What have your kids learned growing up in the city compared to Suburb raised friends?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the city:

More diversity, both ethnic and financial. Tolerance of and sympathy for different types of people — e.g., for the guy who stands screaming on the corner outside our building every few days or the guys who pass out at our park or on the bridge we walk across. Comfort talking to strangers; we get in some outstanding conversations with people! Appreciation for other cultures and foods. Awareness of surroundings and a good sense of when to cross the street to avoid a person who is having a hard time vs who is likely to give you a hard time. My kid is also a master of urban parkour

We’ve never lived in suburbs, so I don’t have much personal comparison. But my kid’s suburban cousins visit and they’re not used to walking places or ordering their own food or public transportation. They are very easily made uncomfortable by someone who looks unlike what they’re used to or by a stranger striking up conversation. But - they have amazing experiences where they live that we could never afford because we live in DC.

The DC suburbs seem a lot more diverse than DC to me unless you’re comparing to white-bread Arlington.

This. We live in the suburbs, my kids’ friend groups are extremely diverse as are our grocery stores and restaurants.

One thing my kids aren’t learning out here is how to use public transport.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't make any sense the responses... all the best authentic asian food in DC is in the suburbs, as well as the best asian groceries. Almost all areas of NW DC are less diverse than Arlington, Falls Church, and PG County. (http://proximityone.com/diversity/neighborhood_diversity_dc.htm). Prince William County and MoCo are in the top 15 most diverse counties in the country and DC, and Silver Spring MD is a top 10 most diverse City but DC doesn't crack the top 10 (https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/2021s-diverse-cities-america-wallethub-study/). Suburb kids can visit museums just like city kids, so that makes no sense either. So we're basically left with "my kid uses public transportation comfortably" also could be rewritten as "my kid knows how to be poor"

[Anonymous]

I love when my suburban kids get together with their old city friends from our old neighborhood. I find the city-raised friends to be more mature, resourceful, independent, tolerant and sophisticated than my little rubes. It's great.

Then the city nice do get to come out and do things like swim and boat and drive and run around in nature.

[Anonymous]

Public transportation is no big deal to them (downside, not eager to get licenses)
More accustomed to noise, especially at night
Eat a much broader range of ethnic foods
Friends from a wide array of backgrounds, not just race, ethnicity, or religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public transportation is no big deal to them (downside, not eager to get licenses)
More accustomed to noise, especially at night
Eat a much broader range of ethnic foods
Friends from a wide array of backgrounds, not just race, ethnicity, or religion.

This doesn't seem likely to me given demographics. The suburbs are more diverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't make any sense the responses... all the best authentic asian food in DC is in the suburbs, as well as the best asian groceries. Almost all areas of NW DC are less diverse than Arlington, Falls Church, and PG County. (http://proximityone.com/diversity/neighborhood_diversity_dc.htm). Prince William County and MoCo are in the top 15 most diverse counties in the country and DC, and Silver Spring MD is a top 10 most diverse City but DC doesn't crack the top 10 (https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/2021s-diverse-cities-america-wallethub-study/). Suburb kids can visit museums just like city kids, so that makes no sense either. So we're basically left with "my kid uses public transportation comfortably" also could be rewritten as "my kid knows how to be poor"

I think it depends on what definition of suburb you use. We live in downtown Silver Spring. It can certainly be described as a suburb of DC, but it’s an urban area. Many people live outside of DC, but they can walk in 5 min to great restaurants, live music, etc.

[Anonymous]

Is Silver Spring a city or suburb? If that’s a suburb but upper NW is in a city, these distinctions are difficult around here.

[Anonymous]

My DH was raised in the city, I was raised in the suburbs. His mind is blown when I tell him about the trouble my peers got into in high school. His upbringing was far more sheltered -- maybe kids where I grew up were just bored and it led to mischief and reckless behavior.

