Is suburban living considered a failure?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the dream for most.

No. Definitely not.

The idea of being forced to drive everywhere, traffic jams, rage in the parking lots, rage on the sidelines of playing fields, rage in lines, racism, HOAs, severing social ties, monotony, etc makes me physically ill.

The parts of my life that would improve by moving to the suburbs are the parts of my life that I wish I could cut out (access to shopping malls, shorter commutes for insane kid's sports, car dealerships).

City dwellers don’t walk everywhere so stop lying
I haven’t been in a traffic jam since the last snow storm or hurricane and that was 5 cars stuck behind a fallen tree
Ever sidelines has crazy parents especially dc united clun, Gonzaga football, Georgetown basketball
More diverse in Germantown Md than most of dc
I have friends from grade school/hs/new neighborhoods/life… more likely to gather every weekend on someone’s deck than at a cramped bar,
Monotony is going to the same places within walking distance which is why you no longer walk everywhere

Some city dwellers really do walk everywhere. We have one car and only use it once or twice a week and one of those times is for my spouse to commute to a job... in the suburbs. We walk to our kid's school, the grocery store, the library, etc. Also lots of biking and public transportation.

I'm not anti-suburb but we do actually worry that if we moved we'd wind up spending a thousand percent more time in the car. We're trying to find a suburb where this wouldn't be the case as we'd love to have more space and get away from the crime issues but we are never going to come anywhere close to the level of convenience and walkability we have now.

Keep in mind that means you can actually afford to live in a walkable area of DC. Finding that with space for two kids generally requires the ability to purchase very expensive housing.

I lived in DV but could not afford an area like that. We could walk to a playground and maybe the library and a 7-11. We drove everywhere all the time.

So unable to pay for the urban life, you retreated to the burbs.

Yes but also we lived next to a hoarder with a roach infestation and other major nuisances I don't go into. So you can say there were multiple factors like never ever ever ever ever wanting to share walls with a neighbor again.

Oh and a large yard is blissful especially as someone who adores gardening... Especially without a rat parade and where I can drink my coffee and stare at my plants in peace without excessive litter or people constantly walking by smoking pot which stinks

My dc row house also has a garden? And I have a community garden plot and I have hundreds of acres of parkland.

LOL! Your garden wouldn’t even be the size of one of my flower beds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very happy with my home on 3 acres with gardens, ponds, pool, dogs and chickens. My nightmare is waking up to find I’m living in a condo. Different strokes for different folks.

That's not suburbia. That's exurbia.

I live in the city and the only thing you have that I don't (or can't, sorry, eff chickens) is 3 acres of land to pay property taxes on. But I do have hundreds of acres of parkland filled with ponds and streams, ball fields, playgrounds, close community, neighbors who are like family.

Potomac is exurbia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the dream for most.

No. Definitely not.

The idea of being forced to drive everywhere, traffic jams, rage in the parking lots, rage on the sidelines of playing fields, rage in lines, racism, HOAs, severing social ties, monotony, etc makes me physically ill.

The parts of my life that would improve by moving to the suburbs are the parts of my life that I wish I could cut out (access to shopping malls, shorter commutes for insane kid's sports, car dealerships).

City dwellers don’t walk everywhere so stop lying
I haven’t been in a traffic jam since the last snow storm or hurricane and that was 5 cars stuck behind a fallen tree
Ever sidelines has crazy parents especially dc united clun, Gonzaga football, Georgetown basketball
More diverse in Germantown Md than most of dc
I have friends from grade school/hs/new neighborhoods/life… more likely to gather every weekend on someone’s deck than at a cramped bar,
Monotony is going to the same places within walking distance which is why you no longer walk everywhere

Some city dwellers really do walk everywhere. We have one car and only use it once or twice a week and one of those times is for my spouse to commute to a job... in the suburbs. We walk to our kid's school, the grocery store, the library, etc. Also lots of biking and public transportation.

I'm not anti-suburb but we do actually worry that if we moved we'd wind up spending a thousand percent more time in the car. We're trying to find a suburb where this wouldn't be the case as we'd love to have more space and get away from the crime issues but we are never going to come anywhere close to the level of convenience and walkability we have now.

Keep in mind that means you can actually afford to live in a walkable area of DC. Finding that with space for two kids generally requires the ability to purchase very expensive housing.

I lived in DV but could not afford an area like that. We could walk to a playground and maybe the library and a 7-11. We drove everywhere all the time.

