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It's not far from the city center and part of London. What makes it a suburb?
Having been to both Richmond and Putney, I would not call either one a suburb by American terms.
I love visiting my friends in those areas, but I would not to live in my friends very small flats. And they have some money, but proporty prices in London are outrageous.
I live in one of the suburbs like the OP. I'm in orlando Fl. I have live in CA, RI, Ma and NH too. I have a beautiful big house with a pool in a safe area. Yes, the houses are close together, however behind my house is a pond and woods, part of a nature preserve. I daily see and feed, Raccoons, deer, river otters and other animals. I'm a 5 minute drive from outdoor shopping and restaurants. There is a locally owned coffee house very close by. What I paid for my house would get me a small apartment in a somewhat unsafe part of a city.
My neighborhood is filled with familes where both parents work. Teacher, University professors, Business people, medical professionals etc. When election season happens I see signs for both parties in all of the yards. It seems to be about 50/50 Republican /Democrat. I am pretty far left and I am comfortable here. IN the USA, I'll take the suburbs any day
Now if I lived in Europe I would want to live in a walkable city. I love that European lifestyle.
Things are just different here. IN the USA I would not live in the city. To expensive, unsafe, not enough room etc.
I don't think it's really fair to compare the cities and suburb situations of Europe to those in the USA. As someone who spends a lot of time in Europe, the experiences are not the same.
ETA, for the person who asked where the High Street is with all of the shops, It's not the same here. You have your "main street" here which is similar to your High Streets in the UK, but usually they are not the same. We don't really have the "High Street" thing like you guys do.
Last edited by JennyMominRI; 03-18-2015 at 08:53 AM..
We have a couple of neighborhood (block) parties every year. Last year one was at Halloween, the other in the summer. It's very common for one of us to go outside to pick up the mail or take in the garbage bins, start talking to a neighbor, and before you know it a half-hour has gone by. Or one of the neighbors drops by to borrow a tool and my husband goes over and helps with whatever job he is doing. I think that kind of thing definitely makes us a "community."
Our 10-year-old is constantly outside playing with the twins next door and the four kids (a his/hers blended family) down the street.
Go to church together, no. Those who go to church, go to different churches from us. We do have a "neighborhood watch" which was organized when a car was broken in to about eight years ago. It was really just a formality which enabled us to put up a "neighborhood watch" sign. There is almost no crime here. The car break-in is the only incident that's happened since we moved here 18 years ago.
Sounds like my neighborhood!
Oh, and I forgot Halloween. We have about 400 Halloweeners come through every year. We have a neighborhood Haunted House, which is a TRIP and is actually very scary!
Houses are decorated for every season. Not every house every season, but enough homes throughout the year to give the neighborhood a festive sort of air. The main holidays with the most decorations are Christmas and Halloween and July 4th. But many neighbors, myself included, decorate their front doors and porches for other seasons as well - Easter/Spring and Fall in particular.
Our neighborhood is a great mixture of ages. Kids are always zipping by on bicycles or scooters, and parents with strollers or people with every imaginable size and shape of dogs are wandering by throughout the day. Here in Texas, our afternoons in the summer are hot hot hot, so from about noon till 7 pm in the summer, the neighborhood is quiet, but even during the hottest time of the year, at dusk the streets come alive again.
It's a different sort of "street traffic" from an urban setting - there are no clubs, no restaurants, etc inside the neighborhood, so no - you won't see people sitting at outdoor cafes or stumbling down the street drunk at 2 am. But we don't have to lock our doors either. We don't have to worry about parking our car on the street, or laying in bed at 3 am wishing someone in the flat above us would quit bumping around.
There was a time in my life when I wanted to live right in the middle of a bustling city - and I got my chance - in a European city for that matter. Fourth floor apartment on the busiest street in the city, with businesses and clubs and bakeries and restaurants all around me. No elevator, with the laundry facilities in the basement.
I did the whole European thing - walked to the local stores every couple of days for my fresh bread and small amount of groceries to carry up four flights of stairs and put in my tiny fridge or cook on my tiny stove. I sat outside in cafes till eleven on summer evenings. I walked 12 blocks to the outdoor market on Wednesdays and Saturdays for my fresh vegetables, and delicious feta cheese wrapped in grape leaves. I joined in on the street party when Germany won the World Cup - if you can't beat em, join em - because that party went on right outside my windows for three straight nights and it wasn't like I was going to get any sleep anyway! I rode my bike with it's big basket on front all over town and down to the Fussganger area, where I'd sometimes forget that all the stores closed for about two hours in the middle of the day...so I'd entertain myself for that two hours by sitting in the beautiful park that held the ruins of a medieval abbey.
I walked or rode my bike most places for many reasons - some good and some bad. I enjoyed the walk on days it wasn't freezing or raining and to be fair, there were lots of days like that, even though the weather was much more overcast and damp than I personally prefer. But I also walked or rode my bike a lot because the price of gasoline was exorbitant, at LEAST double what I was used to paying in the US.
Sometimes I'd treat myself to a tiny cut of coffee that was delicious - and that cost the equivalent of $8 in today's money (this was twenty years ago).
I enjoyed many aspects of that time in my life - I love European history and art, love the architecture, and I especially love exploring old ruins, which Germany is chock full of. I love hiking too, and I went hiking or volksmarching nearly every weekend, sometimes even in the rain or snow. I like the German people in general.
