(1) Do you live in an urban, suburban or rural environment? (2) Which environment do you prefer and why?

Twenty years ago I would have said I preferred a rural environment and the more rural the better but as I have aged I have come to appreciate the benefits of being close to civilisation and cinemas, art galleries, museums, doctors, restaurants shops and people. I like where I am and face an urban setting one way and parks, riverside walks and cycle tracks the other. I am within easy reach by car or public transport of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world and feel quite content.

Strictly urban. The wife yearns for the outdoors, so I will grump along on the forced marches through the woods. I grew up hiking, camping, etc. I outgrew it in my early 20s. Nature is both uncomfortable and dangerous. Gardens are like kids and pets-expensive dependents. Given the choice, I will always opt for the low maintenance reliability of concrete.

I live in a suburban area, but very close to the city. I prefer the city life, it’s closer to better facilities and services than rural areas in Ireland. If I was to move to another city in Ireland, I’d move to Belfast or Cork. Beciase at least they’d have similar variety of shops, cinemas and other services. I live in Dublin.

Currently live rural, have lived in major metropolitan and smaller cities and will never ever ever consider going back to that. If i was forced to live in an urban environment you would read about it on the news, it wouldn’t be pretty.

I live in a small English village. There is a shop, pub, doctor with pharmacy dispensery, primary school, village hall, and a part time post office. The nearest big town with major shops is 20 minutes drive away. There are 6 or so buses a day. We are a hub village for other smaller villages close by which might have just a pub. I like living here because of the easy access to lovely countryside. I enjoy walking. I dislike starting every thing I do by getting in a car. I miss walking to the shops and living near a railway station. I would move to a town but I don’t hate it as much as my husband loves it, so here we are.

I live rural on a 10 acre horse property and prefer rural within 20 minutes or so of a decent hub for the amenities and necessities. I have lived as far out as about 40 minutes from the nearest hub, and one can get by on the local gas station/feed/hardware combo mom & pop scene fairly well for those times you don’t want to go to town. As long as you can get your animal feed, gas and a bottle of wine or some beer, you’re good to go. haha
This property here is the best of both worlds, quiet, private, serene, but only 4 miles from all conveniences like grocery stores, specialty stores, movie theater and doctor/hospital.

Here’s my little Old Town scene, only 7 miles down the highway here. We have all kinds or arts, playhouse, good eats, music. Living large in a small town is the best! :-)

www.oldtownauburnca.com

I live in a big city. I love it. There’s a lot to do, and there are lots of people to do things with. I lived in a smaller town for a long time, and it was too remote. I could live in a smaller town again, but not for now.

I spent a lot of my life thinking I wanted to live in a rural environment, and I was only in the ‘burbs as a temporary thing. Fact is, I like living in the ‘burbs. When I lived out and beyond, everything was too far away. Commuting to/from work was a bitch, hanging out with friends, emergency visits to the vet, even last minute grocery shopping became unwieldy and time-consuming. As uncool as it is, I like living in a neighborhood, having a yard, mowing my lawn, growing a little kitchen garden.

And let’s not ignore the glories in dealing with a septic tank.

I grew up moving between urban, suburban and rural areas. Greatly prefer rural but am stuck in the suburban sprawl at the moment. I prefer rural because I was free to do whatever, nobody bothered you and it was just beautiful outside where I lived. Life seemed so unscripted.

I currently live in an urban area. I grew up in an urban area, and eventually a suburban area in high school. I prefer an urban area. I fear rural areas.

@stanleybmanly But remember, the grass is always greener over the septic tank. haha

We are having the giant weed eating extravaganza Friday. Hacking down the 2½ – 3 foot tall grass and weeds all over the property except for the big pasture where the horses and burros are in 7th heaven, succulent grass up to their bellies. It is so cute to watch the hens running through the tall grass right now, just their bobbling little heads making waves through the tall grass as they blaze the trail. haha
The geese are gorging on the abundant grazing too, lumps of clover undulating down their long necks. haha

There is nothing more beautiful than spring time in these hills. :-)

Suburb fifteen minutes north of Boston. I much prefer the city. I’ve worked there since I was sixteen. Unfortunately, the city is far too expensive to live in.

@Coloma yes it sounds idyllic and wonderful, but I learned young about the brutal man hours and buckets of sweat underlying that pastoral “paradise”.

“Run with the dogs tonight, in suburbia
I only wanted something else to do but hang around…”

I live in what should be a suburban environment but because of the part of town (wrong side of the tracks effect) I’m in an area where I don’t get the true suburbia isolation/solace feel.

