Poll of the Day > Your thoughts on the suburbs? for everyday living

(+) Yeah! (+)

What are your thoughts?

I live in them everyday, sooo....











I've lived pretty much my entire life (nearly 50 years) almost exclusively in the suburbs. I cannot even mentally process the idea of ever wanting to live in a city or in a rural area.

It's the perfect middle ground between cities and rural areas, you aren't cramped in apartments and you still have all the benefits of a city

Damn_Underscore posted...

What are your thoughts?

You first

Depends on the suburb. Far, far too may suburbs effectively strand anyone that doesn't want to or can't drive, and as a consequence you end up dealing with significant amounts of traffic trying to get anywhere from them because everyone has to drive. A suburb designed with higher density and mixed use properties in mind, however, can be fine, though that's pretty rare in an America that's deep throated car/oil industry propaganda so far that it's coming out the other end.

'Neutral'

but leaning to dislike. Most of the time (suburb) houses are uncomfortably close. This is just stuff you realize as a courier having to deliver stuff to a gated community.

Rural or nothing. Bunched up in the city has its drawbacks as well.

It's good for me. I have enough land and space from my neighbors to keep myself from becoming a homicidal maniac, while at the same time I am not so isolated from civilization that I can't walk or drive a scooter to the store for small trips, or drive my car a few minutes if I am picking up a lot of stuff. Given that I work from home I usually only put about 3000 miles a year on my car, and that is with taking a 1000 mile road trip every year.

Dislike bordering on hate, but I realize that the grass is probably greener (or rather than concrete is always grayer?) with city living. For example, I bet the element of spontaneous interaction that urbanists talk about is probably overblown, but I still think it'd be nice to be able to walk out of my home and almost immediately be amongst a bunch of people. The suburbs don't really help for someone who lives alone like me and would like more social interaction but isn't gifted at it. Everything needs to be so planned and deliberate and then in the end there aren't really many cool places to go and when you do you have to think about things like parking and/or transportation. I really would like having the option to walk a few blocks to one of many bars spontaneously.

I hate yardwork, granted there are suburban apartments and townhomes, but yards aren't really a thing at all in the truly urban parts of a city. I guess that was my tradeoff for not sharing walls with someone, but I'm not sure it would be worth it alone, and then I just get woken up by the sounds of people idling trucks anyway.

Most of your options for dining are overpriced chain restaurants, and then when you drive to a different part of town it's more or less the same shitty restaurants in a more or less identical strip mall.

Ive lived rural, small town, suburbs, then rural.

Youll hear more shooting in a rural area than anywhere else. Everything they say about living in a small town is 100% fact.

I couldn't have goats in the suburbs, so no thanks.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3b1de321.jpg

Im a city boy. Ill consider not living in a city for part of my retirement, but otherwise, I wouldnt want to live anywhere else.

Even then, when I talk about moving out of the city for retirement, Im just talking about getting a beach villa in Hoi An, so its not exactly quiet.

They're fine when they're essentially just smaller cities on the outskirts of the bigger main cities (Still part of the official Metropolitan area). It's when they're in the middle of nowhere with identical houses that I hate. Are they worst places to live? No. But it's aesthetically soul-crushing and completely car dependent. Not to mentioned terrible for cities.

I prefer living in bigger cities. While I still have a car, I love my walkable neighborhood.

I've lived in the suburbs, the city, and what I call 'subrural'. Like it was a farmy town but we were like twenty minutes from target not an hour.

The city has been my favorite. The country has gotten too maga. I like the woods and seeing the stars and stuff but can't stand the culture not the over zealous police. That's also a problem in the suburbs and also so is nebby neighbors but at least you're close to lots of stuff.

I live in the city now and I'm close to so many good restaurants. Gas stations and grocery stores are pretty close. I'm like a fifteen minute drive to three pro sports arenas and multiple concert venues. The people are more liberal. But I'm also close enough to the highways and suburbs so I can get out when needed as well. I would not be happy living in a city like Manhattan or LA. I would need to be in a mid sized city to be happiest.

