I’m somewhat confused by all the hatred for lawns – people saying that they are useless.
I don’t disagree that they are costly in terms of water and some kinds of maintenance. A better material culture would have fewer of them and there seem to be some perverse expectations (even regulations sometimes) that various landscaped areas should have lawns rather than other, more appropriate plants or landscape.
However, it’s totally obvious what lawns are for, to me. They’re for kids to play on or to play soccer or run around or sit for a picnic or whatever. And I don’t see why people don’t get *any* of that.
These people don’t have kids. Furthermore, children are so removed from their social circle and frame of mind that they don’t even think about what they would use the lawn for if they did have kids.
(Or they live in dense urban areas where playgrounds are no more than a few blocks away.)
I think it’s more the latter, but even a bit further. The broader model people are using here I think is “suburbia is cancer,” which I think is accurate even (especially?) if you have kids. It gets you suburban-brand Safety at the cost of making you into a suburbanite. Like yeah, there are reasons people make that tradeoff, but it’s hard to argue that it isn’t an example of widespread civilizational inadequacy. @sinesalvatorem @michaelblume back me up here.
OK, let’s actually talk about this. Why? What does “making you into a suburbanite” mean?
Unsurprisingly, I’ve had this exact conversation with a lot of people who are reflexively hostile to the suburbs. The answers I’ve gotten mostly seem to boil down to some combination of four things:
1) Prestige. We all know that only boring thick-necked American morons like the suburbs! You don’t want to be one of them, do you?
2) Aesthetics. To which, well, sure, you’re allowed to like or not-like whatever you want, but then this falls into the general category of “if you’re going to be vehemently angry about enforcing an aesthetic preference you should at least own up to it.”
3) The suburban lack of Social Culture in the form of clubs, neighborhood bars, Town Spirit, etc. There are obviously people for whom this is a legitimately a big deal. But I’d be surprised if it were a meaningful motivating factor amongst the hordes of introverted Internet nerds who mostly want to hang out with their friends and wish that they could just not have to deal with the rest of the world.
4) Environmental issues. Which are of course real and salient, and to the extent that’s what you mean, I’m not going to object. But people don’t generally talk about suburbia like “this is an awesome thing that we’re sadly going to have to give up to save the planet…”
…is that, in fact, it? Am I missing something? Where is all the “civilizational cancer” stuff coming from?
From my own personal standpoint, suburbia seems like a super good deal all around, except for the fact that you might want to have kids someday. You get lots of space at an almost-reasonable price! And privacy! And pretty trees! And you can still get to pretty much anything you want within like forty-five minutes, which is really not that much worse than living in most parts of a major city! It’s just a shame that, if you raise children in the suburbs, you’re signing up for them being totally dependent on your willingness to drive them to any single thing they might ever want to do…
1. Keeping up with the Joneses is part of the problem, but much of it is the combination of perfectionism and paranoia that turns people into overprotective suburban moms.
2. I admit to having aesthetic preferences here, yes. But other people’s aesthetic preferences already tend to be forced on people through HOAs, resulting in something inoffensive and wealth/“well-adjustednness”-signaling but aesthetically bland that takes up more time and energy than it should
3. Organic social interaction is much better than atomized-but-nonetheless-mandatory social interaction. I like things that lower the barrier to socializing while still allowing it to be a choice. When I do socialize, I prefer the spaces I do it in to not suck at fulfilling that purpose.
4. Yeah, that too
5. The space that’s spacious and private is not outdoors, the trees feel excessively manicured relative to actual woods, and way too much of everything is medians + concrete. And yes, the transportation issues.
3. Ain’t no mandatory socializing in suburbia, at least the suburbia I know. It’s super great. I think of cities as having some of that, with things like “getting places requires being on a crowded subway” and “all the restaurants are hella packed” and “your neighbors are very likely to affect you with noise etc.,” all of which mandate constant low-grade interactions with strangers even when everyone is trying as hard as possible to do the New York Ignore.
Still 3. Suburban houses are amazing for socializing, certainly compared to Manhattan coffin-apartments. This is one of the best things. You can invite people over! You can have just you, and the people you like, and a reasonable amount of space! You can have, like, an actual room devoted to whatever shit you want to do with those people! Casual hangouts in the big city mandate that you be amongst loud strangers, and private space that is useful for any kind of substantive function (like LARPing) is ridiculously expensive.
5. …I guess it depends what suburbs you’re in. Certainly there are ugly ones (just as there are ugly cities). The suburbs of my childhood have a way of making even jaded urbanites go “ooo pretty.”
– but of course I’m not actually trying to change your mind or anything. Just wittering. I tend to think of “let’s all move out to suburbia where land is cheap and there are still nice restaurants” as being a good plan, and it occasionally pains me that there’s so much resistance.