People Who Live In Suburbs: Classy, Icky, or Dudes?

Bother, you're spoiling my fun.

The thing about the chimney, though, that's totally real.

in nyc there are plenty of compromises (further out parts of the boroughs, hudson county) where you could have a relatively quiet home life - a single-family house, maybe a garage and a lawn, whatever. and you could still live on public transit. it doesn't have to be williamsburg or levittown.

Dude, I don't know if anyone can afford to buy there anymore, but Midwood is TOTALLY nice.

Okay none of this has ever been true in any suburb I've ever been in. There are plenty of fair targets to paint on suburban life without making them up! Yes, some of them do have zoning restrictions regarding building height, fence locations, etc. But, guess what? Every big city has these too!

and it's probably more damaging that the big cities have them, because in doing so they make sprawl pretty much a given

Also, Hurting, you'll have to mow your lawn, every week, like clockwork, or the HOA will file a grievance and fine you money.

haha i am living proof that this is not true

also if you mean Home Owners Association by HOA thats pretty much a condo/gated community thing, that shit would never fly in the regular old suburbs w/o riots.

^^^ otm

oh whoops that right bracket a few posts is me btw.

never checked my walkscore before but i guess it is 60? which seems low?

ha ok well they missed a bunch of stuff now that i looked through the list so that prob explains that

walkscore's not perfect but the maps w/ red to green pretty accurately reflect the urbanism or lackthereof within american cities

never lived in the burbs

if you choose to live in a house w/ an HOA you're really just asking for a miserable life

thankfully you can find a perfectly fine suburban house (like my parents!) w/o having to worry about a HOA

one nominally urban neighborhood i lived in years ago has a walk score of 54 which does seem about right

my la hoods have been in the 86-95 range, one even better than my last nyc place

yeah lots of la is super walkable compared to the rest of the country, people have a lot of misconceptions

walk score at my parents' place is 23!

my house at school was an 82

98 - love my neighborhood

pvmic

I am at my gf's in connecticut right now, and her place is a (surprising?) 92. college town and the location was a big reason she picked this apt.

also if you mean Home Owners Association by HOA thats pretty much a condo/gated community thing, that shit would never fly in the regular old suburbs w/o riots.

Okay I made it all up. Except that I think there are places that aren't gated communities that really do patrol/enforce stuff like this, but prob just the silliest, richest, and most bedroomy of bedroom towns.

walk score at my parents' place is 23!

the house where i grew up has a score of 16, lol.

The place I lived in South Florida had one, a nastily restrictive one, and it was def. not a rich bedroom community.

Oh, and the place we live now has a walkscore of zero--but it's a very rural area.

Where I live the grass is still pretty short after a week. I mean we have drought periods where the grass just doesn't grow! We have to wait at least two weeks before mowing. Thankfully I live in an older neighborhood where people don't pay attention to that stuff!

I have to say I don't like the grass too short and clinical looking. I like a more natural look, it's more appropriate for older neighborhoods.

also if you mean Home Owners Association by HOA thats pretty much a condo/gated community thing, that shit would never fly in the regular old suburbs w/o riots.

― let me save you some time - yes, you are probably anti-semantic (jjjusten), Sunday, September 4, 2011 1:30 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

I know Columbia, MD and Reston, VA are overseen by HOA-like entities. Probably more planned communities too?

lol my parent's house in the burbs gets a 17/100

Walkscore thinks I am not in very good shape, as it estimates it should take me 41 minutes to bike to work. Pfft! My slowest time, in crappy weather with high wind, is 34 minutes.

But my neighborhood gets a 75/100, which I think should be higher. I know lots of people who live here without cars. My mom's house, which is not in "the burbs" or in a location that's the result of sprawl, but rather in rural Northeast Ohio, gets a 29, which is about right.

