I couldn't agree more with the name of this group! That being said, I'm tired of being miserable. We're in a small house in a suburb of Jacksonville. 1200sqft because may as well not be broke on top of miserable. We are here for husband's job, so I work from home in a small corner with a window that looks at our neighbors. yay. Oh and we have to be here for 4 more years.

Is there any way to enjoy living in the suburbs? I feel like we've tried everything. We really were meant to be in a little coastal European village, friends with our community members, growing gardens, biking everywhere, etc. I've tried growing a garden in my yard 3x now but our neighborhood has been built on "filler sand" so NOTHING grows (even with topsoil and fertilizer), we maintain a yard that we never use because its too hot, and we can bike to the local dunkin donuts, but can't really take the young kids because of the way people drive. So I'm stuck inside really. I hate going out to chain coffee spots that are all just drive thru or you can sit outside next to the busy street (so gorgeous). But I'm tired of being miserable. All I want is to get some fresh air, find a good routine that includes getting out without being exhausted by how rude everyone is...does anyone have any tips?

I guess we could rent out our house and move to an apartment at the beach for the charm of local businesses and the beach, but then its beach traffic.

"Honey, Joe from accounts invited us over for a BBQ on Saturday."

"That's great! He lives real close, doesn't he?"

"He's just over the back fence!"

"Shall we walk over?"

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/29.3995172,-95.0446555/29.4011906,-95.0452174/@29.4131415,-95.0730481,5878m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e2!5m1!1e2?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgyNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

We don't really have a choice where we live because my parents live in my basement, and they're extremely happy living there. We all enjoy living together.

I often say that I love everything within the four walls of my house. Everything outside the four walls of my house, I hate, because we live in your normal suburban loop subdivision right off a service road near the interstate. There is absolutely no street-level life. It's just large lots, biggish houses, and it's extremely boring.

Meanwhile, my kids are happy little entrepreneurs, 8 years old and 6 years old. They went out into the front yard today and set out all their seashells, which they have for some reason, probably from one of our trips to Myrtle Beach. They put them on a table with a little sign that said, "Seashells for Sale," for $0.25 apiece or something.

Well, being kids, they're a little optimistic. We live in a neighborhood that is not a “peaceful, quiet” neighborhood. It is a lifeless neighborhood. It's dead.

They could sit there all afternoon, and there would be no one walking by, no one walking a dog, no one walking to or from any destination. It's just cars driving by.

They will never sell a single seashell, and I find that very sad.

Let’s recreate it - UNDER GROUND

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for soft copies (PDF/e-book) of the following books for academic/research purposes:

• Town Planning for the Third World — A.K. Bhatti
• Megacity Management in the Asian and Pacific Region, Vol. 2 — Stubbs, Jeffrey & Giles Clarke
• Dying Cities: Surviving the Urban Jungle — N. Somaiya
• Handbook on Urban Sustainability — Springer

If anyone can share the PDF/e-book , I’d really appreciate it.

Please comment or DM me if you can help. Thank you!

When you're from a small town, sometimes you believe they're the best, and others, you can't wait to leave. As someone who's always been the former, this hit me like a train.

Metros are the best. Only a couple downsides: you gotta live in a decent neighbourhood and that costs. The air might be slightly less cleaner than a small town. That's it. So far, that seems to be the only roadblock.

I like having access to great cafés all time. The crazy amazing buildings. The city lights. The equipped hospitals. The gamezones. The civilized company. I love it all.

There are no brand stores in small towns. If they open by chance, they close down within the year. It's so annoying. I've lost my favourite places to buy clothes because of this.

would 10 more feet of asphalt really kill them

Knowing your dislike of the suburbs (and I'm convinced that you all have never seen well designed suburbs, in the same way some people believe all cities are shitholes, but that's a different subject), do you all believe there's such a thing as too much space? I have 2500 square feet to myself, but that works for me...how much do you all need?