So unable to pay for the urban life, you retreated to the burbs.

Yes but also we lived next to a hoarder with a roach infestation and other major nuisances I don't go into. So you can say there were multiple factors like never ever ever ever ever wanting to share walls with a neighbor again.

Oh and a large yard is blissful especially as someone who adores gardening... Especially without a rat parade and where I can drink my coffee and stare at my plants in peace without excessive litter or people constantly walking by smoking pot which stinks

My dc row house also has a garden? And I have a community garden plot and I have hundreds of acres of parkland.

LOL! Your garden wouldn’t even be the size of one of my flower beds.

And responses like this are why I want nothing to do with suburban “culture”. Desperate consumerism to prove you’re better than the people in the ticky tack box next door who you hate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the dream for most.

No. Definitely not.

The idea of being forced to drive everywhere, traffic jams, rage in the parking lots, rage on the sidelines of playing fields, rage in lines, racism, HOAs, severing social ties, monotony, etc makes me physically ill.

The parts of my life that would improve by moving to the suburbs are the parts of my life that I wish I could cut out (access to shopping malls, shorter commutes for insane kid's sports, car dealerships).

City dwellers don’t walk everywhere so stop lying
I haven’t been in a traffic jam since the last snow storm or hurricane and that was 5 cars stuck behind a fallen tree
Ever sidelines has crazy parents especially dc united clun, Gonzaga football, Georgetown basketball
More diverse in Germantown Md than most of dc
I have friends from grade school/hs/new neighborhoods/life… more likely to gather every weekend on someone’s deck than at a cramped bar,
Monotony is going to the same places within walking distance which is why you no longer walk everywhere

Some city dwellers really do walk everywhere. We have one car and only use it once or twice a week and one of those times is for my spouse to commute to a job... in the suburbs. We walk to our kid's school, the grocery store, the library, etc. Also lots of biking and public transportation.

I'm not anti-suburb but we do actually worry that if we moved we'd wind up spending a thousand percent more time in the car. We're trying to find a suburb where this wouldn't be the case as we'd love to have more space and get away from the crime issues but we are never going to come anywhere close to the level of convenience and walkability we have now.

Keep in mind that means you can actually afford to live in a walkable area of DC. Finding that with space for two kids generally requires the ability to purchase very expensive housing.

I lived in DV but could not afford an area like that. We could walk to a playground and maybe the library and a 7-11. We drove everywhere all the time.

So unable to pay for the urban life, you retreated to the burbs.

Yes but also we lived next to a hoarder with a roach infestation and other major nuisances I don't go into. So you can say there were multiple factors like never ever ever ever ever wanting to share walls with a neighbor again.

Oh and a large yard is blissful especially as someone who adores gardening... Especially without a rat parade and where I can drink my coffee and stare at my plants in peace without excessive litter or people constantly walking by smoking pot which stinks

My dc row house also has a garden? And I have a community garden plot and I have hundreds of acres of parkland.

We had a front yard garden at our rowhouse but too tiny and the rats were so bad that we couldn't grow vegetables in our backyard. They came on the deck in BRIGHT DAYLIGHT to eat my herbs down to nubs. We had a community garden but it was a pain to manage our plot once I had kids. It's so much nicer to garden in peace in my own yard which isn't huge, but has plenty of space for the various plants my heart desires. And I deal with rabbits better than rats.

I also mentioned the living next to a hoarder/cockroach issue. There was more to that, but dear GOD, no more shared walls for us, never ever again.

Suburban bliss.

Yeah, puppy mills, pot farms and maga voters make great neighbors.

None of that impacts me personally living without shared walls. And we did also deal with pot smoke infiltrating through brick walls.

See you're trolling there as your're realllly trying to reach for counters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very happy with my home on 3 acres with gardens, ponds, pool, dogs and chickens. My nightmare is waking up to find I’m living in a condo. Different strokes for different folks.

That's not suburbia. That's exurbia.

I live in the city and the only thing you have that I don't (or can't, sorry, eff chickens) is 3 acres of land to pay property taxes on. But I do have hundreds of acres of parkland filled with ponds and streams, ball fields, playgrounds, close community, neighbors who are like family.

Potomac is exurbia?

If it’s five acres, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the dream for most.

No. Definitely not.

