[lbo-talk] Suburban alienation?

[John Thornton]

Chuck wrote:
> James Heartfield wrote:
>> "Burbs not so bad after all
>>
>> "Shannon Proudfoot, CanWest News Service
>> Published: Saturday, November 11, 2006
>>
>> "A new study says that people who live in sprawling suburban areas 
>> have more friends, better community involvement and more frequent 
>> contact with their neighbours than urbanites who are wedged in 
>> side-by-side. ...
> 
> This hold true for me, from my personal experience. I'm a shy person who 
> doesn't easily talk to strangers. I talk to more neighbors where I 
> currently live than I did in 9 years of living in the Washington, DC 
> area. Looking back at all of those years living in apartments, I rarely 
> talked to neighbors. When I moved to Arlington I talked to more people, 
> but that was only because I was part of my complex's tenant's association.
> 
> Maybe it's not so much an urban-suburban split as it is a regional 
> phenomenon. People are just friendlier to each other in the Midwest. I 
> was thinking yesterday about my time in Washington, DC and how lonely I 
> felt in that densely populated city.
> 
> Chuck

Maybe it's because you were raised in the suburban 
Midwest and feel more comfortable there than in an 
Eastern metroplex?

People in the Midwest are no more friendly than 
people in the East or West or North or any other 
vague geographic designation.

I moved to the Midwest from NYC and felt the exact 
same way you did initially but it wasn't because 
people in NYC were friendly than Midwesterners.

John Thornton