Re: We are all Slave now.
 

I have thought about this quite a bit. There is good food in some suburbs, particularly where rents are low and chefs can do good stuff. I don't know the NY suburbs and I do know DC, but I think the economics are probably the same. (SF and SV are weird because SV rents are so expensive.) When food is bad, it's often because the restaurant has high rent and needs to play it safe or because it doesn't serve that many people and needs to play it safe to appeal to more of the people it does serve. Delivery helps with both problems, so it should help suburban restaurants. Suburban Chinese and pizza does often suck, but if you've got more choice then it should get better. Delivery helps urban restaurants too, but not quite as much relatively. The economics of delivery work better where you can get around well by car. All else equal, the city is always going to be better off because the kind of people who want to create good food are more likely to want to be in the city.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Thread (explaining Trump's appeal).

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Before I rise in vigorous defense of my suburb in Northern Virginia, I have to admit that I love urban Washington. A clean city that has all the things on the cultural checklist. The food scene is astonishing. Crime is under reasonable control.

Now then. Two absolute disqualifying factors for me.

It is literally...not figuratively, literally...child abuse to send your children to the DC public schools. This isn't really open to discussion. The schools are wretched, with no improvement in sight.

I have a third of an acre. Because I am very close to the Potomac, I have a remarkable array of wildlife pass through; deer, turkeys, eagles. Washington has a visible surplus of the one creature which, for personal reasons relating to my time in the army in Asia, I loathe with every fiber of my being. Rats. Big ones. Some other time I can explain why this reaches a deeply psychotic level for me. It makes for a good Moth story.

As for my suburb: I live in Mt. Vernon on property once owned by George Washington. The commute is down the Potomac through a long skinny national park. I bought a used Mercedes convertible roadster because...wait for it... I love my commute. I have a seriously high pressure position. Winding down on the way home is a joy.

Our extended neighborhood includes Route 1, which is full of section 8 housing with people who got to America Tuesday. Their children attend the local high school with kids who live in riverfront mansions. There were students from 40 nations when my son went there; the school put a flag of origin in the lobby for each nation that had sent them a student. My son was a remarkable athlete. He played soccer with Africans and South Americans, basketball with African Americans, and swam with the white yuppies. One of those yuppies went to Stanford, the Austrian Olympic Team, and held a world record in the backstroke. So, yes, there was an Austrian flag.

Looking down on strip mall restaurants is a snob's mistake, at least in my neck of the woods. I can get to first generation immigrant food pretty quickly. As to sophisticated fare, I can get to Alexandria in 10 minutes. No, there are not 300 eateries. But I'll bet there are 100, and half of them are really excellent. I can be in DC a few minutes later.

Unlike people who want the convenience of the city, I simply prefer a refuge. I can, like a couple of other people on this Board, walk to a golf course. I haven't played golf since the early 60s. I have a house membership so I can use the bar and grill.

I can walk to two yacht clubs. I belong to the one that consists of a porta-potty, a dock. and a place to store a boat on a trailer. I grew up spending summers on a small island where my blue collar immigrant grandparents retired. They would set me loose with one instruction: Come back with some fish for dinner. I still love the water and I can be at the shore and on the river minutes after I get home.

To sum up: There is no "right answer" to which is better, urban or suburban. I found a spot a long time ago...we've owned the house for 36 years... that gives me the peace I sorely need at the end of the day. If you need to be within walking distance of a venue with the newest this or the hottest that, good for you. Come out and visit me on my front porch. I've got a wine cellar to die for, and my better half developed a taste for sparkling wines when we lived in Brookyln Heights. We can accommodate your refreshment needs. Que the Vivaldi.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

These all suck, but this is just a taste. Here's the unexpurgated version (I'm sure others will even add to this):

