The Suburbs are Lonely and Depressing (but they don't have to be)

It's not the "suburb" that is bad, it's the car-dependent suburb. I live in a very transit and walkable suburb in Toronto and cannot imagine living anywhere else. We hate visiting friends that have moved to car hells because there's literally nothing to do but sit in their living rooms and if we want to go somewhere everyone has to hop into their own cars.

Since moving to the US I never thought about the missing 3rd Place until now. This explains why it's been so difficult to build a community as an adult in my suburb.

People from third world countries (like me), will understand perfectly this video. Our homes are together with stores and everything else. We don’t have suburban exclusive with homes like here in the US. We are always in contact with people. We’re never isolated or stuck in home. For me it was very difficult to adapt to the suburban life in the United States

I think this is why me and my friends were mall rats in the 90's. It was our 3rd place. These days malls are dead or dying now... thanks to online shopping.

Lots of drug use and crime in suburbs too, just less out in the open.

Most people today cant even afford a house so they dont even have the benefit of living in a suburb. They are trapped living in a shoebox apartment overpriced and dreaming of having the space and solitude of a house.

I'm writing a college paper on American Car Culture's impact on Architectural Theory and will use this video as a source. Very good points made, you killed it!

This is so depressing. The people that wrote municipal codes are engineers that don’t understand human behavior. American suburbs are truly depressing.

Lack of third places can happen in big cities too. I feel like everyone just need to find their communities no matter where they live.

I live in a village-style neighbourhood in Australia and let me tell you, that village feel and walkability are both priceless. Suburbs are dystopian.

Finally someone said it! I have been saying this to myself for years since I moved to the states. Suburbs are convenient for families since the cities are planned that way but people try to hide the fact how incredibly boring and monotonous they are.

Meanwhile, look at Japan. The residential areas have everything within a few minutes walk. It’s so beautiful and life changing 😮‍💨❤️

As a gen Z I don’t want to live in car-dependent suburbs, and don’t want the USA to keep building suburbs, what can I do? Are there any petitions I can sign?

no wonder people get depressed there, suburban areas in the US seem so monotonous and lifeless

Our perception changes according to where we are in our life. I am born and raised in NYC and spent the first 44 years of my life smack dab in the middle of it. I loved every second. Then I was ready for something else and moved to the burbs. It feels entirely different to me than the way you described it. It's warm and cozy and definitely communal. I will always be a city girl, but I can't imagine giving up the beauty and tranquility of the burbs. I'm here to stay!

I’ve been a city dweller downtown for most of my life since my mid 20s, tried living in the suburbs for five years, and just absolutely hated it. I didn’t fit and couldn’t relate and got bored with strip, malls, busy highway type streets, and clone type stores and chain restaurants everywhere. Moved back to the city downtown in a great condo and a wonderful neighborhood in downtown Detroit. Just love it., walk abd bike to everything, which is much healthier than driving constantly. The nicest thing is almost all the people in my condo building have the same type of urban interest, yet very diverse. To each their own and depending how your life takes you of course , it may be more advantageous to the suburban environment for school and things like that but for myself, there’s just no comparison, living in the city so close to so many different things that I want and so diverse, keeps me feeling alive. I do keep a small cabin up in northern Michigan on a small lake, I do love nature enormously, I just can’t stand what sits in between the city and the northern Woods. Have it to get away from it all when I need to, but always can’t wait to get back to the city , to feel alive again. The other advantage here is at Michigan is reasonable real estate wise, I could never do this on either coasts financially.

I lived in the suburbs for 7 years and moved to downtown LA 2 1/2 years ago... i've never been so miserable! I meet the worst people and it just sucks. On top of it I pay $4,500 rent for a one bedroom. If my store wasn't so close by I'd flee this area and move back to the suburbs.

I couldn’t agree more! It’s incredibly frustrating when we severely under invest in cities and then complain that they have problems. Suburbs don’t solve problems, they just run away from the problems and filter out poor people.

Brilliant video! We moved from cookie cutter suburbia to the country. While we're surrounded by nature, neighbors still stay indoors, no common places and even MORE car dependant. We'll be living in a small village in Italy starting this next year. Yes, I speak Italian ;)

I think it is perfect to live in a suburb close to a city because you can enjoy all the amenities of the cities when you so desire and also enjoy nature, peace and quiet if you wish. You have the best of both worlds ( urban and rural) available. Besides walking around sucks when it is freezing or pouring or is a hundred degrees or if you have a bunch of groceries to carry. That being said, driving and parking suck too but are usually worse in urban areas.