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People like the suburbs for the simple fact that they get a taste of the city and the country at the same time. They are never too far from either. That feeling of wanting a little bit of both is not going to go away any time soon.
See, I don't get that at all. Being in a suburb is like the worst of both worlds: it's nothing like being out in the country (lawn grass and lollipop trees don't hold a candle to actual wilderness) and it's not like being in a proper city (where the streets are made for walking and the places have some character.) But you get the regimentation of the city and the boredom of the country.
See, I don't get that at all. Being in a suburb is like the worst of both worlds: it's nothing like being out in the country (lawn grass and lollipop trees don't hold a candle to actual wilderness) and it's not like being in a proper city (where the streets are made for walking and the places have some character.) But you get the regimentation of the city and the boredom of the country.
Thus we get to the heart of the matter. The suburbs, according to those who do not live there, have no "character". LOL! Today, I'm going to the Labor Day parade in my suburban city. Make no mistake about it, this is a suburb. But it also has the second biggest Labor Day parade in Colorado, a tradition that goes back to when it was a little coal mining town. Yesterday, we went to the dog show, and I was thinking about this city/suburb dichotomy. Where but in a smaller community do average people, including kids, get to parade their ordinary dogs out in front of a small audience, and get applause and little ribbons and gifts. Do the cities do things like this? Not the ones I ever lived in. We also went the art association's show and looked at paintings. This is a juried show with entrants from around the US. When my kids were little, they used to love to take our cats to the pet parade which is a part of Labor Day weekend, and their gymnastics team used to march in the parade. Now last night, we went down to Denver to see a free Blood, Sweat and Tears concert in Civic Center Park. The smaller places don't do stuff like that, granted. But I'll take the personal, and avail myself of some of the "big time" stuff when I want.
See, I don't get that at all. Being in a suburb is like the worst of both worlds: it's nothing like being out in the country (lawn grass and lollipop trees don't hold a candle to actual wilderness) and it's not like being in a proper city (where the streets are made for walking and the places have some character.) But you get the regimentation of the city and the boredom of the country.
Not all places are the same. There are suburbs in my hometown that are the country, yet right across the river is downtown and LSU.
Not all places are the same. There are suburbs in my hometown that are the country, yet right across the river is downtown and LSU.
Plenty of suburbs are right next to downtown. But no suburb is "the country." Near the country? Sure. Pretending to be the country? Often. But if it's a suburb, it isn't the country anymore.
My neighborhood does a pet parade too. Not sure how it is grounds for cultural superiority.
wburg.....poorly planned, sprawly neighborhoods give you the worst of both worlds.
Well planned suburban neighborhoods DO give you the best of both worlds. Easy access to get into a city, variety of shopping, yet woods and farms in your own backyard and around your neighborhood.
Not to be rude, but have you even ever seen a nice neigborhood?
This is what I mean with semantics
Suburban does not mean sprawl. And suburb does NOT mean subdivisions. You can live in the suburbs and not be in a subdivision and not be in sprawl. They are completely different.
This is a street view of a suburb where I grew up in NJ. Tell me this doesn't give one a feeling of country. Yet this is all close to tons of shopping and easy access to jobs.
If a person feels that the burbs are the worst of both worlds for them, then that is their right to feel that way. But it's false to say that all suburbs are built the same way. They just aren't. We're not talking about opinion anymore. Now it's just giving false information plain and simple
Last edited by Yankeerose00; 09-05-2011 at 11:38 AM..
But no suburb is "the country." Near the country? Sure. Pretending to be the country? Often. But if it's a suburb, it isn't the country anymore.
Now we are talking the difference between rural and country. There are many variations of rural and variations of country as well.
A neighborhood within an hour from a city is not rural in the true sense of the word. But it can be very country. If not country, what other name would you give a town that has homes on several acres each, alternating with farms, and fruit stands? I think having a country feel is a good way to describe and neighborhood like this.
My friend is a die hard city person and she hated visiting my old house in Virginia. It was too country for her. She hates woods. The homes were all on a minimum of 2 acres each but heavily wooded so it felt more sparsely populated than it really was. Very common for the east coast. Our land is very lush with thick woods, which is also why lyme disease runs rampant. With the woods, come the ticks.
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Too many people move out and further out and you've got the same problems as the city - aging, declining neighborhoods, traffic - without the cultural amenities or an environment in any way conducive to getting around without a car, whether you want to or you need to.
Yes I've seen this a lot too. There are a lot of towns where people don't like change at all, and the town reflects it. They just have a very dead, depressed and run down feel to them. I'd rather live in a sketchy part of the city than some Deliverence type of town, personally.
For people who want a suburb, finding a good one is as hard as finding a good place in the city. You don't want the town that's dead. You don't want the town that gives out building permits like giving candy to trick or treaters. You want the town that has controlled and smart growth. The town that is willing to see change and progess. I really feel the town I live in does just that. I like that there is a lot of new growth, yet it is controlled and kept to the center of town. All subdivisions are very small. Maybe 20-30 homes. Not hundreds like I saw in Florida. It seems store fronts are well maintained. I could be in DC in under 2 hours, Richmond in an hour. Now Northern Virginia is sprawly just like Arizona and Florida. At least what is right within an hour of DC is. Once you are west of Loudoun county it seems to calm down a bit. For that reason, I would never live in the central part of NOVA even if the cost of living was the same as central Virginia. The sprawl would kill me. The west and south part of what is NOVA still has decent neighborhoods.
Last edited by Yankeerose00; 09-05-2011 at 11:41 AM..
Plenty of suburbs are right next to downtown. But no suburb is "the country." Near the country? Sure. Pretending to be the country? Often. But if it's a suburb, it isn't the country anymore.
My neighborhood does a pet parade too. Not sure how it is grounds for cultural superiority.
I guess you've been to every MSA and micropolitan area in the US?
Plenty of suburbs are right next to downtown. But no suburb is "the country." Near the country? Sure. Pretending to be the country? Often. But if it's a suburb, it isn't the country anymore.
My neighborhood does a pet parade too. Not sure how it is grounds for cultural superiority.
Cultural superiority? Did I say that? Where? When? I said this is happening in a suburb; that it's not true that suburbs lack "character", whatever that really means.
Come on now, we were close to reclaiming this as a meaningful discussion. Must everything be a semantics debate?
Must everything be on your terms? I don't particularly like people putting words in my mouth, especially negative ones that misrepresent me.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 09-05-2011 at 04:02 PM..
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