do understand other people (and perhaps you) don't perceive it the same way.
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There are a myriad of reasons one chooses to live in cookie cutter suburbia and wouldn't have it any other way. Doesn't mean they still don't enjoy life and their daily activities.
I was not referring to other people.
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On the other end one could easily say someone chooses to live in an urban "hip" part of town because they have nothing else going on in their life and just want to be part of the "cool" crowd. but I won't go that far
I wonder how many drunks go to the wrong house at night because they missed a turn? lol
It is more likely how many drunks press the wrong button on an elevator and go to the wrong apartment in a massive city apartment building, waking up tired sleepy people who have been fighting the urban crowds all day.
Suburbs to me always seemed to be just bedroom communities where people just watch TV and sleep after a long work day and a couple of hour commute to that suburb. Then they wake up and do it all over again. One of the aspects of urban living is that you're not stuck in your home all the time. You don't have a couple of hour commute, and after work and on weekend you're out and about exploring everything the city has to offer.
I live in an urban area now and there is always something new to do on a daily basis. I'm single and child free, but if I did have kids I would not want them growing up in a boring suburb where they end up getting in trouble with the law or getting involved with substances out of boredom like we did growing up.
You are falling for a stereotype. Not all cities are big with vast spread out suburbs that one has to drive an hour to get to work. My suburb is 10 minutes from downtown and is only 5 minutes from work, which is not in downtown. Even if I have to into downtown in the mornings it is only a 20 min commute. And that is the max.
[1] Where do you think these 'subsidies' come from? Strangely enough it's mostly taken from the income of people who feel the economic benefits of roads every single day. [NOT CORRECT]
[2] Did the 'subsidized' roads hurt the railroads? Of course! But how do you think those railroads were built in the first place? Millions of acres of public land were gifted to those companies by the federal government to be sold to support the building and operation of the railroads. [NO]
[3] And the electric traction rail transit companies were NOT destroyed by the growth of the automobile, but by the owners of said systems being happy to sell their companies for a profit to those looking to eradicate them. [NO]
[1] Compulsory taxation that benefits one industry but penalizes another is not "beneficial." In fact, it destroyed the world's best rail system and made millions dependent upon the automobile and its support industries who were the "REAL" beneficiaries. "What's good for GM is good for America!"
- - - GM’s CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson
[2] Actually, there weren't millions of acres of public land "gifted" to "those companies." (Heavy rail aka Steam). That was a one shot deal for the transcontinental railroad... during WARTIME. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_...ental_Railroad
Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 into law on July 1. It authorized creation of two companies, the Central Pacific in the west and the Union Pacific in the mid-west, to build the railroad. The legislation called for building and operating a new railroad from the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, west to Sacramento, California, and on to San Francisco Bay.
. . .
Note: These were FEDERAL CORPORATIONS, that later were transformed into state corporations.
. . .
The electric traction rail companies were rivals of the steam powered heavy rail, in case you didn't know. The heavy rail companies helped destroy them, too.
In 1963, Alweg proposed to the city of Los Angeles a monorail system that would be designed, built, operated and maintained by Alweg. Alweg promised to take all financial risk from the construction, and the system would be repaid through fares collected. The City Council rejected the proposal in favor of no transit at all. (thanks to Standard Oil)
....
The Streetcar Conspiracy The StreetCar Conspiracy
....
The Great American Streetcar Scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_City_Lines
We can thank General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum for their successful destruction of electric traction rail, and the imposition of our dependency on imported petroleum.
.....
PBS HISTORY DETECTIVES CLEVELAND ELECTRIC CAR
History Detectives S04E10
Season 4, Episode 10
New York City politics was not standing still, however. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who had taken office in 1933, was no friend of streetcars, of elevated lines, or of private ownership of transit. He pressed relentlessly for “Unification,” the City takeover of the BMT and IRT. The IRT was happy to go out of business but the BMT fought almost to the last.
After taking over the private companies, not only did the innovations of the BMT end, but the City lost its taste for subway building. The IND “Second System” of 1929 remains unbuilt. The private lines that attracted IND competition were abandoned, several immediately and more as the years went on.
...
Leave it to government to destroy the most efficient form of land transport...
That is the key point. American farmers owned their own land, and lived on individual plots of considerable acreage, far away from neighbors. European farmers were landless, living in compact villages, "commuting" to work the land of their lord. [Not true in all cases]
Suburbia is the modern analog of the American farming life, where every resident is the "farmer" of his 1/5th acre plot. The compact city with multi-use zoning is the modern analog of European traditional life, where the residents have as it were no genetic memory of owning real estate, and are culturally attuned to communal-style living.
The greatest accomplishment of medieval agriculture was the open-field system of village agriculture developed by European peasants
Open-field system was divided the land to be cultivated by the peasants of a given village into several large fields, which were in turn cut up into long, narrow strips that were not enclosed into small plots by fences or hedges
The land of those who owned land were nobility, clergy, and wealthy
No, I don't have A/C [though my summers are fairly mild]. Obviously yes to a furnace & cold showers, but you already knew that but asked stupid questions. Without A/C there's not comfort loss from walking outside on hot days since it's hot inside anyway. Yes, obviously I can survive without A/C.
No to what?
Sounds like someone hasn't experienced Vegas or Phoenix is July. You should try that. It's really fun
Suburbs to me always seemed to be just bedroom communities where people just watch TV and sleep after a long work day and a couple of hour commute to that suburb. Then they wake up and do it all over again. One of the aspects of urban living is that you're not stuck in your home all the time. You don't have a couple of hour commute, and after work and on weekend you're out and about exploring everything the city has to offer.
I live in an urban area now and there is always something new to do on a daily basis. I'm single and child free, but if I did have kids I would not want them growing up in a boring suburb where they end up getting in trouble with the law or getting involved with substances out of boredom like we did growing up.
Suburbs have not been like that for many decades. As soon as the burbs came in, commercial followed. I watched a few suburbs grow up, one in the 50s, one in the 90s, and one in the 00s. Commutes can be long or short, depends on where you work. There are jobs in the burbs, too, particularly in the service areas which includes medicine.
Kids can always find a reason to get in trouble. Setting doesn't matter.
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Originally Posted by s1alker
That's true it all comes down to lifestyle. I'm not young anymore, but I'm childfree and polygamous, which is probably not at all the common demographic of a suburb.
Personally, I find this whole thread a little redundant. There is no "best" place to live. That is very much a personal decision.
Well, yes.
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Originally Posted by gouligann
I would go crazy living in one of those communities. Talk about stifling!
I wonder how many drunks go to the wrong house at night because they missed a turn? lol
That's an old joke you're recycling!
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Originally Posted by kamban
You are falling for a stereotype. Not all cities are big with vast spread out suburbs that one has to drive an hour to get to work. My suburb is 10 minutes from downtown and is only 5 minutes from work, which is not in downtown. Even if I have to into downtown in the mornings it is only a 20 min commute. And that is the max.
Suburbs to me always seemed to be just bedroom communities where people just watch TV and sleep after a long work day and a couple of hour commute to that suburb. Then they wake up and do it all over again. One of the aspects of urban living is that you're not stuck in your home all the time. You don't have a couple of hour commute, and after work and on weekend you're out and about exploring everything the city has to offer.
I live in an urban area now and there is always something new to do on a daily basis. I'm single and child free, but if I did have kids I would not want them growing up in a boring suburb where they end up getting in trouble with the law or getting involved with substances out of boredom like we did growing up.
Like I said, you make your life. Don't be defined by your address. I think for the general population 5 days out of the week it is the same routine regardless of your address.
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