RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
the270.com wrote
Ha ha ha, the suburbs are the new cool
By wyliemac | October 11, 2007
With all due respect to the Columbus Underground urban apologists, but you really ought to rethink your urbanery (i.e. urban snobbery). I know you don’t want to admit it. But the suburbs are cool. Need proof? Check out Detail’s “Is it time to move to the suburbs?”
So let’s think local. And for me, Dublin is local. We’ve got TehKu. We’ve got Corazón. We’ve got Old Dublin. We’ve got Giant Dancing Bunnies. And of course, we’ve got giant freakin Corn. Oh yea, we’ve got the Dublin Irish Festival.
Yea, we might not be a very walkable city. But we’ve got excellent bike paths. So please CU urban guys, stop putting the ‘burbs down. You know who you are.
Related Stories:
Joel Kotkin makes his living off of just this kind of provocation. Seen it for years and I’m bored. He’s pretty much considered a joke anyway.
Thing is, the suburbs have already won– we urbanites are not snobs. We’re a very slim minority of folks who choose to live in a neighborhoods most normal Americans wouldn’t be caught dead in after dark. We are lovers of the old city, the pedestrian friendliness, and we are and have been on the losing side of the issue for sixty years. That post is rubbish. Of course most people like suburbs better, the proof is in the population stats, the school system stats, the purchasing power, the gated communities, the proliferation of strip malls, and the fact that most downtowns, including ours, are still waiting for their day in the sun. Urbanites are passionate, opinionated, etc. We have to be.
“Are the suburbs are the new cool in Columbus?”
no.
I live just inside the outerbelt, and, while I don’t hate it here enough to move, I definitely find suburban living a bit of a pain. I live where I live primarily because of my apartment’s proximity to my work place, but the pedestrian unfriendliness of the area (I live near the intersection of 161 and Sawmill) makes it pretty uncomfortable to walk to work if I get the urge to do so.
There are definitely advantages to living here– space, cost of living, some commercial convenience (and I say some because traffic can offset a lot of that convenience), but a lot of me still yearns to be closer to the real culture and heart of the city.
Especially with gas prices being what they are, I’m not sure I’ll relocate unless my job changes or I can telecommute, but I’m always open to suggestion. Do those of you living in Columbus proper think it’d be worth dealing with longer, more frustrating, and more expensive commutes to and from work?
Having recently witnessed how much traffic and headache exists upon our roadways I would have to say that urban living has to win. I am however one of the first to jump at the chance to get away from downtown from time to time. What can I say? I grew up in the suburbs and you always like to return to your roots. Easton anyone?
+1
So I read the Details article…
Ah yes, the fabulous Segway makes an appearance! (I hate those things.) Unless he’s disabled, he ought to walk, or bike.
OK, so I guess people are leaving cities because they are too expensive, possibly a solid theory.
Oh so this guy moved out of the city because it was expensive, right? Uhm, where did he move to?
Yea, uhm…. Naperville is a very boring suburb, very homogenous, and very very expensive. Whoops!
It did bring up some other interesting points, but the Naperville example didn’t really help the case.
Funny that he references the show, “Weeds.” If I remember correctly, the opening credits to that show is a statement about the homogeneity of the burbs.
The best part of living downtown is that your commute is ALWAYS easy. Either you walk, take the bus, or one day hopefully, a streetcar to work *woohoo* OR you drive against traffic. I drive to Polaris every morning. I like to look over on the other side and giggle as I fly past all the people sitting on the highway trying to get in to downtown. Doesn’t mean I won’t do anything I can to get me a lightrail to Polaris, but for now it’s nothing. Well, to me it’s nothing, but I’m used to an hour one-way commute to go 22 miles, so anything is easy here and I think people who complain about taffic in Columbus are spoiled cry-babies ;)
Columbus hasn’t grown up yet even as we sit in a region of suburbs. Hell, most of the city is a suburb (Bethel, Northland, Easton, Tuttle, Polaris, etc.) Hell, most of the inner city is recovering from being suburban (with all our parking lots and empty spaces). We don’t have city things like trains and 18-hour sidewalks, and our homes are not as expensive as most in the ‘burbs (especially the property taxes). That article was very first-tier city oriented (NYC, Chicago…). We should grow up first, huh?
