I moved to one in Missouri and had panic attacks. It was like living under a microscope. There was no privacy, no individuality, everyone is always watching and judging. I hated it so, so, so much.
Oh, it's not. Our cities are basically at war with our very existence. I should know as someone who is disabled and can't drive. And that's not even with me counting the isolation suburbs create or the fact that american suburbs literally grow until they go bankrupt in that equation. Shit's fucked.
they suck so bad.
only grass and pavement, no other plants, barely any trees (definitely not enough for shade), no sidewalk (so you cant really go for walks, not that youd want to because of the dogshit scenery).
its shitty in every way
I 100% believe that the suburbs are not just fascist, but the growth of them in America is driving fascism and alienation harder than any other single thing.
on the contrary, they’re so expensive you can’t afford a car, and since there’s no public transport system within a 2 hour walking distance it’s actually very healthy
Specifically, the middle class was trying to imitate America's aristocrats, who were mostly old money New England families that lived in big estates in the New England countryside roughly half a day's train journey from either New York or Boston, where they did business.
Wait until you see exurbs. 2 hours commute one way to the city you work in, city occupying once productive farmland, houses that have no value past speculation yet still have a 30 year mortgage you barely can afford, and city services that can best be described as "technically exists"
Growing up in a Streetcar suburb and going to School in a different Streetcar suburb that still had Trolleybuses is part of why I have a reasonable grasp on life (mentally that is)
imo no understanding of america is complete without understanding suburbs. but if you understand those, you basically get the entire picture. more representative of american aspirations, values, and self-view than any other single thing in the whole culture
It’s kind of funny, because in movies everyone talks to their neighbors and their suburb gives them a healthy social network… it does NOT work like that in practice 😔
yeah likewise - the walk to school was literally uphill both ways, and if we'd had a pedestrian cut-through between the cul-de-sacs it would all have been flat.
come to our same sized houses with our same sized lawns and the same sized driveways where we tremble in fear at the though of a house being a different shape, and what that does to a mind
they're a fascist project designed to encourage conformity and discourage community. think about the history. they started being built en masse at the height of the red scare. they forced you to use a car, keeping you off public transport where you might see a poor person. absolute fash shit.
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only grass and pavement, no other plants, barely any trees (definitely not enough for shade), no sidewalk (so you cant really go for walks, not that youd want to because of the dogshit scenery).
its shitty in every way
1) old suburbs that take ten minutes to get to the middle of town at worst. They're well connected and a part of the town
2) newer suburbs that take 10 minutes to get out of the suburb. Gated communities without the gate. One way in and out
"why don't kids these days go outside anymore" because there's nothing to do out there
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EYYdQB0mkEU&pp=ygURcnVzaCBzdWJkaXZpc2lvbnM%3D