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Why Suburbia Sucks

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Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#91

Post by Touche »

humbleMouse wrote: post #70

I am surprised to see all of the pro-suburbia comments here. I enjoyed this article and found it lines up with many of my criticisms of suburbia. The suburbs to me are a soul sucking place that gives me the heebie-jeebies. With that said, my opinion reflects my experience living in Minneapolis. When I visit other cities like Seattle or San Francisco, I am turned off by the ridiculous density and the inability to go t…

The cities in the U.S. where you can walk around are pretty much completely unaffordable to all but the extremely wealthy. My wife and I wanted to move to Boston but couldn't find a house in a decent (walking) neighborhood for under 500k. Of course this would be cheap compared to say San Francisco. Chicago might come the closest to being somewhat affordable in the walkable parts, but I haven't checked recently.

Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#92

Post by ThePhysicist »

A very interesting read about architectural patterns at various scales -from the home itself to the city and agglomoration- is Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language

It contains lots of good examples on why some spaces are livable and why others are not. The book itself is a bit ideological but most of the described patterns are really great and give you a good understanding of why e.g. rural Italian or French villages have this nice vibe to them.

Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#93

Post by ZenoArrow »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #58

I can't possibly roll my eyes hard enough. But if the author thinks suburbia is bad I'd hate to hear what he'd say about my rural upbringing. Meanwhile I'd consider an urban upbringing the worst option. Give me rural America for kids any day of the week. Suburbia works in a pinch. But dense urban? Urgh, no thank you.

I don't think the same criticisms of suburbia apply to rural areas. The main issue I personally have with suburbia can be summed up in one word; boredom. Nothing interesting to see, not much that's interesting to do. Rural life on the other hand is far better, the act of living rurally is engaging, and the sights and sounds of nature are far more interesting than the sights of identikit housing and the muffled sounds of suburbia.

I suspect you may dislike dense urban if you're associating it with places that are run down and without good city planning. Good city planning definitely includes parks and other open spaces, so it's not some monotonous concrete jungle.

Let me put it to you like this, if you lived in Venice, what do you think you would dislike about it?

Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#94

Post by humbleMouse »

Touche wrote: post #91
humbleMouse wrote: post #70

I am surprised to see all of the pro-suburbia comments here. I enjoyed this article and found it lines up with many of my criticisms of suburbia. The suburbs to me are a soul sucking place that gives me the heebie-jeebies. With that said, my opinion reflects my experience living in Minneapolis. When I visit other cities like Seattle or San Francisco, I am turned off by the ridiculous density and the inability to go t…

The cities in the U.S. where you can walk around are pretty much completely unaffordable to all but the extremely wealthy. My wife and I wanted to move to Boston but couldn't find a house in a decent (walking) neighborhood for under 500k. Of course this would be cheap compared to say San Francisco. Chicago might come the closest to being somewhat affordable in the walkable parts, but I haven't checked recently.

Come visit uptown Minneapolis some time. It is a vibrant place with thrift stores, co-ops, and delicious restaurants with fresh food and cheap happy hours. You can rent a studio/1BR for as low as $600. Houses can be had for as low as 100k.

I currently rent a 1br with a huge deck and skyline view of Downtown for $900. I can walk to the co-op and coffee shops, don't need a car for anything except getting to my silly suburban programming job in the winter.

Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#95

Post by lunchTime42 »

Completely unrelated, but maybe not. If the problm of the suburb traffic inspired the idea of the selfdriving car, so you can be productive while beeing stuck in traffic- why are there no group-commuters, that take a larger vehicle, so everyone can work ond the way, except for one driver, which can cycle?

Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#96

Post by SN76477 »

increment_i wrote: post #18

Suburbia exists because people want a quiet, relatively safe place for their kids to grow up. I didn't realize this until I had children myself. I remember reaching my teenage years and cursing the dull, boring, culturally bankrupt suburbian neighborhood I grew up in. I left the minute it became feasible. Fast forward to now, and I'm right back in the 'burbs, in a house where my kids have access to safe streets, park…

This exactly... my friends live in the city and make the same amount of money as me. Pay 50% more for a house and pay for private school, an additional 20K a year.

Just to be closer to some nice restaurants? No thanks. my suburban life is quite and close to starbucks, Im satisfied.

Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#97

Post by caoilte »

fiatmoney wrote: post #44

Suburbia allows you to ensure that your neighbors are able to afford to buy, rather than rent, a minimum quantity of land & construction (and usually therefore have a large amount of their net worth locked up in the value of that property), that they can afford transportation to and from wherever the nearest commercial center is, tends to limit population flows, and insulates the neighborhood from anyone who doesn't…

That's a really long-winded way of saying redlining ;-).

Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#98

Post by Touche »

humbleMouse wrote: post #94
Touche wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cities in the U.S. where you can walk around are pretty much completely unaffordable to all but the extremely wealthy. My wife and I wanted to move to Boston but couldn't find a house in a decent (walking) neighborhood for under 500k. Of course this would be cheap compared to say San Francisco. Chicago might come the closest to being somewhat affordable in the walkable parts, but I haven't checked recently.

Come visit uptown Minneapolis some time. It is a vibrant place with thrift stores, co-ops, and delicious restaurants with fresh food and cheap happy hours. You can rent a studio/1BR for as low as $600. Houses can be had for as low as 100k. I currently rent a 1br with a huge deck and skyline view of Downtown for $900. I can walk to the co-op and coffee shops, don't need a car for anything except getting to my silly su…

In the walkable parts of the city? I'm surprised, when I last visited Minneapolis I stayed at a 1br condo that cost (at least) 400k and was maybe 400 sqft.

Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#99

Post by cowsandmilk »

kingkawn wrote: post #63
rayiner wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt the suburbs are actually safer. I once did the math. If you add up shooting deaths and driving deaths, the rich suburb where I grew up is about as risky as one of the north side Chicago neighborhoods. And of course upper middle class white teens are going to be at lower than average risk of getting shot in the city, but at higher than average risk of wrapping themselves around a tree in the suburbs. As for sa…

Lol at calling the north side risky

the point is that the same demographics of middle class and wealthy people in the city are just as safe as they are in the suburbs. That is the north side vs. Chicago suburbs.

Nothing about the south side of Chicago being "risky" is an inherent result of being in a city.

Re: Why Suburbia Sucks

#100

Post by gaur »

increment_i wrote: post #18

Suburbia exists because people want a quiet, relatively safe place for their kids to grow up. I didn't realize this until I had children myself. I remember reaching my teenage years and cursing the dull, boring, culturally bankrupt suburbian neighborhood I grew up in. I left the minute it became feasible. Fast forward to now, and I'm right back in the 'burbs, in a house where my kids have access to safe streets, park…

> I hope they can safely reach the age where they can go off and experience the adventure of the big cities

Conversely, I feel grateful that my parents chose to raise me in a dense urban area, instead of moving out to some suburban hellhole in an attempt to give me a bubble-wrapped existence.

I mostly took care of my own transportation to and from public school from the age of 10 onward (walking or public transit), and was never robbed, assaulted, kidnapped, conscripted into a gang, or whatever it is that suburbanites imagine happens to children in urban environments. I'm not a drug addict, I don't have a criminal record, and I'm gainfully employed.

I would never, ever raise a child in a suburb unless I had to for financial reasons.

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