Main streets with businesses, side streets with homes. Copy/paste forever.
I just love the suburbs. I always did.
First I grew up in a small village. Which is great Quality of Life but you understand pretty quickly that it’s too small: you know everyone and everyone knows your every move. For decades to come. It’s kind of wrong at some point.
The city. I spent a lot of time in Paris, roaming sidewalks with my grandparents, skateboarding later. I’ve never loved it. I don’t think it’s neat to live in towers and move under the earth all day, all year long. We despise cockroaches but we live exactly like them and like to pretend that it’s the ultimate thing. Great (unaffordable or run-down) buildings, nice (always late and ultra-packed) trains and complete anonymity filled with neighbors going crazy in their small boxes.
I’m not for it.
The suburbs. A mix of neighborhoods and industries on a horizontal plane. That’s the favorite part of my childhood and of my life today: biking around, discovering a part of the city that is half taken over by Nature, half an ancient factory. Skating a brand new plaza. Driving a few miles to go to a friend’s backyard and BBQ all evening. Easy parking. Walking and saying hi. Being in the open, no wind tunnel created by high verticals. The suburbs doesn’t care about what it is. It just is. It mutates and yet stays the same. it’s the trifecta of shelter, work and nature. It’s simple, real and human.
In a world where telecommuting, driverless cars and communities are becoming so prominent, suburbs will expand. I mean they should.