Suburbia Doesn't Have to Be Boring

[Yavin4]

[Warpy]

1. This made me cringe

because my parents moved to a burb when I was 14 and I remember the crushing loneliness and isolation. Parks were a bust, green spaces where the grass was mowed but benches and playground equipment had been removed, not really places where you'd want to spend much time since there was no place to sit. A 7-11 finally got a zoning variance and moved into a lot on the main drag and that helped, it was someplace a kid could get to, but they shooed kids who wanted to socialize away. If you didn't arrive in a car, just drop your money on the counter and GTFO.

My parents pitched a low grade fit when they realized I was spending my weekends riding my bike about 10 miles to the crummy neighborhood they'd left behind, it was more inner city and had a few amenities where I could meet friends.

I've coped with the worst of the worst neighborhoods in inner cities, I've coped with small towns. Just don't ask me to cope with the suburbs. That way lies isolation, depression and suicide. Thus the cringe.