For one, just the community. We live in a row-house and I know probably 40 people within a block of me by first name. I see them when I’m getting coffee or a beer.
I invite them to my porch for a drink. I’ll walk up and sit on their porch if they’re outside.
We get each other’s paper, pick up each other’s mail, water each other’s plants.
I don’t get the sense that that kind of neighborly-ness exists in the 'Burbs.
Not to mention just being able to stroll to a bar, let your dog play with 20 other dogs every day, and when someone asks you where you’re from you say, “Baltimore” and you don’t mean “Towson”.
Furthermore, I’ve never heard a gun shot, paid $5.00 for coffee, and when I pay a few bucks extra to one of the “bohemian” artesans in the city, the profits aren’t shipped back to fuckin’ Sweden.
I think he’s saying that us city dwellers don’t live in the burbs just to be contrary and pseudo-sophisticated.
Of course he’s just rationalizing his own world of “Olive Gardens” and “Ikeas”. He claims to have lived in a city, but it sure doesn’t sound like it if he thinks it’s all clubbin’ and 5 dollar cofffee. That sounds more like the take of someone visiting a city from the 'burbs.
I’ve lived in a couple of cities of 1 million plus metropolitan population (considerably more for one of them, and “lived in the city” as in downtown in the heart of the city, not in a suburb that is called “the city” because it happens to be slightly older than the even more outer ring suburbs).
I have never taken advantage of the clubbing and 5 dollar coffee. However, that is about the only explanation I seem to get from people who enjoy the city (witness this thread). Generalizations about how there is always something going on or something to do, which then typically devolves to a discussion about bars and drinking coffee at Central Perk with one’s friends, and how one can stumble drunk into a Vietnamese restaurant that’s open at 4 in the morning.
Someone recently posted about not wanting to need cars to get everywhere. I understand that to some degree, though from my experience of the city, while you can pick up something things without using a car, you either need to use public transportation or get pretty badly price gouged on what you are buying. I think I am being generous here anyway, as I’ve never found a spot that has literally everything I need within walking distance.
That’s because what you quoted from me admittedly wasn’t the best written sentence I’ve ever put together.
The point was that it seems as though a lot of “city lovers” simply enjoy being contrary - i.e. It’s pretty clear to a ton of people that there is a great deal of convenience and value in owning a new home that is close enough to the city that you can reap its advantages without suffering the disadvantages of living in the city, yet city lovers act not just as if they disagree with the large body of people who understand the value of the suburbs, but act as if people who love the suburbs are positively nuts and as if the suburbs are some horrible ring of hell. To me, that reeks a bit of being a “cool” contrarian (everyone else gets it, but I’ve got the secret knowledge that they are all wrong).
Although if I may poke a little hole in your theory, the burbs are not so practical for us single people. I just can’t afford to buy an entire house, and I’m relatively unsettled not having kids or anything so I’m not sure I’m ready to put those roots down just yet. So for a single person, the city is usually a better option in terms of renting and social life. Just a thought. also the cup of coffee I bought this morning cost $1.39, including tax.
The thing is, Sly, the reasons you give are the reasons people hate the burb’s, or simply your reasons for not liking the city.
Look at this post you made. . .
Near to major retail establishments. – I dont’ WANT to be near them. And, I’d rather be closer to interesting, locally owned, retail establishments, galleries, chess clubs, skateboard shops, ethnic grocery stores. You name it. And the once-a-month trip to the Home Depot takes just as long for me to get to as most 'burbies.
Everything is clean and the buildings aren’t falling apart. – Well I’d just say “everything is new and doesn’t have character.” My neighborhood was built in 1920. Nothing is falling apart, and it’s beautiful. Let’s not equate the “city” with the “ghetto”.
You don’t hear gunfire in the middle of the night. – Well, neither do I. I never have. This is, again, equating the city with its worst aspects. The bad parts of Baltimore city affect my daily life about as much as the bad parts of Oakland, CA do.
You live close enough to the city to enjoy a play – sure you do, but close enough to get some authentic ethic food 5 minutes from your house, good bar food, good diner – people in the city do these things. We all have our own central perk, and we all like it.
You love the everyday, vanilla stability. – yeah, you like it boring. Really, 'nuff said.
Basically, us city dwellers love city life. You chose the 'burbs because it ISN’T city life. There’s still nothing to love about it.
Houses are not necessarily cheaper or bigger (a lot of people I know live in shitty-ass town houses for $300K.)
I live in a neighborhood with teachers, lawyers, doctors, artists, kids, old people, conservatives, liberals. We have alley parties. Alley “film festivals”. Porch parties. Spontaneous get-togethers when big storms and power outages hit.
