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Interesting "Everybody and their mama likes to talk about how the suburbs are going to be dead in XYZ years and how the cities will be where it's at soon!"
No one I know talks about that.
No one we hear about is moving to bigger cities. People are fleeing LA and NYC and moving to Texas to escape the bigger cities. Texans love small towns and when cities get to big they move to rural areas.
So I have no idea what you mean about people talking.
People on city data talk about it all the time. They love to talk about it on the Kansas City forum, how "vibrant" downtown is and how bland and boring the suburbs are. They can keep "vibrant."
I’ve lived like that before in a major city, it is absolutely torture. Police sirens, ambulance sirens, massive traffic, rats, trash, roaches, sky high rent, no parking, parallel parking, pollution, littering, expensive restaurants, drunks, homeless, impoverished neighborhoods just down the street, etc.
Don’t believe the hype, living inside a city is not fun.
I will gladly live in the suburbs to enjoy bigger housing any day of the week. And make no mistake, there’s plenty of rich people who could live inside a city yet still opt out to live in the suburbs
Reduced access to everything is not true at all. Suburbs often have movie theaters, gyms, malls, dry cleaning, grocery shopping, restaurants, strips mall, and other suburbs close by you can commute
Oh and they also have something important, excellent schools which is worth more than anything
Your first paragraph is exactly why city living doesn't appeal to me. When people talk about how wonderful New York is, all I think of is rat infestation. Ewwww.
And crime. I know crime can happen anywhere, but it happens a whole lot less where I live than in the city.
I lived like a sardine in college. Why would I volunteer to do that again? I don't want to live in an apartment again. Or a condo.
There are so many amenities in the suburbs around me that I don't EVER have to go to the city if I don't want to. And I almost never want to. To see a concert is about the only reason I go there - and when I do, there are panhandlers asking for money on my way in and out.
Suburbs in some parts of the country have taken on the quality of cities. Plano, Tx north of Dallas, in a lot of ways has a lot of city-like development. It is a major employment center, home to Dr. Pepper, J.C. Penney, Dell's it consulting unit (formerly Ross Perot's company), and Capital One's big 8 building campus. Fannie Mae, FedEx Officer (Kinko's), Chase, NTT Data, Liberty Mutual and Toyota North all have new big offices/campuses in Plano. So of course, amenities have followed for dining, living, viewing, dancing, and lodging.
Now what you may not see due to the tax base of many suburbs are major cultural venues like a Music Hall and Sports Arena.
Out migration from LA and NYC, so far, hasn't affected either place as their populations continue to grow. The next census should supply a lot of data about it one way or another.
Actually, California and L.A. have grown PREDOMINATELY because of foreign-born relocation. The 2000 census was the first to confirm that domestically California last U.S. citizens. I can't say with certainty the same for NYC but would not be surprised. NY state unlike California, on a net basis, has lost residents.
People on city data talk about it all the time. They love to talk about it on the Kansas City forum, how "vibrant" downtown is and how bland and boring the suburbs are. They can keep "vibrant."
For most of the late 20th century, urban downtowns were dying. They are coming back to some prosperity. That is why people are talking about the benefits.
It doesn't automatically mean one needs to question or become defensive over their preference for suburban living.
Last edited by ABQConvict; 03-21-2018 at 08:46 PM..
Cities work well for the very rich, and to some degree for the poor; not so much for everybody else.
I guess those cities would be ones like NY, Chicago, Boston, etc. There are cities OK for typical people. Examples may be Austin, Albuquerque, Tucson.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tijlover
It's been predicted for decades that our suburbs are our future slums!
Go check out some of the far flung suburbs of Los Angeles: San Bernardino, Hesperia, Victorville, Palmdale, Lancaster.
There are some grungy suburbs like those listed above. I heard Apache Junction near Phoenix isn't good. Parts of suburban Long Island aren't good. Ex: Wyndanch, Brentwood, and Central Islip.
Arlington's weakness is that it really is a bedroom suburb not an employment center. I know plenty who live there and have to get on I-30 or 360 to go to work daily. But I agree what makes Arlington different is it entertainment district but its not Plano. Frisco, well its basically a suburb of Plano. It's trying hard to be, in my mind, like Plano but is having growing pains. The Cowboys moving there was a nice jolt of positive news but the big billion dollar project off of Wade and the NTTA is headed toward foreclosure. THAT is going to hurt.
In DFW, there is a LOT of competition for development. I think Irving had a headstart on all the suburbs but its mayor at the time Jerry Jones was seeking a new stadium didn't manage the Cowboys departure well. Like why not offer Jones land for his new HQ like Frisco did? You had the old Texas stadium site available. You have a rail line and two stations. The suburb is within 5 miles of BOTH airports. Irving is the home to Exxon/Mobil, KimberlyClark, La Quinta Hotels, Fluor Engineering, Commercial Metals, and lots of regional offices. Irving is 15 -20 minutes from Downtown Dallas, a half hour from Fort Worth. Great highway access. Just opened a great Amphitheatre. Really everything to be a premier suburb but just not where I think it should be.
The year Jerryworld opened I had a sideline pass for a Texas high school state championship football game. The media handlers there were very helpful, friendly and professional.
That is also the most positive thing I can say about Arlington, actually. That same night I got rather lost trying to get to Denton where I was staying that night (free wins over convenience when you're a freelancer on the road) at, like, 1 a.m. The only Arlington I personally could have any use for is in Virginia.
Both Arlington, Texas and Arlington, Virginia are going to get called "suburbs" in here but they are wildly different environments.
If I lived in a city center, I'd probably have much shorter commute, maybe I could walk on feet watching life around and doing my exercise. If I drive from a suburb, it's just wasted time an tons od negative emotions. If I lived in a downtown, I could swing back home, change, get a cup of coffee and go for a walk or go to a concert, museum, or any other event. When I would go out, rested and refreshed, suburbians would still wait in traffic jams.
I see nothing healthy in sitting in the car while you can do other things.
Suburbs never change, covenants often prohibit any house to be in any way significantly different from every other one on the street. In metro areas, everything changes daily. In a city core, I wouldn't need to spend precious time of my life on moving a lawn I don't use, just to please neighbors I barely recognize after ten years of living next to them and have no interest in recognizing. I don't want to smell barbecues, hear somebody's car revving in the middle of the night, or kids screaming, or dogs barking. In a city, all these sounds blend together and become "white noise" when you can sleep, think, write, make love without paying any attention to it.
City living is way more efficient, best schools are in the big cities, all culture worth mentioning is concentrated in the cities, and suburban life allows you to spend less time on living, more on doing unnecessary stuff. City life is overall healthier, this is why any observant person will notice a dramatic difference in average waist circumference between metro and suburban folks. Unless a person is extremely social and/or into sports, these slow evenings in front of TV will inevitably make people buy a bigger size jeans every year. City can call you out at night, suburbs can not.
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They can keep "vibrant."