I don't care for German winters, but I love the extra long summer days - I always loved strolling around in the many parks, sitting at the outdoor cafes, or riding my bike around on those long evenings.
I liked some aspects of my apartment - especially the huge windows that didn't have or need screens. I loved opening them wide and hanging my bedding out to air like my German neighbors were always doing.
Heck, I even like German food (especially the bread and cheese - though I'm glad to report that many of those same breads and cheeses are now available in the US, even in small to midsize towns). In fact, I'd gladly move BACK to Germany, or give the UK a try, if the opportunity arose - as long as I knew I would eventually move back to the US.
Every place has it's pros and cons. I'm an American and a southerner at that, and while I appreciate many things about European and urban living, at the end of the day I prefer life in a smaller, southern town, in a quiet neighborhood, in a home I own, with a big, shady yard, friendly neighbors, and all the amenities I want and need within a short drive made in my comfortable mid size SUV that I park in a spacious garage when I'm not using it - that vehicle that I can rev up and take off in at any hour of the day or night at my own convenience.
Ok, to bring this forward: how much do you socialise with your neighbours - arrange parties, get-togethers, fundraisers and other activities? And not your immediate neighbours only, but say the whole cul-de-sac or street or similar? Do you feel you are a community?
Do you arrange neighbourhood watches if necessary? Do you go to church together?
I'm not the most social person. I am a bit shy so I don't socialize as much. My neighbors get together a lot. Halloween is a major deal where some of the houses get together and decorate then the whole neighborhood hangs out outside and has a good time while the kids trick or treat. There are always people out walking their dogs and stopping to chat with neighbors. Kids play baseball on the cul de sac and often the parents are all out there chit chatting. It's nice. I wish I wasn't so shy.
There is a neighborhood watch. There is also a golf course and lots of neighbors meet to play or to eat and hand out at the clubhouse. They also have events at the community park for the whole community. Easter Egg Hunts, Cinco de Mayo get togethers, etc.
To be clear, this is not a neighborhood for rich people. It is middle class with very few homes worth more than 300,000 USD
What about your neighborhood? How much do you socialize with your neighbors - arrange parties, get-togethers, fundraisers and other activities?
I socialise occationally with one person or maybe two in my condo, but only if we meet on the yard or street. The others I only say hi to. With one neighbour I went for a couple of beers twice in two years. That's it. People here hang with friends and family, neighbours are just random people who happen to live nearby.
Although, in small rural areas it might be a completely different story. And also in summerhouse communities.
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And not your immediate neighbors only, but say the whole apartment complex or street or similar? Do you feel you are a community? Why or why not?
Absolutely not. I hardly recognise the people who are living here in my stairway. About the rest of the block I have no idea of.
I don't think anybody wants to. Northern and Central Europeans value their privacy very high and arranging parties or get-togethers would be mostly uncomfortable for most people.
In suburban areas you know and socialise with the immediate neighbours at the most. The rest of the street are mostly nobodies.
That's why (most of) our suburbs are heavily wooded, have fences and hedgerows. We want privacy, not a village community. And this is not an Scandinavian phenomenon. Here outside Lyon, France the houses are behind walls: https://www.google.fi/maps/place/Lyo...08ab2ae4bb21f0
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Do you arrange neighborhood watches if necessary?
Not needed. We call the cops if necessary.
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Do you go to church together?
We have among the lowest church attendance figures in the world, hardly anyone goes to church at all. Demonstrating your religion is highly frowned upon. For example, I've seen several times on C-D posters' status descripitons referring to God, Jesus or like "bless you". That would never happen here.
I don't live in the U.S. but I live in a North American suburban area that most people might consider "American-style". Not identical but close enough anyway.
How much do you socialise with your neighbours - arrange parties, get-togethers, fundraisers and other activities?
My street has about 35 houses on it. I know, to varying degrees, about 25 to 30 of the families on the street. I know my immediate neighbours very well, and on one side we have drinks and socialize reasonably regularly. The neighbours I socialize with are all over the street and the neighbourhood. It is not always related to house proximity. In many cases (but not always) the neighbourhood social life is related to who your kids' friends are and their parents - at least the ones you have more affinities with.
We do not have annual street parties where everyone is invited. We don't have fundraisers either. Parties are organized punctually, for things like a child's wedding or someone's 40th or 50th birthday. Often in these cases all of the neighbours in the immediate vicinity are invited.
We do have street-wide "garage sales" sometimes in the summer. And of course Halloween and other punctual events.
And not your immediate neighbours only, but say the whole cul-de-sac or street or similar?
As I said, it often revolves around your kids and their friends. 99% of the kids on my street go to the elementary school in the middle of the neighbourhood, so the community identity and life is largely based on that.
Do you feel you are a community?
Some would say yes but I am not so sure. It's certainly far from an impersonal place to live. Especially in the summer my house has kids or neighbours or both visiting it most days of the week.
Do you arrange neighbourhood watches if necessary?
No. Security is not an issue at all in our neighbourhood. You used to have neighbourhood watch signs in some areas in Canada back in the 70s and 80s but I haven't seen one in a very long time. You also had Block Parent (Parents-Secours) signs in some house windows which were stay-at-home parents that were "safety refuges" for kids walking home from school alone, who might run into trouble (a stranger following them). But I haven't seen those in a while either.
Do you go to church together?
Nope. I have no idea of the religious views or practices of 98% of my neighbours. No one talks about religion socially here.
It's surely a good place to live in. I'm thinking more from an urban planning perspective.
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