Most people see the worst in every possible
situation. Maybe it is just a Polish thing (talking about some good things that
happened to you recently is often considered as bragging and is not welcomed)
but it surely makes it easier to determine most disadvantages of any given situation. People often say that
they would prefer something else to what they have – physical appearance,
habits, living arrangements. When I ask my friends about their opinion on where
they live, the ones living in a city wish that they lived in the suburbs and
vice versa. In my opinion both city and suburbs have their advantages and the
choice depends on your priorities – which aspects of life are more important to
you? Where can you find happiness? The answer is not the same for everyone.
Obviously not everybody gets to choose, but if you could (for example if you
worked from home) – what would it be? Where would you raise your family?
CITY
 |
+ Health care
 |
This is very important, even if mostly for the
older people. My grandpa once wanted to sell a flat in Warsaw and move to a
village 100 km away from any bigger city. Imagine how much time it would take
for an ambulance to get there (and back). His idea was instantly rejected by my
grandma. In a city you have an unlimited 24/7 access to all the medical
specialists you want (of course let’s be reasonable – you won’t find a plastic
surgeon with whom you would discuss your breast augmentation at 2 a.m. … or
maybe you will?).
+ Education
 |
Raising a child in a city is much easier when
it comes to education; there are plenty of schools you may choose from (both
public and private). The same thing goes for extracurricular activities –
languages, dancing, playing instruments, tennis. It is a huge advantage for
adults as well – I doubt that you will find a mandarin teacher teaching in a
small town. Living in a city gives you a lot of opportunities to master a
variety of skills.
+ Culture and diversity
 |
This is the biggest advantage of living in a
city. You have an access to unlimited number of options 24/7 – if you want to
see an indie movie of your choice early in the morning or eat a traditional
Moroccan dish at 3 A.M. you just go out and do it. If you want to attend a yoga
class – you may easily find a place that offers you the hours that fit your
schedule. Theatres, restaurants (home delivery!), museums, shows, shops – they
are all available year-round and most of them also 24/7.
+ Public transportation
 |
You may get wherever you want – there are
probably around 10 buses that go there, every three minutes. If your car is
broken… wait, you don’t even have to own a car, it is so easy to get anywhere.
The other upside of using public transportation is that you don’t have to focus
on driving – you may sleep, read a book or play a game. It is like
teleportation, only it still takes some time to get where you want;) I live in
a rural area and it takes me one and half hour to get to the centre of Warsaw.
I have to walk 1,5 km to the bus stop, the bus leaves every half an hour (or
even less frequently), I get to the end of a tram line and from there I
eventually get to the centre. The night buses are every two hours, I think.
Trust me, it is no fun.
SUBURBS/RURAL AREA
 |
+ Costs of living
 |
This sort of defines the preferences of the
majority of people: if something is more expensive it generally is better. And
land in an urban area is SO MUCH more expensive than in a rural area. However
many people that dream of living outside of a city may find this advantageous.
Also many other things are cheap: gas, food etc. Somebody has counted that
living in Des Moines, Iowa is 37,9% cheaper than living in Boston,
Massachusetts.
+ Space and nature
 |
Living in a rural area means that you have
access to meadows, fields, lakes and forests and people from the cities pay a
lot of money to have that. Nowadays agrotouristic farms are very popular for
vacation getaways. You may find your inner peace in a rural area and rest more
profoundly than in a city. For those who like this kind of activities rural
areas offer mushroom picking, farming (do you know how much pride and
satisfaction brings a single home-grown tomato?), kayaking… Also, seeing a
Milky Way from your front porch is pretty great.
+ Independence
 |
When you live in a single-family home
surrounded by a garden you don’t have to worry about your neighbours
complaining that you watch TV too loudly or that you’ve burnt something in the
kitchen. You may lead your life the way you like it and it is nobody’s business
but yours. You are left alone to do whatever you want and nobody really cares.
+ Safety
 |
Most of the terrorist attacks and mass violence
acts (school shootings etc.) happen in big cities, mostly because the
perpetrators seek publicity. The majority of mugging, pickpocketing and
housebreakings take place in the cities. Sometimes it is scary to walk home or
ride a bus in the evening – even when you are a grown up man. I am far less
scared in the suburbs than in a city.
