Smelly Pirate Hooker:

Your point doesn't make any sense. Just in case you didn't notice. I know you're probably too busy being fabulous and superior while living in the big city.

Nobody's buying your "other people think they're smart, but it's just a choice... I'm different" routine. Every decision you make is because you think it's smart. Why would you make a lifestyle choice if you thought it was dumb? Of course you think your decision is smart.

If it makes you feel better, everyone with the ability to live where they want to thinks their decision is smart. I'm not singling you out. I'm only mocking your platitude which you can't even hold on to over the course of a thread.

Also, Protip: Don't ever say "you think you're so superior" to anyone. It makes you sound insecure. It sounds like "I think you're so superior".

McMansion!!

I expected this thread to be full of delusional suburbanites who LOVE their .2 acre lot with a McMansion that has a .15 acre footprint, and which you have to drive 2 miles to get to the 'convenience' store that's half a mile away as the bird flies. And the closest bar is a 5 mile drive away through 2 DUI checkpoints because the local NIMBYs would flip their shiat if a bar were to appear near their gated subdivision. And they rationalize their living in the suburbs by saying the public schools are so much better, even though they send their kids to private school. And they biatch non-stop when the local public school attempts to pass a tax referendum because the textbooks are all from the '80s.

/pleasantly surprised
//would add something about the 30 year mortgage being underwater, but I think that's a given nowadays.

I'm sure this runs counter to the primary sentiment in the thread but life is not an either/or proposition. My wife and I both work largely from our house in a close by suburb of Fort Worth. Took us 5 years of hard work to get our professional situations arranged this way, with lots of BS in between, but now it's the perfect setup. No commuting, good schools, 15 minutes to kick ass downtown Fort Worth when we go, which is never in rush hour times.

May sound like I'm gloating, and maybe I am a bit, but you don't HAVE to spend hours a day commuting OR live in a tiny box with shiatty inner city schools. And, BTW, my neighborhood is roughly proportionate to national ethnic/racial percentages. Contrary to popular opinion suburbanites are not only fat white people. Our jogging and biking trails and swimming pool sport fat people of every skin color!

downstairs: Same goes for your other examples.

What? What parts of any of those towns aren't walkable?

Quiet is relative.

I grew up in the country. I dealt with noise from cows, farmers at the break of dawn and blood hounds that never shutup.

I move to the city. I deal with vehicles at all times of the day and night along with motorcycles.

I move to the suburbs and I deal with the train and loud brats(God's children) making noises all the time.

I currently live on an island in the Caribbean in what is considered the "country" cause it's a house. What do I have to listen to every morning? Damn roosters that don't ever know what time of the day it is. It's so much worse than the trains in Richmond, the blood hounds, the Harley Davidson motorcycles, the city buses with bad breaks or even the gunshots ringing out!

Granted, I spend only 50% of my time there and the other half in hotels but you get use to your surroundings.

I hate the suburbs...boring as shiat and you have to drive everywhere. Cookie cutter houses with chain restaurants. Yuck.
I'd rather pay good money for a great location rather than more space.

Devo: [i49.tinypic.com image 218x250]

Even the warriors are thinking of moving back to the city.

Cowboy: Okay, what are we gonna do now?
Swan: We're going back.
Vermin: You mind tellin' me how? farkin' Coney Island must be 50 to 100 miles from here!
Swan: It's the only choice we got.

Well, Devo, it's the only choice they've got.

Burr: As long as you all stay out of the sticks, then do whatever the hell you want!

/walks outside naked, pees off his front porch
//saving water

Is that what those ruffians in the city are doing when they pee of their porches onto the sidewalk? Saving water?

I use to HATE visiting my inlaws in SW Philly. Quite a scary neighborhood. The suburbs are far, far nicer to me. I don't mind getting in the car and getting out of the house for 20 minutes or so to go get some milk.

Walker: That's because all the riff raff are moving out to the suburbs now because it's getting too expensive to live in the cities. An example of this is Washington D.C. and P.G. County, Maryland. Don't go to P.G. County, ever, it's not safe there. If someone asks you to meet them in cities with names such as Landover, Largo, or Oxen Hill say "HELL TO THE NO!"

I been living in Landover, MD for two years (moved from Southwest Philadelphia), Although I don't have issues but parking there is this this ghetto/hood feel to it although I am paying $1000+ rent.

I work in Largo on McCormick Drive. Driving from Landover Road the drive is quite nice with all the trees.

Rapmaster2000: Smelly Pirate Hooker:

Your point doesn't make any sense. Just in case you didn't notice. I know you're probably too busy being fabulous and superior while living in the big city.

Nobody's buying your "other people think they're smart, but it's just a choice... I'm different" routine. Every decision you make is because you think it's smart. Why would you make a lifestyle choice if you thought it was dumb? Of course you think your decision is smart.

If it makes you feel better, everyone with the ability to live where they want to thinks their decision is smart. I'm not singling you out. I'm only mocking your platitude which you can't even hold on to over the course of a thread.

Also, Protip: Don't ever say "you think you're so superior" to anyone. It makes you sound insecure. It sounds like "I think you're so superior".

Thanks for proving me right.

