Where to Live, The city, Suburbs or the boondocks!

Cremlian

I believe UglyFred, inspired me to start this potential flame war, as a discussion of whether you’d rather live in the City, suburbs or out in the country.

Personally, I’ve always lived in the Suburbs, I grew up in a Suburb of Philiadelphia (45 minutes from Center City, 10 minutes form the city line) and when I first lived here it was a lot more rural then it is now, which it’s become fully developed Suburbs. Anyhow, I went to College at RIT which is located in a Suburb of Rochester only about 15 minutes from the Center or Rochester (a much smaller city) and after College, I moved a town over from my home town in Horsham, to Hatboro Pa, where I bought a house and have lived so far pretty well.

Anyhow, lately I’ve been traveling into the City a lot and have been wondering did I make a mistake? Should I have traded my house and car for a train ticket, a subway and a apartment somewhere near the happening part of the city. At the same time I wonder this friends of mine who live near me wonder if they should move to the mountains to live even further isolated from the busy endless consumption of urban and suburban life.

Anyhow, So discuss Do you prefer the community of city life with it’s endless social areas, culture, yard less, fastpaced craziness or Country life with it’s large properties/low prices, nature, isolation and sometimes lack of facilities or do you like Suburban life with mix of strengths and weaknesses of the latter two, but the ability to travel to either quickly?

Phantasos

Speaking as someone who's lived in just about every urban density category there is (Downtown DC, Northern VA, Rural WV, Collegetown IA) I like being close enough to a city that you have access (theatre and music and sport) but far enough away that you don't have to deal with city crap (parking and polution and RENT). Downtown in convenient but kind of a hassle. Rural is peaceful but inconvenient as hell. Cookiecutter suburbia is SOUL-CRUSHING in it's blandness. The best, if you can swing it, are the little pockets of rural nestled near cities. The smaller towns away from major highways but still within an hour of a major city. To me, those are the jems to look for.

baltmatrix

Let me see. I spent half my life just outside Baltimore, then moved to bumble-fuck-nowhere PA, then back to just outside Baltimore. Living in a suburb of a city is much better than living in the rural areas. More to do. But there is a catch. It is (1) much more expensive and (2) the traffic is AWFUL.

Kilarney

I live in a very rural area. Since I have a family, there are several important differences. I can afford a nicer house. My commute is 5 minutes. That gives me about 2 hours per day extra that I can spend with my family - hours that you can never get back. I also live in a place where people come to play. Skiing, hiking, swimming - you name it. There's plenty to do here if you aren't into shopping. What's great is that I am only 2 hours from Montreal, 3 hours from Boston, and 3 hours from the beach. My day to day life is without the stress of the city, yet I can hop in the car any weekend I want and get my urban fix.

The only downside is that I live in an area that is in the economic fringe, with no real signs of improvement. As a professional, there are very few other people to network with and socialize with. I'm not saying I'm better than anyone else, I'm just saying that there are very few people that I have much in common with. Within my profession, I think there is only one other person my age in the whole county.

Rym

Rural areas wouldn't be so bad, what with the cheap living and all, but for the fact that there aren't any jobs there, especially for technologists.

Even if I found a decent job outside of a major urban center, there wouldn't likely be any other opportunities. Immediate dead-end career, and I'd be forced to move if that company ever went under or laid me off.

Andrew

Speaking as someone who's lived in just about every urban density category there is (Downtown DC, Northern VA, Rural WV, Collegetown IA)

I currently live in Northern VA now and I must say. It is ideal to live just where Phantasos said. Just far enough from the city, but close enough to have access to the area. Pretty much everyone around here commutes to DC for work, so traffic can be a bitch at times, but if you can deal with that then it's not bad at all.

Kilarney

I guess I'm lucky that I have one of those professional jobs that is not dependent on a city.

TheWhaleShark

I grew up in a very rural part of New York State, then lived in a suburb of Albany, and now live in the city proper. I can say that the rural experience is a very important one; combined with an urban experience, it gives you a well-rounded perspective on life. However, for being a young professional, I have to say that urban living is where it's at; suburbia is nice, but it's too bland, and rural simply doesn't have the jobs or the general level of activity that is necessary to keep me interested.

Yakeiza

I was a military brat, so I've lived in about even type of area. I live for convenience and I hate commuting so the city is for me. However cities are really freaking dirty and expensive so it's a toss up as to where I shall live. Right now I am debating between Tokyo, Yokohama, Hawaii, and coastal Southern CA. You may just be better off taking a train with gas prices the way they are now.

tehmarken

I was born and raised in the suburbs, in particular Northern Virginia. Except for maybe Orange County, northern VA is the most typical of suburbs.

However, I am quite happy that Manassas is really on the edge of suburban sprawl. Enough for the highway to go through, and unfortunately for rush hour to last about 3 hours, but only a 10 minute drive will get you out to the farm lands. We have awesome farmer's markets every weekend, and being close to the Chesapeake we get some crabs (althought the past decade has seen horrednous decline because of over-harvesting and massive polution due to suburban sprawl).

The greatest thing about my area in particular is that we have the major highways connecting everything, but all the backroads still connect everywhere too. Yesterday I decided to take the backroads home instead of the highway for a change. I went through a small town that I never knew existing (despite it being only 10 miles from my house) and enjoyed a beautiful scenic route through the woods. And I ended up cutting my commute almost in half, without having to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Needless to say, this is my new daily route. But to get back on-topic:

I would definately love to live in the suburbs once I'm out of college. The fact that I love driving backroads basically rules out city living. I like being far enough out of the city to see green, and have open land nearby; but I still love the convenience of having major stores within a 5 minute drive. Seeing as how I'm planing to make my way into the Auto Industry after I graduate (in two years), I could nd up just about anywhere, and in any country (Japan seems like a highly likely candidate considering the recent trends).

tuttle88

You should live in Adelaide, I live in the suburbs, I can walk to the city in 20 minutes. Because of the way Adelaide was planned out CBD is surrounded by the Parklands which is, well, parks that surround the city in a circle. This means that I can have all the niceness and space that comes with living in a suburb but am a 10 minute drive from the city. A half hour drive to the beach or to the country and I can get to the Barrossa Valley in 45 minutes.

thaneofcawdor

There is a downside to living in Adelaide: you may end up in a barrel inside a bank vault.

tuttle88

You're just jealous cause we get all the cool murders.