First, how do you define suburbia? I think of suburbs as being residential areas on the outskirts of a metropolis, largely filled with youngish people, usually with kids, who commute to a professional job in the city proper. The definition often seems to expand to include small towns that are not attached to a city as well.
It seems that any reference to anything suburban is generally said negatively, and I don’t really get why. I can completely appreciate that it’s not for everyone, but is it such a blight?
I do get that some people dislike the usual style of house, the often small yards, the depletion of green space. But usually what I see being derided is more the lifestyle - block parties, kids going to soccer practice in minivans, even (on here a while ago) jogging or biking with the kids. I don’t get why some people are so disgusted by it.
One big part of it is that it often, though not always, results in a lot of neighborhoods that look the same, and this justifiably bothers people. No matter how nice the landscaping is, if all the houses look the same, the area looks drab and somewhat fascist. Similarly, HOA (home owners’ associations) piss a lot of people off; they often have endless rules and regulations on how your yard, driveway, front of the house, etc, must look, so as to preserve the aesthetic sameness of the neighborhood; nobody likes this kind of stifling of individual liberties, even if it is relatively speaking a very small one. In suburbs, often there are more chain restaurants and bix-box stores rather than locally owned businesses.
The whole thing just seems artificial, unnatural and uncomfortable to many people.
One common complaint is that suburbs are bland, generic places where all the stores are chain stores and all the homes look the same. Urban areas often have more unique character.
Also, at least in certain parts of the country, there is a perception that suburbs are where the uptight white people who are scared of black people flee to.
Sterile, boring, dull, homogeneous, unwalkable, often filled with people who are terrified of people who are different from them or houses more than 20 years old.
It’s not about kids and block parties – it’s about the fact that they are artificial constructs filled with the bourgeoisie.
Yes, yes, you are different, your neighborhood is different, blah blah blah. But they give me the creeps.
It’s not just about the physical and aesthetic sameness, it’s about the ennui that goes along with it. It’s about the 30-minute commute to a soul-crushing office job to earn money to acquire more and nicer stuff to keep up with the Joneses. It’s also about the superficial – the nicer house, the nicer car, the right activities and schools for the kids.
Or, I could just link to this. The Monkees had the right idea.
There are plenty of fine urban neighborhoods in which all the houses on a given block follow the same rowhouse template, with only embellishments from a standard palette to differentiate them. This can unify the buildings and give positive-space definition to the streetscape. Each block becomes a clear place.
Suburban houses, by contrast, each pretend to be independent. They are not unified but repetitive.
I wouldn’t say hatred, but they depress me for some reason. A google image search for suburbia turns up image after image of bland sameness. From a popular demotivational poster:
Huh. I didn’t think I would feel defensive about it, buf this is the exact vitriol that perplexes me. I’ve lived in very urban areas, very rural ones, and several in between. I’m currently in a small town that has a lot of character in some places but in others (including where I live) a lot of new developments that I feel fits the general suburb idea. And I just wonder, why are you so sure I’m not different?
I am seeing words like new, sterile, boring. How so? Like someone else mentioned, you do get that this kind of living (ie not urban, not rural) has been around for quite some time, and doesn’t implode and rebuild every ten years? That a lot of the housing in urban areas consists of new, sterile apartment buildings or even old, identical rowhouses which at one time were new and sterile? I don’t mean to sound argumentative, just genuinely curious… Why is housing in the suburbs seen in such a different light?
As for the yuppie, competitive, keeping up with the Joneses stuff, do you really feel like the downtown, condo-living, BMW-driving crew isn’t one-upping each other over gym memberships, dinner party invites, job promotions? No urbanite works crushingly long hours to afford a fancy condo or private school tuition?
Like I said in my OP, I get why some people wouldn’t want to live there, but why do you care if someone else does?
can you elaborate on this? Some developments really do mimic the rowhouse mentality you describe and some like you say offer multiple stlyes and colours, even with mandates about how often the same look can be repeated within a certain area. And neither is ok? Can anyone show me a picture of a neighbourhood that has an acceptable variety of housing? (That sounds facetious, sorry. It’s a genuine request.)
the “soul-crushing sameness” that people are griping about seems to be (at least in my area) something widespread primarily in the last 10-15 years. Many new subdivisions built up by a single developer and are indeed pretty sterile, but to sit there and act as though the entirety of suburbia in this country is nothing more than modern-day, sanitized Levittowns is at best intellectually weak, if not plain ignorant.
Suburbs are unpopular just because they are so…popular. I am an unapologetic resident of one of greater Boston’s most exclusive suburban areas. Let’s face facts, it gives people space and an excuse to self-segregate and fraternize to become this perverse incestuous culture. On the other hand, you don’t have to worry about any crime and the entire area is carefully constructed to cater to your tastes and sensibilities like a real life Disney World. If you are a fit to a particular suburb, it is a great compromise.
Not all suburbs are the same though. Some are just urban areas with houses that offer small yards and plenty of poor people. Others have estates with livestock. Like I said, most white people don’t dislike suburbs in general, they just feel a little guilty about not wanting to live in the nitty-gritty of a city proper and romanticize parts of that ideal (that few people that live in cities actually do on a regular basis) and regret that they can’t have it all.
Don’t know much about suburbia, am posting to thank MsRobyn profusely for posting this song. It’s fantastic! I think it has now taken the place of The Last Train To Clarksville as my favorite Monkees song.
Madam, I am in your debt. If there’s anything I can do for you, just ask.
Definitely the HOAs.
And the people who are so damn scared that their little darlings are going to be kidnapped on their way to school, so they drive them for 1/4 mile in an SUV. Of course, they might need to do that because there are no sidewalks.
Lack of trees. Sterile monoculture lawns. The stench of chemicals from the lawn services. People who mow the lawns or use leaf blowers at 8 a.m. on a Saturday.
No public transport. No nearby jobs. No maintenance of streets because someone would have to have the balls to raise the property tax.
Where I do disagree is housing. An older suburb’s houses tend to pick up their owners’ quirks, at least in the absence of HOAs and covenants.
GAAAH!
Did they? They talk about people bbqing, gardening and (gasp) playing musical instruments. They then declare suburbia “status symbol land” based presumably upon Mr Green having a tv in every room. All of these things sound quite exactly like any urban or rural dweller I’ve ever known (except the all-room tv thing… I don’t know anyone like that, do you?) So it brings me back to my original question (though admittedly I’ve dropped any attempt to include rural living in any comparison). City people barbeque, garden, go to a job, own electronics, live in housing that may or may not be the same as their neeighbours, and have various hobbies. One is evil, the other is not…
ETA and now I have Pleasant Valley Sunday stuck in my head… It’s clear to me where the evil lies!