I do indeed live in a suburb but it is littered with businesses that I have no use for. Check cashing establishments, ghetto cellular service outlets, used tire shops, fried fish operations, hair weaving, gangster clothing outlets (both kinds), Not that I’m crazy about them, but would it kill you to install a Starbucks? Should I have to travel for twenty minutes to get fine cigarettes or beer that actually has hops in it?

My optimistic wife believes that our area will become gentrified in time for us to enjoy it but I have lived in Atlanta for a long time and I know better than to get my hopes up.

Yes, the house is huge, solid and on a lovely plot of land, but I really would love to be able to walk to a brewpub that happily accommodates my black lab.

My car is the second most frequently stolen model in the US. I see locals looking at it. I turn down the audio and upshift to reduce the noise made by the custom motor. Every morning I look out the window, relieved that it is still in the drive.

Yes, I am well aware that it is up to me to bother to change my situation. Yet, must bad parts of town exist?

@stanleybmanly Yes, there are a lot of animal chores to be done here but, all in all, only about an hour and 15 minutes a day or so. Not too bad. It’s not like we’re milking 40 cows every morning. haha There;s a LOT of porch sitting time just taking in the beauty and peace.

Urbanish, but in a small, semi-rural area. All the benefits of suburbia, but with large 1+ acre blocks. So shops, doctors, hospitals, cinemas, freeways are within a short drive, but I’m surrounded by trees, plants and hear birds and critters.

@SecondHandStoke yes the bad parts of town either exist or as you say, gentrify. And you will know you are well on your way there when the Starbucks shows up. Personally, I would love to get my hands on a plate of Southern fried catfish. Our “bad side of town” has weak imitations of the real deal, but I don’t know whether it’s a substitution of Yankee catfish or fading memories of proper preparation.

I live in both urban and suburban area. I move from one living place to another depending on the day of the week. I move between a city (a flat) and a town (a house).

I prefer the suburban since it’s located in a port town, with fresh sea air, free from most pollution. However, the flat that I live in is located at the middle of the city which make commuting and shopping a lot easier, but the noise and air pollution are at disturbing level for me not to vote it as a favourite settlement.

I live in a rural farming community of 3200 people. Our county has 32k spread out over 590 square miles. We need to travel an hour to reach a town with over 100k. The Mississippi River is just 30 miles west of us and the Illinois River is 55 miles east. Amtrak runs right through the center of our town and we can catch the train 15 minutes south of us. It’s about a 3 hour train ride to Chicago and a 3½ hour drive time to Saint Louis.

We love our little community! My daughter’s jr/sr high school is only two blocks from our home and my husband’s work is ½ mile from us. There’s a local pizza restaurant, barber shop, 3 banks, a butcher, a veterinarian, a dentist, a doctor, 3 mechanics, several factories, 3 gas stations, a grocery store, 3 taverns (not including the VFW), a furniture store, countless churches, a liqour store, 4 parks, a golf course, a swimming pool, a Subway, Hardees, DQ, a florist and two nurseries all within one mile from our home. We also live on the parade route in town and we can hear the festivities two blocks from the center square during festival time. Whenever a veteran returns home the main street is filled with flags and our jr/sr high school sports teams receive a police and fire escort into town after winning big games. It’s everything I wanted when I was growing up in Las Vegas in the 70s/80s. A safe, friendly town with strong community involvement. meth is a problem in town but the meth heads always get busted,

I live in a semi-rural area, the property backs on to an enormous native bush, national reserve. I adore living here, as I have done for nearly 30 years. I grew up in a large city, left home at 17 and moved north to a rural area for 10 years. Moved back to the same city and now live on its fringes. It is a fabulous place to live.

@stanleybmanly I’ve lived in three houses with septic tanks. The only thing I ever did or do is not use any bleach, only septic tank friendly products (there are plenty of these ‘green’ or eco products) and currently because it is my holiday home, I add a sachet of stuff once a week down the loo which contains bacteria. I’ve never done anything major like emptying them. You shouldn’t need to as they should work in a way that all the waste is broken down and moves out of the tank into the soakaway, which is a long porous drain.

I asked a related question not too long ago.

I’m actually uncomfortable in very rural areas.

The grass is indeed greener over the drainfield

This morning we found a birds nest with eggs under the eave of the big horse trailer. Life in the country. The nest went out on the road yesterday when taking one of the horses to his training session and now we have to figure out how to relocate the nest. Last week was laying chicken wire on the bottom of the chicken coop so the damn rats and ground squirrels quit burrowing in and stealing the eggs.

Always some critter thing goin’ on here. Not to mention the rats that are getting in the engine compartment of my car. The other day I had to brush off all kinds of stuff from the top of my battery. Pine cones bits, etc. lol