The secret war between city dwellers and suburban dwellers

[DanaC]

I don't think our suburbs are the same as yours. They just aren't that far from the towns they surround.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

How about for sporting events, concerts, the opera, quality dining, etc.?

Sporting events: Our city has a hockey team and a minor league baseball team--both of which have home fields way up north in the suburbs where I live. There is also college sports, I suppose, except they're so crowded we'd basically have to park a few blocks from our house anyway. That's what the TV is for.

Concerts: Not counting the children's music concert I took the kids to (which was technically downtown, but in another city,) I haven't been to a concert since 1999.

The opera: You jest, but I did actually go to an opera once. It was interesting for the first two hours, but I dozed off during the second two.

Quality dining: Again, the quality dining here is spread all over. Our three favorite restaurants are all out here by us (and were before we lived out here.) Not that we get to enjoy them very often, but hey. Downtown restaurants are mostly classy lunch places for the business crowd, and bars.

[elSicomoro]

We've had a rebirth here in St. Louis, with a lot of people starting to move downtown and rebuilding shitty neighborhoods. Of course, there are other neighborhoods that used to be nice and are now going to hell. There has always been animosity between the city and the burbs here, especially given that the City of St. Louis is separate from St. Louis County.

Minus college and my 6-year sojourn out east, I've lived in the City of St. Louis. I love it, and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I don't like urban sprawl and the cookie cutter-ness of some of the burbs. Having said that, I have no beef with people that enjoy suburban living...if that's what you like, awesome. And it's not like the City doesn't have its issues, namely with the public schools.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I don't think our suburbs are the same as yours. They just aren't that far from the towns they surround.

And they seem to have more facilities locally. I can't think of any town where it's more than a mile to the local convenience store - or somewhere that sells foil anyway.

Then again, we live on a smaller scale - I suppose if you take London as the city and the rest of the country as the suburbs then you might just see the war. Much of the country north of the Watford Gap has hostile feelings towards London. I only learned this when I moved to Leicester - previously I thought everyone was rather proud of our capital city. Turns out some people have never visited, never want to, resent the fact that tourists think it's the only city in England, that it gets the biggest news coverage, the most funding, the most attention blah blah blah.

After a while I could see their point (the coverage of the London mayoral elections just doesn't seem as relevant once you get to Barnsley) but I'm still a transplanted Londoner, so I've never been able to feel it properly.

I don't begrudge anyone their living circumstances. There are positives and negatives in any situation, and those living there weigh them up according to their priorities.

Just so long as people visiting the cities at the same time as me obey the laws. The law of the land (natch) and Cherry's Law of Perpetual Motion aka Don't Get In My Way. Sorry, but if you step out of a shop doorway and stop, deciding to have your conversation about where you are going next right in front of me, that is a declaration of war. I might glare. Or purse my lips. And if I consider you a repeat offender I might even tut! Deal with it.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

~snip~ Sorry, but if you step out of a shop doorway and stop, deciding to have your conversation about where you are going next right in front of me, that is a declaration of war. I might glare. Or purse my lips. And if I consider you a repeat offender I might even tut! Deal with it.

Hahaha...I say "scuse me." They are not worth the effort of a full-blown well-enunciated "Excuse me please." :p

[DanaC]

If I am feeling aggressive or angry I tend to become very, very precise with my language.

Fighting talk for me is "I beg your pardon?" said in an aggressive tone of voice. I think that's quite common. "Excuse me!" is similar. "'scuse me" is very friendly.

[Shawnee123]

You got me. I smile when I say 'scuse me' too.

Irritation might get a "pardon me." Why am I asking to be pardoned? I've done nothing wrong.

[ZenGum]

I wear sneakers that make a loud squeaking noise when scuffed along concrete pavement, and especially in smooth indoor floors. Timed just right it can give a dopey walker a bit of a start. If that doesn't work, my bag might accidentally bang into them as I swerve past. Who, me? What? Oh, terribly sorry!
One day I am gonna shoulder-charge on of these dumb suckers. Keep your bloody wits about you when walking in a crowded public place!

[/rant]

[DanaC]

What really, really winds me up beyond reason and sense, is fucking students who mill about corridors walking slowly, five abreast, completely unaware or uncaring of the the fact that others are trying to get to a lecture. There are certain times of day when it seems the entire campus is hurrying to get to a lecture hall. It's a big campus, and there's a five minute leeway built in to the timetable to get between classes. Ha! it can quite easily take three times that long to move between lecture halls, and that's if the way is clear and you're only moving within one faculty (poor joint honours students can find themselves with a 25 minute trek).

But hey...their class finished and they're done for the day, so why would they give a shit huh?

[Shawnee123]

Yeah, seriously, if I'm in a rotten mood all bets are off towards the rude.

The whole city/suburban thing is foreign to me. I grew up right outside a town of about 25,000: the whole town is kind of like a suburb, with a center. I went to a rural HS, so there was the whole "city folk" vs "country folk" but not in a serious way. It's not like we were ALL slopping the hogs and driving tractors. However, the Future Farmers of America had a tractor day where they drove their tractors to school. We told our "city" boys to drive by on that day because we really DID drive tractors to school every day. That, and our farmer boys could have kicked the shit out of the townies any day of the week, what with all that hay-baling and hard work!

Living right outside of town I had the best of both worlds, and friends on each "side."

eta: @ Dana...my previous user title was "Ambling along, what's that like?" and I was referring to students in the hallway too! Then again, I'm not sure I've ever ambled in my life.

[DanaC]

I don't do ambling. I'm a fast walker, always have been :P

[Shawnee123]

Oh, me too. I remember back in HS, my friends saying "why are you walking so fast?" I'd say "why get there slow when you can get there fast?"

disclaimer: no, this does not apply to everything.

[DanaC]

It isn't about 'getting there fast' it's about walking fast. I dunno. that's just how i am comfortable walking.

[Shawnee123]

I have the "gotta go gotta go...people to meet, places to go..." thing going on. I do try to slow down every now and then. Smell the roses, you know. Even with an office job, I am up out of my seat a lot. It drives me crazy to stay in one spot for very long. Have to keep moving. I'm not sure I even relax when I sleep.

[Cloud]

(holds up hand) I'm slow! I'm a slow walker!

uh . . . what are we talking about?