What is it about the suburbs?! What’s wrong with them? Why do I have such a weird beef with them?*

See, don’t be so hard on the suburbs. While cities have certain flavors, farms have others, the one distinguishing connotation you get in suburbs is that of “success.” To live in the suburbs, (at least the outer-ring “affluent” suburbs) you have to have made it. Nobody’s poor in the suburbs. And as a result, the suburbs cater to the successful. You get places like Crocker Park, this gigantic opulent shopping center that’s made to look so perfectly like an old village. Restaurants like Max and Erma’s, which serves food that is pretty good, and overpriced. Because what the hey, people can pay for it. Always enough parking.

Suburbs are characterized by success- so what’s wrong with that? Maybe it’s the fact that it’s not my success that I’m getting rewarded for by living in the suburbs. Or just guilt from knowing that 99.9% of the people in the world would kill to live in such a nice environment. Maybe it is just guilt. I don’t think that’s it though. I don’t know what it is. Anyway, time to sleep now.

*Don’t ever eat weird beef.

Comments:

Brian - Nov 0, 2005

if you hate the ‘burbs, move to singapore. one city: no suburbs. and no upper middle class to live in them. no middle class at all. or, depending on how you look at it, all middle class.

sometimes i feel like if you live in singapore, you either have a cook or you are one. it’s just all different.