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We have coffee shops, bars, restaurants, museums, historical sites, theatres here in the suburbs as well. We even have a Michelin-starred restaurant in my subur

We have coffee shops, bars, restaurants, museums, historical sites, theatres here in the suburbs as well. We even have a Michelin-starred restaurant in my suburb. Plenty of cities don’t have one of those. It’s obviously not as fast-paced or cutting-edge, but people don’t just sit at home in silence.

marssaxman 4y ago
Where do you live that you can have such a mix of uses in a suburb - and what suburbs are old enough to contain historical sites? I can't imagine you are describing anywhere in the USA... from my California-raised perspective, suburbs are a largely post-WWII creation: sprawling miles of relatively recent construction, with residential, retail, and commercial purposes all so strictly separated that there is virtually no reason to leave one's house by foot. There were coffee shops, bars, restaurants, and the occasional movie theater among the suburbs I grew up in, sure, but they were all spread out and far away, tucked into little strip malls along the main roads - not really part of the neighborhoods people lived in.
- pcl 4y ago
  There are many types of suburbs in the US (and worldwide, of course). I grew up partly in a suburb of New York. The towns around there date back 300 to 400 years, and feel like it. There are walkable town centers with coffee shops and train stations etc. I also spent a few years in a suburb of Dallas. It was considerably newer, and wedged between a couple of highways. Everything depended on cars. As I’ve moved around, I’ve seen lots of other points on the suburban spectrum. But for sure, the connotations of “suburb” are nearly uselessly vast.
  - marssaxman 4y ago
    I suppose that while geographers define "suburbs" in terms of their proximity to a larger metropolitan area, the "suburban" quality I actually care about is the urban form characterized by sprawling, auto-dependent, single-family development.
    - pcl 4y ago
      Well, just be aware that others might conjure up an entirely different picture in their head when you use the term.
  - jjav 4y ago
    > But for sure, the connotations of “suburb” are nearly uselessly vast. Yes. From past HN threads, I've come to realize that "suburb" is so undefined that it can mean pretty much anything. We all agree Manhattan isn't a suburb and that remote agricultural land isn't a suburb either. But aside from those, everything else in between is someone's definition of suburb. So it's difficult to talk about it as it could mean any kind of place between those extremes.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- RhysU 4y ago
  My silly little town in NJ is 300 years old.
thrav 4y ago
The suburbs around San Francisco don’t really count, in my opinion. I also live in one with a Michelin star restaurant and plenty going on, but I still struggle to participate in a lot of it with a toddler. It’s a far cry from the Texas suburbs I grew up in that more closely resemble the description above. From what I hear, time begins to return as they reach some amount of independence around 4-5. If you have more than 1, that’s a pretty big window. That said, my daughter is incredible, and the issue isn’t that I don’t have any time. It’s that I choose spend as much of it with her as I possibly can.
missingrib 4y ago
I'm not sure you're accurately describing a suburb.
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  There’s a lot of variety in how different sub-urban places are. Americans think there’s global metropolises and hell-scape sprawl and nothing in between, but there’s plenty.
doubled112 4y ago
Meanwhile in my suburb, I have a 40 minute walk to the nearest thing. When I get there, I can see a Walmart, a BestBuy, six pizza places, two dentist offices, three chain sandwich shops and a couple of grocery stores. Everything I need. Nothing I’d ever be excited to go to. Plus I have to get back into the car. I’ll just stay home in silence. My neighbours do too.

marssaxman 4y ago

Where do you live that you can have such a mix of uses in a suburb - and what suburbs are old enough to contain historical sites? I can't imagine you are describing anywhere in the USA... from my California-raised perspective, suburbs are a largely post-WWII creation: sprawling miles of relatively recent construction, with residential, retail, and commercial purposes all so strictly separated that there is virtually no reason to leave one's house by foot. There were coffee shops, bars, restaurants, and the occasional movie theater among the suburbs I grew up in, sure, but they were all spread out and far away, tucked into little strip malls along the main roads - not really part of the neighborhoods people lived in.

pcl 4y ago
There are many types of suburbs in the US (and worldwide, of course). I grew up partly in a suburb of New York. The towns around there date back 300 to 400 years, and feel like it. There are walkable town centers with coffee shops and train stations etc. I also spent a few years in a suburb of Dallas. It was considerably newer, and wedged between a couple of highways. Everything depended on cars. As I’ve moved around, I’ve seen lots of other points on the suburban spectrum. But for sure, the connotations of “suburb” are nearly uselessly vast.
- marssaxman 4y ago
  I suppose that while geographers define "suburbs" in terms of their proximity to a larger metropolitan area, the "suburban" quality I actually care about is the urban form characterized by sprawling, auto-dependent, single-family development.
  - pcl 4y ago
    Well, just be aware that others might conjure up an entirely different picture in their head when you use the term.
- jjav 4y ago
  > But for sure, the connotations of “suburb” are nearly uselessly vast. Yes. From past HN threads, I've come to realize that "suburb" is so undefined that it can mean pretty much anything. We all agree Manhattan isn't a suburb and that remote agricultural land isn't a suburb either. But aside from those, everything else in between is someone's definition of suburb. So it's difficult to talk about it as it could mean any kind of place between those extremes.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
RhysU 4y ago
My silly little town in NJ is 300 years old.

thrav 4y ago

The suburbs around San Francisco don’t really count, in my opinion. I also live in one with a Michelin star restaurant and plenty going on, but I still struggle to participate in a lot of it with a toddler. It’s a far cry from the Texas suburbs I grew up in that more closely resemble the description above. From what I hear, time begins to return as they reach some amount of independence around 4-5. If you have more than 1, that’s a pretty big window. That said, my daughter is incredible, and the issue isn’t that I don’t have any time. It’s that I choose spend as much of it with her as I possibly can.

missingrib 4y ago

I'm not sure you're accurately describing a suburb.

chrisseaton 4y ago
There’s a lot of variety in how different sub-urban places are. Americans think there’s global metropolises and hell-scape sprawl and nothing in between, but there’s plenty.

doubled112 4y ago

Meanwhile in my suburb, I have a 40 minute walk to the nearest thing. When I get there, I can see a Walmart, a BestBuy, six pizza places, two dentist offices, three chain sandwich shops and a couple of grocery stores. Everything I need. Nothing I’d ever be excited to go to. Plus I have to get back into the car. I’ll just stay home in silence. My neighbours do too.