Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Do you love big cities?

Well, do you?

  • Yes

  • Yes, but not enough to live in one

  • Yes, but I like leaving them more after I've seen the good stuff

  • No, but I have to live in one because work opportunities

  • No, just fucking no


Results are only viewable after voting.
i think "countryside" suffers from too much outdoors. a small, rationed and fair piece of outdoors goes a long way towards decent mental health imho. combine with parks and it beats the actual countryside into a cocked hat. (save a summer's camping!)
Absolutely. Our garden's about Big enough to walk round a rotary washing line with a shed at the end. But you can see the sky and everything.
 
I do yes, I'm a city girl, Birmingham originally and I now live in London.
My grandmother lived in the country and I spent quite a bit of time there as a youngster which was great and I also had relatives who lived by the sea.
I do love the country and the sea but I would miss having access to the choice cities offer - interesting places to visit, galleries, museums, cinema, theatre, music, classes in anything you can think of etc.
However, cities can be very irritating at times!
 
I lived, studied and worked in London for 25 years. I loved it.

now, I go to London 4 or 6 times a month (cos of work) and its sort of OK, but I'm glad I don't live there anymore. Part of me sometimes thinks that people/(urbs) have more fun than me, but I'm largely too old for that shit. On balance, it's a city for the young and for people who love it or have always lived there.
 
am I allowed to love big cities, suburbs and the country in equal measures?

What's to love about the suburbs? Unless you enjoy the spectacle of exasperated fortysomethings entombed in loveless marriages yelling at small children called Harry and Imogen because they won't shut up and let daddy figure out how to turn on the reversing camera on his Kia Sportage.
 
well, I enjoy the spectacle of exasperated fortysomethings entombed in loveless marriages yelling at small children called Harry and Imogen because they won't shut up and let daddy figure out how to turn on the reversing camera on his Kia Sportage. Makes me feel good about myself.
 
seriously though, I've grown up in the burbs, the country, and the big city, spent equal amounts of time in all settings.
the burbs i liked for easy access to the wilderness of the country (cycling, lakes, mountains etc) as well as easy access to the city. sure it was boring for a young teen, but that made me and my mates all the more innovative and adventurous. we were a proper tight knit gang and lived a life only possible in the burbs.
bit later when I got into music it was surprisingly easy to run a band. enough bored mates willing to learn instruments, enough garages for rehearsal rooms, enough folks with cars to drive us about.
wouldnt want to swap that episode of my life.
 
well, I enjoy the spectacle of exasperated fortysomethings entombed in loveless marriages yelling at small children called Harry and Imogen because they won't shut up and let daddy figure out how to turn on the reversing camera on his Kia Sportage. Makes me feel good about myself.

Actually it does for me too.
 
The suburbs are a pile of shit. It's sort of stupidly expensive whilst still spending a fortune on an awful commute (believe me) without any compensation that comes from "not city". But yeah!
 
seriously though, I've grown up in the burbs, the country, and the big city, spent equal amounts of time in all settings.
the burbs i liked for easy access to the wilderness of the country (cycling, lakes, mountains etc) as well as easy access to the city. sure it was boring for a young teen, but that made me and my mates all the more innovative and adventurous. we were a proper tight knit gang and lived a life only possible in the burbs.
bit later when I got into music it was surprisingly easy to run a band. enough bored mates willing to learn instruments, enough garages for rehearsal rooms, enough folks with cars to drive us about.
wouldnt want to swap that episode of my life.
You get all that in the countryside too. At least me and my mates did.
 
You get all that in the countryside too. At least me and my mates did.
my childhood in the country was fairly lonely. I didn't mind that, I liked it, but i was mainly on my own, my siblings, and maybe the kids from the neighbouring farm.
In the suburbs there were enough kids to pick and choose from.
 
