r/Suburbanhell

Anyone else sick of working just to live in ticky-tacky suburban strip-mall hell?

A whole block of ugly ass lawns could fit inside an apartment building imagine all the space to save for nature. Imagine if people lived in apartments and instead walked or bus in a city m
There ugly monuments to copious consumption and the toxic nature of the nuclear family and segregation.

There are some suburbs made before cars for street cars that have public transport and more mixed use buildings that are better for people but not any suburb made in the last fifty years

My pick is phoenix, but any Floridan cities could count. It's a bit easy if you choose a clear suburban satellite towns/cities near a larger city but I won't judge.

Ngl I kinda wonder what are good examples of suburban heaven? If that's what you call it.

About 5 years ago my wife and I finally bought a house in a small community outside the city. We have 4 kids, and for years we were crammed into rentals where at least two of them always had to share a room. We moved around a lot in different apartments, townhouses, even rented an old farmhouse for a bit and just trying to find something that actually felt right and didn’t cost an arm and a leg

When we found this place, it honestly felt like we’d won the lottery. Big enough for every kid to finally have their own bedroom, quiet area, little patch of woods nearby, deer walking through the neighborhood in the mornings… it felt peaceful. Half the people here didn’t even bother putting up fences because it was that kind of place

And we’re still working on the house even now. The main dining room still looks like a storage unit, and the upstairs living room is basically unfinished except for an old couch, TV and a couple of moving boxes. But that was fine with us. It felt like home

Then suddenly, almost out of nowhere a company started clearing part of the woods behind the neighborhood to build some kind of factory. Looks like they’re making parts for Airbus or something like that, I don’t even know. I just couldn’t believe they approved something like that right next to a residential community with all the talk about saving trees and the environment

A bunch of neighbors already put their houses up for sale because they think the whole area’s going to change completely once construction ramps up. Some of them sold fast just to get out before things get worse and one family down the street even went through Cleveland Cash Offers because they didn’t want to deal with the normal selling process while bulldozers are practically in the backyard

Just feels surreal... We spent years trying to find a place where we could finally settle down, and now it feels like the rug’s getting pulled out from under everyone

These things drive me crazy and I’m sure I’m not the only one. These damn things ruin spring and summers. I can’t go one fucking day without hearing lawn mowers or leaf blowers. When the fuck are we gonna get mower bans and switch to electric. I don’t mind ppl mowing their lawns so long as it’s not penetrating the walls or my fucking ears. At this point they might as well just replace lawn grass with genetically modified grass that only grows 1 inch.

Edit: Yes I have a job stfu. Some of yall lack empathy

The reason I ask is because there seems to be two different things that people think of when they talk about suburbs, and they are almost opposite to each other:

1. Middle or upper-class residential areas, miles from anything, with twisty, tree lined streets and mansions (or McMansions), or at least big, multi-garage houses.

2. Commercial areas with big box stores, chain stores, fast food restaurants, and six lane stroads, and also low or medium density residential areas: duplexes and single-level apartment complexes.

Basically, when you think of suburbs, do you think of... White Plains, New York, or do you think of Middletown, Ohio (two kind of random examples, but you probably know what I mean). Because both of these can be "Suburban Hells", but they are two different things.