I've always lived rural, but I'd probably be okay with the outer suburbs too.

BADoglick posted...

I've lived in the suburbs, the city, and what I call 'subrural'. Like it was a farmy town but we were like twenty minutes from target not an hour.

What I always used to call "subrural" was when I was in Virginia (around Fredericksburg, I think?), and you could tell you were in what they thought were suburbs, but the houses were all just a little bit too far apart, and there was just too much empty space everywhere, and it just sort of subconsciously ate at the back of my mind like I was a character in a Lovecraft story starting to notice the cracks in the universe where the Great Old Ones were leaking through.

It clearly wasn't urban enough to be suburban but also not rural enough to be rural, and my brain just didn't know how to process it.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

What I always used to call "subrural" was when I was in Virginia (around Fredericksburg, I think?), and you could tell you were in what they thought were suburbs, but the houses were all just a little bit too far apart, and there was just too much empty space everywhere, and it just sort of subconsciously ate at the back of my mind like I was a character in a Lovecraft story starting to notice the cracks in the universe where the Great Old Ones were leaking through.

It clearly wasn't urban enough to be suburban but also not rural enough to be rural, and my brain just didn't know how to process it.

So that's why you are the way you are

Where i live now is pretty much subrural. Its very farm-y. There are some neighborhoods but also a bunch of sprawling meadows. My wife and i always call them "good frolicking fields" when we drive by lol. But yeah, barely any stores/restaurants unless i drive to one of the towns 10 minutes on either direction. But there is quite a bit in one of those towns as its a fairly populated suburb with a lot of rich people

I'm kinda odd in that i see the appeal of all types of life. I have lived in the heart of atlanta and while i didn't really like it i think if i were in the right city with a nice place id really enjoy myself because I do like the night life. I like going to bars and seeing concerts at dive venues

But i also like the country. I like hiking/nature and being somewhere quiet. If i had to pick a least favorite it would probably be very rural. I dont think id want to live really far out in one of those random nowhere towns you pass by on the interstate when you're traveling

I hate the city. I lived half my life there. Having a city sidewalk 20 feet away from my front porch was creepy. Id be sitting watching TV at 9pm in my living room and constantly hear random people goofing off/yelling/screaming as they walk by my house. Probably coming or going to a neighborhood bar.

Burbs after 9pm it's totally quiet. No noise. No public sidewalk. People are in bed or preparing for sleep. There's no fast food restaurants for miles from us. If someone is in the area it's because they live there. No bus line. No bs

teddy241 posted...

I hate the city. I lived half my life there. Having a city sidewalk 20 feet away from my front porch was creepy. Id be sitting watching TV at 9pm in my living room and constantly hear random people goofing off/yelling/screaming as they walk by my house. Probably coming or going to a neighborhood bar.

Yeah if i did live in the city again, I'd definitely want to be in a neighborhood or in a condo where I'm at least up one or two floors

Muscles posted...

So that's why you are the way you are

Because I've seen beyond the veil and witnessed the true nature of reality in all of its horror?

Sure, let's go with that.

I live in a city, though not the center. There *is* a bar below and a few flats adjacent of mine, and I get plenty of noise from revving scooters and partying people, but eh. I won't say I *miss* corona lockdowns, but it was indeed a lot quieter then.

Im not getting the city noise complaints. Obviously there is noise, but Ive lived in cities my whole life and noise from outside my home is very rarely something that has impacted inside my home.

Glob posted...

Im not getting the city noise complaints. Obviously there is noise, but Ive lived in cities my whole life and noise from outside my home is very rarely something that has impacted inside my home.

If you're used to suburbs where there's no point in leaving your house unless you're driving somewhere else where you'll actually be doing things, the sound of people living their lives right outside can be a little jarring. American individualism also tends to promote pretending that other people don't exist, tying one's status directly to their ability to do so. Denser living conditions where you have to be aware of a large assortment of strangers milling about are seen as a sign of failure for many, so those people get anxious when they find themselves aware of a large assortment of strangers milling about.

