11 Sweet Perks Of Living In The Suburbs You Miss When You Live In The City

1. Parking

Parking. Parking everywhere. Parking wherever you want to. DRIVEWAYS. GARAGES.

While I thank my zip code for making me a skilled parallel parker, the rush of joy I feel whenever I’m in a suburb and there is endless parking never gets old. You can go to a friends house and just park on the street in front of her house! There’s no competition with hundreds of other cars vying for that spot, or no parking during this or that hour. The suburbs are a vacation for your car and from the maybe-I-should-go-home-before-all-the-parking-spots-are-gone anxiety present in the mind of every city dweller with a vehicle.

2. Bonfires

Sure, there’s sweet fire pits at rooftop bars on top of fancy restaurants–but that’s its own pleasure. There is nothing quite like city in a crappy lawn chair outside with your friends starring at a fire and getting deep and/or drunk.

3. The stars

You can actually see them!

4. Housing prices

In the suburb I grew up in I could live in a brand new 2 bedroom apartment for what I pay for my half of a 2 bedroom in a building built in 1910. No dishwasher, drafty windows in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer. It seems insane until I think about all the places I can walk to from my apartment that don’t even exist in suburbia.

5. Hosting is much easier

Suburban apartments and homes are spacious. You’re more likely to have a guest bedroom, a large kitchen, and a big living room with multiple couches so you can host a big group of your friends without feeling crowded. It’s easy to pregame at someones apartment in cities because inevitably one person lives close to the cool bars so it’s convenient to meet up there and have a few drinks. In the suburbs, however, hanging out can be the main event.

6. Quiet

There’s city quiet in which you lull yourself to sleep with the sounds of cars and people and the occasional siren–and then there’s actual quiet which can only be found outside the city limits.

7. High school football

There’s nothing like a crowded stadium on a Friday night. It’s like an IRL Norman Rockwell painting. People are excited, kids are running around with glitter paint on their faces, a group of teens is invariably trying to get drunk off Boone’s Farm under the bleachers. It’s a comforting experience.

8. Pets

You have a yard. This makes owning a dog approximately 100x easier. In the cold winter you can just open your door and let it out, you don’t need to get dressed yourself and follow it around with a plastic bag.

9. Relaxation

The city is where all the action is. There’s this perpectual subconscious thought of “what else is going on?” because so much else IS going on. Suburbs are sleepy, there’s an opportunity to finally turn your brain off because there’s physical space between you and the business of life.

10. Children

It’s one thing to schlep yourself around the city and another entirely to bring kids alone. Kids have a lot of appointments. They have to go to school and soccer games and piano lessons. They need backpacks and snacks and toys to be carted around with them. They need play rooms and space to run around and quality schools to attend. All this is why most people move to the suburbs when they have kids. You can raise them in the city, it’s just a whole lot more work.

11. Townie bars

There are great dive bars in every city, but the best kind of dive bar is a townie bar–a bar in a small town where 80% of the clientele are regulars. They’ll know you don’t live nearby the second you walk in but after a few beers you’re all friends and by the end of the night you’re dancing to ‘Friends in Low Places’ on the jukebox. This is the premium bar experience and it’s escaping the grasp of city living.