| | I live in the 18th fastest-growing county in the nation. What does that mean? Well, for one--it means a heck of a lot of traffic sometimes. Which honestly, only really bothers me on occasion. But really, I'm just not much of a suburban girl.
I live in Hamilton County because I work here. That's pretty much the only reason. My lease on the west side was up and there was an opportunity to save money and move 5 minutes away from where I work, so I took it. Now I live in a house in an addition where 90% of the houses all have the same floor plan as ours. I miss originality.
What is it about Indianapolis that causes people to want to move out of it? It can't be traffic--in my experience, the traffic is much worse in the suburbs than almost anywhere in the city. But yet the current trend seems to be to move just within reach of the city without living IN it. And businesses are encouraging this trend by building up around these suburbs. It's not really necessary to go into the city for much of anything anymore.
I think more people are moving to the suburbs because of the safety and convenience that they perceive. Move to Carmel, or Fishers, or Avon, into a house in an addition with a bunch of upper middle class families just like yours and you'll feel safer. And why go back to Indy at all? Everything you need is being built up around you, just to cater to you. Perfect, right?
But something's missing--at least for me. I'm a city girl. And I'm not afraid of the city. I miss the diversity of the west side apartment complex that I moved out of. I miss seeing all different kinds of people when I go to the grocery store. I miss living a few minutes from downtown where I can go and walk around amongst a variety of people - people on the Circle, college students at IUPUI, people at Circle Centre in town for a convention, people hanging out at Steak 'N' Shake for a cup of coffee, those milling about at the canal... it's practically never-ending.
And for me--there's a community feel to the city that the suburbs are missing. It's too easy in the suburbs to go to your 8-5 job, come home, flip on the tube, and never interact with your neighbors and those that are living around you. That's possible in the city too, of course, but it just SEEMS harder to retreat to your own perfect little cave and not bump into those around you.
The suburbs really are convenient--the city's close by, you can get out of it what you want. But you don't have to be IN it. But what exactly are we moving into and what exactly are we moving away from? Into a place where it's easier to live life in your own box (that looks just like all the other boxes on your street)? Or out of a place where we're afraid of the diversity around us not being safe enough to live in community with?
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| | Posted 3/18/2006 4:25 PM - 30 Views
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