I don’t know if your 'burbs have that. The ones I know don’t.
I said convenience alone- I don’t go to a particular dry cleaner, video store, bank etc, just because it happens to be the most convenient. Because there really is not a big difference in convenience- if I don’t like Rite-Aid, there’s a CVS a block away and a Duane Reade two blocks in the other direction and a Rockbottom and an Eckerd and five or six independent drugstores , all within a fifteen minute walk from my house.
Yeah let me just add that people always complain about stuff like this NYC. That’s because they are usually Bridge & Tunnel folks who come from 20 miles away to drink at some club they saw on Sex in the City or some such nonsense. Friend from the suburbs holding a birthday in the city? Oh big surprise! They rented out McFaddens on 42nd!
In my neighborhood, I can drink at a dozen NYU bars that hold $2 beer specials every night until 11. Starbucks costs the same as it does anywhere else in the country. There are plenty of reasonible restaurants…I don’t eat at Blue Water Grill or Angelo & Maxi’s Steakhouse every night.
And I have never heard a gunshot…nothing but silent stabings and beatings.
Certainly, you can’t find everything you need within walking distance at a good price. But you can find everything without a car- there is public transportation. And in my case, it doesn’t even have all that much to do with shopping- after all, I have a car and can drive to whatever store I choose . But my too-young- to- drive kids can go shopping, to the movies or a friend’s house without needing a ride , and my elderly relatives who stayed in the city can still run daily errands and get to the doctor, either by walking or public transportation, even though they are unable to drive. Every single time there’s a thread about elderly drivers who shouldn’t drive, someone brings up the points that it is impossible to function without a car, and that people continue to drive when they shouldn’t because they neither want to leave the place where they raised their family nor give up their independence. I don’t want ever want to be in that position. And in the city I won’t.
Well gosh, it looks as if we’re fortunate, in America at least, to be able to choose to live in the city, the suburbs, a small town, or the countryside, based on what we prefer. Different people prefer living in different locations, for different reasons. What may make one person happy at a given stage of his life is not the right answer for another person. Now run along!
You talking about Hudson, WI? If you are I am absolutely stumped by how fast it grew. Having been there 5 years ago and just recently driving thru, it’s like night and day.
I grew up smack in the middle of the tough part of a big city. It was a great place to be a kid/teen/young adult.
Then life took its curious twists and turns. Now I’m 2 miles from a paved road or the nearest neighbor. The road I live on ends at my house.
From my house it’s eight miles to a gas station, 12 miles to a traffic light and 35 miles to a shopping mall or a Starbucks.
I liked the city in my earlier years, and I like living in the forest now. It does require a certain amount of self-reliance, such as having an operating electric generator for when the electric power is out for extended periods of time. (24 days is the record for that, after hurricane Opal)
You need a truck and guns and dogs and stuff, but all-in-all, I like it out here.
Besides, if things get too quiet for me I can always go to Mobile* or Nashville* or New Orleans* and hang out for a few days.
The suburbs, I can’t imagine!
Yeah, I know Atlanta, Birmingham and Montgomery are closer, but those towns got no soul! Nashville, New Orleans and Mobile are my kind of places.
There is one other house on our road. It’s a vacation home, we are the only full time residents. I can’t see any other houses from my house. In fact, my wife and I bought the acre next store to prevent it from being built on.
We are ½ mile from pavement, and 15 miles from a stop light or gas station. There is a small town about 4 miles away, It has 2 bars and a small Mom and Pop store.
Groceries are 15 miles away, big box retail 25 miles. Denver is 100 miles (closest airport).
John is right in that you need to be pretty self reliant. Winters are very harsh. I plow my drive and sometimes my road. We don’t have any trash pick up and there is no mail delivery. My Internet and TV comes via satellite. Until recently, I heated with wood.
The scenery is absolutely beautiful. We have two 14,000 mountains right out are front door. Their peaks are about 2 miles away as the crow flies.
I really can’t say I miss anything from the ‘city’. And much prefer where we live.
Considering the flawless spelling and grammar in your post, I feel guilty pointing this out to you, but its kinda like telling someone their fly is down. Someone’s gotta do it.
I guess I’m in a minority here, but I hate cities. I hate the suburbs almost as much. The more rural the better for me.
We currently live in a rural part of Ohio on 15 acres of land. In a log house. The driveway is over 1000 ft. long, and only the roof of our house can be seen from the road. Our nearest neighbor cannot be seen from our house. I love it.
If I were a multimillionaire I’d buy 3000 acres of Montana forest and live in the middle of it. With the nearest neighbor over a mile away. That would be heaven.
