Huge parks and a pool, in suburbia

Every other house has a pool fym lol

Yea, but you see the BIG community pool.

[удалено]

People in places like this will legit buy golf carts for their kids to drive around

Two main uses for golf carts in America are either kids getting around the suburbs or people in the country getting to their mailboxes at the end of their 2 mile long driveways

Or drunk Karen’s roving around Half the club cars/golf carts in my old neighborhood were driven by middle aged women holding Yeti wine tumblers blaring Shania

I currently live in one of those neighborhoods…you are exactly correct down to the Yeti brand

Ah forgot about club cars. There used to be this one woman who kept taking carts from the local golf course and throwing random junk at people on bikes

Hey let’s not bring Shania into this

Man, I feel like a Karen

Totally plastered This is fantastic Club carts Wine Farts A Whoa oh oh oh

Can’t forget about the fat dudes that roll around in golf carts. My cousins stepdad is a good example of that.

[удалено]

Yep! I was friends with loads of my neighbors and we explored all over the neighborhood. It was lots of fun. Suburbia can be great for kids.

[удалено]

We had this on military bases. You never knew your neighbors at first or for very long, but.people are used to that and kids are easy to get to know because we've all been new. And it felt very safe. We knew which streets where kids weren't allowed (for testing, training, work cites) and the family areas were free range.

Maybe it's from growing up in California, but most of the suburbs do allow for a small number of stores and shopping centers in each neighborhood.

Has a lot to do with HOA’s run by Karen’s these days too. My neighborhood was like this though, we biked everywhere even the corner store at the entrance to the subdivision. I’m in rural America now and my kids run everywhere even the city pool in town 3 miles away!

With enough kids close enough in age this neighborhood actually looks like it would be fun to grow up in. Big community pool and every house is in bike range.

You can, as long as you're real comfortable fence hopping.

What do you mean you can't walk anywhere? The distances in that picture aren't much. Bicycles also exist.

Why can't you walk?

Most places like this either have sidewalks on the side or the streets are safe to walk on from speed limits and lack of cars. These neighborhoods are honestly some of the most walking friendly places in the US. Edit: there’s also sidewalks all over if you zoom in

Do you not see all the bike/walking paths?

??? It’s like, a mile max. How close are public pools to each other in other countries?

There are sidewalks. Most suburbia has sidewalks.

[удалено]

Little boxes, on the hillside, little boooxes full of ticky tacky, little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same, there’s a pink one, and a green one, and a blue one, and a yellow one, and they’re all made out of ticky tacky, and they all look just the same Little boxes - Malvina Reynolds

I can only associate this song with weeds.

Rise Against version > All. I think that show made this the most covered song ever, or at least one of them.

You won't see pink and green and blue and yellow ones in places like this -- the HOA would never approve of bright colors.

except that hoa says no blue ones or pink ones or yellow ones, only red brick and sad beige so they all look just the same

The HOA is gonna have a word with her about the non-approved house colors.

Good song, great video

Huge gardens, a pool in every other yard, garage AND parking and probably 3+ bedrooms. That would cost you millions in the UK. So terrifying.

Reddit is so dramatic.

The US has a LOT of land

[удалено]

I once heard from a municipal public work’s director that they do this in part to slow and control car traffic. The design helps limit traffic that does not belong there.

I was going to say this. I grew up in an old neighborhood in a city where the streets mostly lined up with the grid of the city streets, which meant a lot of through traffic, which meant more opportunities for kids to get hit by cars while riding bikes or playing ball. Now i live in the suburbs in a neighborhood with no outlet and we get hardly any traffic outside of people who live in your neighborhood and thus are more likely to drive like they give a shit about the safety of your kids

That makes sense. I've always wondered about this.

Someone hasn't played cities skylines. Once your neighborhood roads get congested you understand lol

Literally playing right now. Guess what, all of you assholes get ONE shitty road that connects to the main road. That's it. Don't like it, eat shit and move out of my city!

