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Americans' Shift To The Suburbs Sped Up Last Year (fivethirtyeight.com)
Jed Kolko, writing for FiveThirtyEight: The suburbanization of America marches on. Population growth in big cities slowed for the fifth-straight year in 2016, according to new census data, while population growth accelerated in the more sprawling counties that surround them. The Census Bureau on Thursday released population estimates for every one of the more than 3,000 counties in the U.S. I grouped those counties into six categories: urban centers of large metropolitan areas; their densely populated suburbs; their lightly populated suburbs; midsize metros; smaller metro areas; and rural counties, which are outside metro areas entirely. The fastest growth was in those lower-density suburbs. Those counties grew by 1.3 percent in 2016, the fastest rate since 2008, when the housing bust put an end to rapid homebuilding in these areas. In the South and West, growth in large-metro lower-density suburbs topped 2 percent in 2016, led by counties such as Kendall and Comal north of San Antonio; Hays near Austin; and Forsyth, north of Atlanta.
That's hardly the entirety of the decision. Aside from the pros/cons of renting vs buying, if that apartment is 30 minutes closer to work, you just saved 250 hours a year of your personal time. What's that worth?
It's not worth never getting to be loud, it's not worth never getting to have a real pet. It's not worth never having a second vehicle. It's not worth never seeing grass. Humans haven't evolved to live in hives.
-Waiting until the absolute last second to merge when lanes are reduced.
Just FYI, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/us/why-last-second-lane-mergers-are-good-for-traffic.html?_r=0
I live in a condo which is an easy bus hop to downtown. Here is why I wouldn't recommend it:
1: HOAs. Even with a decent HOA, you are still spending hundreds of dollars of month, with the HOA assessment being raised 10% every year for nothing. Of course, there are the neighbors with no life just looking for any small violation to call in.
2: You never know what the hell is lurking outside when going to your vehicle. Nothing like dealing with people skulking around, flipping car door handles, in hopes of landing the big one.
3: You really can't do much. Want to raise a garden, have a few chickens for some eggs? Good luck.
4: Way too dense. Small things can turn into big pissing contests.
5: Bums. Easy bus line means that you may find winos passed out in your doorway after he flicked a few cig butts in your mail slot. Or he might be trying to be aggressive and panhandle.
6: Drunken parties. Some dipshit rents their place to weekend guests via a short term rental service, and guess what. All parking winds up taken, and the police start becoming common visitors due to noise and drunken incidents that involve broken glass and mutual combat.
7: Crime. Other than NYC, US cities really don't do much for this element. If you want to raise kids safely, you take them to the suburbs, where there are playgrounds, pools, and other kid-friendly amenities.
8: Sirens and emergency vehicles, late at night.
Heck with that stuff. It is nice to have a place where I can turn on a stereo without worrying about the neighbors calling the police, not have to deal with a passed out wino just to get out the front door (not to mention the lingering smell), and be able to collect eggs from a chicken coup without people having a fit. It also is nice to have a safe place to raise kids, which US cities are not.
Did you know that your children are more likely to die violently in a rural area than in the city? And people in rural areas are also more likely to die from heart disease and cancer, among other diseases and injuries.
A suburb is a cross between an urban and a rural area, so it isn't clear at all that a suburb is a "much healthier environment" than a city.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.