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Looking at the bookshelf at preschool books, and only including ones with children, I see two :Pirates next door" books, both starting in "Dull-on-sea, a gloomy seaside town", and some Alfie books (where Mum takes him to various locations where he has magical adventures - diving into a swimming pool and being abducted by pirates, been driven to school but it's actually and alien school, etc) I don't get this hate at suburbs either, unless it's by 30-somethings that love their city lives but now want kids and are trying to convince everyone that the city is the best place. If you think that, that's fine, plenty want space and open air. There does seem to be an issue with American suburbs though. Every suburb in the UK I can think of has pavements down the side of every road, has a primary school within walking distance, a secondary school in biking distance, a bus stop within half a mile. Indeed there are specific limits like "distance to supermarket", "distance to postbox", etc which come into the planning process. We also have a National Planning Policy Framework, which states things like give priority to pedestrian and cycle movements, and have access to high quality public transport facilities and create safe and secure layouts which minimise conflicts between traffic and cyclists or pedestrians, avoiding street clutter and where appropriate establishing home zones New developments have to provide appropriate public open space in them, the larger the development, the more space, but as a rule of thumb a development of 400 houses will have a large multi use game area (basket ball, 5-a-side soccer, etc), playground, and an acre of two of informal green space, far more than in a city or town centre. There's nothing wrong with suburbs, just how they are implemented. |