I don't get it - what don't some people like about the suburbs?

[UrbScotty]

I like living in the suburbs. My suburb is just minutes away from city life AND minutes away from a rural area. Plus, the people are nice.

But what is it some people don't like about Suburbia?

:shrug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. We don't like its suckitude quotient, which is quite high

And also the burbs represent much that is wrong with America - an engineered mini-society that requires a car, that has no convenient (walkable) shopping, government places, etc., plus no or little access to public transportation.

They can be pleasant to live in, indeed - tend to be quiet, have city sewage and city gas/electrical lines, etc.

But they really are an environmental and social nightmare.


And it's not just the burbs - lots of cities are designed now around the car. There are few places in the country which haven't been so inundated.

[kerrywins]

44. basically, people get jealous....

its hard to live in a good suburb. Its expensive....not everyone can afford it...so they get mad and envious of those who can.

[progmom]

53. Here in Ann Arbor, it's cheaper to live in the burbs.

I hate myself for it, but in order to be able to afford a larger abode to be able to fit the kid and the dog and all our music, we had to move from the city to the burbs.

[blueknight]

2. i dont like it,

because around here that is where all the freepers live. if i lived in these suburbs,i'd kick someone in the ass daily:spank:

[Lenape85]

5. Most freepers live in rural areas

But yes, there are suburban freepers, I actually live in a suburban freeper town

[pstokely]

52. freepers live in exurbs

a mixture of a rural and suburban area, far from the city

[progmom]

54. Freepers live everywhere

Just like liberals. We're stereotyping, which is ugly no matter who you're stereotyping.

[livinginphotographs]

3. It's just a poster child for white flight.

I live in the suburbs (living arrangments kind of left me no choice) and it's nothing but SUV-driving sprawl-loving rich elitist sacks of crap who think nothing about diverting resources away from the shell that has become the inner-city of my town.

As long as they don't have to see black people, they're okay with it.

I've grown up in suburbia, and in my experience, surburbia-dwellers are some of the most short-sighted, self-absorbed, close-minded people I've ever met.

[progmom]

55. I think it depends on the area.

Here in Ann Arbor, I had to move to the burbs to get any kind of real diversity. I'm now in a subdivision surrounded by a great mix of ethnicities.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. takes up too much space

suburban sprawl is really bad for the environment

[mcscajun]

6. I think it very much depends on two things...

...what kind of suburb you're in...and what kind of life you lead in it.

I'm technically in the suburbs, but like you, I'm 15 minutes away from farms and ranches. I'm in a small, older town, not a newer 'housing development' kind of place where all the lawns are manicured and soccer moms rule.

What many people don't like is the perceived (and sometimes actual) sterility and conformity of the suburbs.

I grew up in The Bronx, lived for 15 years in Manhattan...and just got SO tired of living 'over and under' people and having to tiptoe and keep quiet while cuckoos living over me flooded the plumbing...and have been in 'suburban NJ' for the past 14 years. I'm way west of the infamous Turnpike, in what the NYC weatherfolk call 'north and west of the city'. It's much like parts of small-town New England. I have very nice, helpful neighbors who stay out of my life and I stay out of theirs.

You'll get no flak from me about the suburbs.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

33. I know I'm pretty close to you but I still have to tiptoe...

I live in an apt. in Madison with a deranged downstairs neighbor. She often wakes me up with pounding. Apparently, whatever one of my 9lb cats is doing in my room is not enough to wake me up, but it's enough for her. The landlord hates her & apparently the neighbors with the apt next to her can't turn on their stereo at any volume.

I got a note last week asking me to stop the cats from jumping on the floor at 4:30am. I tried sitting them both down together and having a nice chat, but I don't think they were paying attention.

[mcscajun]

38. Yup...that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about...

...it wasn't "white flight" or elitism or any other of the negatives associated with moving out of the central city that brought me to the (gag) suburbs. It was the simple desire to have NObody interfering with how I conducted my own day to day Existence.

I can do laundry at midnight (and I DO!) if I feel like it...jump up and down on my own floors...and know that all the noise I make (or not) is my own.

That's it. Nothing else. I've got nobody under me, nobody over me, nobody to either side of me. If I want to crank up my stereo at 7:00 AM or 11:30 PM, that's my business, too.

