I've lived in a very urban area and I miss it but I really don't. It's harder to get away there. I don't mind helping homeless people, but dealing with aggressively mentally ill people every other time you step out the door or drug addicts screaming at each other in the middle of the night is not something that's enjoyable. That happens in the city, I've never experienced it the suburbs. It just seemed like you always had to be on alert. Maybe that says a lot about how we handle social problems, but it can't be easily discounted.
> If people are moving to suburbs and exurbs because the urban cores are "full," with high rents and home prices, then the question becomes: Do politicians fight anti-development interests like homeowners who have sought to block construction in their neighborhoods?
1. Skimmer 2. Scroller 3. Titlefiend
>Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."
It's annoying that pointing that out to the didn't reader is against the rules, but derailing the discussion by not reading is perfectly okay.
But what do I know? Am shadowbanned most of the time.
It's HN's worst aspect.
The proper response, then, is to downvote the derailing comment, not to respond with an attack. Downvotes are HNs tool for maintaining S/N ratio, attacks making ascribing what you presume caused the poster to post in a way you find less-than-worthy don't deal with any problem, they just exacerbate it and fill HN with toxic noise.
>derailing the discussion by not reading is perfectly okay
Is according to guidelines, not me. My fault that wasn't clearer.
Confounding this is the fact that those who do send their kids to city schools are poor because of lack of education and they are passing their lack of value for education to their kids. Even if one person does stay in the city it will be hard for their kids when all the peer pressure doesn't value education (this isn't insurmountable, but it is a negative parents have to fight)
Remember in the US schools have a significant amount of local control. The federal or state government in large part cannot step in and say "do thing this way" - even if we agreed on what is the right thing to do (we don't) the power to get anything done is lacking where it is needed.
In short there are significant headwinds that you would have to counter. You alone cannot do it, and getting enough other people interested is hard.
Not only can state government generally do so (and, in fact, most states do set standards and methods and control some funding decisions of local districts), some state governments have processed by which they will go beyond dictating the standards and methods, etc., to actually assume direct control of local school districts.
On the other hand, research indicates people choose to live in cities for career advancement and to find a mate.
If the research is representative of people's opinions, then perhaps this is a failure of marketing.
Even in the Nordic countries, smaller towns have a higher birth rate than cities:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0032472070157174...
Urbanism has always been associated with lower birth rates across nations from the US to Europe to China.
This is the one that matters in the Rust Belt. It's not more expensive, really, to live in a trendy neighborhood in St. Louis or Cincinnati or whatever, than it would be to live in a nice suburb, but the schools are terrible. It's a cliche in these towns that even the most "City committed" folks move out when they start a family.
Do you really need to ask that? "We" have the land and the area for people, a lot of "the rest of the world" does not.
For other reasons, schooling and crime are such that for those that want families, cities are less than ideal than the suburbs. The ability to get around is relatively cheap.
And the economics reflect that. So you can anguish in your "what should be", but ultimately it mostly comes down to money and incentives.
Translated: White Flight.
There are great (public and private) schools in NYC, the Bronx, and Brooklyn.
Many of the cities with "poor" inner city schools are also cities where white flight and highway riots hit the worst.
Always with the race.... its obtusive
Today this behavior is illegal and perpetuating that stereotype reinforces racism
If you want to have a garden, or a wood shop, or race around RC cars or drones, or big pets, a city just won’t work well for you.
Most people are happy in cities because their lives aren’t much more than sleeping, eating, going to work, and then maybe going to some social events or watching tv, which is a perfect description of millennial life so far.
Also, if you like loud motorcycles, could you please f$%k off to the suburbs. Thanks.
I see plenty of medium and large dogs running with their owners on the lakeshore trail, and most parks have fenced off dedicated dog parks.
Cities work fine for all these things, it just requires that the city has shared space for people with hobbies that don't fit in an apartment.
Autocross/Track days
Sporting clays
Golf (dragging clubs on the subway is not fun)
Kayaking
Camping
There are other things to do, but NYC is a bad place for a person making less than 6 figures to participate in a lot of outdoor activities.
Festivals
Concerts
Bars
Shopping
Food
Gyms
Meetups
Zoo(s)
Aquarium
Beach
Bike/Jogging trails (606/lakeshore)
Holiday Parades
Holiday Events (Christkindle/July 4th, etc)
Architecture
Very accessible social circles (walking, public transit)
etc, etc
These are what I worry I'd be giving up if moving to the suburbs as a renter currently.
(edit) Can't figure out a hard-return for formatting
(edit 2) Trying to get into a bowling alley is ridiculously hard though, having an hour wait to bowl never has happened to me in the burbs.
Most suburban back yards are still far too small for RC flying so I'm not sure what the living suburbs gets you for this hobby that you can't have in a city.
DC is a special case because the entire city is subject to special flight rules[1]. You're SOL if you live there.