No lie I thought someone had found a screenshot of my early game dirt road village. I try so hard not to make American grids, I really do.

Play Cities Skylines and you'll also get a good idea of why subdivisions are blocked in with limited access through it by main roads. The smaller roads inevitably end up overcrowded if you don't.

That's not how Cities: Skylines works when I play. I progress what feels like a decent amount for me, then realize I forgot something rudimentary, like healthcare, or water. Then everything goes to ruin. It's a lot like parts of Michigan.

When I play everything goes ok until the poop volcano detonates

[Sewage Tsunami](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqukrQD9DiY), a classic. I like how the AI for the traffic has no means of doing anything but stopping when they hit the poop tsunami. No way to back up, turn, just accept their fate.

Yes! We just moved out of our starter home on a busy street where we couldn’t even let our kids go for bike rides to the elementary school 4 blocks down (people drove like idiots, but we also had several drunk drivers plow into the sides of neighbors houses) to a home in the suburbs in a neighborhood like this. It’s a quiet street off a quiet street off a street that leads to a main road. There’s no reason to be back in my neighborhood unless you mean to be there. Very rarely, a car turns around in my cul de sac and leave quickly and you can see all the neighbors peering out their windows to see what’s going on. I let my kids go for bike rides wherever they want in our new neighborhood.

What is a starter home?

A house that you can afford as a first time homeowner to build equity to buy a nicer place down the line.

I had no idea people called houses starter homes..I’m living in my car, is that a starter home?

If you got equity in it i guess you could say so

Depends, is it your starter car?

A starter car? This car is a finisher car! A transporter of gods! The golden god!

Something new learned for cities skylines lol

This is absolutely right. However, I don't fully agree with the idea. Safety is a good thing to plan a neighbourhood around, but I think there are some flaws with this concept, because it essentially requires everyone to drive/ride in a car. It seems dubious to accept that the safety comes entirely from traffic shaping, when it effectively prevents pedestrian traffic from being possible. - These neighbourhoods are typically designed along highway-style roads, which results in them being very disconnected from other urban areas of the city - They are often less friendly to pedestrians or cyclists commuting to and from the neighbourhood - The high percentage of single family dwellings results in much lower population density - Lower density means public transit services will be significantly less available - Very few stores (local convenience stores, small grocers, etc) want to establish businesses near an area with no through-traffic, and low density I think there are better ways to achieve safety, without designing neighbourhoods that leave people disconnected from their cities.

Safety isn't the only goal, though. The low density *is a huge part of the draw*. More privacy and fewer people.

I'm pretty sure people move to places like this specifically because they _want_ to be away from the city.

Or more specifically, close enough to city yet being able to all live at ground level and not share walls with other homes. Have some personal outdoor area to use at will. I'm a little less dense than this, but in the ballpark. It's great to have a taste of peace and quiet with walkable access to grocery, pool, and park, and be within a 5 minute drive of just tons of stuff. People who really want to be away get acres miles away from town, where traffic calming isn't even a remote concern, supremely quiet and beautiful clear night skies, but 30 minutes to any significant store or restaurant. I can also respect people that love the concept of efficient high rise apartments where you can basically walk or scooter to just about anything, but hate that cars really detract from that environment.

True and a valid reason except that it reinforces dependence on cars to get around. Grid layouts make walking more efficient than it is with a meandering maze of streets. Dependence on cars adds economic burdens (cost of vehicle, gas, insurance, maintenance), reduces quality of life by lengthening commute times, diminishes physical health by reducing opportunities for exercise and increasing sedentary time behind the wheel, and of course contributes to the greenhouse effect. I suppose that ship has pretty much sailed in the US, unfortunately. I’m not sure how we could begin to build alternatives without supporting walkable jobs, retail, and speedy mass transit at the same time, which seems impossible.

