The Tragedy of Suburbia

[reckless toboggan]

The Tragedy of Suburbia would make a great Refused album title.

[old goat]

I had a boss who would start frothing when I would call his neighborhood "the suburbs" - I never understood his aversion to the term...

yesterday's suburb is tomorrow's city center. Or at least it could be. Huge arterial roads impossible to navigate on foot, wide secondary and local roads which make foot trips a lot longer, no retail with the walls of the subdivision, and disconnected subdivisions prevent that from happening.

Sacramento, with its simple geography makes it easy to see. Older suburbs like East Sacramento, Land Park, and Curtis Park connect easily with the midtown and downtown neighborhoods, even with a couple of freeways (elevated) running through them. Small scale retail along the arteries which are two and sometimes 4 lane. Same with the suburbs built in the 50's, all within the city limits now. It's when you get to the newer suburbs that you get 6+ lane roads, mega-strip malls, and isolated subdivisions. The farther you get from downtown the more "suburban" it becomes. This didn't happen by accident--it was the result of deliberate planning.

An old neighborhood in an American is like a small town in a lot of ways. A new neighborhood is a fancy prison where the inmates are on work release IMO.

[SumJongGuy]

I live less than two miles from an urban downtown area and also less than 5 miles from rural farmland. What's hilarious is how adamant hipsters are about having to be less than a mile from "downtown" even in a mid sized city like Durham. They're selling little cracker box apartments in the old tobacco warehouses downtown for HUGE bucks to folks who want to see the dirty side of humanity a little more each day.

There are now homeless people living in cars and tents less than three blocks from my house and this little area has become gentrified and barrio ghetto simultaneously. Also humorous to see the neighborhood bleeding decon new folks get all shocked and up in arms about hearing gunshots more than once a month or brown kids on dirt bikes tearing up and down the street turning the newly gentrified blocks in to a scene out of a Mad Max movie just to mess with them.

Best and worst of both worlds here. Then, halfway between the urban area and rural area are the McMansions where people hide behind iron fences and rarely mix with us unwashed masses.

[gravitylover]

In the 22 years I've lived in this particular suburban hell my single largest recurring complaint is that there is no community, I can't walk anywhere and can't ride my bike out my door safely because everything is made for cars. The closest sidewalk is 2 miles away, the closest street light is 2 miles away, the closest bus stop is almost 2 miles away and there is such limited parking at the train stations that unless you're there by 6:30am there's no place to park so you have to drive everywhere all the time.

I can't stand the thought of moving into an urban center and in so many ways can't picture myself, or my wife, enjoying that life but I do see us leaving here for a small town where walking or riding is a reality but I think we'd have to be at the very edge so there's forest and the outdoor opportunities that come with that. I want to be able to walk or ride right out the door to shop and to play and don't want to deal with the property maintenance that comes with suburban living. We are aging so access to medical care will be necessary soon enough I'm sure. Where is this place?

[Viva]

The farther you get from downtown the more "suburban" it becomes. This didn't happen by accident--it was the result of deliberate planning.

An old neighborhood in an American is like a small town in a lot of ways. A new neighborhood is a fancy prison where the inmates are on work release IMO.

Been to Tracy lately? There's a new development near by, Mountain House. God! What a fucking shithole.

[jacob_dbu]

An old neighborhood in an American is like a small town in a lot of ways. A new neighborhood is a fancy prison where the inmates are on work release IMO.

Amen to that. And a fancy prison is not for me.

[Benny Profane]

This thread needs Hugh Conway so bad.

[SKIP IN7RO]

Garth Bimble is going to be living in suburbia in 10 years

Isn't Bayfield already a suburb of Durango?

[fastfred]

I

I can't stand the thought of moving into an urban center and in so many ways can't picture myself, or my wife, enjoying that life but I do see us leaving here for a small town where walking or riding is a reality but I think we'd have to be at the very edge so there's forest and the outdoor opportunities that come with that. I want to be able to walk or ride right out the door to shop and to play and don't want to deal with the property maintenance that comes with suburban living. We are aging so access to medical care will be necessary soon enough I'm sure. Where is this place?

breckenridge

[fastfred]

Highlands Ranch. Suburbia on steroids.

highlands ranch would be a great case study

it took over 30 years to fully develop, it's the largest master planned community in the country, it's actually pretty dense too, it's sprawling, but I imagine if someone looked up the density it's pretty high compared to most suburban places
compare the density of highlands ranch to the development in northern colorado ie north of denver and that is nothing more than massive massive sprawl in a few years it could be any shit hole in america
at least i'll give props to highlands ranch in some respects

[Viva]

For old folks I've long thought that access to services (health care in particular), cultural options (sports, theatre, whatever) and a reduced need to drive would continue to contribute to urbanization. How do you feel, and pardon my slanted rhetoric here please, but how do you feel, Garth, about being an old fuck in the middle of nowhere who has to drive to do or get anything? What made you feel tht that's a better option than a condo with a store on the corner, a movie theatre on the next block and a hospital a few blocks further down? I'm not trying to say you're wrong necessarily but to me it doesn't add up to sensible.