- Home maintenance
- Yard maintenance
- People who talk about home and yard maintenance
- See that one above? Here it is again, in bold: People who talk about home and yard maintenance
- Once more, with italics, too: People who talk about home and yard maintenance
- People who read only the local papers
- Parents whose only ventures are travel teams with their kids
- The unironic wearing of football jerseys (this takes place in cities, too, but usually only near stadiums, or in blockhead neighborhoods)
- The homeowner's association
- McMansions with the "Texas Arch" (useless two story, two column, domed portico fronting domed window... to give you an unobstructed view of the chandelier hanging from their two story, but only 12 x 12 foyer)
- Homes brick or faux stone fronted, but coated in siding on the sides and back
- Having to Uber everywhere because every good bar/restaurant is a DUI concern
- Having to even think about filling the car with gas
- No late nite bodega of any value
- Shoveling snow/getting driveway plowed
- Good luck finding a good tailor
- No good mens clothing stores
- Keeping up with Joneses home competition ("We have an outdoor popcorn oven, and this custom cabinet holds our collection of various wine aerators! Have I shown you the hand carved crown-molding in the dust room? It's right here, just off the mud room, next to the children's theatre.")

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Until you mentioned the Heights you might have moved T a bit, but you sunk yourself there{sad face}

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

I live in the burbs. I live in the town my wife grew up in, and near a lot of her family, and that's why I live in the burbs. But there is one thing that will never be fixed in the burbs.

They are full of suburbanites. Everywhere you look, there is another fucking suburbanite.

These people do their kids homework for them, because they care how they do not what they learn. They compare shit endlessly. Homes, cars, snowblowers, boob jobs. Who they know. Who they want to know. What they watch on TV. And they all seem to have been made at the same factory.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Good list, but I just want to make sure you know the current thing is outdoor pizza ovens. You've got to have an outdoor wood fired pizza oven.

I'm thinking of this one, and having a little brick base built for it. What do you think?

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Well, Hank, technically, I lied. We lived across the street from the formal area of "Brooklyn Heights", at the corner of Adams and Tillary. We were across the street from the EDNY Courthouse. If you turned onto Adams in front of our place, you went over the bridge to Manhattan.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

In college I tutored maths. When I tutored white suburban kids, the moms wanted to make sure I oversaw/did the homework. I tutored a 5th grade black girl in the heart of Lansing (not big city, but urban in any definition you might throw out). Her mom wanted me to do the homework. If you don't think average people in the average city don't compare phones/shoes/clothes, you simply don't know people in cities.

Reading through all of this, I can summarize as follows: Thurgreeds points, and some of Sebby's (Uber? That actually makes the burbs closer to a city, but whatever) are accurate AS TO THEIR CITIES. Detroit for decades had an 8 Mile road imaginary barrier. White people did not venture in for entertainment much. The suburbs here had better restaurants until the last 5 years. Immense changes have happened, and Detroit is a great restaurant city now.

But the thing with Detroit, and DC (due to Metro) is getting into the city is easy. I live at 10 mile Road. I can be in Detroit Midtown after a 10 minute drive. From Alexandria Va. I can be in DC within a half hour.

I don't know about Boston/Suburbs, but you can't get from one Philly suburb to another in a half hour. The entire suburban area is fucked with traffic. And I have no idea how one gets to NYC's suburbs. I stay in the city when I have meetings in Hartford. I don't try to drive. I have someone drive me. We are going against traffic and it is super fucked up. No way would i make that commute.

So, Apples/Oranges.

All that said, for me my favorite place to stay is the UWS. I can get to the street and walk to almost everything I want to do every day. If not there is the subway. And the best part of every day's experience (and ofter the worst) is that walk/ride. That's why it is strange to hear about delivery being a plus? Perhaps T is getting sick of the crowds, and will be scouting out New Jersey homes in the near future?

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Go back and edit to "DUMBO before anyone knew what that meant." Brooklyn Heights was already Brooklyn Heights when The Patty Duke Show was on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIzGzFmCVqM

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Outdoor popcorn oven. Ha. Nice. My former hipster friend has an outdoor pizza oven that she won't stop talking about.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Ticky tacky, and they all look just the same... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vogayV8MHz8

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

That one looks perfect! It appears uniquely designed to suck the joy out of pizza.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

I forgot just how fucking brilliant that intro was.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Have you talked to anyone about their generator lately? Steel yourself for the discussion should you see it approaching... You're in for a spontaneous orgasm. "Seven hours without refueling the diesel??? Oh, my God!!! Your Riesling refrigerator stayed exactly 47.5 degrees through the entire power outage??? I need to fetch new trousers!!!"