American Focus on Suburbs Leading to Large Houses

[Anonymous]

The OP is a little confusing to me. Europe has urban areas, suburbs and rural areas just like the US.

[Anonymous]

Because real estate developers realized that to sell people on a 30-60 minute commute, they needed to throw in extra square footage and his/hers WICs to sweeten the deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because real estate developers realized that to sell people on a 30-60 minute commute, they needed to throw in extra square footage and his/hers WICs to sweeten the deal.

Lol u think it doesn’t take 30 min - 1 hr when u live in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because real estate developers realized that to sell people on a 30-60 minute commute, they needed to throw in extra square footage and his/hers WICs to sweeten the deal.

Lol u think it doesn’t take 30 min - 1 hr when u live in the city.

My DH sometimes makes it to work from DC to Old Town faster than I make it to work from our home in close in NE DC to my job in outlying NE DC. And if I took public transportation, my commute would be worse. DC public transportation sucks as metro stops (which could make it faster) are not nearly as dense as it could be and busses are always slower than driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The OP is a little confusing to me. Europe has urban areas, suburbs and rural areas just like the US.

True, except urban areas are typically denser, suburban homes are typically smaller, and cars are typically more compact compared to the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cities have low performing public schools compared to suburbs.

Hmm, I wonder why? Could it be the racial segregation of the past, white flight once segregation was outlawed, the lack of funding as a result of that white flight? Again, it always comes back to the systemic racism this country was founded on.

No. Not all cities. Portland, Seattle, and other similarly sized cities always had stronger schools than most of the surrounding suburbs.

Exceptions would be the wealthiest suburbs near the high tech job centers like Bellevue for example.

Um... what are you smoking Mr. or Ms. Transplant? Cow Poop. I'm from Seattle and have family in Portland, both SPS and PPS have always been substandard since the 1970s and busing wrecked the feeder models which led to traditionally high community enrollment in public schools and weak private schools out West. After busing and losing feeder rights, anyone who could afford it stayed and sent kids to private. Others with less settled and moved out to the suburbs, where the schools were demonstrably better.

The dangers of an online community where anyone claims to be an expert (hyping Europe or mythical NYC, pooping on DC for being a second-tier city and all suburbs. By the way I live in Ward 2).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cities have low performing public schools compared to suburbs.

Hmm, I wonder why? Could it be the racial segregation of the past, white flight once segregation was outlawed, the lack of funding as a result of that white flight? Again, it always comes back to the systemic racism this country was founded on.

No. Not all cities. Portland, Seattle, and other similarly sized cities always had stronger schools than most of the surrounding suburbs.

Exceptions would be the wealthiest suburbs near the high tech job centers like Bellevue for example.

Um... what are you smoking Mr. or Ms. Transplant? Cow Poop. I'm from Seattle and have family in Portland, both SPS and PPS have always been substandard since the 1970s and busing wrecked the feeder models which led to traditionally high community enrollment in public schools and weak private schools out West. After busing and losing feeder rights, anyone who could afford it stayed and sent kids to private. Others with less settled and moved out to the suburbs, where the schools were demonstrably better.

The dangers of an online community where anyone claims to be an expert (hyping Europe or mythical NYC, pooping on DC for being a second-tier city and all suburbs. By the way I live in Ward 2).

Both Portland’s Grant and Lincoln High Schools have traditionally been among the strongest in the state. Cleveland HS is also popular. I have family that went there. The neighborhood schools have very strong community support in Portland to this day, at least in Portland Public Schools. The school districts in the suburbs to the east of PPS have been struggling with an increasingly lower income student body.

Community involvement in the schools is still strong, and that helped convince Seattle to reopen Lincoln High School as a neighborhood school serving a generally upper middle class area of the city. (Seattle closed Lincoln back in the 80s due to a then declining school age population.)

It’s true that lack of funding since the 1970s has hurt public schools in Oregon, but those issues are finally getting worked out.

[Anonymous]

Also, you’re wrong about bussing in Portland. It lasted only ten years and controversially dispersed the small African American population to schools around the city, so as not to cause any “white flight” which probably wouldn’t have happened anyways since the city then and now has been majority white. (White students were not bussed in Portland.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I visit my MIL in Queens NY this long weekend. The stink of vaping and pot in her yard from neighbors. The noise. The tiny tiny plot of a yard with five neighbors on top of you.

The loud screaming of multiple languages and smelly food. Dog crap everywhere.

She is retired and hates it there is literally 12 people on the house next door that is 1,400 sf.

I hate that foreigners scream when having a simple conversation. I am not fan of diversity.

For one, they’re probably not foreigners. But also, annoying as it is, I find it much less disruptive than people screaming in a language I understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because real estate developers realized that to sell people on a 30-60 minute commute, they needed to throw in extra square footage and his/hers WICs to sweeten the deal.

Lol u think it doesn’t take 30 min - 1 hr when u live in the city.

My DH sometimes makes it to work from DC to Old Town faster than I make it to work from our home in close in NE DC to my job in outlying NE DC. And if I took public transportation, my commute would be worse. DC public transportation sucks as metro stops (which could make it faster) are not nearly as dense as it could be and busses are always slower than driving.

Add in jaywalkers, cyclists not following the rules of the road, and cars double-parked or parked in turn lanes…what a disaster!

[Anonymous]

In DC, there basically aren’t any grocery stores. If you have to drive 20 minutes to get groceries anyway, may as well do it in a burb where you can park without having an aneurysm.

[Anonymous]

I'm going to be controversial. I do love urban walkable cities and love the midsize cities of Europe, places like Munich for example, for offering a great balance of walkability without feeing too big (looking at NYC) or expensive (looking at you London).

I currently live in a nice "inner" suburb that has some walkability and handsome housing stock. One thinks win-win, right?

But there's another aspect to newer American suburbia that I've come to appreciate in new years. And that is how much easier life does seem to be out there. Schools are good and uncomplicated (note the uncomplicated part). Local stores and supermarkets and drugstores are filled with uncomplicated patrons (note the uncomplicated part). Traffic is calmer and uncomplicated (note the uncomplicated part).

There are a lot fewer hassles and less in your face stress in outer/newer suburbia. Life is quieter - and calmer. So I'm not surprised by why so many affluent families buy in newer suburbia.

[Anonymous]

This is so weird. There have always been large English manor houses in the middle of no where. This concept isn’t foreign to Europeans they just couldn’t afford it and don’t have the land to support it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so weird. There have always been large English manor houses in the middle of no where. This concept isn’t foreign to Europeans they just couldn’t afford it and don’t have the land to support it.

Many of those estates are too expensive to maintain in this day and age and are now open to the public as hotels or wedding venues to make money.

The descendants of the old European aristocracy by and large no longer live in those estates on hundreds of acres of land.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the suburbs of a European city and I think there are a lot of issues at play here, most of them discussed already.

- Public transport is bad here. It makes the suburbs feel much more isolated, and drives more people into cars, which is the lifestyle they prefer anyway

- The suburb where I grew up and others I have been to in other countries is like a small town. It had good transport links to the city but also was a walkable small town in itself, with local stores, restaurants. I haven’t seen much of that here, or where it exists it is unusual and expensive. I think it doesn’t work here because people want large lots and houses and so it all gets very spread out. Also people are happy to drive everywhere.

- The American dream - the house with the white picket fence. That’s not really a thing outside the US (not that people don’t have or want houses, it’s just not necessarily a focus for everyone).

- Extreme desire for privacy and wish to be alone and away from others. Not unique to Americans of course, but definitely less common as a desire where I grew up.