Anti-suburban sentiment is not new. Living on a lot the size of a tennis court next to hundreds of other people doing the same thing is just not very romantic. Suburbs also seem to take for granted that what makes us special is that we are all unique in some small way. So I get it, I don't much love Suburbia myself. I've lived in it or near it all my life and the most interesting thing that has happened was that one time Karen from the HOA got one of the high schoolers in my neighborhood arrested for smoking pot. However, I can not condemn it. In fact I think they are largely underrated. While they may not be the prettiest thing, the suburbs solve two problems very well. One, they give each family there own sort of private land and space. Two, they still allow for community engagement. These are two things that I believe most people want, no matter your background. At least these are two things that I want, and the suburban model knocks these out of the park. Having your own personal space that is large enough to support your hobbies or interest is an even bigger plus. The Little Boxes reading points out that most of the silicon valley startups began in garages. There is also a good chance that one of the bands you really like listening to started in a garage as well (especially if you like early 2000's rock). Spaces in extremely urban environments usually don't offer the the same support for these space sensitive interest. I would even venture to say that these boring and repetitive "little boxes" can sometimes breed creativity from the the blank canvas that they provide. At the end of the day, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think the idea of the suburbs is the issue. It's the follow-through. I just hope that one day, that follow-through can change. Besides, who doesn't want their own personal garage rock band.
Like I'm not going to comment on this one. I agree with you: I like being downtown and i like the city, but i really like my little box. Your comment about bands, specifically, hits home: back in the days a lot of the college bands that formed at Carolina didn't have practice spaces because they were all college students who lived in dorms or in student housing or whatever, so they all rented storage units to practice in. Eventually the neighbors complained enough that the storage places started banning them, which was too bad. that's how a lot of cool college bands ended, actually: they got kicked out of their storage spaces.
ReplyDelete^^haha I like the resourcefulness of renting a storage unit. I always assumed there were rules against actually occupying the space of a storage unit, but this is a creative solution, especially since most storage units tend to be on the outskirts of town.
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