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[RBH]

I live in the suburbs of Chicago, and I'm currently debating over whether to move to the city (specifically South Loop).

As a relatively young guy who's lived in the suburbs for my entire life, I do want to give city life a shot. The increased cost and noise concerns are giving me pause, but being able to walk to restaurants/bars/trains is something that I'd like to experience at least once in my life, especially while I'm still single.

 

[chadtwo]

I don't mind the suburbs, although it definitely probably helps to be in an inner ring one.

 

[WedgeX]

American suburbs specifically? I moved from the suburbs to a small city and now a large city. Lived in suburbs for about twenty four years. The years in cities have been absolutely the best and I hope not to move back to a suburb unless its dense and connected by mass transit. Suburbs suck for a couple reasons. They're designed specifically around cars so walking anywhere is a pain. Lack of meaningful transit in most. They thrive on "comfortable" feelings. That is, sameness. The same four houses built over and over again. The same street layouts that are designed not to foster neighborhoods but to make walking even harder. Big box stores and chain restaurants are attracted since they are so low in density that interesting, independent places cannot survive nor compete.

And the primary reason that suburbs in the United States suck? They are, without exception, built on a history of segregation. Not everyone moved there for this reason. But its a legacy that we must address. Even if that addressing comes in the form of just moving to cities and suburbs withering unless they are dense and allow desegregation.

 

[The Llama]

The thing with this is the Philly suburbs run the whole gamut. There's parts of Bucks county that feel like the land time forgot. When you get into parts of Montgomery County it's people buying for the zip code. The Main Line has a bunch of nice areas but there's no way in hell to contend with the traffic.

Ended up just off the patco line in Jersey. Lots of decent restaurants and downtown shopping areas, still get 1700 square ft with a 700 sq ft garage on 1/4 acre (none of which are extreme by any means-- just the way I like it) but all for less than a 2 BR rental in say University City and still a shade under 15 minutes from my front door to 8th & Market.

I grew up in one of the Montco suburbs just outside the city, and I agree generally, but it's just the suburban lifestyle that I'm so over. All the driving, malls, chain restaurants...bleh. It wasn't bad, I guess, growing up in that environment, but I never really want to return. I'm fortunate enough to own a place in the city that's appreciated a bit, though, so I have some flexibility going forward.

I live in the suburbs of Chicago, and I'm currently debating over whether to move to the city (specifically South Loop).

As a relatively young guy who's lived in the suburbs for my entire life, I do want to give city life a shot. The increased cost and noise concerns are giving me pause, but being able to walk to restaurants/bars/trains is something that I'd like to experience at least once in my life, especially while I'm still single.

Honestly, if you're interested, give it a go now. This sounds like the right time in your life to do it. If you decide you hate it you can always move back, anyway.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

American suburbs specifically? I moved from the suburbs to a small city and now a large city. Lived in suburbs for about twenty four years. The years in cities have been absolutely the best and I hope not to move back to a suburb unless its dense and connected by mass transit. Suburbs suck for a couple reasons. They're designed specifically around cars so walking anywhere is a pain. Lack of meaningful transit in most. They thrive on "comfortable" feelings. That is, sameness. The same four houses built over and over again. The same street layouts that are designed not to foster neighborhoods but to make walking even harder. Big box stores and chain restaurants are attracted since they are so low in density that interesting, independent places cannot survive nor compete.

And the primary reason that suburbs in the United States such? They are, without exception, built on a history of segregation. Not everyone moved there for this reason. But its a legacy that we must address. Even if that addressing comes in the form of just moving to cities and suburbs withering unless they are dense and allow desegregation.

Humans didn't evolve to be packed like sardines into a city. Sub-urban loving is the best for sanity.

 

[hokahey]

Just closed on a 6 bedroom just south of St. Louis. Close enough to enjoy all that STl has to offer, far enough away to have a large lot.

 

[WedgeX]

Humans didn't evolve to be packed like sardines into a city. Sub-urban loving is the best for sanity.

Social science disagrees.

 

[Gallbaro]

People forget to mention that the suburbs are the most subsidized form of housing in the country and also one person is significantly more dealt for the planet than a city or rural resident.

 

[Schattenjäger]

It all depends on what you at in your life

Also there a plenty of dope suburbs with cool restaurants - the people eh though

Also there many gentrified city areas suck and were better before the gentrification

 

[Maoyama]

Im 27 and life is just hitting me like a mother fucker with respects to suburbs life and shit...

