I have lived in two places my entire life Vienna Virginia and Miami Florida. While I lived in Miami which is considered to be a major city I lived within a part of that city which is very suburban Coconut Grove. It was very similar to the neighborhood in which I live today. In both places my neighbors have been friendly and open, when walking along the street people will stop to chat when passing by, when driving through people wave to each other, etc. Both places have a high cost of living although in Miami our neighborhood traditionally had smaller houses than those here. Here in Virginia my mom is able to take the metro to work however with a metro stop just a mile away from our house, in Miami public transportation was shoddy and unplanned so she had to drive. That is a major difference that I notice. I suppose that Virginia also has much more traffic than Miami did, but I cant quite remember.
My cousins live in downtown Ottawa and downtown New York City. In visiting them several differences are made obvious, my Canadian cousins live in an older distinguished part of Ottawa where neighbors do still know each other and are friendly. My New York cousins are acquaintances with their neighbors in the city at best, and their neighbors in upper New York state at their country home are too far away to be of any relationship. The public transportation in both cities is better than that of the system here, in Ottawa busses are reliable and comfortable while New York has an excellent although dirty subway system. In upper NY state there is no public transportation, the only way of transportation is personal.
In having some experience with all three areas I have to say that I enjoy the suburbs best. For me it is the best of all worlds, homes are far enough part that there is some privacy, neighbors are friendly enough that there is a feeling of a neighborhood, and one lives in close enough proximity to a number of things.
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