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Comment by gok | Hacker News Reader

To me, remote work makes cities a more attractive place live than the suburbs. A family doesn’t need 2 or 3 cars anymore. You can live and work in a walkable neighborhood and get most of your errands done during the week, avoiding times of congestion. Work from a cafe or park instead of a basement or garage.

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To each his own. I lived in San Francisco for 30 years. I lived in Richmond VA for the 10 years before.

I now live in a nice suburb. It has bunnies and the occasional coyote. It is green. It is quiet.

I don’t hear sirens all night. I don’t hear shouters all night. I don’t hear my neighbors footfalls. Open the window and I hear song birds.

On r/sanfrancisco someone was making a case for how safe it is. That simply was not my experience. I was assaulted and beaten one morning in front my flat. My garage has been broken into 4 times. Before my neighborhood was gentrified a few years back there was an open gang war with multiple murders a block from my house. The killings stopped when when the thugs were priced out of the market creating another problem of haves and cant possibly ever haves.

The only thing I miss is the corner store that stocked bumpers and the variety of high quality food.

What are "bumpers" in this context?

Going from the context of the original post, it's quite obvious that He bought (car) bumpers from a junk-yard that also sold high-quality food. Which, to me, sounds like a viable and wealth-generating business model.

I couldn’t imagine how they can combine as the hygiene of this food place must be terrible. It’s like buying a sandwich from a car mechanic shop

I think this is the split discussed in the article. About 20% of the people would rather live in cities. Work From Home is giving us the freedom to choose where to live, and I don't see how it's anything but an absolute win.

I've lived in a 'zoomtown' for the last four years. It's great. My area isn't walkable, but it is bikeable. When I leave my house, there's a 50/50 chance I'm on my bike instead of in my car. I have more privacy and quiet working than I had in offices, or in my urban core apartments. Peak traffic sucks, but it's not as bad as peak traffic in a city. I can afford something like 6x the space compared to SF/SEA/NYC.

I'm surprised the article doesn't mention the downsides I have experienced in zoomtown.

* Local government is corrupt, but without a city paper no one notices or cares. I know urban cities have corrupt local governments too, but the looting and shilling is more blatant here. No one seems to care or be informed on local issues.

* All of my flights have a layover now.

* Limited cultural opportunities.

* Everything is getting slightly worse as more remote workers are moving here.

* Medical care was notably better in the city, and I have limited access to some specialist.

You don’t need 2-3 cars living rurally either. My wife and I dropped down to 1 vehicle a year ago with her being a stay at home mom and myself working remote.

Growing up in the suburbs with two parents working, and myself and my brother both playing sports on different teams, we would've had a hard time getting by with less than 4 cars.

Rideshare doesn't eliminate the need for private vehicles, but reduces the need for the Nth vehicle.

You may be right. I found when working from home that leaving to run errands suddenly became a burden. Pre-covid I could stop at the store on the way home from work to grab a thing. With those opportunity trips gone, every trip has to be deliberate.

Unless you have kids. The school systems are generally better in the burbs.

Unless you have money/connections. Most cities have private schools with excellent rankings.

And that kind of defeats the purpose. You’re better off paying the money for house in the burbs and get the better school systems.

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