Yeah, I thought that too. The whole show is basically about what looks good on the outside is rarely the case on the inside.
“And they’re all made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same.”
Yeah, that’s real cool. I think I’ll move from the Short North to the little boxes. Why didn’t I realize this before! :wink:
I have to concur with what somertimeoh said.
I’ve lived in German Village / Brewery District for quite awhile now and I’ve worked near Easton, near Grandview and near Grove City during that time. Even though I had a commute, it really wasn’t too bad leaving the city at 8am and coming back into it at 5pm. The traffic the other way was often pretty heavy if not bumper-to-bumper, so I guess if your job has different hours, YMMV (literally).
Ultimately, I think it all boils down to how you want to spend your time on the planet. I commend you for living close to your job and minimzing your time the car. But if you’d rather spend some time walking during non-work hours and can handle that 15-20 minute drive to work, then move to where you’d be happy to live.
I’ve got plenty of friends who live in the suburbs, and they’re perfectly happy people. To each his or her own.
:wink:
[quote="Walker]I’ve got plenty of friends who live in the suburbs, and they’re perfectly happy people. To each his or her own.
:wink:
You’re right. It’s a free country. That-cool. And the choice is clear– quiet downtown sidewalks after 5. Lovely! :lol:
Most suburbs don’t have enough character for me to consider cool. I think of McMansions. Gated communities. Home owner associations.
It has it’s place I guess, It’s just not my cup of tea.
It has it’s place I guess, It’s just not my cup of tea.
That’s a great point, Roland. One thing that that blog neglects to mention is that the McMansions, gated communities, lawns, etc. is what most people choose, or would choose if they could (the most impoverished). Others (urbanites) are considered outlandish, risk-takers, freaks, fringers, bohemians– not normal folk in the larger American culture. That’s why it’s floors me that the article says the suburbs are “cool again” and suddenly in demand when they have been since the end of WWII. Sheesh!
A lot of the suburbs have “downtown” areas that were the original settlements when the cities were started. Many of them remain fairly untouched and retain quite a bit of their charm (walkability, historic buildings, small businesses, etc), but at the same time they suffer from the same problem as downtown Columbus… they’re underused.
Some of them (here, here) are trying to do something to breathe new life into those areas, but it’s going to be tough. People are going to complain about a lack of parking in Olde Hilliarde and Olde Canale Winchestere to shop at a small boutique store when they can head to the newest strip mall development and park where they want.
Still, I give them props for trying.
When I was in High School, I lived in downtown Worthington. I could have walked anywhere in that area, and there were lots of places to go. Of course most of them were overpriced places that no teenager would frequent. It’s not as sanitized as some town centers, but yeah, not really urban enough (of course classify urban, no clubs or seedy bars or performance spaces anyway).
I wish I had the foresight to use the bus back then…
Hindsight, 20/20.
There is also the issue of sustainability.
Regardless of what is considered cool, or what our personal preferences are, the choice to live a largely car-centric lifestyle requires buying lots and lots of gasoline, which also means dependence upon foreign oil.
If the cost of energy continues to rise over the long-term, will the suburban way of life remain a viable option, even if it is preferred?
Regardless of what is considered cool, or what our personal preferences are, the choice to live a largely car-centric lifestyle requires buying lots and lots of gasoline, which also means dependence upon foreign oil.
If the cost of energy continues to rise over the long-term, will the suburban way of life remain a viable option, even if it is preferred?
Yes, I believe it will. I saw on tv last month where some talking head said that if gas rose to 10 bucks, Americans would cut almost everything out of their lives to drive. It’s a powerful force. And today, the majority (especially young people) didn’t ‘leave” the city or “flee” it. They grew up in a subdivision. It’s what they know. It’s normal. Cities are fighting against this cultural norm, and most are perpetually losing the vote of feet.
A friend of mine wrote a piece in defense of suburbs and more specifically,
free parking. His point was essentially people for good reason leave to be far from the problems Downtown (crime, poor schools, etc.) and my comment on his post cites places like Bexley doing well enough despite their proximity to Downtown.
Other than sharing that, I too live in Dublin and it’s not nearly as wonderful (or non-creepy) as the270 made it seem. Having to drive three blocks to go to Tuttle Mall from my apartment the other day wasn’t my idea of efficient.