Why all the hate for the suburbs?

[Popeye_Card]

I've only skimmed this thread, so sorry if I'm repeating anything here. In St. Louis, the suburbs are especially bad because of the relatively small size of the city itself with numerous even smaller suburbs surrounding it. The suburbs are essentially parasitic on the city in numerous ways. The residents use our zoo/stadiums/attractions without supporting them with taxes. The camp legions of police cars on the borders to hand out speeding tickets to anyone going a mile over the speed limit as they leave the city. They fight tooth and nail to withhold every penny from metro possible.

This is all true. Though it's the city's fault (100 years ago or whatever) to make the decision to break off from the county.

[cardinalkarp]

i heard you guys worship satan in the 'burbs.. is that true?

I happen to kill babies as well.

[ghostrunner]

I think someone at the beginning of the thread said something about feeling sorry for people who grew up in Manhattan. I had to lol because I think it would be a great place to grow up. I know there is someone on this board who went to one of the Manhattan (or Bronx) schools and when he listed the names of people who went to his alma mater, it read like hall of fame of people from all walks of life. I think the mentality in America is so engrained that suburban or rural life is a better environment to raise kids, but I'm not sure why. If you were able to reduce the crime and drug problems in the cities, I think an urban upbringing would be superior to a suburban one, and just different from a rural one. And these days kids aren't immune from things like drugs and crime simply because they are growing up in suburbs. Nowadays there are good and bad neighborhoods in both kinds of environments, it just depends which suburb or which part of the city you are living.

I think you can grow up well in the city. There's a lot of advantages, especially learning about the world. You have access to museums and cultural differences.

Speaking for myself though, it's just about what you want for your kids. I want my kid to have something similar to what I had. I think it served me well, and it's what I'm comfortable with. It's hard for me to imagine growing up in an apartment building, so I see no reason to go that route. We make a concerted effort to get Toby outside and active when the weather permits. In the city, we'd have to drive him to a park, so it just doesn't make sense.

[Popeye_Card]

In the city, we'd have to drive him to a park, so it just doesn't make sense.

That all depends on where you're at in the city. I'm only ~500' from a 40 acre park.

[ghostrunner]

In the city, we'd have to drive him to a park, so it just doesn't make sense.

That all depends on where you're at in the city. I'm only ~500' from a 40 acre park.

And what city. St. Louis is pretty good for parks, as I recall.

[New Pagodi]

In St Louis, (at least on the south side I honestly don't know about the north side), it's really hard to be more than 4 or 5 blocks from a park.

[Radbird]

"Suburbs" are not created equal. There's a huge difference between a suburb like Webster Groves with beautiful old homes, and a suburb full of subdivisions with shodily built, boring housing.

If it weren't for the city/county divide in St. Louis, I'm not even sure places like Webster would be considered suburban. Really, anything inside of Lindbergh is more urban than not, isn't it?

We live in a track development. I don't like the sameness (only a couple of builders; all houses have street facing attached garages, etc.), but it wasn't a hard choice to make given proximity to work and the fact that we're only 7 miles from downtown Boulder and 15 miles from downtown Denver. Would I like to live in the heart of Boulder? Yes, but it's unaffordable. When we moved here, the neighborhood was ideal. Daughter was in 4th grade, block full of kids, lots of open space and bike/hiking paths, playgrounds, parks. It's still nice, although as empty nesters we live in a house that's too big and on a block with primarily young families. Our daughter wanted a different high school experience, so she open enrolled at Boulder High School in central Boulder and loved it.

I have no regrets. The quality of life and convenience far outweighed any aesthetic concerns. Plus the mountains are only a few minutes away if the need to escape arises.

When we decide to "downsize", I would like to move either in or out. Into a city or out to the country. I realize that may not make sense to want one or the other extreme, but that's how I'm viewing things right now.

[Popeye_Card]

In the city, we'd have to drive him to a park, so it just doesn't make sense.

That all depends on where you're at in the city. I'm only ~500' from a 40 acre park.

And what city. St. Louis is pretty good for parks, as I recall.

IMO, it's one of the best for parks.

The sad thing is though that the city pays for it (see Pagodi's post), while a good portion of the people who use it (the county) pays no taxes into it. Which leads to budget shortfalls elsewhere (police and schools).