City noise is also pretty closely tied to car dependence, given that cars generate most of the ambient noise in cities (as much as people like to single out things like sirens or loud people). Depending on which cities you've lived in, they might not have been as bad in that regard as most American cities.

adjl posted...

If you're used to suburbs where there's no point in leaving your house unless you're driving somewhere else where you'll actually be doing things, the sound of people living their lives right outside can be a little jarring. American individualism also tends to promote pretending that other people don't exist, tying one's status directly to their ability to do so. Denser living conditions where you have to be aware of a large assortment of strangers milling about are seen as a sign of failure for many, so those people get anxious when they find themselves aware of a large assortment of strangers milling about.

City noise is also pretty closely tied to car dependence, given that cars generate most of the ambient noise in cities (as much as people like to single out things like sirens or loud people). Depending on which cities you've lived in, they might not have been as bad in that regard as most American cities.

Yeah, American cities are probably vastly different, as are their suburbs.

You dont need cars in any of the cities Ive lived in. You also dont necessarily need them in a number of suburbs which Ive had friends living in.

As far as the noise, Im currently in my bedroom in a capital city and I cant hear anything outside and this is fairly typical.

adjl posted...

If you're used to suburbs where there's no point in leaving your house unless you're driving somewhere else where you'll actually be doing things, the sound of people living their lives right outside can be a little jarring. American individualism also tends to promote pretending that other people don't exist, tying one's status directly to their ability to do so. Denser living conditions where you have to be aware of a large assortment of strangers milling about are seen as a sign of failure for many, so those people get anxious when they find themselves aware of a large assortment of strangers milling about.

City noise is also pretty closely tied to car dependence, given that cars generate most of the ambient noise in cities (as much as people like to single out things like sirens or loud people). Depending on which cities you've lived in, they might not have been as bad in that regard as most American cities.

I think it has very little to do with being american my dude. Not everywhere is india. You're a little too fixated on making this about being a self centered american. There are tons of people all over the world that dont want to live in the heart of LA. Know why? Because its actually really normal not to want drunken strangers milling about your front door regularly. Humans were never meant to live among millions of strangers. We were meant to live in small communities/tribes.

The only people who really want to live in places like LA have narcissistic personality disorder and tie their status to being in the city. Rural living is actually more "normal" living than the psychosis of major cities

Glob posted...

Im not getting the city noise complaints. Obviously there is noise, but Ive lived in cities my whole life and noise from outside my home is very rarely something that has impacted inside my home.

It's less complaint and just not ideal. Nonetheless, I knew that when I bought a flat here 18 years ago. Though at the time it was intended as my first home, by now it looks increasingly like it may be for life.

They're fine. I like the convenience of living near a city but I think I'd prefer a house in a rural, wooded area.

Suburbs baby. Avoid the natural issues with both the city and the country. But can travel to both easy

OhhhJa posted...

I think it has very little to do with being american my dude.

Car-dependent suburban development patterns aren't unique to America, but America has gone balls deep on them in a way that few other countries have, largely as part of the postwar industrial boom (as much as people like to parrot the idea that America developed to be car-dependent because it's a newer country, that shift really only happened in the 50's and 60's as detached suburban houses were touted as being the ultimate representation of economic prosperity and older development patterns were bulldozed to make way for car infrastructure), and that has shaped American culture in a lot of ways. Most of my knowledge of urbanism and urban planning and whatnot has also come in the form of identifying what America (and Canada, since most of the same problems show up here as well) has done wrong, as well as my own experience of living in Canadian cities and seeing what has/hasn't worked, and that naturally biases me toward using America as an example.

Basically, it's not just American, but America is kind of the poster child for car-centric development, and in particular for insisting that it's a good thing.

OhhhJa posted...