My neighborhood scored a 51.

just gonna start a thread for this

what's your walkscore?

my place now get s a 68, which i think mainly is because there's a shopping ctr w/ grocery, a few crappy restaurants, a dry cleaner, etc. but it's really not a good place to live without a car at all. in fact, i mostly avoid the businesses in the plaza bc they are horribly overpriced and outdated (what a combo!). my parents' home (where i grew up), gets an 18!! but honestly, in terms of the lifestyle/car use... i think the difference i've experienced in 18 and 68 is not so great.

the CUOA here is RIDICULOUS. but you know, it's possible to rent in the suburbs, too! i reap the benefits of the crazy CUOA rules without having to pay condo fees or deal with any kind of citations by renting a condo. my next apt will probably be even further out in the burbs, and i actually want to find another condo to rent because they seem to be more reliable to rent from and have fewer bugs than any apartment buildings here, which seem to be some new circle of hell.

somewhat ot but would love to hear from an ilxor who grew up in an urban environment and then chose to live in the suburbs as an adult because it seems that the typical american here went in the opposite direction.

(timidly raises hand)

I grew up in a city (Portland, OR) and after marriage we moved to a bedroom community outside Portland. But I have a feeliong that neither my city upbringing nor my current suburban surroundings would seem remotely typical to someone from the East Coast or California, who'd define these terms according to wholly different standards.

The motive behind the move was that my wife worked in a suburban school district and was tired of the commute. <<-- NB: irony

I think move where you work is a wise idea! I live in an inner suburb because I work in the CBD and dont drive, I'd not mind being out further if worked out there too. Living on Mount Dandenong among the forest would be wonderful.

(I wouldnt want to live in a shitty, no-amenities, high-crime outer stinkhole tho)

I think there's a few reasons there aren't many:

a. age spectrum here generally falls between 25-45 - bet you can find a lot of people here who have *parents* who grew up in an urban area and moved to the suburbs (/ a lot of people who moved before they were 10)

b. inordinate desire for privacy / anti-social behavior = correlated w/ political conservatism, and how many republicans we got around here? was trying to think of an ilxor example of someone from a city who hated cities, and...roger adultry came to mind - prob not coincidentally one of the only loud conservatives we've had. I think he was from staten island tho, so...lol...

inordinate desire for privacy / anti-social behavior = correlated w/ political conservatism

Chicken v egg? Moving to nowhere because of anti-social desire for privacy vs living in a way where you can rule out other people and their annoying needs getting quite so close to you and just forgetting that they're people with needs at all.

think it's more about people being attracted to cities rather than repulsed by suburbs??

I think there's a few reasons there aren't many:

a. age spectrum here generally falls between 25-45 - bet you can find a lot of people here who have *parents* who grew up in an urban area and moved to the suburbs (/ a lot of people who moved before they were 10)

b. inordinate desire for privacy / anti-social behavior = correlated w/ political conservatism, and how many republicans we got around here? was trying to think of an ilxor example of someone from a city who hated cities, and...roger adultry came to mind - prob not coincidentally one of the only loud conservatives we've had. I think he was from staten island tho, so...lol...

your assumption in part b makes me so angry i could spit btw.

i know all my neighbors now but i can count on one hand how many of my urban apartment floormates i did more than go *silent nod* at. but yknow what do i know i am a dude that lives in a suburb so i hate people

Oi, jj! I don't know what he meant, but that's not what I meant!

You're making it awfully personal, which I know it feels like it is, but it was just an observation about a general preference over millions of people.

no i get what you were saying, its just this constant "people who live in suburbs talk like this" vibe i get from iatee that drives me nuts.

I don't want to speak for him (haha when has that ever etc) but you know he deals in measurable patterns over time on that topic.

so but measurable patterns of anti-social behavior? how is that quantifiable exactly

or for that matter "inordinate" desire for privacy - both of these seem like loaded and biased terms so

"my studies have shown that given the incidences of assholism in suburban communities, it can only be assumed that they hate bicycle lanes and waving at minorities"

xxxp I have no idea, but how many far-right/white power/anti-abortion/hate group militias do you think are stockpiling weapons and having weekend retreats in Canarsie?

probably as many as are in my neighborhood

or any actual suburb