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Suburbs are like towns except they're really close to the city, so you can just drive to city when you're in need of what the city offers.
I wonder why it's only the suburbs everyone complains about and not the towns? Towns are pretty much smaller suburbs without the city nearby.
In many midwestern and western states, the burbs are organized as ciites. I live in a suburban city. The largest suburb of Denver, the city of Aurora, has 300,000 people living in it. I know that in many eastern states, the suburbs are organized as townships and other more rural forms of govt.
I grew up in the typical 1950's-1970's suburbs, and while that was OK, I definitely prefer living in an older, more urban environment. But, I don't care as much about whether it's within city limits or not. I'm more interested in environment. There are suburbs of Cleveland that I wouldn't mind living in because they have plenty of urban amenities. Some of Cleveland's suburbs are more dense and urban than the most urban neighborhoods within the city of Youngstown.
But having said that, I wouldn't want too much density, either. I wouldn't want to live in a high-rise condo in Manhattan or Chicago. My ideal neighborhood has walkable tree-lined streets with a mixture of SFH's and stately apartment buildings, all with small yards. I'd probably like living in Katiana's suburb of Denver, because it seems to be more urban and walkable than the stereotypical suburb.
If people could see beyond their stereotypes of what they think urban and suburban are, they would probably agree a lot more often.
I like to drive and I like outdoor wildlife photography, especially birds, bugs and butterflies. I especially like to drive on hardly any traffic highways where I can listen to my car radio or CDs, see the mountains and a few hawks that fly over. So I live in the suburbs where it's not crowded, all sprawl meaning I can breathe, it's easy to just jump in the car and drive to nature (mountains, lakes, woods, state parks, national parks, farms) to take photos the closest within 2 towns away, but I'm less than a half mile from my classes and where my book discussion group meets, and about a mile from the lake (at the end of my road), the supermarket and the movie theater.
There is a city downtown about 25 miles away and I never go there. I don't go to that city's stores/malls, either.
I like to drive and I like outdoor wildlife photography, especially birds, bugs and butterflies. I especially like to drive on hardly any traffic highways where I can listen to my car radio or CDs, see the mountains and a few hawks that fly over. So I live in the suburbs where it's not crowded, all sprawl meaning I can breathe, it's easy to just jump in the car and drive to nature (mountains, lakes, woods, state parks, national parks, farms) to take photos the closest within 2 towns away, but I'm less than a half mile from my classes and where my book discussion group meets, and about a mile from the lake (at the end of my road), the supermarket and the movie theater.
There is a city downtown about 25 miles away and I never go there. I don't go to that city's stores/malls, either.
What kind of suburb do you live in that you can see mountains, birds, butterflies, and wildlife? I must be looking in the wrong states.
I live in a small town called Greensburg, which is a city 25 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. It's a typical "satellite town" in the sense that even though it's located close to the major city, it still offers the amenities of a larger city and being that the county seat is located here, it gives the downtown area greater importance. The cultural and educational facilities in the city also gives people a reason to visit the downtown area. The city only has about 20,000 residents within its borders, but the greater swath of the area where most of the residential developments are has around 60,000 people within a 5 mile radius, which would make it a small micropolitan area if there wasn't a major city nearby. While suburban areas can stretch far out, the city I live in doesn't feel necessarily like a suburb, although there are residential areas just outside the city which feel suburban and are newer developments built as early as the 1960s, while Greensburg itself was established in the early 1800s. We have our own expressway running through town which sees a lot of traffic during the day and major commercial areas outside the city that includes a shopping mall and other retail centers.
Why did the suburbs abandon the street grid? The older more established inner ring St. Louis suburbs of Clayton, Webster, Brentwood, Kirkwood all for the most part kept the street grid in tact and are very desireable places to live. All still very walkable.
If the suburbs were more dense and kept the street grid I think they would be much more appealing.
The housing stock in the City of St. Louis and the inner ring burbs is far superior to that of the burbs. Brick vs vynil. hmmmm, easy choice.
Depends on the suburb. The ones I generally prefer are diverse, (economically and racially), safe, scenic and close enough to a big city.
All suburbs are different. The ones you're probably thinking of are the ones outside of the northeast where they're littered with chains, sprawl and 8 lane freeways.
i agree with this comment. some suburbs aren't bad, and IMO, it is the ones in the northeast due to location (near cities), and they are more dense suburbs than down south suburbs
Originally Posted by kidyankee764 People who bash the 'burbs probably don't have kids yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RenaudFR
No problem, the suburbs are so great
Cities are great for single yuppies, but after that, to have a family, the suburbs are the better option
I like the suburbs..they offer a reasonable amount of amenities. The shopping is good. People are usually hard-working and reliable. The architecture is disposable, which is a bit of a turn off for me, but otherwise I totally get it.
But, more than that, I want my daughter to grow up in the city, not in the suburbs, so no, i don't think the suburbs are a better option for my family. Not the least reason is that any child has a higher likelihood of dying in an auto accident in the suburbs than from any of the multitude of boogey-men populating cities.
Perhaps it seems that everyone moves to the suburbs once they have kids because so many suburban streets are populated by precisely one demographic ... couples with school-aged kids. That is exactly what many people who choose to raise kids in the city are trying to avoid.
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