The secret war between city dwellers and suburban dwellers
 

Man, I don't know how it is where you live. But where I live, there is a cultural war going on between city dwellers and suburban dwellers.

It's completely unreported in any media, and I suspect it may be quite different in different areas. The war is fully on here in the Boston-to-DC corridor.

This war seems to be primarily going on in the middle class.

Many city folks now have a bitter disgust, spilling over into name-calling hatred, of suburb folk. The city people feel they are a stronger race. They're more cultured, more well-rounded, and more fully self-actualized. In turn, they believe any suburbanite is potentially racist, potentially religious extremist, almost certainly an asshole frightened into gun owning and worse. The suburban sprawl has caused new reliance on cars and has destroyed local farms; all the suburbanites are directly responsible for this. A minority of city folk are actually angry when they have to go to the burbs to do business.

Meanwhile, the suburbanites seem completely unaware that there is a war on. They complain about the aspects of the city that they don't like, but they will usually associate themselves with it willingly.

I live 10 miles outside the Philadelphia city border, and so I can't honestly say I'm Philadelphian. But I enjoy the city immensely, follow its sports teams, watch its local news broadcasts, play music in its bars, enjoy it as much as possible. I'd be happy to labeled Philadelphian. I wouldn't correct it.

What's it like where you are? Is there a war on?

Not here. We're all one city basically, surrounded by desert. We may have a war against jackrabbits, scorpions, and illegal aliens, but that's about it.

it's bitter The townies here objects to what the suburbanites have done to their downtown. maybe not quite the same thing, but this blog used to amuse me no end. here are the first two posts from waybackwhen

http://www.annarborisoverrated.com/

The urbanites definitely have disdain for the suburbanites around here. Usually it manifests in snide remarks about places close to the city having more "character." I once straight-up told my coworker that if "character" meant her 70-year-old house had an ancient sewer line burst underneath it, while my house is twice as big, cost 2/3rds as much, and has modern pipes made of actual metal instead of layered tar paper... then she was welcome to all the character the city had to offer.

In LA it's "The City" vs "The Valley".

Anything over the hill in the valley is considered straight trash.

We're too far outside the city to count, even suburbanites, but I think I know what you mean. When we're in the city, getting ourselves some culture, we say probably a hundred times "how do people live like this?". Not as a negative personal judgment, but just srsly wondering how the hell they can stand it.

I know there's animosity coming from the other direction though - I get the Chester County Barbie email frequently enough to keep it fresh in my mind...

Funny that the author spelled Berwyn wrong, and didn't even attempt Bryn Mawr...

City dwellers are just jealous that we have free parking.:cool:

Ok, but what if I (used to) live in North Hollywood but worked in .... BEVERLY HILLS? Would I still have been a white trash ho? ;)

I got an email last week that had the same Barbies and descriptions, but the towns/areas were in the Portland OR area. Funny as hell!

As for the City vs. Suburbs issue - they both suck. Rural is the only way to go!

:D

Huh, I thought we were having a cellar civil war. That could be kind of fun.

I just wrote a ton on this and erased it. I made the long story short...

The war is a class war and I believe, stems from the social mores of the academic class.

You forgot one UT: Suburbanites are also obviously- breeders.

I'm caught in the middle and am at war with both of them. I'm well inside the Beltway and can walk easily to a grocery store and a couple restaurants. A couple of parks and bike paths too. I have ready access to public transportation. I also have a decent sized lush back yard and little traffic on my street. I have a driveway I can park in, and if I didn't, I would still be able to park in front of my house with no competition.

I sometimes have to go out into the real suburbs out by the Beltway to run an errand, and I can't stand it. It's just multi-lane drags with shopping plazas and car dealerships and tons of traffic and lots of red lights. It takes half an hour just to get from one place to another out there, and you are drained once you arrive. Every development is designed so all the traffic has to get onto a main road just to get from point A to point B, so all the main strips are horribly overcrowded.

If I have to drive downtown, it's still stressful, because I have to plan my route in advance. Have to figure out which one-way street or diagonal street to take, where I might find a place to park, where I won't get shot (not as bad these days.)

I work downtown, but it's easy to get to on public transportation.

So I dislike them both. Arlington rocks.

Hopefully. ;)

Around here the suburbanites are procreating a monster or three, but in the city they squeeze out 6, 8, 10 little thugs.

That seems to be the plan/fault of the local planning boards. By limiting the number of access points from each development to the rest of the world, they create choke points, partially to limit through traffic on the residential streets. It's for the children, you know. :rolleyes:

As long as everyone remained polite.

Yes. It doesn't matter where you work, only where you plug in your iPhone at night.