The only people who really want to live in places like LA have narcissistic personality disorder and tie their status to being in the city.

Who said anything about LA being a well-designed city?

There is middle ground between living in a 100-storey soviet apartment block in a city of 40 million and living on a farm where your nearest neighbour is five miles away. On paper, single-family suburbs claim to balance this by offering reasonable access to urban amenities but also plenty of space and privacy, but in practice that level of density creates all sorts of problems because it's largely impossible to service those communities with anything other than car infrastructure. When everyone has to drive to get to/from their homes, that also forces businesses to accommodate people driving, which creates a push for big box stores with big parking lots, which in turn creates a very fragile economy and siphons wealth out of the community.

OhhhJa posted...

We were meant to live in small communities/tribes.

A well-designed city achieves exactly that. You're still around plenty of strangers, of course, but if you can live in a place where most of what people need on a regular basis is within comfortable walking distance (the "15-minute city" concept), you end up seeing the same people in the same places frequently enough that they become familiar. If you're driving everywhere, you don't see nearly as many people outside of their cars (and other drivers tend to be thought of as cars more so than people), and when you do see people, you tend to either think of them as obstacles to be avoided (because you have to) or pass them too quickly to allow for any sort of interaction.

That's not to say that there's any one level of density that's perfect for everyone, but the idea that anything greater than single family residential density is bad for everyone has very little basis in reality and has done a tremendous amount of harm (both economically and in terms of actual physical harm). In truth, suburbanites (especially ones that drives large SUVs/trucks) tend to be more antisocial than other people, and that's mostly owing to their isolation from a broader community.

OhhhJa posted...

Because its actually really normal not to want drunken strangers milling about your front door regularly.

Unless you live above or very close to bars, though, that doesn't really happen often enough to make a big deal out of it. Some drunk people walking by a couple times a week isn't a real problem.

Rural is preferred. Suburbs are perfectly fine.

Cities should be avoided like the plague.

Maybe visited on occasion for some big event (concert, comedian, museum, sight-seeing vacation)....but absolutely not to exceed more than a few days.

But that's just my opinion.

Adjl, i dont disagree with most of what you're saying. I just disagree that many people prefer suburbs and rural areas over the city because of all this american idealism and thinking that being around lots of people and using public transit is a sign of failure. Thats just legitimately a huge exaggeration on your part and largely untrue imo.

I think a lot of people just simply value a quieter life with more privacy. It doesnt have to be any more complicated than that. Same reason many probably prefer cars over public transit. Being in large crowds honestly kinda sucks especially if you're all coming and going from your 9-5s

I live in the suburbs and work in the city. The city is cool and I like how I don't have to rely on personal vehicles as much but overall it makes me exhausted, it's so nice returning home to the peaceful and quiet suburbs

To be clear, I'm talking mostly about the choice between suburban and urban living. Rural is another beast entirely, and is really only practical to have on the table if you're able to work in a rural location (or are willing to commute quite a distance into the nearest city). The urban/suburban choice is more for people that are working in the urban location, with the choice then being to live within the city proper or to live further outside and commute in (though in many cases development patterns have favoured suburban development such that there just aren't many opportunities to live within the city proper and that makes anything decent prohibitively expensive).

OhhhJa posted...

I just disagree that many people prefer suburbs and rural areas over the city because of all this american idealism and thinking that being around lots of people and using public transit is a sign of failure. Thats just legitimately a huge exaggeration on your part and largely untrue imo.

Oh, it's absolutely a thing (at least for suburbs, as I covered). The "American Dream" sold to families in the 50's and 60's of a detached house in the suburbs with a white picket fence and a car in the driveway was absolutely sold under the pretense of it representing a prosperous middle class. In a way, it was basically jelly salads: something that was previously only available to the wealthy became attainable for the masses thanks to industrial advancements and the postwar economic boom, and the middle class glomped right onto it, heedless of the fact that people would one day look back and recognize it as a terrible idea. Even now, I routinely see anti-urbanists say things to the effect of "I bought a car so I wouldn't have to look at the poors, why would I want to take a train?", a mentality that dominates a lot of discourse around urban planning.

