<story><title>The Suburbs Will Die: One Man&apos;s Fight to Fix the American Dream</title><url>http://time.com/3031079/suburbs-will-die-sprawl/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ufmace</author><text>My skepticism of suburbs has mostly been about how the long distance and personal car dependence they create tends to isolate people and households.&lt;p&gt;Build a suburban &amp;quot;gated community&amp;quot; for safety, give everyone a huge lawn that they&amp;#x27;re obligated to constantly maintain, don&amp;#x27;t allow any commercial buildings in because they&amp;#x27;re considered ugly, and you get an environment where it&amp;#x27;s pretty tough to get anywhere without a car. Add in the poor pedestrian infrastructure, intimidating high-speed traffic, and some irrational fear of how anybody under 18 out of eyesight of a parent for a second is about to be kidnapped, and  you get a neighborhood where everyone seems actively discouraged from knowing anything about their neighbors. Seems to me that this is what creates the unsafe environment that everyone was trying so hard to get away from.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s interesting to read that many suburbs may also be logistically unsustainable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>modoc</author><text>Your vision of a suburb has very little to do with the reality of my suburban existence.  It&amp;#x27;s like someone from the country talking about the horribly dangerous ugly city with its filthy air, roving gangs shooting strangers, and huge rats running in the streets.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not saying suburbs are perfect, but you&amp;#x27;ve basically thrown up a stack of strawmen here.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Suburbs Will Die: One Man&apos;s Fight to Fix the American Dream</title><url>http://time.com/3031079/suburbs-will-die-sprawl/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ufmace</author><text>My skepticism of suburbs has mostly been about how the long distance and personal car dependence they create tends to isolate people and households.&lt;p&gt;Build a suburban &amp;quot;gated community&amp;quot; for safety, give everyone a huge lawn that they&amp;#x27;re obligated to constantly maintain, don&amp;#x27;t allow any commercial buildings in because they&amp;#x27;re considered ugly, and you get an environment where it&amp;#x27;s pretty tough to get anywhere without a car. Add in the poor pedestrian infrastructure, intimidating high-speed traffic, and some irrational fear of how anybody under 18 out of eyesight of a parent for a second is about to be kidnapped, and  you get a neighborhood where everyone seems actively discouraged from knowing anything about their neighbors. Seems to me that this is what creates the unsafe environment that everyone was trying so hard to get away from.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s interesting to read that many suburbs may also be logistically unsustainable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>altcognito</author><text>&amp;gt; and you get a neighborhood where everyone seems actively discouraged from knowing anything about their neighbors&lt;p&gt;This is completely unfair. I can tell you that from living in my suburban home over the past 10 years that over time I have come to know every single person who lives on my street. You have children that play together, that goto school together (and you may serve on the PTO together with those same neighbors), you have trees that you plant, fences that are built together. You see each other at garage sales. If you have an HOA, you likely maintain a common area together (maybe a pool)&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, there are those who complain how &amp;quot;up in everybody&amp;#x27;s business&amp;quot; the neighbors are.&lt;p&gt;All I can say is that everywhere is different, perspective is everything. I&amp;#x27;ve live in major cities and talked to people who in major cities and &amp;quot;knowing your neighbors&amp;quot; is more reflective of who your neighbors are than it is of the geographical layout. (I also have neighbors who I have little interaction with, and that&amp;#x27;s just fine)</text></comment>