An interesting supposition, Ice. I've elected to establish roots a little east of Garth, just outside of Pagosa Springs. There, I'll have to drive for shopping, brew pubs, and, well, pretty much everything.

Why?

I want solitude. I want mountain trails to hike / run and rarely traveled windy roads to ride my bikes. Having nearby skiing is gravy. And the South West desert is just to the south. I have a place with a view, with few neighbors (and the few I've met, have my back). I fuckin' love it here! For me, that's living! And it's all accessible. Any fucking time. Not like living in Los Angeles, Mexico, where traffic dictates one's schedule to such an obscene extent.

I don't care about access to any sort of long-term medical care - I'll never use it.

[Rip'nStick]

This thread needs Hugh Conway so bad.

This thread has so much winning, but this was on of my favorite posts....

That and right off the bat Flowing calling new jong out on scooping up some Billy goats on gear swap

[Grape_Ape]

Suburbia has ruined America and made it a place full of places not worth caring about.

https://www.ted.com/talks/james_howa...sects_suburbia

I thought this was well done and so true. I hate driving, I hate the lack of public spaces. Sucks.

This is why I live in the city. Sprawl is out of fucking control and the suburbs are fucking lame.

[reckless toboggan]

It's probably not a coincidence that my favorite city is Amsterdam. Walkable, friendly, minimal car traffic, tons of spots to shop, eat, drink, buy psylocybin, etc. Everything you need within a 10 minute walk. An excellent train network that costs little & can take you anywhere in yerp.

How do ya like them apples!

[Ottime]

"suburbs" grew from a need to house lots of people cheaply. so did "fast food". like it or lump it.

That is not entirely accurate. Suburbs were a design concept. To move (white) people out of the cities. Roads and automobiles facilitated this. There was land in the cities, but it was easier to let them fail and try to start a new in suburbia. Moses has a vision of a leisure life of cars, big homes and grass filled yards. And the vision sold well. We created these things on purpose. Not just out of need to find space for housing.

Fast food had nothing to do with need. It was created to serve the hordes in their cars. And it was profitable. Profit drove fast food. There are better ways to feed many people inexpensively. You are forgetting to lump in medical costs to your assertion. Eating that shit is not cheap.

[Garth Bimble]

Isn't Bayfield already a suburb of Durango?

We prefer to considerate it a "bedroom" community...whatever the fuck that means.

[wyeaster]

Of course that's your contention. You're a first year grad student. You just finished some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison prob'ly, and so naturally that's what you believe until next month when you get to James Lemon and get convinced that Virginia and Pennsylvania were strongly entrepreneurial and capitalist back in 1740. That'll last until sometime in your second year, then you'll be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood about the Pre revolutionary utopia and the capital forming effects of military mobilization.

weird

[wyeaster]

Sunday Steve is serious Steve. A Walter Sobchak disciple.

i thought it was crotchety steve but i always mix him up with ornery steve

[Garth Bimble]

Not sure if anybody's read it, it's a bit dated but probably still appropriate for this discussion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Organization_Man

The author's theory was that post WWII Americans were falling into a "corporate" mentality as opposed to a belief in individual responsibility. His research was based in large part on who he knew and what he experienced in the town where he lived when he wrote the book...Park Forest, Illinois, which is where I grew up and one of the first "pre-engineered" suburbs.

edit: My 2nd top of page in this thread...FKNA!

[Bobby Stainless]

No matter how much Jeff Sessions of the world try to, you simply cannot contain the human spirit. Either give it space to exercise, or get ready while it rips wheelies down Broadway. This documentary is on netflix or hulu, def worth a look.

Me an DD are 12 O'Clock boys.

[Vt-Freeheel]

I would wither and die living in a city and the burbs don't cut it for me. I like living in the country where I can be in the forest for a walk in 30 seconds. The post war boomers had to go somewhere and with so many having country roots a backyard was appealing rather than a window looking at the building next door.

The American Dream

[iceman]

weird

It's a quote from "Good Will Hunting".

[DBdude]

It's probably not a coincidence that my favorite city is Amsterdam. Walkable, friendly, minimal car traffic, tons of spots to shop, eat, drink, travel, etc. Everything you need within a 10 minute walk. An excellent train network that costs little & can take you anywhere in yerp.

unfortunately it's in holland

[SumJongGuy]

No matter how much Jeff Sessions of the world try to, you simply cannot contain the human spirit. Either give it space to exercise, or get ready while it rips wheelies down Broadway. This documentary is on netflix or hulu, def worth a look.

Around here they call themselves "Bikes Up, Guns Down". One of our neighbors and his kids ride with them regularly. They are fantastic neighbors and our kids spend a lot of time hanging out together.

[ncskier]

That entire talk smacks of confirmation bias. “I see it with my own eyes so it’s true.” Yes nyc and many metros appear to bursting at the seams , but the numbers don’t lie. People are leaving cities. Heck even San Francisco had 30-40k residents move out.
I for one will buck the trend and sell the big house in the burbs once my kids leave high school. Wife and I will then purchase a condo in a city and I will purchase a farm to screw around on.
I have often thought accessibility may be rendered a moot point for today’s youngsters, because you can have your self driving car take you to the big city doctor even if you are slightly diminished. Telehealth is also coming on quickly.


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