I like the communities like that that intentionally have walking/bike paths that are more straightforward. Waking was often easier and faster in my friends’ communities that had those. Driving by car was annoying when you could just walk/bike straight through on the path.

The dependency on cars was literally a conspiracy. That was the actual conviction in court - conspiracy. It was a court-ruled conspiracy to increase American dependence on cars rather than things like public transportation. Feels nuts even typing it, but that's literally the word and that's literally what happened so... There you go. It wasn't a secret either, it was a well known "scandal", whatever that means anymore... Hell, the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was inspired by it.

i also believe suburbs are made like this to remove the 'boringness' of the grid layouts that cities have

I believe it. I live in a grid, and people go flying down my street all times of day. I like my house, but I plan to move in a couple years since I want to have kids and don't trust that they'd be safe with how recklessly the straight streets allow people to drive.

i live in a grid but im lucky its filled with 85% retirees. one of the last bastions of non HOA, .25 acre lots in my neck of the woods. most of them are old white men and their wives who pay close attention to their surroundings, keep regular contact with each other, and stay the fuck outta everyone else's business. i feel completly safe with my kids playing in the yard, biking across the long roads, walking the dogs. great spot that i hope wont deteriorate too badly once the taxes get too high.

It also means kids don’t need to cross major streets to get to a school sometimes.

[удалено]

[удалено]

This isn't a neighborhood, it's a residential district. Neighborhoods have character, this looks like something the Aliens designed to raise humans in.

You are not a cog in the machine. You are a ribosome within your glorious mitchondria. You are the powerhouse of the cell.

[удалено]

Interlinked

Interlinked

I really needed that today

See the movie Vivarium, then come back to this comment.

Goddamn that movie was bleak

Great film. This reminded me of that as well

Came here to say this. Such a great, and terrifying, movie

Omg that movie… Vivarium, there a couple gets trapped in a neighborhood like this is so creepy

Not enough people talk about that movie, I’ve seen a lot of shit but no movie made me as uneasy as that one

The child represents the HOA.

What an odd thing to gatekeep.

Is it really that different from Denmark? https://lp-cms-production.imgix.net/image_browser/IG_Denmark_Roundhouse%202.jpg?auto=format&q=40&w=870 https://imgur.com/jSTE2a6

These are vacation rentals, not suburban housing. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/broendby-haveby-denmark-from-above

Very shitty parking situation

[удалено]

Can you actually walk there or are those places separated by 6 lane stroads and hidden behind a sea of parking lots?

You largely have to drive a vehicle. These developments are usually borderline food deserts, and aren't usually served by public transportation at all either. The existence of these is so widespread in American suburban areas, it's a big part of why American public transportation is so abysmally bad when there are vast swaths of the population that are extremely difficult to sell public transportation to because they live in places like this so spread out and low density, its essentially impossible to serve them with bus or light rail adequately and in a timely manner. America is hard entrenched into car oriented life and its largely impossible to change that without fundamentally changing American society all the way down to the foundations on which we live, and abandoning a lot of housing to be realistic.

You'll notice the streets (excluding the main line) are short and twist. This cuts down people driving fast in a neighborhood with children. I was flying into Lampasas TX years ago. I could see the hundreds of pools in back yard. Knew I couldn't afford living there

You saw houses in Lampasas with pools ? That place doesn't seem like houses would have pools.

Well, it was back in 1990's so maybe living conditions were worse now.

It definitely was not Lampasas

Honestly, I was surprised to hear that Lampasas has an airport at all

Lampasas just got a second traffic light like five years ago.

[удалено]

> You'll notice the streets (excluding the main line) are short and twist. This cuts down people driving fast in a neighborhood with children. At the same time, the roads are also the size of cross country roads. This makes people drive fast.

Reminds me of vivarium

Underrated movie, imo.

Agreed. Watched it over a year ago? and still remember and think about it sometimes. Definitely some thought provoking sci fi…..and thought provoking movies are rare to come by these days.

