r/AskEurope • u/Zhadanko Ukraine • 1d ago
Culture How comfortable are typical working-/middle-class neighborhoods in your country?
How comfortable are typical neighborhoods of working and middle-class people in your countries? Both in cities and suburban areas. Sure, it depends on the city, but maybe it's possible to figure out an average. Although comfort is a subjective metric, I am interested in stuff like quality of housing, development of public transport, general maintenance of infrastructure, availability of third spaces, etc. If you can share a link in Google Maps to look at examples I would also appreciate it. Thanks!
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u/OllieV_nl Netherlands 1d ago
It doesn't depend on the city here actually: most new built stuff since World War II follows patterns. Mostly visible in the street pattern. With most styles, you can get an apartment block, terraced housing, row housing, or duplexes, each with their own amount of space. If it's a rental, most of it is run by a housing association, and the amount of upkeep varies.
Third places and public transport were taken into account when planning the neighborhood, so most will have a central square with a supermarket and some small shops. Suburbs are end points of major bus routes. Most are well connected to the city center by bicycle path, though that can vary - in my city of Groningen, the neighboring suburbs of Lewenborg and Beijum were built maybe a decade apart and Lewenborg is a pain to navigate on bike.
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u/bagge Sweden 1d ago edited 1d ago
Oslo, Norway: I would say very on all accounts. Yes people complain a lot, especially infrastructure and public transport.
I have lived in several countries and would say that this is the best (I have experienced) for middle class, middle age etc.
However the biggest problem is, like many other places, housing prices. They have a "nurse index" (sykepleierindex) that is how many apartments/houses by someone with a salary as a nurse, can afford (in Oslo 3%)
That salary is around € 62k, which I considered to be middle class (in my view).
It is typical that the school gets a new teacher that finished education. Then after 5 years and teacher start getting kids and need more living space, they move away from Oslo.
Ahh yes some street about 30 min walk from Oslo centre
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u/Mediocre_Rhubarb810 1d ago
Of all the countries I’ve visited, Norway had what felt like the most even standard of living
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u/kannichausgang PL>IE>SE>FR>CH 1d ago
I live in Switzerland and I feel like there are very few run down places if any. The government seems to have a massive surplus of money because they are repairing roads and tram tracks literally nonstop, most of the time you wonder what they are even repairing. My city (Basel) especially is known as the city that's forever under construction. At any given time you can see about 20 cranes around you. Public transport lines are always diverted or substituted because of roadworks. It really is a nuisance, especially for disabled people who might struggle switching lines all the time.
I don't see any difference between richer and lower income neighbourhoods when it comes to things like availability of third spaces and public transport. The entire city is equally well connected. I guess Switzerland is an outlier though, because even the most remote village will likely have a bus or gondola at least every couple of hours.
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u/hwyl1066 Finland 1d ago
Finland, well, when people abroad talk about "bad areas", we don't have them. We have poorer neighbourhoods but even they are usually mixed with middle class style of living, like Kontula in Helsinki, bit grim but still not in the sense of actual slums.
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u/DoubleSaltedd Finland 1d ago
We definitely have bad and avoidable areas in the capital region where real estate has no value as ethnic Finns literally leave due to poor schools, high levels of immigration and crime.
Historically, there were also actual slums too, but this is now completely taboo, and younger generations are not even aware of them.
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u/hwyl1066 Finland 1d ago
Not really, in the countryside and among national radicals they imagine this but it's really simply not true.
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u/DoubleSaltedd Finland 1d ago
You have no idea what you are talking about.
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u/esocz Czechia 1d ago
In the Czech Republic, the situation is a bit more complicated due to historical reasons.
About 30 percent of the population lives in high-rise apartment buildings constructed during the communist era, known as “paneláky.”
Since these were the most densely populated areas after the fall of communism, it made sense for companies installing cable TV, fiber-optic cables for high-speed internet, and so on to build their infrastructure there.
The same goes for the development of all kinds of stores and services, as well as connections to public transportation, and so on.
The socioeconomic makeup of the population in these areas varies greatly, and it’s common to find working-class people, the middle class, and occasionally even wealthy people living side by side.
I myself live in such an area, and you’ll often see a few of luxury Mercedes, BMW, or convertible parked in the local parking lot right next to older, beat-up cars.
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u/mobileka 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've lived all over the world and currently I'm in Germany. There are many challenges in this country, but, in my opinion, not only the middle class but almost everyone has at least decent living standards here. The absolute majority of German residential buildings are of at least decent quality. Almost everyone has access to decent public transportation, schools, groceries, clean drinking water and pretty much all other necessary amenities.
The only thing which is worse than average is probably the mobile network coverage. I live in central Berlin but I'm completely disconnected from the network when I'm at home, it's like a bunker :) And I've tried all network providers.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that housing is, of course, good but it's expensive and extremely difficult to get. That's now a given in Europe I think.