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

suburban makeup is changing quickly in a lot of places. comments 9 years ago are starting to look more like 19 years ago.

― 156, Tuesday, June 8, 2010 1:43 PM Bookmark

Yeah, but my family's been there for 50 and a lot of the black families in my hometown have been there for longer (Although it should be mentioned that this is an old 19th-cen. mill town that got sucked in by conurbanization). Obviously, the makeup has changed due to successive waves of immigration. But most of these communities have been in place for as long as I remember.

there are suburbs that are super diverse and there are large american cities that are not. suburbs are dud for other reasons.

Sure.

what is the best kind of community

humans only obv

Suburb-bashing is superdull and I will probably think you are a moron if you (not you personally) engage in it, though.

"How can I be folk? I'm from the suburbs you know" -- John Fahey

i got to say they're still a pretty bad scene around here. mostly middle and working class white-flight havens (which will eventually become more "diverse" - thereby leading to another exodus ten years later to a farther outer-ring development of zero-lot-line boxes), and scorched-earth McMansion developments for a tacky, aspiring upper-middle class who have lots of Palin stickers on their SUVs.

at this point it seems that a lot of the chicago suburbs are more ethnically/racially diverse than most parts of the city itself

it seems like this is happening in a lot of major cities(?); not so much down here.

Suburbs are dud for a lot of reasons. Cities are dud for a lot of reasons. Rural areas are dud for a lot of reasons. Seems like city folk are the only ones that get off on looking down on the others. (the "ugh city folk" lament of rural peeps is just a reaction to urban snobbery).

again, I'm only speaking for what I see in a 20 mile radius of moi

*Suburb-bashing*
"The suburbs aren't all bad."
"How can you have anything nice to say about suburbs! They're horrible!"

Cause I spent the vast majority of my life there and I probably know a hell more a lot about them than you, you condescending twat.

well I've spent the vast majority of my life in a suburb too - and it sucked.

I really, really hate cars though.

chuburbs

xp to Grany What? Please. The country people I know LOVE looking down on urban peeps because we live "all smushed together on top of each other" plus we don't have the American dream of enough space not to care what anyone else thinks of how you live. And, you know, attics and basements and garages. Plus the country smells better plus lake views plus the beach plus they really love their lives there and it's the opposite of here so pretty much they're nice about it but they escape back to their private, individual houses with great relief.

(the "ugh city folk" lament of rural peeps is just a reaction to urban snobbery).

ugh, I once spent a week visiting a country cousin who insisted on calling me "city boy" the whole time I was there, which wasn't even accurate

Also they think the city is too fast and too worldly and too coarse.

i'm sorta of the mind that if i ever move out, i'm moving waaaayy the fuck out. like can't-see-nearest-neighbor's-house out

Just about to start reading this book, which looks like it addresses whats being discussed here, rather than an out-of-date popular image of suburbia

http://www.amazon.com/Suburban-History-Historical-Studies-America/dp/0226456633/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276030940&sr=8-1

I should add that they like Trader Joe's and triple-cream brie, though, so I will be filling a cooler with strange and wondrous foods next weekend and sending it home with my country people after their visit to the great grey city.

Wow this thread is fucking infuriating

xxp: Looks interesting.

iatee: Never mind me. The guy I had that convo with is a certifiable dumbass in general, and I'm kinda taking my angst about him out on you by proxy, which is unfair.

y'all may be right. I always interpreted rural disdain for city life as reactionary, though. It just feels different in tone.

I don't even know where to start, but it's tough to see some generally smart ilx peeps pulling a "why don't black people ever want to rock" level of analysis here

Found it kind of weird that I'd just bought that book, and then not only does the suburb thread get revived, but talking about the same thing!

they both boil down to one group not being able to grasp that the other group has different priorities, values, and preferences.

The expression of it is kinda reactionary but they're not really sorry they don't live in a city, ime.

granny otm

Like I picture city folk coming to a charming rural town and annoying the residents with their complaints about lack of this and that and their high-strungedness, and that causing the "ugh city folk" feeling. Whereas city folk don't get intruded on by country cousins on their turf the same way?

City fork who would do that are d-bags who deserve whatever they get imo. If you are going to go out to the country, you should be prepared to enjoy it for what it is.

Whereas city folk don't get intruded on by country cousins on their turf the same way?

Have you tried to walk through Grand Central lately?? Jesus. Also I have survived over a decade of my parents secretly and not so secretly feeling sorry for me that I don't live somewhere "nicer" or bigger or quieter or in a neighborhood where there are fewer crazy/drunk/high/seemingly unemployed-looking people walking around and standing on the corners. That last category may or may not include a subtext about minorities; I don't encourage that conversation.

I do have to say though, that the last time I encountered someone in a city who was rather conspicuously from the country, he addressed me as "Hey, nigger faggot."

Basically they'd like me to be someplace where none of the visible population is ever lower than middle-middle class regardless of race (best possible interpretation) and the stores are full of pretty things you want to buy to make your life prettier. I understand why they want this for me but it's a fast route to misery afaic.

Rev, I am tempted to joke, "sorry about my dad," but not even my dad would say something that fucking evilly hateful to someone's face.

everyone watches youtube

what I dislike about suburbs isn't really cultural. I dislike that the american suburb is structured in a way that allows people to blissfully ignore their externalities - the fact that people believe that a car and a large house are their god given rights as an american citizen. suburbs should be EXPENSIVE - they should be a luxury because in an environmental and social sense, they are.

My dad is straight country, though. He told me he was surprised people on the Tube in London were acting "weird" around him when he started cleaning his fingernails. What you have to know about my dad is he cleans his nails with the 5" pocket hunting knife that is on him at all times.

Last thing re city vs country: Oh and the buildings in a "nice" part of the city should be historical and architecturally attractive and vermin-free and feel like you're not actually in the city until you go outside. But nothing should intrude on your home life once you shut your door. Which basically explains why they live somewhere that you can't hit your neighbor's house with a rock while standing on your own porch.

Also: You have a porch.

Abbott, you are straight cracking me up.

How did he get a knife on the plane, can you check that shit?

So you are obv talking about outer ring suburbs here, right iatee?

Laurel, this was in 1999.

Lauren, I guess I don't see that as "looking down on", it doesn't seem based on snobbery? The rural&suburb-bashing city folk act like those people just haven't figured out how to be able to live in the city, or couldn't make it there once they did even though they obv must desperately want to.

whoa xposts

meant Laurel obv, sorry!

It's based on the "master of own domain" idea that iatee referred to up there. The American dream, doncha know. If you can't have that, they just feel gently sorry for you...UNLESS you have enough money to live as insulated from the discomforts of a city as if you WEREN'T in a city.

I've reached the conclusion that I'll never buy a house if it doesn't have a good-sized porch I can kick it on. Porches are very important to me, for some reason.

what I dislike about suburbs isn't really cultural. I dislike that the american suburb is structured in a way that allows people to blissfully ignore their externalities - the fact that people believe that a car and a large house are their god given rights as an american citizen.

This is just as much of a baseless generalization as what I was railing against upthread.

Yep.

last city i lived in most houses had porches

"suburbs require cars" is not really a baseless generalization