The idea of being forced to drive everywhere, traffic jams, rage in the parking lots, rage on the sidelines of playing fields, rage in lines, racism, HOAs, severing social ties, monotony, etc makes me physically ill.

The parts of my life that would improve by moving to the suburbs are the parts of my life that I wish I could cut out (access to shopping malls, shorter commutes for insane kid's sports, car dealerships).

City dwellers don’t walk everywhere so stop lying
I haven’t been in a traffic jam since the last snow storm or hurricane and that was 5 cars stuck behind a fallen tree
Ever sidelines has crazy parents especially dc united clun, Gonzaga football, Georgetown basketball
More diverse in Germantown Md than most of dc
I have friends from grade school/hs/new neighborhoods/life… more likely to gather every weekend on someone’s deck than at a cramped bar,
Monotony is going to the same places within walking distance which is why you no longer walk everywhere

Some city dwellers really do walk everywhere. We have one car and only use it once or twice a week and one of those times is for my spouse to commute to a job... in the suburbs. We walk to our kid's school, the grocery store, the library, etc. Also lots of biking and public transportation.

I'm not anti-suburb but we do actually worry that if we moved we'd wind up spending a thousand percent more time in the car. We're trying to find a suburb where this wouldn't be the case as we'd love to have more space and get away from the crime issues but we are never going to come anywhere close to the level of convenience and walkability we have now.

Keep in mind that means you can actually afford to live in a walkable area of DC. Finding that with space for two kids generally requires the ability to purchase very expensive housing.

I lived in DV but could not afford an area like that. We could walk to a playground and maybe the library and a 7-11. We drove everywhere all the time.

So unable to pay for the urban life, you retreated to the burbs.

Yes but also we lived next to a hoarder with a roach infestation and other major nuisances I don't go into. So you can say there were multiple factors like never ever ever ever ever wanting to share walls with a neighbor again.

Oh and a large yard is blissful especially as someone who adores gardening... Especially without a rat parade and where I can drink my coffee and stare at my plants in peace without excessive litter or people constantly walking by smoking pot which stinks

My dc row house also has a garden? And I have a community garden plot and I have hundreds of acres of parkland.

We had a front yard garden at our rowhouse but too tiny and the rats were so bad that we couldn't grow vegetables in our backyard. They came on the deck in BRIGHT DAYLIGHT to eat my herbs down to nubs. We had a community garden but it was a pain to manage our plot once I had kids. It's so much nicer to garden in peace in my own yard which isn't huge, but has plenty of space for the various plants my heart desires. And I deal with rabbits better than rats.

I also mentioned the living next to a hoarder/cockroach issue. There was more to that, but dear GOD, no more shared walls for us, never ever again.

Suburban bliss.

Yeah, puppy mills, pot farms and maga voters make great neighbors.

None of that impacts me personally living without shared walls. And we did also deal with pot smoke infiltrating through brick walls.

See you're trolling there as your're realllly trying to reach for counters.

“My community’s deep problems corroding our culture ‘Don’t affect me if I look away’” is a novel way to promote suburban life. Maybe it’s true but I feel like you’re painting a pretty grim picture of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think living in a walkable suburb, close to metro, with good public schools and county services, but still close enough in to enjoy city amenities frequently is the dream for a lot of people (at least for me it is). I live along the orange line in Arlington and am so happy raising my family here. My house isn’t new and big, but it’s nicely updated with a yard big enough for kids to run around plus several parks within a less than half a mile walk. Not all suburbs are created equal.

Again, I’m just not sure why you need to be so close to the metro. Where are you going all the time?

I’m reading and walking and hiking and gardening. Where are you going?

I’m a NP so I don’t know what you mean “again.” But our family takes the metro to museums, Nats games, events like the Easter Egg Roll, to the airport, etc. or even just within Arlington when we don’t feel like driving or the other parent has our only car. My kids think it’s fun to ride metro. I like that they’re growing up learning how to use transit so they can hopefully read subway maps in other cities when they travel. They also are used to riding in Ubers. When they are teens they can have independence without being tethered to needing a car to get places. But we still get all the perks of suburban living. It comes with a price tag though, which shows how in demand urban-ish suburbs are.

OK, so we do actual art we play actual sports, My kids find it fun to ride a dirtbike.

Listen, my kids Have friends in the city and they are not metro anywhere they’re all taking Uber.

Ridiculousness of you saying that teens are shackled to a car yet you get into Metro bus or an Uber or metro I mean girl Come on. Your dependent on transportation consist of metal and gas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the dream for most.

