# Why the hatred for the suburbs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hatred-for-the-suburbs/491488>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 31, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hatred-for-the-suburbs/491488 "2009-03-31T20:09:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 13

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hatred-for-the-suburbs/491488/241 "2009-04-12T00:47:08Z")

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[Here is an interesting article I just came across.](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime)

Basically, the gist is that the growing popularity of urban living (especially amoung the affluent) combined with the housing crisis, increasing energy costs and the growing perception of the suburbs as souless, despair, and moral decay is creating a growing shift in American living patterns. The nightmare scenario is that great swaths of suburbia, especially those areas on the outskirts far from public transportation and services, plagued by foreclosures and abandonment will become attractive locations for gangs and drugs. Eventually turning many of these housing developments of cheaply made McMansions into a wasteland of crime and poverty.

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**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hatred-for-the-suburbs/491488/242 "2009-04-12T02:34:50Z")

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> [@Caffeine.addict](#):
>
> From the article in my last post  
> There was really nothing there before. If you keep building neighborhoods that feed on to a main street, naturally you are going to get heavy traffic, especially, if short local trips must be accomplished via that main street. There was no issue with the emergency vehicles prior to these neighborhoods being built, because the area was mostly farms and generally undeveloped. Prince William had explosive growth from the mid 90s to around 2005. Because of that growth, the traffic has grown exponentially.
> 
> I’m not sure where you live, but heavy traffic in this area is the norm. Strangely enough, it gets worse in the suburbs where traffic is all fed onto fewer streets.
> 
> To get back to the original point, the Commonwealth hasn’t prohibited them, they have just said that they won’t be responsible for maintaining them if built.

I used to live in Northern Virginia (Fairfax County) and you couldn’t pay me to live there again. People talk about traffic in Cincinnati..it is to laugh. Oh geez, delayed 15 minutes on your commute, what a shame!

It takes a Centreville, VA commuter an hour to go 20 miles, at _best_. Especially on 395 or 95. At _best_. It’s usually more. Oh, and fuck the Woodrow Wilson bridge while I’m at it.

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