As a suburbanite I see this as something that can be very good or very bad. If all the poor folks come streaming out of the crapholes that are the cities and into the burbs then it will be a very sad thing. If on the other hand everyone starts leaving the burbs for the cities, then its all good. I always wanted to live in the country and would be quite thrilled if half the homes on my block were abandoned and leveled. People make fun of Detroit but when I see those aerial shots of blocks where only 1 in 10 homes are left I dream about how awesome it would be to have all that space around me.

t3knomanser: verbaltoxin: but I'm beyond wanting to live there. It happens when you grow out of your 20's.

/And it'll happen to yooooouuuuuuu!!!!

Well, I'm in my thirties. I'll keep my eye open for the symptoms of being old, and try and seek early treatment.

Same.

Office is in the 'burbs, home is in the city.

/Getting a kick out of these posts

So I've done the suburbs (twice) and downtown Boston.

Suburbs:
Better schools.
You need a car, but in exchange you have a car, so everything is close, and in the meantime, you can get 2 weeks worth of groceries in one go, and not have to hoof it a mile to get home.
Nice, safe walkable downtown with shops and parks and random bands playing in the pavilion at night (even if the grocery store is not downtown, but as previously mentioned, if you're walking to the grocery store, you're doing it wrong).
Everything is so cheap. I can buy 2 months worth of food for under $100. (I'm boring and work provides lunch though).
My house is huge. $100K gets me (or actually my parents) 1300 sq ft with 1300 sq ft of basement. And we have 2 yards that are each bigger than the house, which I haven't seen even in the Boston suburbs.

City:
Terrible transportation. Even with mass transit, it still takes 30+ minutes to go 2 miles if you catch the timing perfectly (Once took an hour and a half). And if you want to go anywhere not on the subway, good luck with that (Buses come every half hour, so screw that).
Commute is even worse. Takes between 40 and 90 minutes to get to/from work (Walk to subway -> subway -> more walking) each day and that's 8 miles.
No way to have a car. Parking is $4K/year in my neighborhood. I can't afford $4K/year. And that means that if I want to leave the Boston area, I can't. (Unless I do shenanigans with trains, and even than, I'm limited to areas trains serve). I did a limited Costco run, and it took 4 hours.
I can't do a grocery run. I'm basically limited to what I can reasonably carry in my arms a mile or so back to my house, which isn't a lot. Which means food is way more expensive since I can't go to [Big Box Store]. I know that there are supposed to be all these cool places to eat, but I just don't have the cash.
300 sq ft POS apartment -> $1800/month. THE FARK?
farking smokers. Can't walk 5 feet without hitting a smoker, which means that I have a hacking cough that isn't going away from all the smoke, and I can't open my window in my apartment or my apartment will smell like smoke.

I get that the city is supposed to be cool and all, but since 2 miles in the city ~= 30 miles outside of it in terms of travel time/range, there's just more stuff to do in the suburbs. And meanwhile my health and quality of life improve dramatically (The hacking cough usually goes away by mid-May. I'm starting to get a little bit worried).

meyerkev: Terrible transportation. Even with mass transit, it still takes 30+ minutes to go 2 miles if you catch the timing perfectly (Once took an hour and a half).

And you can't walk that?

liam76: meyerkev: Terrible transportation. Even with mass transit, it still takes 30+ minutes to go 2 miles if you catch the timing perfectly (Once took an hour and a half).

And you can't walk that?

In 40 or so. And when its 97 and muggy (like today is going to be), I'd much rather sit in a dark cool underground tunnel for a few minutes than walk a couple miles.

meyerkev: liam76: meyerkev: Terrible transportation. Even with mass transit, it still takes 30+ minutes to go 2 miles if you catch the timing perfectly (Once took an hour and a half).

And you can't walk that?

In 40 or so. And when its 97 and muggy (like today is going to be), I'd much rather sit in a dark cool underground tunnel for a few minutes than walk a couple miles.

damn slow walkers...


although if I am in work clothes I woudl opt for the bus, as I would get there faster walking, I would also be sweaty...

Dscharf766: I lived my first 25 years in NYC, moving to the Suburbs to raise a family, was and continues to be a great way to live. There is no correct answer, it all depends on your life experiences and what your interests are.

Too polite. You're supposed to be blaming Generation Y, calling them hipsters, complaining about gas prices while telling the world of Fark how big your house is.


Personally, I blame Sesame Street.

downstairs: DrewCurtisJr: t3knomanser: That would be all of them, pretty much.

No it wouldn't. There are plenty of suburbs that are walkable if that's what you desire. And when you have kids are you going to be dining out every night?

Maybe its just my experience... since I only lived in Chicago's suburbs. But I knew my way through maybe hundreds of suburbs (Chicago has a TON) and none of them were "walkable".

At best you have a 1 out of 10 chance of being at a walkable distance to a convenience store, like I did growing up. That's about it though.

I've lived in about 4-5 suburbs over 30 years. Nothing was "walkable" by any definition I can come up with.

For the most part you are right. However, the bf and I found somewhat of a sweet spot in Schaumburg. There are a lot of nice things within walking distance, and the rent is reasonable.