[jim]

I have to disagree with that statement, there is nothing remotely rural about suburbs. If you think for a moment you experienced rural life in any way, shape, or form I can tell you you did not. Just seeing grass and a cornfield doesn't make it so.

There can't be degrees of rural? Come on. You can't say that about all suburbs. I played in the woods every weekend as a kid. We had a creek in our woods that I played in and jumped over, and swung across with vines that grew on the trees. We found crayfish in the creek, and got burrs on our socks and bumps from stinging nettles. Granted this is a more remote suburb I grew up in, but I wouldn't call it a "rural" area. It IS more rural than being in the city though, there's no question about it.

Maybe we're getting hung up on what rural means. it wasn't farmlife, but there was a lot more nature around me as a kid than there would have been in the city. I loved it and wouldn't trade it for anything.

I'm talking about culture more than trees and creeks and critters. We lived in a small town for over a year, and my wife hated it. Everyone in town knew her as "That lady that runs around town with the husband with the nice fishing boat"(she is a jogger). Now I live part-time in a very rural place, sort of how popeye described we are 10 miles from a town of 4,000. We are a few years away from being able to live fulltime there, but this is actually quite a bit different than living in a small town - kind of getting to your "degrees" comment. This is really my cup of tea, and even my wife who grew up from Chicago loves this. to the point where we hope to live here fulltime someday. There is alog of cooperation - if you see your neighbor out and you are heading into town for groceries you will pull over and see if they need something picked up. My neighbors dogs come over every day at about the same time every day, my other neighbor lets their chickens out at the same time which means you have to take that corner slower unless you want one in your grill. You get to know your neighbors much better even though you don't really spend that much time with them. You wave, you help out when you can, and they are more than willing to do the same.

Suburbs are sort of anti-rural, it seems people in cities have more of this "community" feeling and acting more than in the burbs. I would argue my rural neighbors are more like people living in Chicago then they are in a smaller suburb - even counting the trees and cricks.

[ghostrunner]

I have to disagree with that statement, there is nothing remotely rural about suburbs. If you think for a moment you experienced rural life in any way, shape, or form I can tell you you did not. Just seeing grass and a cornfield doesn't make it so.

There can't be degrees of rural? Come on. You can't say that about all suburbs. I played in the woods every weekend as a kid. We had a creek in our woods that I played in and jumped over, and swung across with vines that grew on the trees. We found crayfish in the creek, and got burrs on our socks and bumps from stinging nettles. Granted this is a more remote suburb I grew up in, but I wouldn't call it a "rural" area. It IS more rural than being in the city though, there's no question about it.

Maybe we're getting hung up on what rural means. it wasn't farmlife, but there was a lot more nature around me as a kid than there would have been in the city. I loved it and wouldn't trade it for anything.

I'm talking about culture more than trees and creeks and critters. We lived in a small town for over a year, and my wife hated it. Everyone in town knew her as "That lady that runs around town with the husband with the nice fishing boat"(she is a jogger). Now I live part-time in a very rural place, sort of how popeye described we are 10 miles from a town of 4,000. We are a few years away from being able to live fulltime there, but this is actually quite a bit different than living in a small town - kind of getting to your "degrees" comment. This is really my cup of tea, and even my wife who grew up from Chicago loves this. to the point where we hope to live here fulltime someday. There is alog of cooperation - if you see your neighbor out and you are heading into town for groceries you will pull over and see if they need something picked up. My neighbors dogs come over every day at about the same time every day, my other neighbor lets their chickens out at the same time which means you have to take that corner slower unless you want one in your grill. You get to know your neighbors much better even though you don't really spend that much time with them. You wave, you help out when you can, and they are more than willing to do the same.

Suburbs are sort of anti-rural, it seems people in cities have more of this "community" feeling and acting more than in the burbs. I would argue my rural neighbors are more like people living in Chicago then they are in a smaller suburb - even counting the trees and cricks.

I see your point, but I think it just depends where you land. Some suburbs are sociable and have events and cookouts. In others the people don't talk to each other.

That's not really what I'm looking for though. I generally keep to myself and my family. I like having trees around though.

If it were up to me, and I had no other concerns, I'd live in the mountains. Right now, it's not really possible with careers and all that. I'm not sure my wife would be into it either.