How Do We Put Some Civility In The City Versus Suburb?

[Arctic_6]

The civility problem is one of the reasons I mainly lurk and rarely post. To me it all sounds like a lot of "my reality is bigger than your reality." I chose to live in my neighborhood because I love the urban environment and the cultural accessibility, but I also need to live here for my studies. I can't say I will always live in an urban, suburban, or rural context.

At this point I've lived in a small town (Radford, VA), a small city (Asheville, NC) and a medium-sized city (Cincinnati). They all have their ups and downs. I think a major part of the reason for the lack of civility is that people get caught up in what they want, or what they think is right, and then don't consider that others want something different.

I have nothing against people who live in the suburbs. At all. The reason for the "city is full of crime" and "suburbia is a soulless wasteland" stereotypes come from contexts: you are most comfortable with what you know. Ultimately we don't all know everything, but too often that's what it seems like on these discussions. It's disheartening sometimes.

[Briolat21]

Seconded! But then again the world would be a really great place if everyone could look beyond their own wants/needs and realize that what is "right" for them is not the end all/be all for all other people...

[Nomomo11]

You know, I loved the responses to my original post. Got me thinking, why not just call both Urban and Suburban areas the city(everywhere that is urbanized in someway and geographically connected), and avoid the splitting into factions that so often seems to occur. I myself have been guilty of just that, allowing myself to get caught up in debates. I now admit the suburbs do indeed have a large importance in terms of the overall health of Cincinnati. We are all in this together on this planet, and I think it is far better to build bridges than burn them.

KjBrill, I suppose you can call this an olive branch...