I can totally remember the feeling of hating going to the beach and having nothing to do but lay on the sand and swim around or going with my parents hiking and camping. I am living in a city right now and really enjoying it, but I am also starting to see a crack in the shell. Visiting family in the suburbs and just getting there to a house that doesnt have crazy neighbors, not having to deal with subway or traffic, knowing that you can just come home and "relax".

Like, man... im still probably a decade away from actually pulling the move, but I can see the seeds of this shit being planted.

 

[E92 M3]

I've always preferred suburbs. Can't stand being in the city for too long.

Every car can have a garage space, packages can be delivered without worry, everything within 15-20 minutes of driving, no crazy neighbors and lots of beautiful greenery.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Going to the beach and having nothing to do but relax on the water sounds amazing.



I live in a under-10k "city" and I have to go Philly every three months for business and I hate everything about it except for the museums.

 

[mhayes86]

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.

I actually live in Manassas and commute to Fairfax for work. The benefit to this area vs the suburb I lived in back in Maryland is that I don't have to drive far to get anywhere here. The problem with NOVA (aside from traffic) are the prices. Rent in Manassas is hitting $1200, and town houses for around $400k, and it's one if the cheaper areas.

I love visiting cities, but I don't think I could live in one due to the trash, noise, and people. I'll take a quieter country or suburban area, and drive a bit further to get to places.

You also said that you do software development and sysadmin work. There's tons of tech jobs around Maryland, DC, and NOVA, so you'll have options to relocate.

 

[matt05891]

I prefer suburbia to city but hate rural. It's all up to the individual.

So the answer isn't the suburbs that suck it's that it's not for you.

 

[Crayolan]

I grew up in a suburb, I like that they're quieter, safer, and there aren't people everywhere. School was only like a 15 minute walk away too.

It's true that there's not much to do, but where I lived it was only a 45 minute drive to NYC so it didn't matter, it was no trouble to make day trips into the city on weekends.

It does suck that you have to drive pretty much everywhere though.

 

[matt360]

Doesn't it all depend on where exactly the suburb is located? Some of them are extremely close to major cities and have great and easy access. I'd rather live in one of those suburbs than in a very rural area. I'm a city boy through and through, but I do see the appeal of suburbs now that I have a son. I'm in a pretty urban area now, and I enjoy the convenience of being near all the action, but I really wish I had a bigger place with more space for my son to play. Our apartment is really small but at least we have a public park behind our building.

 

[jerry113]

Because they're the worst of both worlds. Rural + City but none of the privacy and scenery of the rural and none of the convenience and tight-knitedness of the city.

 

[brianjones]

complaining about living comfortably wow

 

[Ultima_5]

i live in KC and most of the city is suburbs. i like it well enough

 

[distantmantra]

There are tons of negatives with living directly in a city center. Sky high cost of living for tiny amounts of space,

I'm in Seattle, and yes our housing is expensive in comparison, but I do have a 1,800 square foot house in a great neighborhood with awesome walkability to shops, bars, theaters, restaurants, etc.

noise

Not really.

much dirtier(on average)

Nah.

having to deal with tourists

The tourists only go downtown.

relative lack of green spaces.

There are parks and green spaces everywhere.

I also see lots of people saying cities aren't for kids. My daughter is five and living in the city is all she knows. It's pretty great.

 

[Kalamari]

Small towns kick ass, people are so much more genuine, city dwellers live in a bubble.

 

[Zoloft Sonic]

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.

Amazing. I find Vancouver by far the worst city I've lived in. Small, wet, zero culture, and so expensive (ie housing) it's an international embarassment. On the plus side, the DTES looks like a real-life zombie movie, and I've seen my first corpses in the street ever here.

My wife and I are moving back to Toronto. :/

 

[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

I grew up in the middle of nowhere (not even a gas station within 20 minutes of driving), so suburbs give me all the creature comforts I always wanted as a kid without the claustrophobia of living in the city.

I'm in a place where right now it's a 20-30 minute drive to downtown in one direction and 20 minutes to the country in the other and it's perfect. I have a stupidly big yard for my kids which they love and great schools near me. I've never felt the need for constant excitement or social engagement though, so this works out great for me.

