Ask HN: What would you miss about inner city if you move to suburban areas?

[odai4real]

What are the things you'd miss about inner city if you move to suburban areas? It seems that a lot of people (me included) have moved to work 100% remotely for the longterm. I am planning to move to the suburbs because there is no reason to commute to work anymore now. I love the vibe in inner city and I don't know what I'd be missing on if I move. I thought it'd be interesting to hear from some of you who might have made the move.

[matchbok]

A friend who just moved to the burbs hates that the food is noticeable worse. Delivery options are basically pizza and nothing.

[odai4real]

Ugh that sucks. I have heard that too. Family relatives tend to be limited to 2-3 good food places that are "not too far"

[JMTQp8lwXL]

Having to get into my car to do anything. Growing up in suburbia was a bore. Now, I can walk to restaurants, bars, parks. I would go places even less than I do now (which, granted, was fairly low pre-covid), since parking in popular areas is a pain.

[flukus]

This is it for me. I get culture shock every year visiting family in suburbia where walking down to the shop to pick up milk is an hour long affair. When the reverse happens there's a lot of whinging from the kids having to walk instead of being oblivious in ipad land while they're magically transported from place to place.

I've always found it unfortunate that regional areas don't have walkable densities. An fast internet connection with a few pubs, restaurants, shops within a 10 minute walk is all I'd need to relocate in a WFH world, unfortunately few places seem to offer this and those that do tend to be expensive coastal towns.

[odai4real]

I'm with you. Where are the few places that you thought would give you that?

[flukus]

Various beach side towns down the east coast of Australia, they built with the kind of density I'm after mostly for the holiday rental market. Something like that without the beach side premium prices would be great.

[odai4real]

That's a good point. Parking is the worst in inner city. That's the fomo I have right now, I feel like I don't even go to bars and restaurants as much as I thought I would even pre-COVID. Are you living in inner city now? Would you stay there longterm?

[JMTQp8lwXL]

I live in a medium density area outside the inner city. After a roommate left, I had extra space (1 more bedroom) so I was fortunately prepared going into this. If I had less space, I would leave for more. But I could easily get an extra couple hundred square feet in my same neighborhood. I live in multi-family housing.

To be honest, I'm unsure I'd want a single family home in my area. It doesn't seem safe (vagrants hanging out on porches at odd hours, for example); I like living with shared walls and more people around.

[odai4real]

That's a good happy? medium. I guess that's a downside of living in the inner city (I'll add it to my cons list haha). I am with you, I dislike walking around in areas where you don't see anyone else but just cars driving around. But also, I really like gardening and I'd like a backyard. So far, I am leaning more towards a suburban area just for that.

[flukus]

"European" style cities could give you the best of both. Where I'm living in Melbourne the area is mostly 2-4 story apartment buildings with common garden areas that get little to no love. If you wanted to do some garden maintenance, put in a vegetable gardens or anything like that I'm sure everyone in the building would tell you to go nuts.

You miss the personal backyard though.