I'll never understand why US suburbs like to utterly nuke any kind of nature around their houses and replace it with "lawns". Like, I'd rip that stuff out and at least plant some potats and shit immediately.
It is actually a anticommunist thing
Care to elaborate?
I heard of that, I think it was some propaganda piece. Like "look at those poor sovjets, have to grow their own food because the state can't provide. Meanwhile we're so civilized and advanced". (Interesting sidenote: The culture of huge lawns came from the UK I think, rich people in the 1800 and 1900 displayed their wealth that way).
Not saying it wasn't like that in some places, just that it's so unfathomably stupid. And now there are US Tiktokers talking about "lifehacks" of growing your own food, with other US Tiktokers calling people who do that libtard commies and whatnot. US culture is a disaster on life support.
I just can't fathom why seemingly a whole class of US citizens apparently aren't able to use their damn heads and still do this nonsense.
Coming from the UK is correct, it was literally an artistocratic flex at having literally useless land. I read a dissertation a few years back that also linked this to a Baudrillard style simulationist desire for the upper class not to see land with any practical value immediately besides their homes because they were resistant to accept that their wealth was exercised from any real action, and instead they'd pretend it was just a truth. But beyond the lawns were forests and fields, because they had to exist.
When lawns were adopted by the bourgeoisie, who only had half an acre of property, it was already trendy to have the surrounding acres of the house be only lawn. The bourgeoisie simulation was to have the house surrounded by lawns as if it were to then give way to fields and forests, which of course did not exist, just your neighbours equally ugly plot of land.
What I never understood about all of this though, is that gardens are equally cosmetic vanity. I have fond memories of the garden of my grandmother, which has a small greenhouse and two raised vegetable beds at the back, but everything else was flower beds, a pond, a summer pavillion, a small lawn, a shed and a scattering of trees and bushes. Other than the small sections for growing vegetables, it was all entirely for vanity. But it was beautiful. Hell, the small lawn was even pretty functional as the primary place to set up chairs in the sun and play ball games.
I am British, and once this island was forest and mountains from shore to shore, with meadows and plains being rare. The lawn never made sense here, and caught on less in in the Soviet Bloc as plains become more common in nature. America is a land with far more natural plains, and the lawn is further removed from it's original status. It's imitating an imitation of a denial of reality, Baudrillard would have a field day.
But I did mention, in my grandmother's garden, playing ball games on the lawn. American sport is largely built on the suburban madness that is lawns. I'm not talking about sport born in urban centers like basketball, or sports from true rural areas, which I can only assume is rednecks drink driving, if watching US shows has told me anything, but Baseball, American Football and even golf are sports made for lawns. It's hard to detangle lawns from middle class America without stopping middle class kids play sports in their gardens.
One day they'll add vegetable gardening to the Olympics and America will be saved, and Joseph McCarthy will be stuck in hell on his fucking lawn.
Don't they also have these "neighborhood associations" that forbid them to do anything that falls out of line?
It's just that much easier for developers to raze all plants to the ground before grading and running other heavy equipment. These are new construction and so those developers aren't accountable to anyone, and I'm sure the local jurisdiction doesn't care. That's not a justification, for what it's worth, just an explanation.
What I've never been sure of is why people don't eventually realize how much nicer everything would be if they just replanted trees (or left them in the first place) but they seem to be used to suburban hell. If you drive everywhere it's less of an issue that your environment is shit.
Everyone's dream =
"It would get old fast"? Op, I'm afraid you don't have good friends. When I was a university student, I was in a shared apartment with two friends. It was great: you always had someone to do stuff with and group activities were much easier to schedule.
Now that I'm older it would be nice to easily check who's up for something, spontaneously grill with everyone or simply sit together in the evening and talk.
My friends group still goes on vacation together from time to time and I love it. If your friends are only enjoyable in small doses... I don't know... that sounds sad.
Also with a house of your own, everyone would have enough space to retreat if necessary.
Besides from the bad gardening that was mentioned by the other posts, I would love to live like this.
The only problem I see here is the lack of fences, trees, and plants. And the size of the houses is a bit too big for my needs.
Man, this. I moved in with a friend to my first apartment like 10 years ago. With two more a couple floors down.
Nowadays all 4 of us live in a big house together and it's great. Sure there's some conflict, but at the end we're still friends and we can reconcile like adults. I'd move more of our close friends in if we had the space. We even briefly had a 5th housemate when he was between apartments and that was cramped, but still actually very nice.
Good friends is the key - to me, this sounds great. I have plenty of friends I'd love to have this close, it might even be hard to pick "just" 6.
This is the first thing that came to mind when I saw this.
Who is this “everyone”? Because this ain’t even remotely my dream.
I would be so excited to be able to own a home and have 6 other friends.
if you can't be responsible and respectful with SIX neighbors then you don't deserve the privilege of owning property.
Friends 1 and 7 control the choke point and use it to starve the rest of the friends.
