3 ms·

I think "sprawl" might be a more descriptive term for what you're reacting negatively to. Boston has lots of suburbs that don't fit your description. (BTW, su

• Xichekolas 19y ago
  Yeah to me suburb means tract housing. Does Boston have suburbs that aren't tract housing? (I said tree related because every suburban neighborhood I can think of has a tree related name... "Willow Springs" "Lone Elm Estates" "Pine Ridge" etc.)
  • brlewis 19y ago
    Suburb means a city or town near a large city. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suburb http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suburb Those names sound like housing projects, not cities or towns. Boston has a lot of suburbs accessibly by public transportation that have walkable city centers.
    • Xichekolas 19y ago
      > accessible by public transportation that have walkable city centers. Well that is good for Boston, but my experiences in the midwest and south are that suburbs = tract housing and schools. And yeah, the names were definitely of housing projects... in my original post I was referring to "neighborhoods with tree-related names" ... I simply misspoke in my second post (hope you don't mind but I'm going to correct that).
  • menloparkbum 19y ago
    Yes - most of the "suburbs" in Boston are smaller towns that have grown and run into each other.
  • apu 19y ago
    A more general version of this I once heard (mostly in jest) was that "suburban neighborhoods are named after the part of nature that was destroyed to make the neighborhood." Mostly this includes various flora, although geographical descriptors such as "silver creek", "meadowmont", etc., are also used.