Sources:
Comments
Of course it depends what are you doing in your life. If you are employed in company in city you have to live somewhere around. I would prefer to work remotely because I can live anywhere I want. Some people like quiet, natural environment.
In fact, when I was in primary school lived in a quite small town. I was big enough to have a school nearby, some little shops (there were 2 supermarkets if I remember correctly), but right behind the block of flats I lived in there was a forest. In my opinion it was a marvelous place to grow up in. But then some priorities changed and my parents and I moved to a bigger city and a few years later I moved to study in Warsaw.
So, like I said earlier, I can't imagine living in the countryside - my heart and mind is in the city.
Suburbs are a nice choice for freelancers - it is relatively quiet, but you still can get to the city if you need to. Of course it gets really inconvenient if you have to go to the city everyday. Used to get up at 5:15 in the morning everyday for four years of my high school - it was more than inconvenient.
What is your favourite part of living in a city?
And my favourite part of living in a city? I guess that it's shopping - it takes me less than 5 minutes to get to the closest discount store... it's the simple things... ;) Also that I can call my friends and grab a beer any time.
I have always struggled about the fact that I don't live in a "city centre", but I still live in Warsaw (Wawer district). I have similar problem with public transportation to you but thankfully I can commute with car, and even standing in a traffic jam for an hour is faster than taking a bus. But sometimes I regret that I cannot multitask in a car and in a result I waste like 2-3 hours a day on commuting.
But beside that problem I have all advantages that the big city offers, and I have some that living in suburbs offers, what is kind of cool to have that mix :)
My biggest dream tho is to live close to the mountains, but close to a big city :) so in fact you are living in an amazing area, absolutely beautiful, with wonderful views, you can go to snowboard any time :D, and if you want you can go for a shopping spree to the city that is like very close (30km?) :) in a meantime I could do remote work :D sounds perfect to me and I even have found one destination that would be perfect to me! :D
and predictable surrounding often move to suburbs. Obviously we can't forget about financial limitation which most often regulate our decisions.
Currently I don't live in my family home but often I come back there when I want to get calm. In my opinion, most of the young people who live in the hustle and their main priority is access to the civilization they need urban life as I have now. Looking at my mother, she cannot imagine already living in the center of Warsaw but as you wrote - she has different priorities than me.
I would love to live in a small city near the sea, and a perfect situation would be mountains by the sea so I could have the most important stuff nearby and beautiful views at the same time, haha ;) One can dream.
I'm excluding the safety one, because it's more a stereotype than a real fact. Unless we're talking about zombie apocalypse, carpet bombardment or other disastrous events, I doubt that worse lighting and much smaller number of people are the most important safety factors.
This whole 'close to the nature' idea sounds like the biggest lie country people like to believe. Like they have a god-damn national park outside the window. Most of times, what they have is a barn, tool shed, garage and neighbors ... or farmlands. And no romantic beautiful meadows and hills speckled with flowers and serene rivers with tiny waterfalls.
Only pros of living in rural area I see is the fact, that you can do barbecue near your house and have a big, seriously stocked up workshop for all your creative hardware needs.
Even at Warsaw, close to the Center of the city you can find calm and quiet places where you can buy detached house. Prices... are uber-high (over million zlotys for tiny house built before war) but, maybe some day I will own one :)
Sometimes I want a break without "big city life" and then I go to Tatra mountains or somewhere where I can relax
I think that Switzerland may be a nice place for you, there are mountains just a short ride away from the biggest cities:) What is the destination you have found?
What is your favourite part of living in a city?
My perfect place is somewhere near Salzburg or Innsbruck in Austria and I hope one day I will live there :)
If I had to pick what I don't like about living in a flat, I'd say I'm not used to people coming and cnocking on my door to check on ventilation, gas and stuff. Another thing are the neighbours - sometimes you can hear what they're doing in their apartments (whitch is weird), or when they're doing a renovations (whitch is horrifying).
It only sucks when you want to go out drinking with your friends at night. If I did 9 to 5 in downtown area - I would much rather rent a flat somewhere nearby.