On the down side...when my neighbor across the (very narrow) road starts up his power tools at 8:00 AM and I'm still in bed...ah well...nothing's perfect. :)

[DancingBear]

7. Watch a family farm get chopped into 250 1/2 lots

with a fake pond and 10 acres left so gullible people driving SUV's that never get put into 4WD will think they're in the country.

Then we'll talk.

[Merrick]

8. What everybody else said - plus everybody just seems so

friggin' concerned about their property values, like its all they have left to live for. If little Billy's new portable basketball hoop down the street is something that's going to keep you awake at night, maybe its time to go to sleep permanently.

[truthseeker1]

11. Heh...property values

We were just about to put our house up for sale and now the mudslide across the street is a huge eyesore.....tell me about bringing down property values! Sorry sorta off topic...just stressed about all of this.

[WCGreen]

9. Suburbs breed conformity...

There is no room for the individual to establish himself or herself....

In the city, you can remain anonymous as you search out your identity, get lost in the crowd, but in the burbs, you are pretty much on display for all to see.....

It's like the typical American Small Town without the support system. All of the bad and none of the good....

Still, I live in the burbs, have all my life and I turned out okay....

[CelticWinter]

10. Im no frickin frackin freeper but

I live in rural america and love it. There are alot of freepers in this area but they dont bother me. This is a small community where everyone knows everyone and a pleasant place to live.

[Michigander4Dean]

12. It's simple: They don't live there.

Look, with all these criticisms about the 'Burbs, couldn't an equal number of criticisms be made against the congested, violence-ridden cities and the smelly farms of the right-wing countryside?

[vixengrl]

13. I lived in Levittown PA for awhile--

but I'm a city girl. I couldn't stand it that I had to *drive* if I wanted to go anywhere--nothing in walking distance, and no *sidewalks* to walk on. Suburbs are laid out so there's all these cul de sacs and twisty streets separated by highways--it's not for the pedestrian. Everyone seemed to have trucks and SUV's--I've always had compact cars so I could park them in the city. And this is kind of a biased anecdote--

I was walking in my development, where there were no sidewalks, so I had a thin strip of low grass to walk in, and cars were going past. Although I know the driver of one of the passing cars saw me, he came way too close (I had nowhere to go) and I ended up tripping. I fell on my face, and broke my nose--so I was *gushing* blood. Cars continued to go past. I walked the space of about a city block and a half home--saw people, saw cars--but no one stopped. No one said "Are you all right--can I call you an ambulance?" (I soaked my hoodie through--it looked like I used it to mop the floor of an abattoir). No one could see a bleeding person. In the city, someone would at least have shown an interest. Even if only to yell, "Don't bleed on my piece of the sidewalk, I just hosed the stoop!"

In the two years I lived in the 'burbs, I ended up meeting none of my neighbors. Moving back to the city, I know the neighbors on either side of my house and at least wave to the people across the street. It's a different attitude.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

14. Suburban sprawl, strip malls full of chain stores, hideous McMansions.

pretty much sums it up.

You have to get in the car to go to a grocery store, restaurant and run your daily errands.

[cally]

15. Liberal elitism...loud and clear on this thread

Fine...You choose to not live in a suburb. We all know that American development hurts our culture. But...

We will lose every election if we promote our elitism. Most of us want the dream of a single family home that is safe for our children. Maybe you want something different but you are not informed if you don't think most Americans want this.

I personally want to live in SF with small condo. I can't afford it so I live in the suburbs.

[vpigrad]

16. How is it elitism...

to promote what's right? Should we become repukes and promote what's wrong?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

18. yes we should become just like them to win elections

:eyes:

[cally]

23. No...but we have to pick our battles

Americans want single family homes...Doesn't make any sense but that's valued.

[fujiyama]

28. Nobody is saying

Americans shouldn't have a choice.

The desire of most Americans is understandable, but that doesn't mean everyone here has to agree with the blandness of suburbia.

That's not elitism in any way. No one here is saying "destroy the suburbs". We're saying that it's not exactly the most sustainable and sensible way of living.

[cally]

31. I would support not having a choice

Suburbia does hurt the planet. I know that and yet I live in suburbia. It's much more complicated than what a person values.

I know it's the worst model for sustainability. I'm always a little shocked when I travel. Homes are much more resource friendly every where I have traveled.

