What would make you live in the suburbs if you are an urbanite? (metro, suburb)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I figured this would be the logical counter to the now long-running thread.
Speaking personally, although I describe myself as an urbanite, I'm more someone who likes dense, walkable neighborhoods - the scale doesn't matter to me. If I could find a small town which had the following, I would be fine:
Allowed me to live in either a rowhouse, or, at worst, a detached house built prior to 1930 with only a few feet from my neighbor, and a front yard small enough I wouldn't need to have a lawn.
Had a commercial main street within walking distance - by which I mean with brick storefronts and independent shops, not strip malls.
Either no longer had to work (retired, house-husband, whatever), could work from home, or was within walking/biking/mass transit distance from my place of work. Basically, no need for a regular driving work commute.
As a practical matter, being a vegan, somewhere with access to a natural foods store (no Whole Foods!) and vegetarian/vegan friendly restaurants. I would not mind if food shopping was a short drive, as it's a once-a-week trip.
Had a major city within 1-2 hours transit time max. Hopefully I could use a train to get there, but driving wouldn't be the end of the world.
Basically, I'd like a lifestyle similar to my current one, where I do not use a car at all from Monday-Friday, and use it minimally for shopping and recreation on weekends.
That said, what I described is not a traditional suburb. For the most part, they are "college towns" plus a few oddball small cities which aren't college dominated but share some characteristics, like Asheville, NC. They also tend to be places which are expensive with few jobs available, so I just don't see this happening unless I inherit money my wife and retire early somewhere. She's actually more of an urbanist than I am (which is ironic, because she drives a lot more) however, so I think a small-town life would drive her bonkers.
I think it would be quite pleasant to retire to (or work from home in) an old small town, with a vibrant downtown/main street within easy walking distance.
I live in a suburb now. It was combination of factors: tried for the city first, but the extremely tight rental market led us to expand our search. We ended up in a location that is walkable, compact, has an easy, quick express bus to my husband's downtown job. It's far more affordable than the places we were trying to rent in the city (which is one big perk!), and the school application process is much simpler than in San Francisco. We can still live without a car, there are a lot of independent businesses and restaurants (and one of the best produce markets around), public transportation is decent, the residents diverse, and the neighborhood safe. The architecture is incredibly beautiful, too, which makes walking (our main form of transportation) pleasant. I can take the bus to the Amtrak station or to the airport for long-distance trips. I'd still like to get the chance to live where we thought we were going to be living (East Village in Manhattan), but this is very nice and I don't feel like we've had to compromise our top priorities too much. It's different, but it has been a good choice for us and we're very happy so far. And for some of the negatives (a longer walk to some things, mostly) we've gained in other ways. (and as an aside, it's more "urban" than some neighborhoods within some of the cities we've lived in, another danger of getting carried away with city/suburb distinctions...)
I figured this would be the logical counter to the now long-running thread.
Speaking personally, although I describe myself as an urbanite, I'm more someone who likes dense, walkable neighborhoods - the scale doesn't matter to me. If I could find a small town which had the following, I would be fine:
Allowed me to live in either a rowhouse, or, at worst, a detached house built prior to 1930 with only a few feet from my neighbor, and a front yard small enough I wouldn't need to have a lawn.
Had a commercial main street within walking distance - by which I mean with brick storefronts and independent shops, not strip malls.
Either no longer had to work (retired, house-husband, whatever), could work from home, or was within walking/biking/mass transit distance from my place of work. Basically, no need for a regular driving work commute.
As a practical matter, being a vegan, somewhere with access to a natural foods store (no Whole Foods!) and vegetarian/vegan friendly restaurants. I would not mind if food shopping was a short drive, as it's a once-a-week trip.
Had a major city within 1-2 hours transit time max. Hopefully I could use a train to get there, but driving wouldn't be the end of the world.
Basically, I'd like a lifestyle similar to my current one, where I do not use a car at all from Monday-Friday, and use it minimally for shopping and recreation on weekends.
That said, what I described is not a traditional suburb. For the most part, they are "college towns" plus a few oddball small cities which aren't college dominated but share some characteristics, like Asheville, NC. They also tend to be places which are expensive with few jobs available, so I just don't see this happening unless I inherit money my wife and retire early somewhere. She's actually more of an urbanist than I am (which is ironic, because she drives a lot more) however, so I think a small-town life would drive her bonkers.
The observation in your last paragraph, that what you describe is not a traditional suburb, may depend on which region of the country or which metro area you are talking about. A lot of what you describe can be found in former streetcar suburbs. Here in the Boston area we have quite a few inner suburbs which have most or all of these features. I think you would find this to be the case in many, most, or all older major cities, which developed largely before the automobile started to dominate our way of life, so that they have long had greater population and building densities than you usually find in Sun Belt metros, in the cities proper and in the closer suburbs.
^^Even here in the Denver area we have a few burbs meeting most of that description. It's not "New England-style farm town" out here. There aren't a lot of old brick houses out here, but there are some. Likewise, the buildings in my burb's downtown, some dating from the 1880s, are mostly frame. Old town Arvada comes to mind as being closest to what you want; also Boulder if you count it as a suburb.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What would make you live in the suburbs if you are an urbanite?
