Urban, Suburban, or Rural?

[mayve]

Where would you prefer to live?

I would say Urban.

[Zerο]

It's hard to say, I find myself at opposite ends of the spectrum. When people say rural I automatically think of isolated farmlands, and that sounds terribly boring, but if it was say a tropical island I'd love to live there with a small group of friends. A couple of us have actually toyed with the idea. In that case we'd change our entire lifestyle (who needs video games when you can play at the beach every day).

If we're living as part of modern society, I'd probably want to live in a medium sized city (30-50K) that has a lot of parks, lakes, and such.

[sound_the_bugle]

I'd prefer to live either suburban or rural, or somewhere in the gray area no one can really label as one or the other.

[Celestine]

Rural, 100%. I actually grew up among isolated farmlands :P and although I definitely want to never stop travelling and seeing the rest of the world, I would ultimately love have a cabin in the middle of the woods to come home to. ^__^

I cannot stand cities. The amount of people around is TOO DAMN HIGH. (And I live in Miami right now....sigh.)

[littleheartsofjoy]

I wouldn't want rural at all, that just sounds very isolated and boring to me. I like the idea of being able to get food delivered to me, and not being so far away that if something was to happen to me, no one would know.

As for a city, I'm not sure. It looks like it would be cool to live in a city but a big city like New York is way too much for me. So suburban works for me.

[KJ!]

Grew up in suburbs. UGH. what a horrible and boring and painfully dull experience. Nothing happened. EVER. I hated it. (mine was particularly bad. a town of 45000 people, but no movie theatre. all we has were strip malls and subdivisions and a single bus that went down the center of town twice and hour. you could walk for half an hour and pass hundreds of houses and maybe even dozens of cars, but not see a single other person outside. ridiculous.) While I like rural for short periods (<3 my cottage), I couldn't live there. It requires too much "owning a car" and "being far away from everything" for me. CITY IT IS!!! though I kind of prefer neighbourhood-y smaller and poorer cities where there are smaller communities and things are more of a human scale and everyone works together to live together, not like the massive cities that are all dog-eat-dog. not for me.

[Captain Darkhorse]

Having had the chance to live in all three, I'd much rather go back to living in a rural area.

[Mad]

Urban area!

I had it with rural crap! <_<

[sanremi52890]

I grew up in all three, though I currently live in urban, and I think I prefer rural. The only downside is the money you spend on gas.

[Guest]

Suburb, I guess, or just an urban area. I wouldn't want to live in a super big city because they're dense, chaotic, and crowded (cue Rome <_<)

[Calla]

I grew up in the suburbs, currently live in the city, and would love to live out in the country. Right on the border of rural/suburban would be ideal, ie I have a big chunk of land to be a hermit on but I can easily get to the grocery store and other markers of civilization when needed. :)

[Grumpy Alien]

Urban, urban, urban, URBAN. Can't stand the countryside or small towns.

[Hedera Helix]

Up with rural! :D

I grew up and studied in a big city. Curently located in a rural environment near a small town and loving it!

[Vyanni Krace]

Cities are far too big and chaotic and noisy for me, but I don't want to live in an isolated village either. I'd say suburban (or typical English town).

[marki]

Oops thought it said where I do live..strike one from suburbs and add to cities!

[Elnae]

Rural for me. I live in the middle of nowhere, the nearest village is over a mile away and the nearest town with shops etc is about 7 miles away and I love it!!! But it's so quiet and peaceful here, I genuinely don't think I'd be able to sleep if I had to cope with traffic noise and street lights. I love going to cities but literally only for short visits, a few days is about as much as I can stand.

The suburbs would leave me cold I'm afraid. The isolation here is nice but being able to drive is essential as there's no public transport or none without a mile walk first.

The scenery is amazing and although the winter's can be hard, there's always the bonus of being snowed in and unable to get to work from time to time. :twisted:

I have yet to meet a single person who has seen where we live, who hasn't been gobsmacked by how beautiful it is or wanted to move in.

[SquirrelCat]

Rural!

Mountains to be specific. I need rocks, trees and rivers or I ain't happy.

I'm a mountain kid born and bred and leaving for an extended period of time is my worst nightmare. Nearest village/community (the place with grocery store and schools) is 4 miles away. Nearest town (80 000 ihb) is 50 miles away.

I love the peace and quiet, the scenery, the fresh air and the dark stary nights. I love fishing in the rivers at summer and taking walks in the deep forests and maybe encounter the occasional cryptid :P

Suburbs I don't really have an opinion about because I've never been to one.

A city is a special kind of jungle: Too many people and not enough trees. There are many positive things about cities, access being one of the main. I live really far up north and one of the issues is access to medical treatment. Up here you're at least two hours from hospital care. If you're lucky the ambulance will get to you in under 90 min. But I love it up here and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

[WhenSummersGone]

Suburban, in a big city. I don't like the country and I don't want to be right downtown either.

[Guest]

I would like to live on the countryside, close to a small town... and then not too far away from a bigger town. That would be perfect.