No. Definitely not.

The idea of being forced to drive everywhere, traffic jams, rage in the parking lots, rage on the sidelines of playing fields, rage in lines, racism, HOAs, severing social ties, monotony, etc makes me physically ill.

The parts of my life that would improve by moving to the suburbs are the parts of my life that I wish I could cut out (access to shopping malls, shorter commutes for insane kid's sports, car dealerships).

City dwellers don’t walk everywhere so stop lying
I haven’t been in a traffic jam since the last snow storm or hurricane and that was 5 cars stuck behind a fallen tree
Ever sidelines has crazy parents especially dc united clun, Gonzaga football, Georgetown basketball
More diverse in Germantown Md than most of dc
I have friends from grade school/hs/new neighborhoods/life… more likely to gather every weekend on someone’s deck than at a cramped bar,
Monotony is going to the same places within walking distance which is why you no longer walk everywhere

Some city dwellers really do walk everywhere. We have one car and only use it once or twice a week and one of those times is for my spouse to commute to a job... in the suburbs. We walk to our kid's school, the grocery store, the library, etc. Also lots of biking and public transportation.

I'm not anti-suburb but we do actually worry that if we moved we'd wind up spending a thousand percent more time in the car. We're trying to find a suburb where this wouldn't be the case as we'd love to have more space and get away from the crime issues but we are never going to come anywhere close to the level of convenience and walkability we have now.

Keep in mind that means you can actually afford to live in a walkable area of DC. Finding that with space for two kids generally requires the ability to purchase very expensive housing.

I lived in DV but could not afford an area like that. We could walk to a playground and maybe the library and a 7-11. We drove everywhere all the time.

So unable to pay for the urban life, you retreated to the burbs.

Yes but also we lived next to a hoarder with a roach infestation and other major nuisances I don't go into. So you can say there were multiple factors like never ever ever ever ever wanting to share walls with a neighbor again.

Oh and a large yard is blissful especially as someone who adores gardening... Especially without a rat parade and where I can drink my coffee and stare at my plants in peace without excessive litter or people constantly walking by smoking pot which stinks

My dc row house also has a garden? And I have a community garden plot and I have hundreds of acres of parkland.

LOL! Your garden wouldn’t even be the size of one of my flower beds.

And responses like this are why I want nothing to do with suburban “culture”. Desperate consumerism to prove you’re better than the people in the ticky tack box next door who you hate.

DP. Your response makes no sense. It's a fact that a DC row house garden is likely not going to be the same size as a suburban one, and a gardener might not be satisfied with that limitation. Has nothing to do with consumerism, but with what each of us enjoys doing with our spare time. As a gardener, I enjoy puttering around in my garden, listening to bird song, providing habitat for them, and all in relative peace and quiet. Other people might find that boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the dream for most.

No. Definitely not.

The idea of being forced to drive everywhere, traffic jams, rage in the parking lots, rage on the sidelines of playing fields, rage in lines, racism, HOAs, severing social ties, monotony, etc makes me physically ill.

The parts of my life that would improve by moving to the suburbs are the parts of my life that I wish I could cut out (access to shopping malls, shorter commutes for insane kid's sports, car dealerships).

City dwellers don’t walk everywhere so stop lying
I haven’t been in a traffic jam since the last snow storm or hurricane and that was 5 cars stuck behind a fallen tree
Ever sidelines has crazy parents especially dc united clun, Gonzaga football, Georgetown basketball
More diverse in Germantown Md than most of dc
I have friends from grade school/hs/new neighborhoods/life… more likely to gather every weekend on someone’s deck than at a cramped bar,
Monotony is going to the same places within walking distance which is why you no longer walk everywhere

Some city dwellers really do walk everywhere. We have one car and only use it once or twice a week and one of those times is for my spouse to commute to a job... in the suburbs. We walk to our kid's school, the grocery store, the library, etc. Also lots of biking and public transportation.

I'm not anti-suburb but we do actually worry that if we moved we'd wind up spending a thousand percent more time in the car. We're trying to find a suburb where this wouldn't be the case as we'd love to have more space and get away from the crime issues but we are never going to come anywhere close to the level of convenience and walkability we have now.

Keep in mind that means you can actually afford to live in a walkable area of DC. Finding that with space for two kids generally requires the ability to purchase very expensive housing.

