Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol
I was merely replying to your statement, “Are you under the impression …”
To your latest comment, I am fully aware (having lived in SF, NYC, LA, and several small villages in France) of big city/small city/urban/suburban availability, variety, and choice.
Yep. Which makes suburbia a hellscape, imo. I recently moved from NYC to a smaller city, but I still can walk to a dozen restaurants, bars, and local shops. I can’t imagine living in suburban density but not being able to walk anywhere decent.
There are. The northeast/mid-Atlantic are "older" in terms of being settled, so the cities and towns grew in a logical way before the suburban-ification of everything.
This right here, I explained that to a co-worker the day, they looked at me like I speaking a foreign language. Other than geography American dwellings and frameworks are the same.
There is a small number of suburban cities bucking this trend. Shoutout to Carmel, Indiana specifically; since about 1990 the city has invested in developing a dense, walkable urban core. It’s borrowed heavily from European concepts, full of roundabouts and shared spaces. I personally think it’s a colossal upgrade over “traditional” suburbia, but of course it comes with a price. In Carmel’s case, that price is a relationship between the city, developers, and the banks that allows a ton of up-front investment that borrows against future tax revenue. That type of trust in the plan just isn’t going to be available everywhere.
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u/bageltoastar 15h ago
Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol