Metros With The Nicest Collection of Suburbs 2023 (living, best, state)
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Born and raised in Cleveland; have friends, family, and property there.
... as for the "best" suburban district, overall, I'd probably have to say New York... but, again, New York is an unfair comparison to anywhere based on its massive size viz any American city.
Got it. I mean, I’m a Chicagoan. So I’m sure my bias comes through in conversations like this as well. But I’m pretty confident, regardless of familiarity, most would put a metro like Chicago above a metro like Cleveland.
Chicagos North Shore - Evanston, Willamette, Glenview, Winnetka, Northbrook, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff - in a silo, would trump any subregion of Northern Ohio. I know those are strong words, but I don’t think that’s unfair. Add places like La Grange, Park Ridge, Hinsdale, Western Springs, Elmhurst, Barrington, Long Grove, Oak Park, Naperville, etc. etc. I mean, it’s just such a huge delta.
As for New York being the nicest / largest suburban region, I totally agree. It got my vote.
Got it. I mean, I’m a Chicagoan. So I’m sure my bias comes through in conversations like this as well. But I’m pretty confident, regardless of familiarity, most would put a metro like Chicago above a metro like Cleveland.
Chicago's North Shore - Evanston, Willamette, Glenview, Winnetka, Northbrook, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff - in a silo, would trump any subregion of Northern Ohio. I know those are strong words, but I don’t think that’s unfair. Add places like La Grange, Park Ridge, Hinsdale, Western Springs, Elmhurst, Barrington, Long Grove, Oak Park, Naperville, etc. etc. I mean, it’s just such a huge delta.
As for New York being the nicest / largest suburban region, I totally agree. It got my vote.
Bias and blind loyalty are what you make of them (I notice you were silent on my critique of DC's suburbs, where I also lived for several years). I comment on quality aspects of Cleveland and Philly because I know them well and have seen enough of other places to compare... But you've never seen me mention Cleveland in terms of quality downtown retail (which in Cleveland, sucks), or that Cleveland's skyline is among the best (it's merely OK in my book), and so on.
The fact is, and I stand by it, I believe your standard for 'quality' suburban setting of mere size is plain silly. Does the fact one have to drive 16-20 miles through meh suburban areas of Oakland County (Detroit) to reach high-quality areas like Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills make them 'better' than Cleveland's burbs, just as nice if not better (ie: the Heights/Eastern Suburbs (and Chagrin Valley). Or that one has to travel 100 miles from Midtown Manhattan to reach the Hamptons makes this NYC suburban situation better? I see the opposite:
It's a city/suburban area's relative size per the quantity you should be considering, not just the sheer mass of quality suburban experiences. And despite your feeble attempts to minimize what's surrounding Cleveland -- oh, just a small portion of Shaker Heights, and maybe a slice of Rocky River here 'n there (and 'Shorewood'), most objective observers recognize the high quality and diversity of Cleveland's suburban living. To me, one can get much of the quality New York suburban experience in a much more compact (and considerably cheaper) package. It's probably why so many wealthy New Yorkers (stars, pro athletes, and coaches), have made Greater Cleveland, esp its Eastern suburbs, their home: Geraldo, Mike Fratello, Larry King's brother, Walt "Clyde" Frazier (for many years) among others.
... and for the record, as a whole, I don't find Suburban Chicago all that superior... its good, not exceptional. Sure, the wealthy North Shore burbs on Lake Michigan are exceptional. Evanston and Oak Park also stand out with bustling extensive walkable downtown areas (with the former being home to Northwestern U's scenic lakefront campus). Naperville is nice, but not as good as the aforementioned. Also Chicago deserves suburban pluses for its extensive commuter rail network has created dense mixed-use commercial districts in many of the suburbs. But Chicagoland's flat (see boring) topography away from scenic Lake Michigan makes many of the City's suburbs rather cookie-cutter to me (aside from those I mentioned)...
Chicago is awesome in my book for what lies inside the City's border not what's on outside of it. The fabulous, gorgeous vertical downtown, the Lakefront beaches stretching to near the Loop, those amazing dense, architecturally interesting, walkable neighborhoods fed by amazing public transit, the culture, the food, etc., etc., is what makes Chicago.
OK. So obviously you've never been here and know nothing of Cleveland and only know of Shaker probably through your little online travel site: TripAdvisor? Yeah, Shaker has the nationwide rep, but I'm sure you have no knowledge of Hunting Valley (the wealthiest property/per capita town in the State), Moreland Hills, Bay Village, Pepper Pike, Waite Hill, old-school Bratenahl on Lake Erie - 3 miles east of downtown (where a Kardashian and Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, among others, live):
... and why not suburban-like Cleveland East side at Fairhill (Belgian) Village historic townhomes behind which is the deep Doan Brook ravine separating CLE from Cleve. Hts.
Sure, use your population barrier to screen out Cleveland... Fine. But your criteria are plain silly. Your logic is bass-ackwards. Detroit's suburbs are superior because why? You have to drive out farther to get there? Yeah, I really like Birmingham, but it's cute old-school Main Street walkable downtown is 16 miles from cenral Detroit. Central Shaker is 8 (and reachable by a rapid transit line Detroit lacks).
A Cleveland Heights commercial area, such as the one shown below, is 5 miles from downtown Cleveland.
Lakewood's walkable downtown (seen below)? 6 miles
Sure, throw New York at us... simply, by far, the largest megapolis in the nation; among the largest on the planet and, yes, they've got Westchester, the Hamptons, Bedminster, NJ, etc., etc. It's New York.
But that's the point with Cleveland. You get a lot of New York's quality and diversity (and certainly the dramatic natural settings -- which even you can't dispute -- in a more compact, accessible area -- which, btw, doesn't mean the area is small and substandard... far from it.
And no, I do not think suburban Detroit is superior by any measure. You take a West Bloomfield or Birmingham, and I'll match it with the Shaker-Beachwood-Pepper Pike-Hunting Valley-Gates Mills-Solon-Moreland Hills-Chagrin Falls group over it any day of the week, and twice on Sunday... Detroit's burbs are nice, but do they possess the natural physical beauty to match the quality housing/commercial buildings? I think not. Sure, the Grosse Pointes are on the Detroit River, but I say the Edgewater (City of Cleveland)- Lakewood-Rocky River-Bay Village Lake Erie beach-shoreline trumps it easily.
... and objectively, I'd say that's more than just me.
Don't know much about Cleveland honestly but I walked away easily impressed from the pictures and probably would say it's probably one of the most underrated metros in the nation that's for sure.
Don't know much about Cleveland honestly but I walked away easily impressed from the pictures and probably would say it's probably one of the most underrated metros in the nation that's for sure.
Thank you. Hope you get a chance to visit (esp during the summer). You won't regret it.
Nice! There are really underrated areas of DC's suburbs (I actually have a relative that lives around this area).
An aside: you mentioned DC's "armpit." ... Cleveland has oft been tagged as "The Armpit of America." ... it's one Cleveland putdown that truly cracks me up.
I personally do not like LA suburban form at all. Its wealthier suburbs are basically cutoff single housing compounds, while majority of the rest are zoned for very tight small lot sizes compared to anything out East.
I personally do not like LA suburban form at all. Its wealthier suburbs are basically cutoff single housing compounds, while majority of the rest are zoned for very tight small lot sizes compared to anything out East.
Thank you! My point exactly.
I get that SoCal has good number of glam locales, but the lion's share of Western-styled suburbia has always just generally rubbed me the wrong way.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
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I don't really care about this topic, but I do want to point out that I spent this past weekend in Northern Virginia and it always blows my mind how similar it is to the Northern Atlanta suburbs. Like, you'd be hard pressed to know if you were in one versus the other.
I don't really care about this topic, but I do want to point out that I spent this past weekend in Northern Virginia and it always blows my mind how similar it is to the Northern Atlanta suburbs. Like, you'd be hard pressed to know if you were in one versus the other.
Absolutely.
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Boredatwork