Is that a London place? I don't do those.
yep. notorious for exasperated fortysomethings entombed in loveless marriages yelling at small children called Harry and Imogen because they won't shut up and let daddy figure out how to turn on the reversing camera on his Kia Sportage. :(
 
my childhood in the country was fairly lonely. I didn't mind that, I liked it, but i was mainly on my own, my siblings, and maybe the kids from the neighbouring farm.
In the suburbs there were enough kids to pick and choose from.
I guess it depends exactly how country we're talking. That garage you describe was my parents garage, and the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere made it that much more attractive to dope smoking 14 year old wannabe punks :cool:
 
I guess it depends exactly how country we're talking. That garage you describe was my parents garage, and the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere made it that much more attractive to dope smoking 14 year old wannabe punks :cool:
if you have 14 year old wannabe punks around you to smoke dope with...
 
if you have 14 year old wannabe punks around you to smoke dope with...
Quite a few as it happened :D I think at one point 5 or 6 different bands, with overlapping members of course, were rehearsing there. Every Thursday we would pile in front of the telly to watch Seinfeld and X files :thumbs:
 
There's suburbs and there's suburbs. When I think of suburbs I think of semi-urban places like Bromley and Croydon with all the disadvantages of London proper (pollution, lack of nature, grey shitness) and none of the advantages, where people start fights just from the boredom. I grew up in these places and they can fuck off. But suburbia is a situational term and I guess theoretically could be okay.
 
Big cities freak me out until I find its big expanse of green. Born and bred in the country here. Cities have lots of conveniences like public transport and everything on your doorstep but no, not for me. Too many people, too much everything.

I'll stick to the occasional visit, which I enjoy. Always glad to get back to yokel land though
 
There's a well-documented habit of families moving out of cities to raise children, but bringing up kids in London has certain advantages. This weekend our 13 year-old had a sleepover with a mate down in Tooting - she got there herself, they went out to dinner themselves locally, then the next day she travelled up to town and joined us (to see the Bodyworlds exhibition) on her own. In the country a child of that age would need to be driven places.
 
I not only dislike large cities, part of me feels suffocated due to being landlocked.
It's particularly frustrating living in Bristol because the river Avon is tidal as far as a weir about a mile from my home and I sometimes catch a whiff of the sea.
That and there are more seagulls here than on the coast.
 
I don't like big cities to live in atall & have felt much more relaxed and happy since I left London 2 years ago. I love visiting cities though & do miss all the opportunities and free stuff and the fact there's always something to do and somewhere to go. And also the fact that you can be anonymous and that no one cares who you are and what you do.
 
Totally agree Winot Winot it’s wonderful how our kids navigate London. I don’t know about you but for us it went from a bit anxious to very proud very quickly. My 14 year old is already planning a trip to Spain at the end of their Exams!!
 
There's a well-documented habit of families moving out of cities to raise children, but bringing up kids in London has certain advantages. This weekend our 13 year-old had a sleepover with a mate down in Tooting - she got there herself, they went out to dinner themselves locally, then the next day she travelled up to town and joined us (to see the Bodyworlds exhibition) on her own. In the country a child of that age would need driven places.
Was the exhibition worth it - we have seen his stuff twice before and it was as amazing
- anything new at Piccadilly

Was it very touristy is
 
... Cities have lots of conveniences like public transport and everything on your doorstep but no, not for me. Too many people, too much everything.

But they DON'T have everything on your doorstep! :( They (ie them big city places) sneakily place their Interesting Things half of the city away, which means you have to be all decisive about getting the trains, buses etc. Plus there are lots of people. And roads. And traffic.

All right, on a more serious note, cities are quite bad if you lack money to go to all the exciting Everything. And the going to and fro on the tube in London was pretty horrible. So if you're working, you really don't feel like doing any "out" after you get home, and people not working would find the travel expensive. Cities have many Things but they tend not to be where people can afford to live. (Ah, I suppose, admittedly, the essence of that particular issue is not really about the mere *size* of the place.)

"Yokel land" sounds sort of appealing, though I'd have to go back and 're-read to check what sort of place you mean. :)

Damn, I am stuck in Glasgow for the foreseeable. Still, could be worse.

(Had a flatshare with the sea at the bottom of the garden once. Oh, for a time machine!)
 
Back
Top Bottom