[fujiyama]

34. I live in a suburb too

and I bitch and I whine, but in all likelyhood, I'll end up living in the suburbs after I graduate from college. The reason being is that my work will be somewhat near to home, most likely in an ugly office park. I too would prefer living in a city but I also know that prices in vibrant exciting cities are exorbant.

I think most of the complaints here stem, not from not knowing about suburban life, but rather experiencing it firsthand and tiring of it.

My only real difference is that I don't think it's really elitism, but rather a sense of not understanding what it is about suburbs that does attract people. The sense of safety for the family, decent schools nearby, close proximity to work, and that of ownership are probably what makes suburbs so compelling for so many families.

Granted, we all know the side most wouldn't want to talk about - that of white flight and the near collapse of the cities. I commute to Detroit everyday so I see what has happened to it.

Unfortunately, the sense of individualism also arguably destroys a sense of community. We see that a town square is replaced by a strip mall, which is completely owned by corporate interests.

[cally]

19. Most live in suburbs

and I can discuss city planning with the best. I can pontificate about the best cities and better ways to plan. But we live in suburbs so it seems like liberal elitism to dish most Americans choice.

[opiate69]

17. Suburbs...

Over priced, small lots, no individuality, plus most suburban neighborhoods have covenants which are too often abused. "Welcome to the suburbs, where they cut down all the trees and named the streets after them".

[Donkeyboy75]

20. Cookie-cutter houses, strip malls and having to drive anywhere.

Virtually every suburb I've visited is a soulless place. But, different strokes...

[Liberal In Texas]

21. Commuting is what I DON'T like...

Worst thing. The 10 minute drive is wonderful. I know too many people that tell me they live 20 minutes away, when I know they drive at least 30-40 minutes. Then there are the real crazies...hour or more each way. Life is too short.

[baldguy]

22. Here

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050111/1060917.asp

[MrSlayer]

24. I hate the uniform look, the stupid regulations, the generic restaurants..

soccer, minivans, lawns, suburban cops and nice people. I like the energy and grit of the city. I like being able to paint my house purple if I want, I like playing the street number, I like street games like "Hide the Belt" and "Dead Box", I like authentic Italian food and deli, I like not having to drive anywhere to get what I want, I'm not happy if I don't witness a fistfight once a week. Whenever I'm in the Burbs to visit friends or whatever I'm uncomfortable with the quiet and lack of activity. I'm just a city person.

[RetroLounge]

25. All depends on the suburb.

Cookie cutter subdivisions an hour's drive from the city are NOT suburbs. They are sprawl.

I live in a suburb, right up against the city. Downtown is 7 minutes away by car, 20 by bus. The suburb was built in the 19th century, and has expanded and rebuilt itself over time. My neighborhood was built in the 40's and 50's. It was originally a farm, then a gold course/country club, then a neighborhood. I know many of my neighbors. We can walk the kids to school. We can walk to shopping. We can walk to parks. There is adequate (bus) public transportation, although light rail would be nice.

So don't all you citified folks generalize.

MY suburb rocks. Oh, yeah, and we went blue in a blue county in a blue state.

RL

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. Wauwautosa, yes, the prewar suburbs are very nice

:-)

[RetroLounge]

35. Thank you. That's the term I was looking for.

"the prewar suburbs"

I grew up in one, Niles, Illinois. Very much like where I am now.

RL

[Ready4Change]

26. Places to live are half filled glasses.

It's all how you look at it.

I worked with a real city girl for a while. She thought that in the suburbs I had to worry about bears. (Not usually a concern as I live in a pretty congested suburb in the East Coast.)

She thought I must feel really insecure, as if I got in trouble no one would be able to hear me yell for help. I thought she must feel insecure, as being packed in with all those people in the city odds are she knows some people willing to do her harm.

[Withywindle]

27. I've never lived in one, but...

Grew up rural, now live urban. Both of those have serious, major pros and cons. I can't see any "pros" to the suburbs for me personally. It seems like the worst of both worlds: it doesn't have the vibrant culture, history, personal interaction, pedestrian-transit convenience of the city OR the solitude and natural beauty of the countryside.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. There are suburbs and suburbs

Pre-WWII suburbs can be very nice, with pleasant neighborhoods but still a small town feeling. But I have no use for "edge cities," which are alienating, soulless places built for the convenience of cars instead of people.