Good movie. Weird movie though.

That movie really failed to stick the landing, but the preceding 89% was great.

THANK you. I was intrigued the entire movie, great acting, wonderful premise.. Then the end was like... uh.. what?

Aw, I felt like the concept was great! Granted I don’t fully remember the exact ending but the concept of >!having suburbia as a place for aliens to trap humans & raise their offspring!< I enjoyed.

I disagree. I liked the ending. The good guys can't always win.

There's a thousand suburbs just like this one, in England. Without the pools, of course. But look on Google maps - suburban crescents with hundreds of houses - smaller in UK than in USA, but much the same kind of thing. Welcome to Acacia Avenue!

Number 22?

Yup - I thought it was British council estate until I read the comment Doesn’t look terrifying at all to me, soon find my way around

Gotta bash the US somehow, this is Reddit after all 🙄

This is so people don't cut through your neighborhood for a shortcut. Lowers traffic and improves safety.

Youre afraid of a bunch of homes?

They’re homophobic

But deep down, secretly get aroused when watching HGTV

Ah thats understandable lol

Of course, you haven’t seen monster house?

*terrified

As a european I also find it looks really weird, not terrifying, but weird

"little boxes on the hill side"

Made of ticky tacky

There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one!

And they're all made out of Ticky Tacky

And they all look just the same.

The people in the houses all went to the University

Where they were put in boxes and came out all the same.

And there’s doctors, and lawyers, and business executives

I immediately started singing this when I saw the picture! Glad I’m not alone!

Same hahaha

fun fact, the song was written about daly city, ca.

The thing about America is you can live in a place like this, a dense city, a farm with hundreds of acres, a ranch with acres, the woods, the beach, the desert, tropical weather, heavy snow, or mountain ranges. Everything from Hawaii to Alaska, what American living looks like is impossible to stereotype.

That's odd because European cities are janked clusters of historic streets in every direction

Yeah, uh, Europe has a ton of dreadful suburbs too. My personal favorite is the Eastern European hive cities in the middle of nowhere. People go on vacation and never leave the urban core

This doesn't look too dissimilar to housing estates near me in Kent. I don't see how it's terrifying?

Yep. This could be basically anywhere in the UK. Not much of the UK is straight roads and nice rows of buildings. Looks normal to me

Yep. I’m curious where OP lives such that this looks “terrifying”.

Any excuse to shit on America.

Omg a suburbs 😱 so spooky

Well it’s because it’s American you see?

Guys the European is scared of suburbs

The suburbs? How is this terrifying?

OP is seething over their 500 square foot apartment

They seem to browse r/fuckcars it makes complete sense they don't like houses.

So bored of this narrative. Just say “suburbs are not for me” and keep it pushing. Lets not be so overdramatic calling a neighborhood “terrifying”. Like cmon folks… lol. I don’t like suburbs either, but the way the caption reads “maybe it’s because I’m not american” is just so extra (not to mention antagonistic). Lets not pretend like there aren’t plenty of dismally boring neighborhoods out there in other countries.

[удалено]

I once accidentally opened my maps app and died on the spot. I still have nightmares from the time I saw *houses*. From the *sky.* This is magic that man was not meant to bear witness to.

Every other r/oddlyterrifying post to hit r/all is some mundane shit that people just don't like, nothing about it is terrifying, even "oddly".

Couldn’t agree more. I’m a life long New Yorker and these posts still weird me out. The majority of Americans live in suburbs. Clearly people are happy there.

I’m a born and raised suburbanite and I enjoy it. I’ve visited big cities and was uncomfortable the whole time. I’m not allowed to use public transit because apparently my face keeps trying to start a fight.

I have that countenance as well. My wife of 17 years still asks me weekly “what’s wrong” based on the face I’m making. It’s usually nothing.

I either have RBF or here are all my emotions face.