People need to stop assuming there's absolutes to these things. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[vern]

I hate suburbia. Visiting home puts a drain on my soul. I feel so fucking trapped.

If I can't go across the street and get a slice of pizza at 3 AM, what the fuck am I doing with my life?

Pretty much this. I miss my parents but I can't stand to go home for more than a week or two max, once or twice per year. Going to the suburbs and sitting around watching TV, needing a car to drive to anywhere (and the only thing anywhere being a strip mall) sucks.

I love living in a city and having everything right outside my front door at all hours of the day.

Small towns kick ass, people are so much more genuine, city dwellers live in a bubble.

To me this is insanity... when I've lived in suburbs the daily cycle is like this: Live in a detached home with a fence around it (don't know your neighbors), don't even go outside to get in your car (thanks to the attached garage), drive to work in your car by yourself, eat lunch at some random chain restaurant, drive back home alone in your car, park in your garage, go inside private detached home... seems a lot more like a bubble to me.

In the city I get to live in a community (15 apartment buildings in my enclosed neighborhood with shared public spaces within) I take a bike or subway to work depending on weather (I get to interact with people, even if it's just a nod) , I walk outside my office at lunch to grab food from local restaurants, I go out after work with colleagues or friends because we are all centrally located in a dense environment... there is just a lot more interaction and community in a city than in the average small suburban town from my experience. In fact I feel like there genuine interactions are required in a dense environment, because you can't really escape people and be in your own bubble, it's pretty much impossible.

 

[Zoloft Sonic]

Small towns kick ass, people are so much more genuine, city dwellers live in a bubble.

How can you not love living where your children are more likely to be taught by a sex offender than a minority?

 

[titiklabingapat]

Walking releases endorphines. Suburbs, by its very design, discourages walking. So you might actually be depressed for real.

 

[riotous]

My sweet spot is suburb just on the edge of the major city. Suburban sprawl sucks; but I got tired of living in the heart of the city due to how crowded everything is. Tiny expensive grocery stores get annoying too. I literally chose my house because of it's proximity to an awesome grocery store and it's only 10-15 minutes to near downtown neighborhoods. It might sound silly but I shop for food nearly every day of my life, so it made sense to me.

 

[The Faceless Master]

There are joys to be found in both urban and rural places, but suburbs are stuck in a lifeless middle.

indeed.

 

[Kthulhu]

I personally love rural areas, but I can't stand suburbs. They're this attempt to have the best of both rural and urban living but end up with just the worst of both instead

As long as I have easy access to infrastructure and emergency services I'm good.

 

[Ashby]

My sweet spot is suburb just on the edge of the major city. Suburban sprawl sucks; but I got tired of living in the heart of the city due to how crowded everything is. Tiny expensive grocery stores get annoying too. I literally chose my house because of it's proximity to an awesome grocery store and it's only 10-15 minutes to near downtown neighborhoods. It might sound silly but I shop for food nearly every day of my life, so it made sense to me.

You based your entire living situation around a problem you could have solved with Amazon Fresh

 

[riotous]

You based your entire living situation around a problem you could have solved with Amazon Fresh

I get amazon Fresh; have had it for 7-8 years. The grocery store by my house is superior; and it's more that I chose the exact location based on it not the city or anything. I grew up here.

 

[MotherFan]

It's weird seeing people describe some of these MEGACITY ONE never ending monoliths of housing as "suburbs."

Come out to KC. I'll show you wonderful suburbs with great, affordable housing with amazing public schools, zero crime, and access to everything the country and a city has to offer within 20 minutes in any direction.

As for me, I love the city too and would live there if I was younger. But I'm married and have kids and love to garden, BBQ, need good schools and a safe neighborhood. I basically live in a fucking mansion compared to what I would pay in the city. So nice in fact that I've priced myself out of a lot of jobs because moving anywhere -- even with a massive raise -- would mean a gigantic loss or giving up one of the non-negotiables above.

I second this. Kc has some good suburbs and traffic is not nearly as bad as many other cities. There is alot to do here if you are single, especially in westport or power and light, and if you are married you still have lots to do. We have three pro sports teams (MLB,NFL,MLS), a theme park, and two water parks.

Housing prices are good here too, 10 min outside of downtown in nkc me and my wife rented a house for 1075 a month, and we just moved to Liberty and got a 4 br 2.5 bath 3 car garage for 260k.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Don't live in the suburbs

 

[lachesis]

Well, Suburb is boring for sure - but find more suitable to raise a child.