[Schrecken]

I currently live in what I would describe as a rural suburb. Basically there are farms and fields, and subdivisions and homes, and a few miles away there is a town with grocery stores and even a Wal-Mart. So, depending on where you are, you can see nothing but fields and crops and livestock, or you can see strip malls and the historic main street of a small town. I live on a cul-de-sac but I can hear roosters, cows and other livestock off in the distance. I can also hear tractor trailers rumbling along down on the main road as well.

However, I would prefer a more rural area if I had the choice. I don't want to be anymore than about 30 minutes from grocery stores and the like, but I would like more land and less housing density than where I live now. I don't want to be completely alone, but ideally I'd like to have a few acres of land, but still be able to have nearby and see a few neighbor's houses.

For a couple of years I lived in what I'd call an urban area, but not in the sense that it was a big city with high rises and what-not. It was just a relatively small city with a mall and lots of stores, apartments, schools and traffic lights. And even then that was too much for me - it wore on me after a while and I felt desperate to get back to some nature. I also couldn't take not having a yard with dirt and grass (I lived in an apartment, which had a nice deck, but it just wasn't the same) for too long. The city had a pedestrian path that ran along the flood plain that cut thru the center of town (this was in a desert, so there was seldom water in the plain but it had to be left open for when it rained), and I would walk there all of the time, but it still didn't do the trick. Too many people and too much concrete and noise.

As for big cities, I can only take just a little of those (I don't mind if I'm just visiting or going for business), and I hate areas that have a lot of skyscrapers, as they feel totally claustrophobic to me.

So while I can deal OK with where I live now, it isn't ideal for me.

[Serendipidy]

Everyone seems to want to live in an area different from the one they grew up in. I have lived in the city, suburbs, and countryside growing up; the best place for me was the country. Everyone is different, but the poll indicates that I am far from alone! :D

[Blomdor]

Rural. I love nature and prefer to live where it is peaceful, quiet, and away from most other human beings.

If I did die somewhere out in the middle of nowhere and my body was eaten by vultures, that actually wouldn't bother me. I'm all for feeding the vultures.

I would want there to be some sort of grocery store within 30 minutes or maybe an hour away, and a library.

[ThaHoward]

Suburban.

[Pyro Yoshi]

Urban, definitely. I love living in large cities.

Right now I live in a suburb of approxmetly 22,000 people surrounded by countryside, and while I don't hate it, I'd rather move back to my home town, St. Paul.

I don't think I could tolerate living way out in the country, the isolation would drive me nuts after a while.

[PNW]

I am in the suburbs, but in a quiet corner of it. I would prefer rural, but need to be closer to medical care. :(

[5_♦♣]

Nowhere particularly appeals to me. Living on a farm has never appealed to me and never will, living in the suburbs is boring and living in a city would be too chaotic/loud.

[Nekomata]

Suburban. It seems like a happy medium. I live in a rural area as it is, lack of transport and a bit far from the city, whereas in the city... loud and crime rates. Though my city is pretty break at night, but full of criminal activity. So meh~

[aljgpa]

Rural areas

Pros

• Beautiful scenery
• Clean air
• Open space
• Safe

Cons

• Less things to do
• High poverty rates

May be a pro or con, depending personal preferences

• More isolated; less people
• Less diversity
• Generally more politically conservative

Urban areas

Pros

• Better architecture
• More to do

Cons

• More dangerous
• Less clean
• Greater income inequality

May be a pro or con, depending personal preferences

• More diversity
• More people; higher population density
• Generally more politically liberal

Suburban areas

Pros

• More safe than urban areas
• Cleaner than urban areas
• More to do than rural areas
• Less poverty

Cons

• Boring
• More dangerous than rural areas
• Less clean than rural areas
• Less to do than urban areas

May be a pro or con, depending personal preferences

• More diverse than rural areas, less diverse than cities
• More people than rural areas, less people than cities

I currently live in suburban New England, and I find it boring. The most exotic food we have in my town is a Chinese takeout restaurant, the most interesting architecture we have is the Episcopal Church that's next to the town green (that was not a compliment), and the only thing to do here is to go to the movie theater. Although my town was in the top 100 best places to live in the USA a few years ago, so must be something good about us. I guess we have a good school system and low taxes. I would want to live in a rural area, as long as it's within driving distance of a city. I like South Asian food a lot, and I don't think I could live somewhere where I didn't have access to Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese food. I'm also more politically left. I also like the look of industrial architecture (read: crumbling factories and brick buildings) a lot. Other than that, I like the open space, clean air, lack of people, and large amount of hiking trails that rural areas offer.

[Guest]

Suburban. Best mix of not too noisy and crowded, but reasonably easy to go shopping (as I have neither a car nor a license to drive one, living rurally would really suck for me in that regard).

Seeing as I currently live on the outskirts of a none-too-huge town (~40-50k peeps), with farmlands ten minutes footwalk off and the bus into downtown leaving every half hour from a stop just about right in front of my door, I'm straddling the edge of suburban/rural. Suits me perfectly, I don't intend of moving again if I don't have to. :)

[Guest member25959]

I live in an urban town, but my house is right next to a field... the farm animals never shut the fuck up