[Anonymous]

Most of the "city" kids I know go to expensive private schools, while most of the "suburban" kids I know go to public schools. The city kids are learning that it's good to *appear* to embrace diversity by living "in the city" but that you don't want to *actually* integrate your life/education with people who are different from you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public transportation is no big deal to them (downside, not eager to get licenses)
More accustomed to noise, especially at night
Eat a much broader range of ethnic foods
Friends from a wide array of backgrounds, not just race, ethnicity, or religion.

This doesn't seem likely to me given demographics. The suburbs are more diverse.

We live in downtown Silver Spring. My kids can walk 5 min and get Thai, Ethiopian, Salvadoran, West African, Japanese, and Korean food to make a few. Our neighborhood is mixed income as well as ethnically diverse. Our parish has families from 60 countries. 20910 might not TECHNICALLY be a city, but it is certainly urban living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the "city" kids I know go to expensive private schools, while most of the "suburban" kids I know go to public schools. The city kids are learning that it's good to *appear* to embrace diversity by living "in the city" but that you don't want to *actually* integrate your life/education with people who are different from you.

You can't judge the thousands and thousands of public school city kids by bubble. There are as many different experiences among city children as there are children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Silver Spring a city or suburb? If that’s a suburb but upper NW is in a city, these distinctions are difficult around here.

Three definitions of suburbs

The first method, which the authors call “census convenient,” defines suburbs as anything outside of the principal city of a metropolitan area. As the name suggests, this method simplifies data gathering and analysis. That quality makes it popular among pundits looking to broadly characterize cities and suburbs without going into the details. This definition relies on political boundaries—one city stands for everything urban in a particular metro, while many jurisdictions and counties stand for everything suburban.

This method leaves a lot to be desired. Beyond the central city, suburbs are diverse. They include smaller historic cities and towns, and denser, more connected, “inner ring” suburbs. They also include the vast sprawling outer ring, in addition to places that are reforming and becoming more walkable and mixed-use. Central cities, also, vary significantly. Many have expanded over the years, incorporating broad suburban areas—while other cities retain historical boundaries. The “census convenient” method is too coarse-grained to clearly highlight the diversity in the built environment—and therefore is of limited use in devising strategies to make the suburbs more sustainable.

A second definition deals with markers of lifestyle, specifically single-family dwelling occupancy, homeownership, automobile commuting, and middle-class status. Dubbed “suburbanisms” by Airgood-Obrycki and Rieger, this method employs a stereotype of suburban living. Focusing on “suburbanisms” fails to acknowledge the diversity of lifestyles and neighborhoods, and how they change over time, in both suburbs and cities. Many historic cities include large areas of single-family houses and a high rate of homeownership. Both suburbs and cities are changing demographically—the former growing less wealthy and the latter less poor. CSD does generate a high rate of automobile commuting, but conflating these characteristics yields a muddy view that is too close to the tone of the dated 1960s protest song, “Little Boxes.”

Finally, the authors describe a method based on development eras, which they call the “typology” definition. Areas built prior to 1950, whether inside or outside the principal city, are defined as “urban.” Places built roughly between 1950 through 1969 are defined as “inner ring” suburbs. Developments from 1970 onward are called “outer suburbs.” These three eras strongly correlate with walkable, traditional neighborhoods (pre-1950), denser, more connected suburbs (1950-1969), and the most sprawling areas (1970-present).

While the typology method has merit, the definition is rooted in a static view of place—yet cities and suburbs are changing all of the time. There was a time, not long ago, when planners and developers were busy tearing down historic neighborhoods to build parking lots and wider roads, making them more like conventional suburbs. Now the reverse is happening in many suburbs.

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2019/09/25/fix-suburbs-first-define-them

[Anonymous]

Let's be clear. If you live in Ward 3, you don't live in the city. You live in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

LOL. My kids learned that the tiny plastic bags discarded on the sidewalk are called "zips."

Such sophistication!

[Anonymous]

I notice that my "urban" kids (Cap Hill) and my nieces from Brooklyn are a whole lot better talking with adults than their suburban cousins (midwestern and southern). Also not as "judgy" of people who are different than them - and less absorbed by their phones.

Not sure if this is due to parenting or geography.