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Why do the suburbs suck so much?

S

smisk

Member
I just took a trip to the PNW, spend most of my time in Portland and Seattle and really loved both those cities. Now I'm finding myself depressed at being back in my boring DC suburb. I somewhat feel this way every time I go to an urban area, but even more so this time. It feels boring and lifeless here, and I hate how spread out everything is and that you have to drive almost everywhere.
Is this just a grass is greener thing? I'm sure there's annoying stuff about living in a city too, and there are definitely worse places than NOVA (I'm listening to S-Town right now, glad as hell I'm not in rural Alabama). I do software/sysadmin work so I could probably find a job in one of those places pretty easily, but part of me feels like I'd just be contributing to the gentrification everyone complains about.
Does anyone who's gone from rural/suburban to a city have some words of wisdom?
 
There are tons of negatives with living directly in a city center. Sky high cost of living for tiny amounts of space, noise, much dirtier(on average), having to deal with tourists, relative lack of green spaces.

The big pro to cities is that's where all the action is.
 
Kthulhu said:
Everyone has different living preferences. I know people who love rural areas.
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True, I definitely know some people like to have more space and stuff. But Portland almost felt like the platonic ideal (am I using this term right?) of what I think a city should be like, with it's focus on biking, foot traffic and transit over cars, smart urban planning etc. Plus I like the fact that it's liberal, everyone I talked to was very nice, and the girls there are cute as f.
 
tumblr_o20c8kKdfS1qiaxzfo1_250.gif
 
Cities are great, country is great, suburbs are hell.

Cities= Arts and entertainment, great food, cool architecture
Country= Quiet, privacy, nature, cheap living
Suburbs= Shitty teens, boring architecture, expensive, noisy, poor public transit, 45 minutes to get anywhere...

I had to live in the burbs of Oakville for 3-4 years, worst environment I've lived in.
 
It's mostly to do with children.

Suburbs have sprawl because the idea is you can go there to get a house and a yard, which people think they need for kids. People also tend to become dramatically more boring once they have kids, as the kids now take up all their time and it becomes hard for them to get out of the house.
 
Why don't you just move into D.C. or any of its more urbanized surrounding suburbs (Bethesda, Silver Spring, Arlington, Alexandria)?
 
I HATE living in the city. It's fucking gross, smelly, loud, just buildings and shit everywhere no nature (your block sized park doesn't count), no animals, no silence, everything is old and dirty, way way way too many people. It's awful.
 
you should go back in time and have a conversation with public planning and the social engineers of the post WW2 era. They wanted a paradise for middle class white families to get away from the hectic rigors and stresses of urbanized life. So they made cars easy to afford, made tax paid government infrastructure to create highways and parkways around major urban areas, and started selling the American Dream kit.

Worked really well for 50 years.
 
Eidan said:
Why don't you just move into D.C. or any of its more urbanized surrounding suburbs (Bethesda, Silver Spring, Arlington, Alexandria)?
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Yeah, I'm sure I'd be happier in those places. Main reason I haven't moved is because my job is in Manassas, but to be honest I'm not in love with my job, maybe I'll try to find something new at some point.
 
Switch Back 9 said:
I HATE living in the city. It's fucking gross, smelly, loud, just buildings and shit everywhere no nature (your block sized park doesn't count), no animals, no silence, everything is old and dirty, way way way too many people. It's awful.
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Haha what city are you talking about? 1970's Midtown Manhattan?
 
I live in whats considered a suburban area and its pretty short travel to a major city so it seems okay for me. Suburbs by and large do seem to suck until a certain point in life.
 
Everyone has a different lifestyle they find ideal. Personally, I tend to enjoy residential communities, due to privacy and thr atmosphere, but it has plenty of downsides, most notably the reliance on a car and the lack of cultural amneties. Plus, strip malls which I hate with all my heart. The only type of land development I unequivocally hate.

No land use is perfect, interested to see what the rest of Gaf thinks.
 
Eidan said:
Haha what city are you talking about? 1970's Midtown Manhattan?
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Toronto specifically, but have also lived in Vancouver, Melbourne and Brisbane. Vancouver was the best by far but still falls to some of the same problems.

City life does not agree with me. I don't know how people handle it, let alone actually enjoy it.
 
City Living: SO MANY THINGS I CAN'T AFFORD TO DO BECAUSE THE RENT ON THE SHOEBOX I LIVE IN IS 7 THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH. I WON'T EAT FOR A MONTH SO I CAN AFFORD TO GO SOMEWHERE COOL AFTER WAITING IN TRAFFIC FOR TWO HOURS TO GET THERE. HOPEFULLY I WILL SAVE UP THE 2 MILLION DOLLARS NEEDED TO BUY A SHITTY HOUSE HERE SOMEDAY.

Rural Living: HMM...WHERE ARE WE GOING TO EAT TONIGHT, WE ONLY HAVE TWO OPTIONS: KFC OR MCDONALDS. IT'S OUR ANNIVERSARY SO LETS DRIVE AN HOUR TO GET TO A PLACE THAT HAS A MOVIE THEATER.

People want to talk shit about the suburbs, but it really is the grass is greener. Regardless of where you live you will miss something about where you are not. I think too many people have a fetish for living in the city despite the fact that the actual joys of living in the city are only afforded to people who make much more money than you. I've lived in all three, and I like the suburbs the most. However, if I was big money baller, of course I would love to live in the city.
 