Now, that's not to say that everybody that lives in the suburbs is just trying to get away from those "dirty poors," but the overwhelming culture still favours a vision of "success" that includes ownership of a detached home and the ability to drive anywhere. Owning anything other than a detached home (or, heaven forbid, renting) is rarely seen as anything more than a stepping stone to that, unless you get into owning a condo that's expensive enough to be wielded as a status symbol, and development patterns reflect that: Denser urban developments are largely marketed as "luxury" (and priced accordingly), with most other developments being single-family detached houses in the suburbs and everyone else left to scrounge for whatever's left.

That is shifting these days, as urbanism efforts are starting to drive home the value of neighbourhoods that are dense enough to be self-contained (which doesn't have to mean apartment towers, since even just swapping most single-family houses for du-, tri, or four-plexes can add quite a bit of density), as is a pivot toward having more mixed-use zoning, but by and large a very significant number of people still view biking or taking the bus to work as something you do if you can't afford a car yet or as an act of eco-masochism, not a genuinely valid alternative to driving. See also: the number of people that insist that you can only be free and independent with a car, generally as a consequence of growing up in a suburban environment where they really couldn't do much of anything unless their parents drove them.

OhhhJa posted...

Being in large crowds honestly kinda sucks especially if you're all coming and going from your 9-5s

The thing is, that crowd is always going to be there (assuming, again, that we're talking about commuting to an urban job). If not 50 people on a bus, it'll be 50 people in 50 cars taking up 30 times more space on the road. Being in a large crowd of cars sucks just as much as - if not more than, given the danger - being in numerically comparable crowd of people on a bus. Designed properly, transit can also be quite a bit faster than driving because personal cars are pretty much the worst possible option for throughput per lane and are therefore extremely vulnerable to congestion. That reality is lost on many Americans, though, because many haven't experienced properly-designed transit (which is by design, given that the oil and car industries actively lobby against transit improvements).

neutral. get more house for your money but have to drive a lot.

I live in the suburbs. *shrug*

I live in them. Can't complain.

Damn_Underscore posted...

What are your thoughts?

What are yours?

obligatory Monkees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDBPq_9hKqE

That was 1967.

I live 12 miles from the nearest town and I love it. I have only been in what I guess could be called a city suburb once to visit friends and found it really weird. They lived in a nice, new, very expensive home but I swear the houses were only a few feet apart. They had an HOA that controlled everything it seemed. They were very proud of their back yard area. I found it Twilight Zone creepy. They talked of their privacy with the fence all the way around it yet you could hear the people on all other sides and the grass was that kind you buy in squares. It looked all so unreal. I don't hate it but I do dislike it. Not my thing as a country gal but my friends liked living there so I am happy for them.

Whoever said "subrural" is where I'm at and I think it's best. So, so quiet with plenty of space between my house and the neighbors, but I'm only ~45 mins to a major downtown (and like 10-15 mins to typical suburb areas with groceries and restaurants and whatnot)

Dislike to hate it. It's far enough away you still have to drive everywhere. It's not rural enough to enjoy the land, there are often a lot of restrictions on what you can and can't do with the land that aren't in rural areas.

On the plus side less restrictive about pets than in the city and less traffic when you do need to drive.

acesxhigh posted...

get more house for your money

I don't even view this as a plus necessarily. More to clean, more to inefficiently heat and cool

bachewychomp posted...

I don't even view this as a plus necessarily. More to clean, more to inefficiently heat and cool

actually I agree in essence about home size. my home is not big, I meant more like I can have a garage and a small back garden on my budget if I live in a suburb which was important to me

Suburban single family homes are only viable under population growth ponzi schemes and through being subsidized by cities.