I lived in DV but could not afford an area like that. We could walk to a playground and maybe the library and a 7-11. We drove everywhere all the time.

So unable to pay for the urban life, you retreated to the burbs.

Yes but also we lived next to a hoarder with a roach infestation and other major nuisances I don't go into. So you can say there were multiple factors like never ever ever ever ever wanting to share walls with a neighbor again.

Oh and a large yard is blissful especially as someone who adores gardening... Especially without a rat parade and where I can drink my coffee and stare at my plants in peace without excessive litter or people constantly walking by smoking pot which stinks

My dc row house also has a garden? And I have a community garden plot and I have hundreds of acres of parkland.

We had a front yard garden at our rowhouse but too tiny and the rats were so bad that we couldn't grow vegetables in our backyard. They came on the deck in BRIGHT DAYLIGHT to eat my herbs down to nubs. We had a community garden but it was a pain to manage our plot once I had kids. It's so much nicer to garden in peace in my own yard which isn't huge, but has plenty of space for the various plants my heart desires. And I deal with rabbits better than rats.

I also mentioned the living next to a hoarder/cockroach issue. There was more to that, but dear GOD, no more shared walls for us, never ever again.

Suburban bliss.

Yeah, puppy mills, pot farms and maga voters make great neighbors.

None of that impacts me personally living without shared walls. And we did also deal with pot smoke infiltrating through brick walls.

See you're trolling there as your're realllly trying to reach for counters.

“My community’s deep problems corroding our culture ‘Don’t affect me if I look away’” is a novel way to promote suburban life. Maybe it’s true but I feel like you’re painting a pretty grim picture of things.

I literally was displaced from my row house for nearly a year due to the hoarding neighbor having a fire that caused smoke infiltration into multiple homes and part of our home caught fire. In addition to the cockroach infestation.

You are a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this question at all. People have preferences. Mine is to live in a place with ample room for my gardens, where I don't have to talk to people if I don't want to.

So, I live in the suburbs on 5 acres with lovely neighbors and no HOA, have my own pool, a pond, about to construct a bird pond, and spend my free time restoring native plants to what we own. We have zero debt (other than CC which is paid off montly). Most of our drives are 15-20 minutes away, both for kid's activities, as well as groceries and other stuff needed for life. The trade-off for the drive is that I can just as easily go to H-Mart as I can to Costco or Target. DH and I both work from home, so there is no routine commute or dealing with traffic.

When I was younger, we lived in NYC, and enjoyed it immensely. But at this stage in my life, city living is not what I want, so I don't live in the city. There is no failure with either choice, it's just a personal preference.

Right? Also - not all suburbs are created equal. I don’t think the hundreds of people living in $5 - $250 million mansions in Greenwich, CT feel they are failures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the dream for most.

No. Definitely not.

The idea of being forced to drive everywhere, traffic jams, rage in the parking lots, rage on the sidelines of playing fields, rage in lines, racism, HOAs, severing social ties, monotony, etc makes me physically ill.

The parts of my life that would improve by moving to the suburbs are the parts of my life that I wish I could cut out (access to shopping malls, shorter commutes for insane kid's sports, car dealerships).

City dwellers don’t walk everywhere so stop lying
I haven’t been in a traffic jam since the last snow storm or hurricane and that was 5 cars stuck behind a fallen tree
Ever sidelines has crazy parents especially dc united clun, Gonzaga football, Georgetown basketball
More diverse in Germantown Md than most of dc
I have friends from grade school/hs/new neighborhoods/life… more likely to gather every weekend on someone’s deck than at a cramped bar,
Monotony is going to the same places within walking distance which is why you no longer walk everywhere

Some city dwellers really do walk everywhere. We have one car and only use it once or twice a week and one of those times is for my spouse to commute to a job... in the suburbs. We walk to our kid's school, the grocery store, the library, etc. Also lots of biking and public transportation.

I'm not anti-suburb but we do actually worry that if we moved we'd wind up spending a thousand percent more time in the car. We're trying to find a suburb where this wouldn't be the case as we'd love to have more space and get away from the crime issues but we are never going to come anywhere close to the level of convenience and walkability we have now.

Keep in mind that means you can actually afford to live in a walkable area of DC. Finding that with space for two kids generally requires the ability to purchase very expensive housing.

I lived in DV but could not afford an area like that. We could walk to a playground and maybe the library and a 7-11. We drove everywhere all the time.

