3 ms·

yes, down under :)

• tomhoward 6y ago
  It's probably worth noting that the kind suburbia you're talking about, which sounds like Melbourne (same as me) according to your top comment, is different to what is meant by suburbia in the U.S. and thus in the article. Melbourne's suburbia, where the latest outbreaks have happened, is all part of Melbourne's urban sprawl - i.e., there are no unpopulated gaps between the inner urban area and these suburbs. And the pattern of spread reflects that; cases that begin as returning international travellers, transmitting it to hotel workers, who then take it back to their neighbourhoods further out but still part of the same metropolis. Then families intermingle with others just a few localities away, and off it goes. Suburbs in the U.S. are more separate from the main urban centres, and are more self-contained, so there's less intermingling of people from one town to another. They're more like what we think of as rural cities like Ballarat, Geelong, Shepparton, etc. In the past few years my partner and I moved out of inner Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula to be closer nature and have more space for raising a family, and this feels more like the suburbia of the U.S., with localities like Frankston, Mt Eliza, Mornington and the towns further down all being quite spread out. And so far, touch wood, the state of viral spread bears this out, with no new cases reported for a few weeks in either Frankston City or MP Shire, and indeed very few cases since the initial wave in March, which was mostly returned travellers. That said, Frankston is not insulated from the rest of Melbourne and is right next to Casey, where there are new cases, and the Peninsula gets lots of visitors from Melbourne, so there's still plenty of risk. (Edit: spoke too soon – one new case in MP Shire today, sigh.)