It is America's dirty little secret that suburban growth exploded after cities began integrating their schools.

Americans only think they like living in the suburbs. Or rather, they think they're supposed to, because that's the way of life that's promoted relentlessly as the ideal in the commercial media. Yet every suburbanite I've ever spoken to complains about traffic, and as one of my bumper stickers says, "Hate traffic? YOU are the traffic." They complain about their lives being so hectic, and yet they wouldn't have such hectic lives if they didn'thave to drive miles to do everything.

Just as an example, here in my neighborhood of Minneapolis, if I want to rent a video, I walk six blocks down tree-lined streets. If I want to get Vietnamese food, I go around the block. I can walk to a bakery, a hardware store, an ice cream parlor, a food co-op, a locally owned coffee shop, a public library, four restaurants, a regular supermarket, and a dry cleaner. If I feel ambitious and half an extra half hour to spare, I can walk through pleasant residential neighborhoods to the bank and post office, and if I choose to drive, it's five minutes. If I had children, they could walk to school for K-12. I can hop a bus downtown, to a major shopping mall, and to points in between.

My youngest brother lives with nothing but houses for miles around. I've gone to the nearest Vietnamese restaurant--a ten-minute drive away. The video store is off ten minutes in the other direction from their house. I have no idea where they get groceries, but it's not anywhere near their house. Work is a 30-minute traffic-choked drive away on a good day.

With their lack of natural community centers, suburbs are fertile ground for fundamentalist churches, and even for the non-religious, suburban life promotes a sense of isolation from one's neighbors and from the cities that suburbs feed off.

It has nothing to do with snobbery, just a feeling that suburban life does not make sense, either environmentally or sociologically.

Nobody in the Democratic Party is going to ban suburbs. But a lot of us feel that people should have alternatives to suburban living and that this country should not be set up so that people are forced to drive everywhere.

By the way, I spent ages 11 to 18 in an outer suburb and ages 32 to 34 in an inner suburb. Every relative I have in the world currently lives in the outer suburbs, and about half of them do so because they don't want to have to look at black people.

[Left Is Write]

37. I like older suburbs.

I live in a new (less than five years old) subdivision in a bland house on a bland street. It's nice enough, and we have a huge backyard, and we've made some improvements to the house.

But I still desperately miss my 1964 rambler with the finished basement on a quaint tree-lined street in Inver Grove Heights, MN. I wish I were raising my kids in that house.

[Bok_Tukalo]

32. You have to drive ... EVERYWHERE

It's mind boggling.

[RebelOne]

41. Well, I can't imagine walking anywhere.

Where I live, there are no sidewalks anyway.

[BBradley]

43. My feeling for the suburbs has been best described lyrically

Desaperecidos - Greater Omaha


Well traffic's kind of bad
They're widening easy street to fit more suvs
They're planting baby trees to grow to shady peaks
A little shelter from the sun or the upper tax bracket
Here on the cul-de-sac we're not giving back until the community repents

Cause we can't afford to be generous
There's closing costs and a narrow margin
So go earn your degree and we'll take you out to lunch
You can work for us but you gotta eat em all up

Yeah one more mouth full and we will be happy then
Yeah one more mouth full and we will be happy then

Out west they're moving dirt to make a greater Omaha
Another franchise sold so there's even more restaurants per capita
And they all got a drive-thru yeah, who's got time to dine
Although the floors are clean, the color scheme it compliments me every time
So no one starves in this cattle town
The semis pass making squealing sounds
And its all you can eat and they will never get enough
They'll be feeding us, they'll be feeding on us

Just one more mouthful and they will be happy then
Yeah one more mouth full and we will be happy then

All those golden fields, lovely empty space
They're building drug stores now until none remains
I've been driving now for 100 blocks
Saw 50 Come and Go's, 60 parking lots.

Yeah one more mouthful and they will be happy then. WOO
Yeah one more mouth full and we will be happy then

Yeah one more, one more...
Just one more
Just one more
Just one more

[KamaAina]

56. That's if you CAN drive. Otherwise....

most newer suburbs might as well have a sign at the town limits that reads "No KamaAinas After (or Before) Sundown".

What was so wrong with the pre-WWII model, like Boston's "streetcar suburbs", I ask you?