So unable to pay for the urban life, you retreated to the burbs.

Yes but also we lived next to a hoarder with a roach infestation and other major nuisances I don't go into. So you can say there were multiple factors like never ever ever ever ever wanting to share walls with a neighbor again.

Oh and a large yard is blissful especially as someone who adores gardening... Especially without a rat parade and where I can drink my coffee and stare at my plants in peace without excessive litter or people constantly walking by smoking pot which stinks

My dc row house also has a garden? And I have a community garden plot and I have hundreds of acres of parkland.

LOL! Your garden wouldn’t even be the size of one of my flower beds.

And responses like this are why I want nothing to do with suburban “culture”. Desperate consumerism to prove you’re better than the people in the ticky tack box next door who you hate.

You’re so much better than us. Would you like a cookie? 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think living in a walkable suburb, close to metro, with good public schools and county services, but still close enough in to enjoy city amenities frequently is the dream for a lot of people (at least for me it is). I live along the orange line in Arlington and am so happy raising my family here. My house isn’t new and big, but it’s nicely updated with a yard big enough for kids to run around plus several parks within a less than half a mile walk. Not all suburbs are created equal.

Again, I’m just not sure why you need to be so close to the metro. Where are you going all the time?

I’m reading and walking and hiking and gardening. Where are you going?

I’m a NP so I don’t know what you mean “again.” But our family takes the metro to museums, Nats games, events like the Easter Egg Roll, to the airport, etc. or even just within Arlington when we don’t feel like driving or the other parent has our only car. My kids think it’s fun to ride metro. I like that they’re growing up learning how to use transit so they can hopefully read subway maps in other cities when they travel. They also are used to riding in Ubers. When they are teens they can have independence without being tethered to needing a car to get places. But we still get all the perks of suburban living. It comes with a price tag though, which shows how in demand urban-ish suburbs are.

OK, so we do actual art we play actual sports, My kids find it fun to ride a dirtbike.

Listen, my kids Have friends in the city and they are not metro anywhere they’re all taking Uber.

Ridiculousness of you saying that teens are shackled to a car yet you get into Metro bus or an Uber or metro I mean girl Come on. Your dependent on transportation consist of metal and gas.

Or bike trails and sidewalks. We have those too. I like having options. I never said transportation doesn’t use gas so that is a weird tangent. Not being “shackled to a car” means my kids can go places without needing to always have access to a family car, needing to deal with finding parking, etc. And I have no idea what you mean “actual” art and sports. Like kids closer to the city don’t do those things?

Also, I didn’t even insult where you or anyone else lives. I just commented on what I like about the suburb I live in and that I don’t feel like living here is a failure. For whatever you’re really defensive about this.

[Anonymous]

I live in DMV - I have never worked in DC.
I worked in Bethesda for years and now Tyson’s for a few years.

This is not Manhattan where there is absolutely no reason to own a car and high paid jobs are all in Manhattan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the dream for most.

No. Definitely not.

The idea of being forced to drive everywhere, traffic jams, rage in the parking lots, rage on the sidelines of playing fields, rage in lines, racism, HOAs, severing social ties, monotony, etc makes me physically ill.

The parts of my life that would improve by moving to the suburbs are the parts of my life that I wish I could cut out (access to shopping malls, shorter commutes for insane kid's sports, car dealerships).

City dwellers don’t walk everywhere so stop lying
I haven’t been in a traffic jam since the last snow storm or hurricane and that was 5 cars stuck behind a fallen tree
Ever sidelines has crazy parents especially dc united clun, Gonzaga football, Georgetown basketball
More diverse in Germantown Md than most of dc
I have friends from grade school/hs/new neighborhoods/life… more likely to gather every weekend on someone’s deck than at a cramped bar,
Monotony is going to the same places within walking distance which is why you no longer walk everywhere

Some city dwellers really do walk everywhere. We have one car and only use it once or twice a week and one of those times is for my spouse to commute to a job... in the suburbs. We walk to our kid's school, the grocery store, the library, etc. Also lots of biking and public transportation.

I'm not anti-suburb but we do actually worry that if we moved we'd wind up spending a thousand percent more time in the car. We're trying to find a suburb where this wouldn't be the case as we'd love to have more space and get away from the crime issues but we are never going to come anywhere close to the level of convenience and walkability we have now.

Keep in mind that means you can actually afford to live in a walkable area of DC. Finding that with space for two kids generally requires the ability to purchase very expensive housing.