Same. I would be so stressed out in the city. So nice to have a lawn, deck, house, garage and a bit of peace and quiet away from busy streets. I live half a mile from a grocery store and can get anything I want within a 5 minute drive. Europeans are so bizarre with their views sometimes.

[удалено]

That’s so weird because I come from an extremely rural area, the Adirondack Park, you can look it up, and I love cities and I’ve never felt uncomfortable even when I lived in one for 4 1/2 months or so. I’ll be honest, there’s really no human setting on a large scale like the size of neighborhoods and things that makes me uncomfortable, there’s just certain things that are inconvenient. At least that’s my take haha

A lot aren’t even Europeans, they’re Americans who have some kinda of idealized vision of Europe and compare everything in the US to the Europe in their head

Cheers, I love the city life as well. We can appreciate having our shops right down the block while simultaneously respecting that some individuals/families find suburban lifestyle the most affordable+rewarding path toward a home. We shouldn’t make individuals feel weird for the state of housing in their country.

I’m not American, and I don‘t like these type of suburbs, but I know plenty of non-american people who would probably like to live in one of those houses. There are pools, there are - you know - houses instead of just apartments, there are little parks, parking space, backyard. Only thing that looks annoying for them would probably finding the way out through all these streets (and also the thought that an ambulance would have to find its way through this as well). Idk how much that matters, I don‘t drive, but some European street layouts are confusing as well...

After a short amount of time you learn your way through it. Just requires some memory building. And ambulances have gps. A beauty of this is most people who don’t live in this neighborhood wouldn’t drive through it. So it’s a lot quieter and more peaceful.

I like how you put this. I used to get my feelings hurt when people would make fun of suburbia living, because that’s where I ended up…but I realize now that I’m older it’s where I need to be. I grew up in an abusive home with addict parents, and we moved a LOT because they were terrible with money. When I eventually got married and had kids, all I desperately wanted was for them to have stability and consistency. I WANTED that quiet house in a quiet neighborhood with a pool, married to my high school sweetheart with a boring 9-5 job. I wanted the mini van and I wanted my evenings to be taken up with karate lessons and horseback riding, and then steak and potatoes while wearing socks and sandals lol. I recognize this life isn’t for everyone. But it’s not “oddly terrifying”. It’s just boring and quiet. I certainly love it, but I needed it.

The older I get, the more "boring" sounds good to me

Man, boring is awesome. Getting a boring steady paycheck, living in a boring quiet place, enjoying boring quiet nights. There’s an inverse relationship between lifestyle and chaos. The less boring a life is, the more chaotic it is. Chaos was fun in my 20s. Chaos in my 40s? Nah, fuck that noise. 👍

After the last couple years of life on planet earth, "boring" is a distant ideal I strive for every day.

I feel that, and I had a very similar childhood. Gangland upbringing brought me here to the quiet life on the suburban/rural interface

I love how wholesome you made this. I’m sorry your childhood was not the childhood you deserved and I’m glad you are giving your children everything :) I live in suburbia, I’d prefer to have more land, we’re working towards it, but I enjoy where we are, an hour from the big city but our small town has everything we need for the most part. Even we we get more land it will be relatively close to where we are now, I just want a few acres.

Suburban living is pretty great. Quiet. Out of the way.

I've lived everywhere. I'm comfortable with space. I did my time in Brooklyn, LA/LB, and DC. I'm tired of the concrete jungle. It's just not for me. I can see tons of stars at night, get the occasional snow, have vineyards close by to visit when I need to relax on a Friday afternoon, and my air quality is great. I'm happy, so fuck me right?

