Are american suburbs livable? Or are they literally painful to live in?

Question

Some think that suburban life is a great strain. The hellish commuting, road rage, ugly big box stores, endless copies
of the same franchises(Chili's, Best Buy, Applebees, ect.),
bratty kids that seem miserable and don't listen to anyone,
crabby SUV-navigating soccer moms, and lastely, not knowing
your neighbors....to me, the saddest thing is when suburbanities
come home to their cookie-cutter McMansion and click the garage
door closed, as if they are actually turning off the outside world
like a television.....these characteristics were already here in
70's suburban-land when I grew up, but now it's much worse.
Now kids have no independence, and are monitored electronically
like cattle with RFID tags. We used to go bike-riding for miles
(without those stupid little helmets) for miles by 3rd grade.
We had streets and sidewalks to play on. Now, new subdivisions
have no sidewalks, and there is no way for kids to get anywhere
cause things are so sprawled out.....so sad.....

Answer 1

Forget the suburbs,, go to the country. Get out of town and burbs. No neighbors is good.

We live on 5 acres with five outbuildings aside from the house. We have had horses, sheep, chickens and ducks, still have cats and dog lots of farm friends.

If you are a do it youselfer and want some solitude, find an acerage in the country. You'll no longer be bored.

Answer 2

Is there a point to this question?

I live in the suburbs and cannot identify with anything you mention. I do live in an older neighborhood (20+ years old). But, I think your suggestion that suburbs are social wastelands is a gross oversimplification.

I have lived in urban and exurban areas, and there is something to complain about no mater where you live.

Answer 3

It could be worse. You could live in sweltering cities as folks did till quite recently. You'd be jammed together with neighbors like sardines. Sure, you could walk to a local grocery, but you'd have to pay twice as much for food. The local reaturant, you'd have to wait in line for an hour and be served after another hour. Is fast food starting to sound better. In cities, there's no place to put a car or you have to pay rent for a garage, and the extra accidents and dents of city driving drive up car insurance to the moon. People like the freedom of cars you know or you could get on a trolley and jam in with a hundred sweaty strangers.

No, people gladly flocked to their little cookie cutter homes in the burbs after WW2 and there's a REASON!

Answer 4

Living in the suburbs is wonderful! Don't tell anyone, we don't want to turn the suburbs into the city now do we?

Answer 5

I need wide open spaces.

Answer 6

Have you VENTED enough yet?