Comments on: Flower Mound?

By: I'm Still Staying in San Diego « Working’s For Suckers

I'm Still Staying in San Diego « Working’s For Suckers — Thu, 17 May 2007 22:49:09 +0000

[...] 17th, 2007 workingsforsuckers I ran across this NY Times article (via Crooked Timber), about a guy who uses government data to tell you the best places to live. He lives in Portland, [...]

By: Hattie

Hattie — Wed, 09 May 2007 05:35:49 +0000

I lived in a suburb of Portland, because I was taken in by the “good school” argument. I never found my neighborhood and the people in it anything but dull and this of course was the way things were for my kids, too. We should have lived in Portland proper, which is just fine! So I’m with David. Live somewhere interesting and diverse.
After the kids finished college, I moved to Hawaii! I will never ever again live in a boring place for any reason.

By: David in NY

David in NY — Tue, 08 May 2007 00:10:35 +0000

I raised two kids in Brooklyn, and I highly recommend it. Raise a kid in Louisville CO (?) or Gaithersburg and you’re gonna have a bored kid with no sense of the diversity of this country who only appreciates people who look just like him or her. (I know, I came from such places.) Not so here, for sure.

I think this “Gaithersburg is great for kids” junk is spouted by a lot of people who don’t know what kids are like or do like.

By: David in NY

David in NY — Tue, 08 May 2007 00:05:15 +0000

Dan Drezner thinks I display “shock” and “distress” at these family-friendly places and that part of me “shudders with dread about the exemplary suburban locale.”

I hear this Drezner guy teaches at Missoula, right?

By: trialsanderrors

trialsanderrors — Mon, 07 May 2007 23:30:28 +0000

I was referring specifically to the “liberal elitist”.

By: Slocum

Slocum — Mon, 07 May 2007 23:13:39 +0000

Drezner never said such a thing, nor did any of the commenters here. Those are Healy’s words.

Drezner said, “There’s something about the suburbs that appears to periodically freak out the Crooked Timberites” and “I suspect Kieran was mostly being flip, but I do think there’s a part of him that shudders with dread about the exemplary suburban locale”

“Reflexive sneer” is stronger than “part of him shudders with dread”. I’d say that Drezner’s characterization is more appropriate for the original post, though “reflexive sneer” seems about right to characterize “Armpit, CO or Refuse Mound, TX”, doesn’t it?

By: trialsanderrors

trialsanderrors — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:50:55 +0000

Uh, no, his point was definitely not that anyone choosing to live outside the suburbs was liberal elitist but that a reflexive sneer at suburban living was a symptom of liberal elitism

Drezner never said such a thing, nor did any of the commenters here. Those are Healy’s words.

By: Klein's Tiny Left Nut

Klein's Tiny Left Nut — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:46:07 +0000

As a DC dweller with a wife and kid I have to say—Gaithersburg, no thanks—hellish traffic, soulless environment. I’m fortunate enough to be able to handle the ridiculous costs here and the private schools, which probably drive many people out of the city for legitimate reasons. But at least they might have said Bethesda (although also wickedly expensive).

What I’m baffled by is the folks here who opt for the Exurban existence for the sake of having a bigger house and yard. Christ, what a soul crushing experience it has to be to drive an hour and a half or two each way to work every day. When I venture forth in the morning out of the city to clients I am just astonished at what these folks tolerate every day for reasons I can’t fathom.

By: Slocum

Slocum — Mon, 07 May 2007 18:46:37 +0000

If one dares to buck the program and chooses to live somewhere other Armpit, CO or Refuse Mound, TX - TEXAS for God’s sake, TEXAS…the Reconquista can’t happen soon enough! – one is a “liberal elitist?”

Uh, no, his point was definitely not that anyone choosing to live outside the suburbs was liberal elitist but that a reflexive sneer at suburban living was a symptom of liberal elitism (and can you really argue with a straight face that this isn’t common among leftish intellectuals?)

And how did I miss this while I was skimming the Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/05/06/realestate/06covCA02ready.html

Whoo-hoo! We’re number 5! We’re number 5 ;)

(Hope they didn’t pay that photographer and photo editor too much, though).

But Ann Arbor is also too suburban for grad students who think the priorities of families with kids are ruining the place. And of course there’s a blog:

http://www.annarborisoverrated.com/

By: fardels bear

fardels bear — Mon, 07 May 2007 16:16:50 +0000

I moved with my family, to Louisville CO two weeks ago. It really isn’t a suburb, it is an old mining town situated between two cities.

The reasons to move there are the opposite ones usually given for moving to suburbs. Louisville is cheaper than living in Boulder or Denver. I can walk to restaurants, coffee shops, the grocery store, and the library from my house.

My view is I have the all the advantages of true small-town living combined with easy access to urban pleasantries.

OK, now that I’ve started to sound like a realtor, I’ll stop.

By: rakels

rakels — Mon, 07 May 2007 14:34:01 +0000

Gaithersburg MD…Could be worse…you could be forced to live in Tuscon, AZ! But seriously…I don’t get Drezner at all. If one dares to buck the program and chooses to live somewhere other Armpit, CO or Refuse Mound, TX - TEXAS for God’s sake, TEXAS…the Reconquista can’t happen soon enough! – one is a “liberal elitist?” Perhaps there are simply “families with children” who just have different preferences regarding quality of life?

By: Crystal

Crystal — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:56:20 +0000

I have to agree with the poster upthread who wondered why “empty nester” seems to equate to “doesn’t have to work.” Many, if not most, empty nesters are working harder than ever before, either to keep the kiddoes in grad school or simply because they’re not spending time ferrying little Jayden and Cayden hither and yon.

And let’s face it, retirement is becoming a thing of the past – most over-65’ers are still going to be working. Those wonderful cities for empty nesters are, in fact, suitable for a tiny minority of the independently wealthy. Santa Fe shore is purty, though. And fun to shop at.

By: tps12

tps12 — Mon, 07 May 2007 12:27:17 +0000

Suburbs are bad for the environment and bad for people, child or adult. There’s something suspicious about people who are freaked out by the possibility of being “too close” to their neighbors.

By: trialsanderrors

trialsanderrors — Mon, 07 May 2007 05:58:05 +0000

What makes you think I’ve never heard of these places?

It’s called bullshit detector.

By: Doug

Doug — Sun, 06 May 2007 14:05:13 +0000

But what’s odd about a biography that goes: Single – DC, Young Couple – DC, Family with Children – DC Suburb, Empty Nest – Somewhere Way the F Away from DC? People’s mileage obvsly vary on the last, but transiting to a suburb of a preferred urb is an exceptionally normal life structure. Notional life transition, my two-car patootie. That Gaitersburg is at most marginally different from any other DC suburb is neither here, there, nor anywhere in particular in between. That’s rather the point.