Suburbs get such a bad rap in certain online circles, and yet so many people choose to live in them. I'm from Europe and live in a flat in a historical city centre, but I think I'd prefer suburbs, if such a thing existed around here. Sure, historical city centre definitely has its charms and conveniences, but the peace and quiet of suburbs sounds amazing compared to the soundscape (cars, dogs, neighbors) I have to endure every day. I've even set my sleeping schedule to the schedule of the yappy dog in apartment below me - there's no point in trying to sleep till 8 am when the thing starts barking at 6:30 am anyway.
Yeah. These romanticized threads always give me a kick. Every large city here in Germany has a chronic smell of diesel and dog piss. There's a level of grime to everything that would really bother someone used to an American suburb. Not to mention the majority of apartments are in old buildings with no ventilation or cooling.
Like you said, there's advantages but ignoring the downsides is amusing if you've ever actually lived in a large city.
It's a bit different in Australia in Melbourne/Sydney. You have suburbs but they have all developed micro cities around the train station. So you have these spots that don't smell like piss and smog, have a supermarket, bars, restaurants, and brand new highrises with high quality apartments.
Super easy to live car free since your day to day stuff can be accessed by foot, and the train to the CBD is super easy to access as well.
The 'peace and quiet' of suburbs is only assuming that you get lucky. Much like any place, if you have a horrible neighbor they can and will make your life hell, but in the suburbs you're stuck.
As someone that lived in the suburbs as a kid I hope to never go back. Being in the city proper and having easy access to everything and nature within a bus / bicycle ride away is far better than living in the burbs and everything is 5-10 miles away. It's even worse if you're a kid, because I frequently had to wake up at 6AM for school, take a bus at 6:45 and get to school by 8AM. That was partly why I did so horribly in highschool.
Your chances at peace and quiet are much much better in the suburbs though, where there's probably less than 5-8 families which could disturb it, whereas my apartment buildings alone has 25 families, and the neighboring buildings (definitely within earshot) have dozens if not hundreds more. All this density also translates into much more car traffic outside my window, much more dog barking (when people walk their dogs), much more children making a racket when playing etc.
Another European historic city center flat dweller. I grew up in the suburbs (small city suburban, very quiet when I was a child, and even with new buildings behind us as a teen it was quiet and calm. The closest multi-tenant building was about 600m away, the city center was only a 20-minute bus ride away). But despite the annoying churches (no place in the center where you are more than about 800m away from one), I prefer it here. Everything is in walking distance, I have the choice of almost all drugstore and supermarket chains, even specialty stores.
I don’t mind some dogs, still better than villages. My sleeping schedule is my own, if I wake up from some partying drunk kids, I go back to sleep.