The simple fact of the matter is suburban single family homes are extremely expensive to provide services (roads, electric gas water and telecom utilities, emergency services) per capita. The taxes brought in from property tax don't come close to offsetting the cost. So municipalities either need to balance the budget by taking in more taxes from more productive areas, or by growing their deficit. This deficit may not be obvious on paper from year to year, because infrastructure is replaced on the order of decades instead of yearly. But aging infrastructure can't be ignored forever and the bills eventually come due.

I live in a large apartment/condo building in what's technically a suburb. I don't have any noise issues from other units. My partner has a car from before our marriage, but I haven't had a car in six years. I walk, take the bus, or taken the metro for work and errands. My monthly transportation costs is $80 plus maybe a few bucks a week if I take longer trips during M-F. I don't have a car payment, gas, parking, insurance, or property taxes for transportation and this saves me probably $1000 monthly.

All the walking helps naturally stay fit and reduces future healthcare costs. The reduced carbon emissions from not driving is more significant than going vegetarian. The reduced stress from not having to drive to work is invaluable.

I can walk to multiple groceries stores, my doctor, dozens of restaurants, the pharmacy, and multiple coffee shops. While my building has a gym, I'm only two blocks from my large commercial one that I walk to most days (138/156 days so far in 2025). I can walk out my door and be on the train five minutes later to further destinations. My place of work is a six minute train ride with zero traffic. I feel like I'm living life with a cheat code.

Clench281 posted...

I live in a large apartment/condo building in what's technically a suburb

How much is rent/mortgage and what's the square footage / BrBa count?

Clench281 posted...

Suburban single family homes are only viable under population growth ponzi schemes and through being subsidized by cities.

The simple fact of the matter is suburban single family homes are extremely expensive to provide services (roads, electric gas water and telecom utilities, emergency services) per capita. The taxes brought in from property tax don't come close to offsetting the cost. So municipalities either need to balance the budget by taking in more taxes from more productive areas, or by growing their deficit. This deficit may not be obvious on paper from year to year, because infrastructure is replaced on the order of decades instead of yearly. But aging infrastructure can't be ignored forever and the bills eventually come due.

I live in a large apartment/condo building in what's technically a suburb. I don't have any noise issues from other units. My partner has a car from before our marriage, but I haven't had a car in six years. I walk, take the bus, or taken the metro for work and errands. My monthly transportation costs is $80 plus maybe a few bucks a week if I take longer trips during M-F. I don't have a car payment, gas, parking, insurance, or property taxes for transportation and this saves me probably $1000 monthly.

All the walking helps naturally stay fit and reduces future healthcare costs. The reduced carbon emissions from not driving is more significant than going vegetarian. The reduced stress from not having to drive to work is invaluable.

I can walk to multiple groceries stores, my doctor, dozens of restaurants, the pharmacy, and multiple coffee shops. While my building has a gym, I'm only two blocks from my large commercial one that I walk to most days (138/156 days so far in 2025). I can walk out my door and be on the train five minutes later to further destinations. My place of work is a six minute train ride with zero traffic. I feel like I'm living life with a cheat code.

To be honest, Im living in a city and have all the same benefits.

I've already talked people's ears off in other threads about my feelings on suburbs so I am just going to give a brief summary of my thoughts.

Suburbs are the worst. I've lived in rural, urban and suburban and suburbs are by far the worst experience I ever had.

Suburbs are notoriously isolating and force car dependence on cities.

The entire argument for suburbs and car infrastructure is "I hate poor people."

I mean, even if I lived in the city, id still want a car. This idea that living in the city means you dont need a car is pretty funny to me. The average adult no matter where you live wants to have a car

Also a lot of suburbs do have public transportation now. The suburbs in my area do

Clench281 posted...

Suburban single family homes are only viable under population growth ponzi schemes and through being subsidized by cities.

Lol what? It's the opposite, I live in the suburbs of Chicago, still inside cook county and I subsidize them through ridiculous taxes without getting shit in return