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Scarsdale NY, Short Hills NJ, Darien CT, Bloomfield Hills MI...
Some lesser known places relative to their area, Buffalo-East Amherst, Clarence, etc.
Grand Rapids-East Grand Rapids, Ada, etc.
Rochester-Pittsford, parts of Brighton, Penfield, Perinton, etc.
Pittsburgh-Fox Chapel, portions of the Sewickleys, Edgeworth, Franklin Park, etc.
Albany-Niskayuna, Loudonville, much of Bethlehem, Clifton Park/Rexford, etc.
Kansas City: Mission Hills/Leawood, Kan. (In-between Prairie Village is not as tony but still quite nice.)
Des Moines: West Des Moines/Urbandale, Iowa
Omaha has no suburbs to speak of; save for Bellevue and a few places in Iowa (including one on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River), Omaha's suburbs are part of the city.
I'll agree to disagree. There are definitely parts of Beachwood that look like parts of Shaker (IE the area I alluded to just over Warrensville Center Road by Van Aken, which is the the psuedo downtown of Shaker). Just like there are parts of Shaker that also resemble parts of the Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood of Cleveland (the link to the home in my last post is a street in Shaker where if you go a couple hundred feet, you are in Cleveland).
As for shopping, Beachwood still is a destination, mainly because of Beachwood Place. In fact, it's probably the only reason somebody from the westside of Cleveland or Akron, would go there just due to shopping because it still has offerings that can't be found anywhere else in the metro/region.
If you had to rank the shopping centers by prestige, it would be, IMO:
1. Beachwood Place
2. Crocker Park
3. Legacy Village
4. Pinecrest
5a. South Park
5B. Summit Mall/Montrose (Akron)
Of those six, one is in Akron (Summit Mall, mid-tier); one is in SW Cleveland (South Park, mid-tier); one is in NW Cleveland (Crocker, upper middle tier)
The other three are all at least upper middle tier and all are in or within 2-3 miles of Shaker/Beachwood.
Yeah I mean I had a friend on Halburton growing up. Nice street with a few nice houses, but most are typical Beachwood 1955 type homes. Euclid has more Shakery homes than Beachwood to be quite honest, but I would never say Euclid feels like Shaker. I find it bizarre to group Beachwood with Shaker over Cleveland Heights. Very, very strange.
Kansas City: Mission Hills/Leawood, Kan. (In-between Prairie Village is not as tony but still quite nice.)
Des Moines: West Des Moines/Urbandale, Iowa
Omaha has no suburbs to speak of; save for Bellevue and a few places in Iowa (including one on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River), Omaha's suburbs are part of the city.
Not correct for Omaha- Bennington, Bellevue, La Vista, Papillon, Gretna all suburbs of Omaha NOT part of the city and ALL located in the Nebraska side of the MSA. And there are upscale influences within each of them.
Omaha is an 8 county MSA and a 9 county CSA with a population of basically 1 million. To intimate Omaha has no suburbs to speak of is flat out inaccurate..No offense.
Sorry, lol. The bulk of my comparison was The Main Line with Chicago North Shore burbs.
The last part about notable institutions and legacy was The Main Line and top Boston or NYC burbs.
We need to include the San Mateo County Southern Pacific (now Caltrain) railroad suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula. Dating from the 1800's, this stunning collection of towns - Atherton in particular - absolutely belong in any conversation regarding the best of the best.
These choices are horrible; hence the #1 voted choice is "OTHER".
Suburb choices for Miami, Denver and Dallas just do not make sense... can we please reboot with suggestions from locals because these seem to have been randomly pulled out of a hat.
Why do we talk about suburbs but then focus on their most urban qualities? LOL
Because the suburbs of major metropolitan areas are small/midsized cities in their own right, many of which are just as old as the region's primary city. And when speaking of the built form of a city, its urban qualities are the ones that are typically more interesting and distinctive. There's not much one can say that would generate lively discussion about typical suburbia/Anywhere, USA.
Im looking on Zillow.. The Philly Main Line looks quite expensive.
For top tier suburbs, the cheapest im finding is Hartford, albeit, a 2% property tax rate per assessment.
But eliminating High COL
-Chicago's North Shore
-Atlanta area
-Raleigh-Cary-Apex-Durham
-Charlotte
-Dallas area
-Nashville
-Hartford-New Haven
For the Chicago comment, here are a few of my favorites:
-Lake Forest
-Winnetka
-Buffalo Grove
-Northbrook
-Highland Park
-Wilmette
-Hinsdale
Can anybody else provide some options for cities that aren't Fast growing and/or highly desirable?
(ie, Detroit, Cincinatti, Louisville, St. Louis, Cleveland)
The problem with Hartford is, err, Hartford. “Proximity to the urban core” is one of the metrics. We just abandoned West Hartford after 4 years in West Hartford Center. Downtown Hartford behaves like an edge city where the white collar workers all flee at 5pm. The state has flung a bunch of money at trying to give the place a pulse but it’s not remotely close to achieving critical mass.
West Hartford is too socioeconomically mixed to rate as a blue chip suburb. The southeastern quarter of the town south of Farmington and east of South Main Street is higher density working class housing with a lot of two families. It’s why the place has an insane property tax rate despite spending less than the state per pupil average on schools. That leaves Avon, Simsbury, and Glastonbury as the core blue chip suburbs. They’re fine towns but you’re really isolated because there’s no viable city. If your aspiration is the suburban home with the luxury crossover and European sedan in the driveway, golden retriever, and kid soccer practice, I guess it’s as good as any.
Not correct for Omaha- Bennington, Bellevue, La Vista, Papillon, Gretna all suburbs of Omaha NOT part of the city and ALL located in the Nebraska side of the MSA. And there are upscale influences within each of them.
Omaha is an 8 county MSA and a 9 county CSA with a population of basically 1 million. To intimate Omaha has no suburbs to speak of is flat out inaccurate..No offense.
Mea culpa. I will admit that I based my statement on appearances as I drove around the city and environs in 1980. Those would be very much out of date. But I did acknowledge Bellevue.
(Mom was born there and returned there for a stint as an administrator at the VA Hospital in 1980-81.)
These choices are horrible; hence the #1 voted choice is "OTHER".
Suburb choices for Miami, Denver and Dallas just do not make sense... can we please reboot with suggestions from locals because these seem to have been randomly pulled out of a hat.
It may be less that the choices are "horrible" as that there are several large cities with renowned upscale suburbs that have been left off the list completely.
I don't recall that the OP said explicitly that Chicago, New York, Boston, Dallas, New Orleans ... were excluded, yet none of these citites' suburbs are in the poll either: Evanston, Riverside, Scarsdale, Greenwich (Conn.), Wellesley, Lincoln, Farmers Branch, Metairie... all of which, like the overlooked suburbs of other metros already posted here, don't even appear on the poll.
Anyone who would pick any of the suburbs named in the "supplemental" posts could do anything other than choose "Other."
Edited to add: But as for the choices that were made, I'd also agree that I'd probably put Chevy Chase/Bethesda/Potomac above Reston/Herndon/Sterling/Ashburn as the upscale DC suburbs of choice.
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