Moved to the burbs and I hate it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is being a mile away from the metro considered the suburbs? I think not.

In proper cities, a full mile away from the subway is not considered a convenient location. Of course, much of DC itself is tucked away in all-residential corridors without good Metro access, but, for some perspective, that's not really in keeping with real urban land use paradigms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is being a mile away from the metro considered the suburbs? I think not.

In proper cities, a full mile away from the subway is not considered a convenient location. Of course, much of DC itself is tucked away in all-residential corridors without good Metro access, but, for some perspective, that's not really in keeping with real urban land use paradigms.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You would hate it worse raising a growing child in a 800 sq ft home. I had one child in a 1300 sq ft home and nearly went nuts with the lack of space. Do you really want to raise your child in a closet?

Harsh. We have 2 kids in 1200 square feet and do just fine--as do many people throughout the rest of the world, including much of Europe. Maybe you own a lot of useless junk or are very messy?

I grew up in a much smaller apartment in yes, your beloved Europe, and I hate it, and I love my big house in McLean.

Europeans have it going on!

no clutter
simplicity

And while family is very important to them, getting out and about and refusing to make their homes an obsession are equally as valuable to them.

PP - You didn't grow up with money, right? b/c you sound classless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You would hate it worse raising a growing child in a 800 sq ft home. I had one child in a 1300 sq ft home and nearly went nuts with the lack of space. Do you really want to raise your child in a closet?

Harsh. We have 2 kids in 1200 square feet and do just fine--as do many people throughout the rest of the world, including much of Europe. Maybe you own a lot of useless junk or are very messy?

I grew up in a much smaller apartment in yes, your beloved Europe, and I hate it, and I love my big house in McLean.

Europeans have it going on!

no clutter
simplicity

And while family is very important to them, getting out and about and refusing to make their homes an obsession are equally as valuable to them.

PP - You didn't grow up with money, right? b/c you sound classless

Actually, you sound like a snob. The other poster just expressed his/her preference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone here hates on strip malls but Isn't every newly gentrified areas of DC strip malls under tall building with your typical harris teeter, pot bellies and other typical stores.

Hating on strip malls is about as middle brow as you can get. Most of the good, affordable restaurants in this area either are in strip malls or started out in one.

I know! Who knew. My fav Indian restaurant is in a strip mall in Langley Park.

Woodlands FTW!

Yup!!

[Anonymous]

OP is a troll

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is a troll

Maybe but I'll give OP the benefit of the doubt. If you choose poorly, you might hate your neighborhood. We've had several people move to our neighborhood from other suburbs because they disliked not being able to walk to anything, their neighbors were unfriendly, commute stunk, etc. Just goes to show how important doing your due diligence is prior to making such a huge purchase.

[Anonymous]

OP here, alas not a troll. Thanks much everyone. Really appreciate all the feedback and I apologize if my original post was overly dramatic. It's really a much bigger lifestyle change than I had anticipated. Husband and I talked and agreed that we'll give it a year and reassess from there.

[Anonymous]

OP, your post WAS dramatic - you sounded horrible. There is a big difference between city vs burbs. But, compare that to life with kids vs no kids? MASSSIVE difference. Try and make the best of things for the next year. And remember Happy Hour.

[Anonymous]

Move to Arlington, Va. The Lyon Village area is fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You would hate it worse raising a growing child in a 800 sq ft home. I had one child in a 1300 sq ft home and nearly went nuts with the lack of space. Do you really want to raise your child in a closet?

Harsh. We have 2 kids in 1200 square feet and do just fine--as do many people throughout the rest of the world, including much of Europe. Maybe you own a lot of useless junk or are very messy?

I grew up in a much smaller apartment in yes, your beloved Europe, and I hate it, and I love my big house in McLean.

Europeans have it going on!

no clutter
simplicity

And while family is very important to them, getting out and about and refusing to make their homes an obsession are equally as valuable to them.

PP - You didn't grow up with money, right? b/c you sound classless

You sound like a hick whose idea of Europe is based on the pre-college summer trip. You think the grand totality of Europeans, millions of them, live exactly the same way? You think there are no suburbs in Europe? No single family houses? No small towns?No rural areas? No remote locations? It's all a continent full of Paris studios for you, isn't it.

Dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You would hate it worse raising a growing child in a 800 sq ft home. I had one child in a 1300 sq ft home and nearly went nuts with the lack of space. Do you really want to raise your child in a closet?

this. Soon enough, your child will be able to run around the yard freely. It is nice to be able to say "go outside and play". Sounds like you moved to an empty nester neighborhood. We made that same mistake. Boring as hell. We rarely even saw our neighbors. Everyone just pulled into their garage and never came outside. We ended up moving to a cul-de-sac, and it has been much better. But I'm tired of the suburbs now. I wish there was somewhere with an urban feel, but also affordable, good schools, low crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You would hate it worse raising a growing child in a 800 sq ft home. I had one child in a 1300 sq ft home and nearly went nuts with the lack of space. Do you really want to raise your child in a closet?

Harsh. We have 2 kids in 1200 square feet and do just fine--as do many people throughout the rest of the world, including much of Europe. Maybe you own a lot of useless junk or are very messy?

I grew up in a much smaller apartment in yes, your beloved Europe, and I hate it, and I love my big house in McLean.

Europeans have it going on!

no clutter
simplicity

And while family is very important to them, getting out and about and refusing to make their homes an obsession are equally as valuable to them.

PP - You didn't grow up with money, right? b/c you sound classless

Oh, honey. Money and class are two entirely different things.

As you demonstrate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have to tell you things are bad in the non or gentrifying areas of DC. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work anf most are on welfare. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

The Russians have nothing to do with what is making you mad.

Can we have a DCUM Fan Fiction section, Jeff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You would hate it worse raising a growing child in a 800 sq ft home. I had one child in a 1300 sq ft home and nearly went nuts with the lack of space. Do you really want to raise your child in a closet?

Harsh. We have 2 kids in 1200 square feet and do just fine--as do many people throughout the rest of the world, including much of Europe. Maybe you own a lot of useless junk or are very messy?

I grew up in a much smaller apartment in yes, your beloved Europe, and I hate it, and I love my big house in McLean.

Europeans have it going on!

no clutter
simplicity

And while family is very important to them, getting out and about and refusing to make their homes an obsession are equally as valuable to them.

PP - You didn't grow up with money, right? b/c you sound classless

You sound like a hick whose idea of Europe is based on the pre-college summer trip. You think the grand totality of Europeans, millions of them, live exactly the same way? You think there are no suburbs in Europe? No single family houses? No small towns?No rural areas? No remote locations? It's all a continent full of Paris studios for you, isn't it.

Dumb.

Agree. I hate the romanticizing of Europe on this forum by people who've only every been there on vacation or in their dreams.