[noshenanigans]

36. All the houses look the same...

Now, don't get me wrong- for some people, suburban living works very well. My sister is one of those people. I love her, but just don't understand it.

Her and her husband live in this big neighborhood that has 4 housing designs.. so every. other. house. is the same. And they have super strict rules about what they can have in their yard, what color mailbox they can have, and what kind of doormat they can own!

It's not for me, I find it quite banal and unoriginal.. but for a lot of people, it works. And that's cool. At the end of the day, it's what makes you happy in your own life, because you're the only one living it.

[Bamboo]

39. My Gourd is Bigger than Your Gourd

The middle class can dish it out but cannot take it,they look down on the class below them on the Jerry Springer Show and COPS and laugh at their multiple overlapping pathologies.They cry elitism when their own multiple overlapping pathologies are pointed out,they wail over the sins of others while ignoring their own.Cars with large tuner wheels were ghetto in the past but are now standard equipment so middle class taste changes.McMansions and SUVs are more than housing and transportation,they say I am middle class in a world where people are slipping out of the middle class.Loudly shouting your status is like a tribal elder wearing a large gourd on their penis,if you have an American credit line the gourd is an SUV or McMansion.Lately I have seen MORE Bush bumper stickers than during the election,people want to be on the popular side which is not the right side.

[Guaranteed]

40. I want my home to have some personality.

There's something to be said for going to your neighbor's place and actually having to ask where the bathroom is.

[tngledwebb]

42. The utter lack of culture, the people, the ugliness of the environment

etc. Lawn mowers, SUV's, malls... etc

[BiggJawn]

45. Sprawl.

They build these collections of McMansions in the middle of what used to be a cornfield, and you need an SUV to get anywhere from your front door. OK, you COULD get by with a Prius, but your neighbours would laugh at you.

No mass transit, no sidewalks, no bike paths (or roads that it would be reasonably safe to bike on) strip malls, deed restrictions, neighbourhood associations for your neighbours to work out their Mussolini complexes in...

It's interesting how things turn over. When I lived in Indianapolis,as a boy, we lived in the 'burbs. The really rich folks lived on the northside all the way from 79th down to about 34th street. The poor lived downtown. the middle-class lived in the burbs.

Now, the rich, while still in their northside enclave, have taken over and "gentrified" the down-town, and established new enclaves out on what used to be farmland in the far "outer banks" of the county (and surrounding counties, like Hamilton county). The poor have been displaced to what used to be the suburbs, and the middle class? They just fit in wherever they can, or they live in Greenwood and Brownsburg.

[B Calm]

46. I have lived out in the country all my entire adult life. You

couldn't pay me enough to live with people a rock throw away. I love the wide open space and freedom from nosy neighbors.

[tngledwebb]

49. The country is different than the burbs.

n/t.

[sniffa]

47. i Love the suburbs

they aLways have the nicest stuff to steaL

[Solly Mack]

48. It all started with the ultra-long, wood paneled station-wagon

with the luggage rack.

People would watch and stare as that behemoth went by and see their entire lives flash before their eyes.

The "suburbs" have become a metaphor for settled (read: boring) lifestyles that no longer spark any passion or zest for living.

Yeah yeah, it's a stereotype....but you did ask. :)

[Patiod]

50. The lack of community

When I was growing up, my parents made up for the relative isolation of the 'burbs (compared to city or small-town life) by joining the Lion's Club, Bridge Club, Garden Club, PTA, groups at church, etc.

It's a lot tougher today with both parent working - all of live in the suburbs and only my friends that are stay-at-home moms are involved in any type of community organizations at all.

My work-outside-the-home friends feel they don't have the time or energy (whether or not they have kids). Last night, a girlfriend expressed a desire to sell her beautiful but isolated house and move a mile or two to a Main Line suburb so her child could be more part of the community - the other women in the group (a mix of stay-at-home and working-outside Moms) laughed at her and said that as long as she continued to work, forget about becoming part of any community.

[AngryOldDem]

51. I hate where I live

...I have to put up with my fair share of pretentious assholes and others who like being in the proximity of said assholes. I'm even more pissed about living here because the only reason -- the ONLY reason -- we moved here was because the schools were touted to be among the best in the state. What a load of bullshit that's turned out to be, which pisses me off even more. Now moving is not an option for us, so we're stuck.

I feel like I've been had in 50 different ways.