Switch Back 9 said:
Toronto specifically, but have also lived in Vancouver, Melbourne and Brisbane. Vancouver was the best by far but still falls to some of the same problems.

City life does not agree with me. I don't know how people handle it, let alone actually enjoy it.
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Toronto is dirty, what?!?

It's one of the cleanest cities I've ever been to, low crime too.
 
A lot of suburban planning is ridiculously dumb.

Hey, let me drive 10 minutes every time I need some knick-knack. So wasteful and bad for the environment.

If you hate cities, at least college towns are probably a nice compromise between full on detached suburbs and a noisy city.
 
DukeSilverHaze said:
Toronto is dirty, what?!?

It's one of the cleanest cities I've ever been to, low crime too.
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Toronto is dirty as fuck hahaha. Smells awful too.

No argument on the crime thing though, unless I'm in like one of three sketchy neighbourhoods I never feel unsafe.
 
It depends on how young you are. Personally I wouldn't want to live in the cities past my late twenties. They are crowded, and not as safe as living in a rural place. Plus it's much better for raising for children. And if you really don't like living that far away, move somewhere where the major city is only 45 mins to an hour away at most. Personally I prefer the suburbs. Cities are nice, but privacy is just a bit more important to me.
 
And I think its really important to draw a distinction between suburbs and quiet housing in cities. There's usually an immediately periphery ring of development around most city centers that contains neighborhoods that are 99% housing with nice quiet, tree lined streets but that are still on the city's main road system and let kids ride their bikes to the library or take a short bus ride to school. That's the sort of neighborhood I grew up in. Suburbs, to me, means the sort of sub-division communities defined by their lack of access to basically anything without a car
 
North Jersey suburbs are kinda different as once you cross out of the boundaries of your town there's a 50% chance you've entered a city / more urbanized area, so I'm lucky enough to be in a best of both worlds situation.
 
I'm assuming we're talking about the suburbs as towns outside major cities? I've lived the majority of my life in the suburbs about 45 minutes north of San Francisco, where I have quick access to either the city and everything there, or the countryside with tons of open space / hiking / vineyards / whatever.

Maybe it's not for everyone, but I don't find it boring in the slightest.
 
I've lived in both rural areas and cities. Both have their pros and cons and I like them both, but the suburbs? No thanks. It feels like the worst parts of both but without many of the pros. To be clear I mean like outer suburbs. I technically lived in a suburb of a city about 2 miles from the border and it wasn't any different than if I was living on the other side, but quite different from being 5-10 miles in the other direction.

I've spent quite a bit of time staying with people in the suburbs, including a 2-month stretch living with some to help out after a medical thing, and it kind of drives me nuts. Mostly I hate the driving everywhere part. I enjoy driving in rural areas where you aren't dealing with traffic, but traffic, lights, etc. are no fun. I love walking and in the city most things I need are walking distance.

Switch Back 9 said:
I HATE living in the city. It's fucking gross, smelly, loud, just buildings and shit everywhere no nature (your block sized park doesn't count), no animals, no silence, everything is old and dirty, way way way too many people. It's awful.
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Not my neighborhood. I've got a small park across the street and one of the best, biggest urban parks a 10 minute walk away including beautifully kept gardens. Then I've got undeveloped forest with hiking trails in the other direction that I can walk to on weekends. It's a low density neighborhood with lots of great restaurants and local markets where I buy my food.
 
I live in the suburbs and absolutely love it. Hosting large bbqs with 30+ people, having a fire pit and a cigar in the backyard. Stores around me are 5-10 minutes away.

Oh yeah, i do this shit with a kid. You guys just need to find more exciting people.


Kick the can and capture the flag at midnight. Street hockey with little to no cars. Burb life was pretty sweet to me as a kid.
 
I feel the other way around. I prefer the suburbs. They suck for nightlife though, but I could do away with it as long as I owned a house.
 
I don't like city life. I always thought I would because I was raised in suburbs and wanted to get into the busy and lively life of a city. Then I got city and then I got out back into a suburb. Home sweet home. Just too much people, too much noise. I like to take trips into the city but living there again is not desireable for me.
 
As a kid and teenager, the suburbs sucked because I wasn't allowed to go anywhere unless accompanied by an adult. Even when I got my drivers license, I wasn't allowed to drive anywhere on my own. (Let alone have my own car or a job.) I don't know if growing up somewhere with walkable distances or good public transportation would have changed anything.
 
smisk said:
Yeah, I'm sure I'd be happier in those places. Main reason I haven't moved is because my job is in Manassas, but to be honest I'm not in love with my job, maybe I'll try to find something new at some point.
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Well the problem you have right there is Manassas in particular is pretty shitty lol. i.e. you can't judge all suburbs based on Manassas.
 
I always felt like young folks are better off in the city while the suburbs were for settling down. Can't imagine being young and living in the burbs.
 
A synonym for suburb is "bedroom community". Literally, a place where commuters live and sleep. They're designed around the convenience of (car-based) living for families, and not a smidgen more. The youth are an afterthought and largely ignored.

My suburban experience is that anyone between the ages of 13 and 29 is bored out of their minds. I wanted to move to Toronto so bad when I was around 16 or 17.
 
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