I've been commuting to NYC every day for past 20 years. I can't say that I love NYC though. Yes, there are a lot of great things, but for me - it's just where I work - and often times, after a long day of stressful job, all I want to do is go somewhere quite and relax.

At this point I am planning to move to somewhere closer to the NYC, if not in NYC - but I would miss tranquility in my life.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

because boring people choose to live there

 

[OG Shaka Zulu]

Nothing beats walking in the city. Its never boring and each neighborhood has its own swag. It's also fun to explore and discover new things. I probably walk around 10 to 15 miles during spring and summer weekends.

 

[Tagyhag]

Depends on where you live. In Los Angeles, the city has some pros but huge cons. Would never want to live or raise a family in it.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Older suburbs have some awful street layouts and tend to have very poor planning, but there are a lot of newer areas being built better and with good amenities nearby.

Where I live we have walking paths that allow direct food access in areas designed to be traffic calmed, bus station 5 min walk away, fully separated bike paths that go for long distances including to grocery stores, some mixed-use buildings (cafe, dentist, pharmacy, etc) nearby plus lots of shops a bit further all near transit / bike path. That plus the usual benefits of a (good) suburb, so it's quiet, there are lots of parks nearby, safe neighborhoods, good schools nearby for my kid, etc etc.

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.

It's 2017, when I need knick knacks I hit up ebay or amazon.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

I love it in suburbia. Close but not too close to the city.

 

[You Are Viewtiful]

They're okay. I like living in my suburb, a lot of nature, lakes, forests, bike trails etc. I agree though that they're too car dependant.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

if you live in the suburbs you're doing it because

1. It's cheaper
2. It's safer
3. You prefer the quiet/calm nature for your living style
4. You enjoy the close knit family culture plus the schools

Same with surrounding smaller town to a bigger city. If given the option to live in the city vs the calm/safe suburbs I'd choose the suburbs. I can always drive to the city.

 

[ironmang]

Lived in a rural area all my life except for college in a major city. Thought both were good but rural is just so much more relaxing. Better access to live music is one of the few things I miss about the city. There are a couple small cities within 20 miles of where I live now that can meet any other needs well enough.

Don't know if I could live in one of those tiny towns no stoplight towns in the Dakotas though.

 

[Days like these...]

I hate suburbs with a passion. Cookie cutter, vapid and vacuous. They seem so devoid of life. The strip malls and chain restaurants are so dull and depressing.

 

[Vilam]

Sounds like a personal problem. I love living in the 'burbs.

 

[Triteon]

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

This is incredibly important. The difference between turn of the 20th century suburbia and the track housing/subdivisions for the 1940's and onward is stark.

I live in the burbs , but is in old suburbia. It has an established town centre with character, its on a trainline and it takes 7 minutes to get to the cbd. Even the land scape is interesting because the land wasnt totally flattened, there are hills and winding roads, the trees have had a chance to grow and there are houses of different styles.

It is nothing like the suburban housing i lived in a decade ago, and for most of my chilhood. Flat cookie cutter houses all off the plan and built by the same developer. Same waterwise plants in every yard. Then you have the sigificant commute to work and entertainment/dining options the best of which was a very crappy indian place or mcdonalds, both of which are too far away to walk to.

I hate modern subdivisions.

 

[flyover]

They don't. I fucking love living in the suburbs

Gotta admit I do, too. But it's got to be a suburb with a real downtown: a grid of several walkable blocks of restaurants, coffee/dessert places, shops, a library, and nice spots to just sit and relax.

That said, if you don't live in walking/biking distance of that downtown, suburban sprawl can be awful. For example, in the Chicago area, someplace like Naperville is the absolute best and worst of what a suburb can be. Subdivisions with residential-only zoning can be isolated and horrible.

 

[Roc]

Suburbs: the new Rural.

Lol. Exactly what I was thinking reading the posts up to yours.

 

[Your Entertainer]

Everything>>>>> rural areas

I feel like they're designed for older, married white people exclusively

 

[immortald3ath]

I prefer suburbs. Nice and quiet. Hate tiny houses in cities with barely any parking or a backyard. Ain't parking my car on street. I'll go hangout in/around downtown but can never live there.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

I figure I'll be ready for the suburbs once I've given up at life and surrender to boring tedium.