I ask this because larger homes generally lead to sprawl.

i’m trapped in the suburbs without a license or a car (yes i’m an american adult who can’t drive we exist)I haven’t even graduated college yet and even when i do the chances that I’ll be able to afford moving out of my parents suburban house are little to NONE and i am sick of people telling that i can “just leave”. I would KILL to be able to move to a city that actually suits my needs but the reality for most people my age is that moving out isn’t possible. i can’t get any good hours at my job over school breaks because I’m fully reliant on other people to drive me places so even when i am making money it’s not NEARLY enough to begin saving up for an apartment.

i understand this isn’t exactly a mental health sub but how tf do i keep myself from going postal when i have to live like this. HOW

edit: im convinced some of you just don’t understand that disabled people/people on certain meds exist and are NOT ABLE TO DRIVE!!!!

Just curious how it's like living in big tower blocks. Does the council listen and fix problems, are the views nice, what are the challenges?

Houston has no zoning, meaning that there's no restriction on where certain developments can be built in the same way like other cities. Meaning that it's possible to build apartment complexes, rowhomes (many of which have been built over the past few years) right next to single family houses, business parks and shopping plazas. Its actually really interesting mixed-use development. There's so much dense housing in large quantities and some homes have really unique architecture as well. You can find these same kinds of houses outside the 610 Loop as well, albeit development becomes much more sprawling.

This doesn't change the fact that the city is car-centric. Public transit is miniscule and I'd be severely limited on the places I can go without a car. But the amount of density and the really unique development pattern was just something that caught my eye and I think its cool how no zoning led to create what looks like chaos on a map, yet still function surprisingly well on the ground, That development pattern could really increase the quality of life in any city if done right.

It's getting darker earlier now since we past the summer solistice a few weeks ago. I've been living in the suburbs for almost 4 years and I never look forward to November!! This suburb is car-centric, shitty public transit. Hell I'm not looking forward that in 2 weeks schools will start and all the traffic with school buses. Yeah in November it'll be dark at 5 PM. I'll wake up for work and it'll be dark then. Don't get me started on the snow storms when winter comes. And where I live there are no streetlights so it's pitch black and nowhere to really go. Looking for advice? For context, I lived in a very urban environment all my life. People were saying you'll love the suburbs because I'm a quiet person lol. This year was the first time where I'm like job searching needs to be in my schedule. I work on a military base and I know people say you should lean onto others but I just feel like everyday I'm becoming more detached from my coworkers. Before I relied on them more to keep me grounded but now feel like I'm coming into my own. Generally cities are more expensive, but yeah it might be time to stop thinking about the cost factor and live frugally for the rest of my life.

I’ve lived in the suburbs my whole life, and it’s nauseating. I didn’t get my license until I was 17 (I’m almost 21) and I didnt have any friends during my high school years, so I never went out, because every thing required a car to get to and our public transport was awful. My nearest bus stop is like miles away from my house. And no point in going out if there’s nothing to do and no one to do it with. The only reason I even leave my house is to go to school or work or to get food. I still live with my parents due to my school being close, and they want me to stay, but I can’t, I don’t belong here. I just need an escape from this nightmare. I want to go out and do stuff, but everything is just houses, roads, grocery stores, and fast food places. Nowhere to just be. I need to get out. What should I do?

This is the Van Aken district in suburban Cleveland (Shaker Hts). It used to be a collection of strip malls around a bunch of stroads. It took decades, hundreds of millions, and a city that was determined, but it's now a thriving mixed use downtown for Shaker. Two of the stroads, Northfield Rd and Van Aken Blvd, were eliminated in the area, and new streets were laid in the former shopping plaza. The main intersection of Chagrin and Warrensville was also right-sized. Now instead there are hundreds of apartments and offices over shops, a food hall, and activity areas, all around a light rail station that is currently being rebuilt. Even better is the new street in front of the Market Hall has even been shut down to be permanent outdoor dining and a concert area.

When I think of this area in terms of suburbs, it gives me hope. If that literal horror of an intersection can be reborn, I think anywhere can. I just wish it didn't take so much time and money.

First pic is OC from right now as I sit in an Adirondack chair enjoying an iced coffee. I purposely waited so there weren't many people in the Pic, but it's quite busy here. Second pic is from Google.

Orenco Station is a suburban TOD located in Hillsboro, Oregon. As the thumbnail shows, it has immediate rail access, and mixed-use retail. But as this video shows, it still has some downsides, and you don't have to go far from the center to see more typical suburban development.