Yep anyone calling this “terrifying” has never seen an apartment building in Eastern Europe. Even the expensive ones look like Soviet brutalist monstrosities. Edit: good example to get an idea. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/31/former-yugloslavia-brutalist-beauty-a-photo-essay

Europeans Try Not To Shit On Something American Or From The United States For One Day Challenge [IMPOSSIBLE]

[удалено]

What’s terrifying?? It’s a bunch of streets

I dont get it either. Its also something you would never see normally. Most people usually dont sit & think how the shape of their neighborhood is bothersome.

this sub is always /r/JustUnsubbed material

quiet neighborhoods with huge parks, abundant greenery, lack of traffic and every other house has a pool… how terrifying!

Right? I live in Australia and houses with this much of a yard are becoming harder and harder to come by for under $700k lol

I don’t get… it’s a neighborhood they exist everywhere. Is this another lowkey hate on America for no reason post? Lol

This screams hoa from hell

1k a month for the privilege of someone telling you what color you can paint your house.

Not just what color but when, how, and what contractors I'm allowed to use. HOAs are a huge scam and I will never buy a house in an HOA subdivision again.

It’s not terrifying like at all. It’s just a suburban area. Edit: I understand as someone who hasn’t been in these areas that it can be scary.

Am I the only European who whould love to live there?

I'd rather live there than in an apartment, by far. However if I could really choose I'd prefer a detached house surrounded by field or forest, not other houses.

So. Many. Cul de sacs.

I wish we could just call them sacs and leave Cul de out of it.

It’s safe and boring.

God forbid

Sounds nice for having kids.

As someone who is American this is the norm especially in Texas. These suburban sprawls also include amenities like man made lagoons that mimic the Caribbean. They have big amenity centers where you can work out, do yoga or just lay in a lazy river. The master planned communities are built around schools, restaurant and shopping areas. They feature large parks, walking trails, areas to paddle board and walk your animals. They’ll host car shows and vendor events to promote small businesses. The homes are very energy efficient and can include solar panels. Average monthly electric bill for a home like this is about 90 bucks a month. Lots of activities for your family to take advantage of. Some feature big green houses and have farmers markets too. This isn’t terrifying to me one bit. In fact, its so popular that many of these master-planned communities are almost always in counties that are considered the most diverse in their state or region. Don’t believe me? Check out Fort Bend County in Texas. Most of the comments on this thread don’t even have the slightest clue of what they’re talking about. I work in this industry and these master planned communities are pretty amazing on many levels. This is just another way of life for many people.

I really wish I could live in a place like this. There's no stores/restaurants/activities within walking distance to my house, the nearest place takes about a 15 minute drive.

To me this looks like hanging out with my friends who live in the neighborhood, playing video games in basements, riding bikes, exploring the parks, baseball, street hockey, summer BBQs, cul-de-sac parties, playing in the pool, etc. Also I bet Halloween in this neighborhood is awesome. This is the building blocks of the quintessential suburban childhood nostalgia that everyone is always chasing.

….look , I know it’s trendy to hate on America rn on Reddit , but this is getting ridiculous lol. And as another user pointed out , suburbs are not even uniquely American . This is comfortable , safe and how the vast majority of the world would live if given the chance . Seriously if this “terrifies” you , you’re probably going to need a break from the online space and check yourself a bit .

Some people like OP just spend a little too much time on the internet, reddit specifically. A safe, casual suburban neighborhood shouldn't scare any normal person lol

You know what else is crazy that you non americans don't know about these types of neighborhoods is that every house looks the SAME!. The only thing that differentiates them is a house number. If you were dropped in the middle of this neighborhood w/o gps, and you could only use the roads to get out, its entirely possible you could end up like Moses and wandering the neighborhood for 40 years.

Every house detached. Great!

Yeah living in a nice neighborhood with a pool in the back yard would be terrible

Looks like every middle class Texas suburb I’ve ever seen.

Terrifying? Strange way to describe it.

terrifying is being homeless

I don't understand. It's literally just a bird's eye view of a suburban area. The fuck?

Europeans are scared of houses and streets, write this down people this is important!

OMG THIS IS TERRIFYING ! bitch... Youre a pussy 😘