While not quite the same, sweden has a lot of similarily mass-produced high-density housing areas (our version of a suburb) and they’re honestly pretty fucking nice, definitely some of the better places to live.
They’re affordable, have good public transport access, generally have a bunch of amenities nearby especially if it’s a larger “suburb”, and they’re almost always car-light which makes them soooo much calmer and safer than the rest of the urban area.
I recently visited the big suburb north of gothenburg called Angered, and it was quite lovely!
Tons and tons of housing yet the atmosphere was kind of village-like, centered around a tram station that has departures every 5 minutes to the city proper.
There’s a vegetable market right next to the trams, a grocery store and a bunch of other businesses (including a nice café), the streets are inviting and there’s lots of greenery, there’s a big park with a water playground literally like 100m away from the tram station, and last but absolutely not least there’s a river valley right next to all this and on the other side of that it’s just straight up rural farmland, and you can take a walk along the river until you reach a bus stop with departures every few minutes as well and just take public transport back home to rest your weary legs!
It’s a great shame that these areas have a general perception as violent and unpleasant areas, because this is what most places should be like. By building densely and making sure there are good public transport connections, you get easy access to amenities and transportation while also keeping nature right outside your door.
While not quite the same, sweden has a lot of similarily mass-produced high-density housing areas (our version of a suburb) and they’re honestly pretty fucking nice, definitely some of the better places to live.
They’re affordable, have good public transport access, generally have a bunch of amenities nearby especially if it’s a larger “suburb”, and they’re almost always car-light which makes them soooo much calmer and safer than the rest of the urban area.
I recently visited the big suburb north of gothenburg called Angered, and it was quite lovely!
Tons and tons of housing yet the atmosphere was kind of village-like, centered around a tram station that has departures every 5 minutes to the city proper.
There’s a vegetable market right next to the trams, a grocery store and a bunch of other businesses (including a nice café), the streets are inviting and there’s lots of greenery, there’s a big park with a water playground literally like 100m away from the tram station, and last but absolutely not least there’s a river valley right next to all this and on the other side of that it’s just straight up rural farmland, and you can take a walk along the river until you reach a bus stop with departures every few minutes as well and just take public transport back home to rest your weary legs!
It’s a great shame that these areas have a general perception as violent and unpleasant areas, because this is what most places should be like. By building densely and making sure there are good public transport connections, you get easy access to amenities and transportation while also keeping nature right outside your door.