Right. I’d be at ease in a small town, as long as a major Teaching Hospital is within 20 minutes’ ride and First Responder reaction time to a 911 call is <10 minutes to get to me, and we have a stop for a rail line with trains running several times a day plonks me right in the middle of a city with more cultural/commercial variety (with a stop at the airport, even better).
I like both a lot, but I prefer urban. It’s closer to everything (stores, hospitals, restaurants, concerts), plus I don’t drive, so that would be a problem in a rural area.
I prefer Urban. I like the anonymity and privacy of city life. I like that I can go to a bar and not hear about it at work. I like having the option of being able to eat out at different restaurants and not repeating myself. I like being able to visit a museum on a whim without much planning. I like being able to go out on foot and have dinner, and not worry about having a drink and being over the limit.
Plus being in the city, means I have a shorter commute than most people in the suburbs, and I am centrally located so I can even get to the suburbs without too much hassle.
At least here in Peru, urban all the way.
Urban 100%. I hate the country and am not sure why anyone likes it. There’s nothing there. Nothing to go and see and do. You have to drive miles to a grocery store. There’s bugs.
I prefer my semi-subarban lifestyle, or living in a small city. I would never move out into the countryside.
I like both. If I had unlimited funds I’d have both a downtown condo and a waterfront home in the middle of nowhere. Since I don’t, I’ll settle for the latter.
Urban. Specifically New York City. It’s one of the few cities where you don’t need a car at all because everything is in walking distance.
Having grown up in the suburbs, there is something about them that I can’t stand. To me it’s like a bunch of people whose sole ambition in life is to land some sort of steady, mediocre job so they can be just like everyone else they know.
Wow. This past weekend we took the horses out for a trail ride. We worked on landscaping, transplanting a few shrubs to more desirable locations. I got out the chainsaw and took down an old, decrepit apple tree and stored the wood for next winter fireplace fires.
Then on Sunday I installed a wood duck nest box by our pond. I ignited the “burn pile” of old twigs/branches/grasses. Watched the bird-feeders for a while, then took the dogs for a hike and swim. Drank a case of beer.
And yes, at some point I drove 5 miles to get groceries.
I prefer rural but work requires an urban center nearby, the larger the better.
I had a good thing going a couple years ago but lost it. Someday I’ll be back to a fairly rural life coupled with my urban job.
I grew up in an extremely rural setting and then in a suburb immediately outside of Boston. In terms of lifestyle I’ve had the opportunity to do everything from super rural (where I grew up in Canada) to college towns (Urbana-Champaign and Ann Arbor) to downtown urban (Montreal, Chicago, Manhattan) to a periphery city (Pasadena).
My preference is for an immediate ring suburb/city periphery situation where public transport into the city isn’t much of a hassle (like when I lived in Pasadena) or a true urban situation. However, as I grow, older living with a reasonable amount of space is of priority to me, so I’m not focused on living in Manhattan-which is the only place where I’d say that I never want to be truly living in the the city itself. I did it and it wasn’t for me.
I also regret that I didn’t move to downtown L.A. when I had the chance, but when I moved there in 2005 it was really still sketchy outside of business hours and they hadn’t opened the supermarket and all the gyms etc., but all said and done Pasadena was a pretty nice place to eke out half a decade.
Urban, by a big long shot. I don’t even like living in a house in the city. I want an apartment at least six stories up.
Rural. When I look out my window I only want to see natural landscape.
Come and join us! I live in a rural area about six miles from Bath. Thriving pub in the village, great community spirit, beautiful country walks all around and above all peace and quiet.
Bath is a ten minute drive (well ten minutes to the outskirts, another twenty to get into the city and find somewhere to park - Bath traffic is a nightmare) but for us it’s a perfect combination of rural life with city attractions nearby.
Urban - but that means a walkable suburb (not a “The 'burbs” US-style commuter suburb, just a suburb), lots of green space just up the road…and then also all the restaurants, theatres, museums, galleries, markets, nightclubs, rock concerts, public transport, etc…
Urban. Sometimes Manhattan feels too small for us, actually. But we are finding that while we love living in the city we don’t love raising a baby here so we are moving to a suburb elsewhere that keeps us as close to a big city as possible while still allowing for great schools and a safe environment for our child.
Urban. I miss it so much.
I lived in SF/Oakland for about three years and I loved every minute of it. Since then I’ve moved back to Portland, ME. Now, Portland is the biggest city in the state, but it can hardly be called urban. I managed to find an apartment as close to downtown as possible, so I could still pretend I lived in a big city – if I squinted just right and managed to sniff just the right odors – but it’s not the same.
And now I’ve bought a house 30 minutes north of Portland in what is ostensibly a city – but it isn’t. It’s as suburban as you can get … which is one of the reasons why I find myself suffering from just about daily panic attacks over my decision to buy the friggin’ house in the first place.
When I retire (if I make it that long) – fuck Florida, I’m going back to San Francisco.
That said … rural, as in, cows, chickens, shit-houses, no 7-11 within 50 miles? Not on your life!
Urban, I grew up in the suburbs and what I really hated about it was how insular everything felt. I like the sense of community we have in my little piece of the city: I talk baseball with the woman who owns the hardware store where I shop, I know the couple who own the butcher shop where we get bacon and I know my neighbors. Growing up, the city was this big scary thing and I thought it would be an unfriendly place, but what I like about cities is that people are forced to get along with one another because they’re in such close proximity.
Green Acres is the place to be.
Farm livin’ is the life for me.
Growing up, I lived in suburbia, or on the edge of it, depending on the city. In Evansville, IN, our subdivision was cut out of, and surrounded by farmland. Still is today.
I spent time every summer with relatives on their farms in south Georgia doing farm-kid chores with my cousins, and traveling the country with my grandparents.
While I love strolling SFO looking for little restaurant, or exploring NYC, being in the country far away from traffic, people, noise, and crime is so much more relaxing.
I’d rather drive a bit and get supplies and go home, than live in Manhattan and have to drive 4 hours to get to some “country”.
Urban. Can’t stand the villages.
I put undecided because I like both. I love walking around NYC. Every time I’m there I wish that some part of my life had been different and I could have lived in Manhatten for at least a few years.
But I also loved living in the country. Until I lost the house due to divorce we lived on 3 acres in western NJ and I could see cows and corn from my deck. But being NJ I still wasn’t that far from civilization. It was very peaceful. Except for the ex-wife.