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Comment by duxup | Hacker News Reader

The sleepy suburbs have their downsides, but also their upsides for sure.

People like to hate on suburbs for a lot of valid reasons but moving back to one as an adult after spending my 20s in the city was profoundly calming.

The whole "hey kids go outside and play" and I don't feel the need to monitor them is wonderful if you've got kids.

Also a perfectly normal thing in cities in most of the world.

In the ones that have an "outside" for the kids, sure. In my experience, most of the bigger cities in Europe just don't have the space for the kids to hang out. Sure there are parks with playgrounds here and there, but they are separated by kilometers of concrete and stone. At least suburbs have the spaces and the clean air.

Cities have a lot more for kids to do within a kilometer or two, IME. In a suburb you may have "space" but it's all just people's lawns and strips of grass next to the road.

Not all suburbs are set up like that. Mine has a nice “downtown” area in walking distance with plenty to do. There’s mid-rise buildings, shops, restaurants, bars, and a train station to the city if you get bored.

You need density for that kind of "downtown", which is in fundamental tension with this notion of "space". I used to live in Ealing, which calls itself "Queen of the suburbs", but I don't think that's the kind of place iakov was talking about.

To me it seems whole "urban culture" (graffiti and skateboards (i know i'm probably shallow by generalising it as such)) has developed from lack for playgrounds and green spaces (especially for older kids).

In Lithuania lots of soviet buildings actually had somewhat of a common yard, which in past 20 years has been replaced with a parking lot.

Same. I've left my garage door open on the way out so many times (in a quiet, unremarkable cul de sac -- neither upscale nor rundown) without consequence that I no longer worry about whether or not I closed it.

If I leave my garage door open, the mice come in and set up shop. Takes a couple weeks to trap them all. Sometimes I even see them running in.

I don't leave the door open unattended even for 5 minutes.

Never heard of a break in in the city my family is from. No one ever locks their doors. It's one of the nice things about a society where most people get the help they need, no need for people to do these crimes to survive.

I grew up in suburbs and we used to leave our garage door open often up until day our bikes were stolen out of it.

They're also easy targets for people to break in during the day while people are at work.

I chased a person out of my garage in broad daylight who ended up being a porch pirate.

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