Calm down Netanyahu
Well that's a shitty looking commune.
McCommune
This looks like hell
Why would you want a house like that. They are all the same characterless houses
They have plenty of character.
Friend 1 is a banjo player. You can tell by the large porch facing the entrance of the cul de sac from where he watches everyone who comes and goes.
Friend 2 owns a large pick up truck. This is because his house has the best view of the agricultural fields to the left, so he identifies as a farmer, even if he works in a call center.
Friend 3 doesn't have a driveway. He actually thought that he would be able to ride with his friends every day.
Friend 4 lives closest to the forrest so he wears outdoor clothing all the time and pretends to be the alpha male.
Friend 5 is the beta cuck who actually fell for Friends 4's self proclaimed alpha status.
Friend 6 doesn't exist. Nobody wants to buy that house. The parked car belongs to the real estate agent who pays regular visits to the house with potential buyers.
Friend 7 is a conspiracy theorist who keeps mostly to himself and sometimes disappear for days. The upper floor is larger than the ground floor and is filled with horded things that he calls his prepping storage. There might even be other people up there.
Me and the wife befriended the neighbours during lockdown. Hung out all the time, went on several holidays together.
Still pals, was round at one of theirs for dinner the other day.
Lived even closer than this for years. Didn’t get old. Miss it. But had to move on from the communal garden space for the kids.
Suburbia may be a good place to shelter toddlers, but as soon as a child is more than about 6 years old, being trapped in a mcmansion on the edge of town seriously inhibits their growth and independence. They might be able to walk to a friend's house, if they're lucky enough to live somewhere with a sidewalk, but they're unlikely to be able to walk to school, or anywhere else for that matter. ...
... And it's more than just school, too. Kids have lots of sports and other activities, so [in better urbanist places] it's very common to see children walking or cycling while dressed in football gear (not [American] football) or hockey gear (not [ice] hockey), because they travel to all these activities by themselves.
In the US and Canada you have the stereotype of the suburban 'soccer mum', the mother who spends all of her time shuttling her kids around from school to activities to playdates and back. Because until a kid is about 16 years old and has their own driver's licence, they need to be driven around everywhere by their parents. And this is considered 'normal'.
— Jason Slaughter, 2022
No one outside of high school has six friends.
No one makes friends with six random neighbors. And certainly they don't all consider each other friends.
There's a reason this is called a "dream".
No one outside of high school has six friends.
Me, a guy with maybe a dozen friends I hang out with on a weekly basis, whistling past the graveyard of loneliness
There’s a reason this is called a “dream”.
One trick to living in a cul de sac with six of your closest friends is to meet your neighbors and become friends with them. I'll say that COVID really helped me with this, personally, because during the peak I was just out on the driveway or walking the local trails trying not to go stir crazy and... so was everyone else. Pretty soon we were doing impromptu parties on the driveway and yoga on the lawn and whatever else we could to avoid the isolation of a pandemic.
But you don't need a killer virus to wave to your neighbors, say hi, and strike up a conversation. And there's a compounding effect. When two people are out talking, you're likely to pick up a third. When five people are hanging out at the end of a day, it can quickly become ten or more.
If it's an instinctual response to wish for this kind of thing, it shouldn't be hard to imagine people gravitating towards these relationships IRL.
Suburbian hell aside, noone prohibits you from befriending your neighbors.
I'm fine with this considering my house is not in the picture.
Slop.
That aside, I choose friend 3. The only one without a driveway. Though if I did have a garage, I could establish my workshop there, hm...
My frat house was like this but with one house. Didn't get old.
The thing that would get old is managing all that damn grass. That and presumably having to drive 20 minutes to get anything.
Never personally had issues with living near or even with friends. Only ever had issues with was a rando roommate I had because a friend had to move for work.
I literally cannot comprehend secured housing. Its like a dragon or unicorn. Sounds rad AF, but 10,000% unrealistic.
Because it's 10 miles from public transit and Friend 3 has to bum rides from everyone?
I'd be so into this if there was something we could all walk to at the end of the block. Like a main st or something
Friend 3 runs the pub at the end of the block. Doesn't even need a car.
My aunt and her family lived in a place like this. It was such a weird vibe. We never walked or rode our bikes anywhere, we just played in the yard.
I've seen people rag on the suburbia of it all but no one has questioned the premise. If the suburban housing was the premise, then it shouldn't matter who the neighbors are and the length of time would be irrelevant: you just wouldn't want to live in the suburbs.
The premise is implying something about the idea of living by friends is masking the inherent problems with the situation. And that mask would fall off after some time had passed. But, if you don't like the suburbs as 90% of y'all felt compelled to make clear, why would that be suppressed and only resurface after time passes?
Why would living by friends turn into a nightmare scenario? If you can't stand being neighbors with them, then I'd argue you guys weren't really friends. Or you have novel ideas about how much you have to interact with neighbors.
Friend 3 over there without even a driveway, we know who the charity case is lol
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