I lived in DV but could not afford an area like that. We could walk to a playground and maybe the library and a 7-11. We drove everywhere all the time.

So unable to pay for the urban life, you retreated to the burbs.

Yes but also we lived next to a hoarder with a roach infestation and other major nuisances I don't go into. So you can say there were multiple factors like never ever ever ever ever wanting to share walls with a neighbor again.

Oh and a large yard is blissful especially as someone who adores gardening... Especially without a rat parade and where I can drink my coffee and stare at my plants in peace without excessive litter or people constantly walking by smoking pot which stinks

My dc row house also has a garden? And I have a community garden plot and I have hundreds of acres of parkland.

We had a front yard garden at our rowhouse but too tiny and the rats were so bad that we couldn't grow vegetables in our backyard. They came on the deck in BRIGHT DAYLIGHT to eat my herbs down to nubs. We had a community garden but it was a pain to manage our plot once I had kids. It's so much nicer to garden in peace in my own yard which isn't huge, but has plenty of space for the various plants my heart desires. And I deal with rabbits better than rats.

I also mentioned the living next to a hoarder/cockroach issue. There was more to that, but dear GOD, no more shared walls for us, never ever again.

Suburban bliss.

Yeah, puppy mills, pot farms and maga voters make great neighbors.

None of that impacts me personally living without shared walls. And we did also deal with pot smoke infiltrating through brick walls.

See you're trolling there as your're realllly trying to reach for counters.

“My community’s deep problems corroding our culture ‘Don’t affect me if I look away’” is a novel way to promote suburban life. Maybe it’s true but I feel like you’re painting a pretty grim picture of things.

"my community"--you say this as if I personalize everyone else's problems beyond advocating for public policy that helps people. I do not intend to live near people to help them solve their problems.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think living in a walkable suburb, close to metro, with good public schools and county services, but still close enough in to enjoy city amenities frequently is the dream for a lot of people (at least for me it is). I live along the orange line in Arlington and am so happy raising my family here. My house isn’t new and big, but it’s nicely updated with a yard big enough for kids to run around plus several parks within a less than half a mile walk. Not all suburbs are created equal.

Again, I’m just not sure why you need to be so close to the metro. Where are you going all the time?

I’m reading and walking and hiking and gardening. Where are you going?

I’m a NP so I don’t know what you mean “again.” But our family takes the metro to museums, Nats games, events like the Easter Egg Roll, to the airport, etc. or even just within Arlington when we don’t feel like driving or the other parent has our only car. My kids think it’s fun to ride metro. I like that they’re growing up learning how to use transit so they can hopefully read subway maps in other cities when they travel. They also are used to riding in Ubers. When they are teens they can have independence without being tethered to needing a car to get places. But we still get all the perks of suburban living. It comes with a price tag though, which shows how in demand urban-ish suburbs are.

OK, so we do actual art we play actual sports, My kids find it fun to ride a dirtbike.

Listen, my kids Have friends in the city and they are not metro anywhere they’re all taking Uber.

Ridiculousness of you saying that teens are shackled to a car yet you get into Metro bus or an Uber or metro I mean girl Come on. Your dependent on transportation consist of metal and gas.

Or bike trails and sidewalks. We have those too. I like having options. I never said transportation doesn’t use gas so that is a weird tangent. Not being “shackled to a car” means my kids can go places without needing to always have access to a family car, needing to deal with finding parking, etc. And I have no idea what you mean “actual” art and sports. Like kids closer to the city don’t do those things?

Also, I didn’t even insult where you or anyone else lives. I just commented on what I like about the suburb I live in and that I don’t feel like living here is a failure. For whatever you’re really defensive about this.

The kids in the suburbs, also go places without being “shackled to a car”.

They spend a lot more time in nature than indoors or riding in a concrete submarine.

Your kids do not go anywhere without using some sort of transportation.

The thing about parking in the suburbs is it’s everywhere. There’s no finding parking you just drive up and park.

My son is at my house and I drive them to the hospital and she’s like drop me off and then you can go find a place to park and I’m like there’s parking right here in front of the hospital. You literally don’t have parking at your hospitals.

Great I’m glad your city kids are rock, climbing, kayaking, biking, doing art, horseback riding… Yet you don’t mention any of those things you just talk about riding in a concrete submarine to other buildings did you go inside and watch other people do stuff