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Most interesting suburbs?

What are the most interesting suburbs in the U.S. today, and why?

 
Sep 7, 16 12:54 am
no_form
Co-housing because it's not a suburb but it is definitely sub-urban.

Detroit burbs- all that farming and self determination to make it great again.

Braddock, Pennsylvania. John fetterman the mayor has tried to some things to turn that post apocalyptic town into something better.

California city - it was abandoned and now taken over by wildlife

Silverlake in Los Angeles for the Neutra houses

Orange, California for the Eichler houses

Houston's fourth ward historical housing for freed slaves.
Sep 7, 16 2:36 am  · 
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Wood Guy

There are no interesting suburbs. Urban is the new sub-urban. Rural is also cool again.

Sep 7, 16 8:54 am  · 
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won and done williams

Suburbs are all lame; not a good one anywhere. Small towns are where it's at.

Sep 7, 16 12:16 pm  · 
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Carmel, Indiana has spent truckloads of money making itself both more urban, with an art-focused walkable downtown, and more suburban, with the highest number of roundabouts of any city in the US: gotta keep those cars flowing!

In fact, Carmel just won the very prestigious "International Roundabout of the Year" award (it's a thing) from the UK Roundabout Appreciation society (also a thing) this year.  I'm somewhat surprised that Archinect/Archinect UK didn't do a joint announcement, frankly? ;-)

What makes all this work by Carmel especially interesting is the spending spree has been somewhat disastrous, yet it keeps going. Every time I drive to Carmel I feel like it's time for a significant human pandemic, but the people there appear to love it.

Sep 7, 16 1:03 pm  · 
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chigurh

sounds like the truman show set

Sep 7, 16 1:12 pm  · 
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JLC-1

aspen

malibu

pontevedra

greenwich

Sep 7, 16 1:33 pm  · 
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Brud-G

Celebration outside of Orlando Florida.

Sep 7, 16 1:36 pm  · 
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I mean, Oak Park is kind of OK. Some Wright dude designed a bunch of houses there, but an ex also lives there. So, it's a wash.

Sep 7, 16 1:36 pm  · 
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I'm fascinated by Maryvale, a suburb of Phoenix, for possibly being run by a gang of stray chihuahuas: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/gangs-of-chihuahuas-are-not-running-maryvale-6645569

Sep 7, 16 3:16 pm  · 
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Riverside in Illinois near Chicago was designed by Olmsted

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside,_Illinois

the houses are interesting and each one unique. careful planning for the automobile while preserving a bucolic country image with the roads depressed so cars are not as visible from the parks and all.

 

Over and OUT

Peter N

Sep 7, 16 4:42 pm  · 
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JLC-1

^I'm sorry Amelia, but Phoenix is an aberration that shouldn't exist, same as Las Vegas.

Sep 7, 16 5:11 pm  · 
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tduds

Y'all are confusing 'interesting' and 'good'.

Salton City is an interesting suburb.

Sep 7, 16 5:17 pm  · 
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^ What tduds said.

I'm interested in Carmel as a suburb trying to get serious about itself while also economically benefitting a bunch of investors. It's a significant public-private partnership situation.

Outside of Phoenix, and more historically, Sun City is interesting in the same way: it's an old folks' home, in a suburban setting. I believe Sun City is where the llamas ran free a year ago.

Sep 7, 16 5:32 pm  · 
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tduds

A "suburb" near Portland recently decided to dissolve itself. The politics surrounding its incorporation, the urban growth boundary, and eventual disincorporation (which is still to be decided by a court challenge if I remember correctly), are super interesting.

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/307251-185089-damascus-voters-say-yes-to-disincorporation

https://ballotpedia.org/Damascus,_Oregon,_Disincorporation_of_the_City_of_Damascus_Act_(2016)

Sep 7, 16 9:20 pm  · 
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won and done williams

What does "interesting" mean?

I love novels like "The Ice Storm" (New Canaan, CT) or "Middlesex" (Grosse Pointe, MI), but the suburbs where they are set are probably the last places in the world I would actually want to live. I think an "interesting" suburb exists largely in your imagination.

Sep 8, 16 10:23 am  · 
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tduds

won: I think that invites further distinction between places that are "interesting" to look at / write about (which is what I imagine prompted this thread) and places that are "interesting" to inhabit (a.k.a. "good").

I and others who have posted examples seem to be taking the former interpretation, while those dismissing the question out-of-hand are stuck on the latter.

Sep 8, 16 12:57 pm  · 
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I deliberately chose to not clarify my request any more than with "interesting", because it's a subjective qualifier to each individual, making it impossible to rank everyone's suggestions in any clear way. I wanted to just see which places come up in discussion, and get people's sandals flapping. Yes, to use in later writing. I'm trying to refrain from debating what even counts as a suburb (Silverlake???)

Sep 8, 16 5:05 pm  · 
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gwharton

Riverside, Illinois (the suburb where I spent my childhood) is fairly interesting: designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. It's a good example of the early promise of the suburban typology before it became so completely commoditized in the post-war era.

Sep 8, 16 6:34 pm  · 
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awaiting_deletion

not sure these are Suburbs, as I think you have to be a suburb to an urban area, but all those little place along Florida's Highway 30A

Sep 8, 16 8:08 pm  · 
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Volunteer

Those "new urban" places along 30A, Seaside, Aly's Beach, Rosemary Beach, just outside of Destin, (and Destin itself) are suburbs of Fort Walton Beach just to the west. Fort Walton is a town of about 30,000 people built largely after WWII to accommodate Eglin AFB personnel. As the prices of places like Seaside have gone completely out of sight, a lot of the older housing stock (concrete block ranch homes) in Fort Walton is being remodeled and upgraded. Retirees are finding that if you live there year round you don't really have to have a place on the water if you have quick access to it. You can buy a nice house in FWB for $200,000 or less compared to $800,000 and up for one of the "new urban places". I lived down there for four years some time ago and it really was a wonderful experience. Absolutely the best beaches I have ever seen anywhere with the sand that looks like snow or sugar.

Sep 8, 16 8:41 pm  · 
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