BF2S Forums Why the rose tinted view of city life?

I love NYC. Sure it might be overcrowded, sure people might have horrible attitudes at time, and sure it might smell once in a while... but you can't beat the atmosphere.

Can't wait to be living there in 3 months.

So far as I've seen, Arlington, VA rocks.  It's the city life, but it's not as hectic as a place like NYC.  It's kind of the best of both worlds.

So, city life in a city that's large but not NYC/LA large is often pretty fun.

The nice thing about living in a nice part of a city is that it's so easy to get to places.

My mom's house is in suburbia. There's a bus stop nearby but buses only come every 30 minutes. In the further out parts of DC suburbia it's even worse. Anyway, the house is nice and the neighborhood is pretty (neighbors are pretty indifferent) but you really need a car to get anywhere quickly. It's great for raising kids IMO, but I wouldn't want to live there until I have kids. The public schools are great and it's incredibly safe (only ever known of one crime committed, someone broke into our family car and stole my mom's gym bag which had... a sports bra and deodorant. stupid fucking criminal scum). But it's quiet, and like I said very car-dependent.

My dad's loft is in the city itself, in a very urbanized neighborhood with lots of cafes, restaurants, nightlife, and buses that run very often. It's a 15 minute walk from two subway stations, a 4 minute walk from a great super market. It's quite safe as well, although there are safer neighborhoods that are just as "livable." It's obviously a lot more expensive than other parts of the city, though. And the public schools aren't up to snuff.

It's just a matter of preference. Since I have no car, I prefer my dad's house for the most part. If I had a car then I wouldn't mind living in suburbia. The ideal for me is a small city, or a small town not far from a big city. Some of the suburbs in DC have developed their 'downtown' cores very well, and those areas are really really nice to live in. Other suburbs are still very much your typical image of sprawl.

edit: There are also a LOT of safe cities, and even the more dangerous cities have nice parts. San Jose is one example of a very safe city. DC is an example of a rather safe city, in that if you don't live in the rough parts of town you have a low chance of being a victim of crime (assuming you're a bit street smart). Hell even if you do live in the rough parts of town, you'd probably "only" be mugged. Most shootings are between neighborhood crews (aka dumb teenagers).

Last edited by Hurricane2k9 (2010-05-29 18:48:34)

11 Bravo wrote:

anything is better than texas tbh

now there's something we can all agree on.

Yellowman03 wrote:

It's where important people and places are. There alot of different things to do in the city. Suburbia is boring as hell.

If suburbia is boring as hell then maybe you should call up some friends and go play baseball at the park or something. Life is only as boring as you make it.

DrunkFace wrote:

ghettoperson wrote:

In any case, whilst hell hole is probably a little strong, suburbs are lifeless and boring. That's the very nature of them, they're just a bunch of houses for people to live in an commute to the city. By their very nature they're boring.

That's debatable. It's all dependent on the suburb.

True, my point is though, like most things Macbeth posts, this thread is nonsense.

JohnG@lt wrote:

13/f/taiwan wrote:

11 Bravo wrote:

anything is better than texas tbh

now there's something we can all agree on.

When I was in the army, I had airborne school in my contract so my end destination was going to be Fort Bragg, NC. This made me happy because it was close to home. Well, towards the end of training my knees started acting up and jump school no longer looked like a good idea so I went up to the PAC office and requested to drop airborne. My caveat was that they could send me anywhere but Texas. So, the lady cut me orders for Fort Hood, TX where it requires a six hour drive in any direction to leave the fucking state. FML. Texas sucks.

Killeen TX sucks. There are other parts of TX than Killeen and they don't suck.

I've been many other places that suck FAR more.

FEOS wrote:

JohnG@lt wrote:

13/f/taiwan wrote:

now there's something we can all agree on.

When I was in the army, I had airborne school in my contract so my end destination was going to be Fort Bragg, NC. This made me happy because it was close to home. Well, towards the end of training my knees started acting up and jump school no longer looked like a good idea so I went up to the PAC office and requested to drop airborne. My caveat was that they could send me anywhere but Texas. So, the lady cut me orders for Fort Hood, TX where it requires a six hour drive in any direction to leave the fucking state. FML. Texas sucks.

Killeen TX sucks. There are other parts of TX than Killeen and they don't suck.

I've been many other places that suck FAR more.

I've seen a lot of Texas. Everywhere from up in the panhandle, down to San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and east out to Tyler. I got tired of cows and grass and the lack of seasons, the ocean and mountains.

JohnG@lt wrote:

I've seen a lot of Texas. Everywhere from up in the panhandle, down to San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and east out to Tyler. I got tired of cows and grass and the lack of seasons, the ocean and mountains.

To each his own. No argument on the seasons. Probably the thing I miss most about the DC area. However, if you didn't see ocean or mountains, you didn't see enough of Texas (Gulf coast and Big Bend area, respectively).

Turquoise wrote:

FEOS wrote:

JohnG@lt wrote:

I've seen a lot of Texas. Everywhere from up in the panhandle, down to San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and east out to Tyler. I got tired of cows and grass and the lack of seasons, the ocean and mountains.

To each his own. No argument on the seasons. Probably the thing I miss most about the DC area. However, if you didn't see ocean or mountains, you didn't see enough of Texas (Gulf coast and Big Bend area, respectively).

From what I've heard, Austin is pretty cool.  I've been to Dallas several times, and it was ok.  Probably what I liked most about it was a really good Italian restaurant in the Garland area.

Austin is a cool city if you're young. Lots of partying to do down on Sixth Street and the surrounding suburbs are nice as well but the city itself is rather run down. It's a weird mix of tall buildings, lots of construction and old beat up adobe style buildings. While it's the 'Live Music Capital of the World' and South by Southwest is cool, it's basically an oasis of semi-hipsterism in the heart of cow country full of small towns where the men's aspiration in life is to drive a dualie.

Last edited by JohnG@lt (2010-05-30 14:13:13)

Turquoise wrote:

JohnG@lt wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

From what I've heard, Austin is pretty cool.  I've been to Dallas several times, and it was ok.  Probably what I liked most about it was a really good Italian restaurant in the Garland area.

Austin is a cool city if you're young. Lots of partying to do down on Sixth Street and the surrounding suburbs are nice as well but the city itself is rather run down. It's a weird mix of tall buildings, lots of construction and old beat up adobe style buildings. While it's the 'Live Music Capital of the World' and South by Southwest is cool, it's basically an oasis of semi-hipsterism in the heart of cow country full of small towns where the men's aspiration in life is to drive a duelie.

Heck, that beats most of NC.  Charlotte can be fun, and so can Asheville, but most of my state is full of retirees, really religious people, or married couples.

The singles scene mostly blows -- especially in Greensboro.

My grandparents retired to Hendersonville

Chou wrote:

Macbeth wrote:

So why do people glamorize the city life when living in the suburbs is usually better?

Movies.

"Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker's God-given right." -the mayor, Ghostbusters II

That movie quote has been the only source of temptation for me to move into a big city because it's full of win. But I prefer suburbs due to the fact that despite the occasional bit of domestic disturbance and barking dogs, it's fucking quiet and everyone's a bit more chilled out. I can drive to any big city event I want to and still spend less time on I5 getting there than once I get into downtown Seattle.

I take it you havent speant much time in the boondocks macbeth