Cities vs Urban vs Rural and other culture chat (Mental health - Spin off thread)

[Stephen]

I lived in SugaHood for six years and loved it. But I was in my 20's and in a very different point in my life. Today I live in rambler in West Valley City with a nice sized yard and garage. Is this where I want to be forever, no. Can I see myself moving back to Sugarhouse or another densely packed area? Not while I have kids, so that probably means never. Its not to say that urban areas are bad for kids, but I'd rather have my kids grow up with a backyard they can go wild in on a street I don't have to worry about tons of traffic on. Conversely, as much as I would love to move to a place like Bicknell, I also know that would be hard on my kids in a different way (and my wife). So I'm suburb bound for the next half of my life probably. And that's fine.

As far as going into downtown SLC, I rarely do. I used to love downtown and would spend a lot of time there. But again, it was a different point in my life. Currently, there is very little in downtown that I feel like is geared towards me, so there is no draw. I've spent a fair amount of time in other big cities, and as a tourist I've loved it. There's nothing like trying new food, visiting museums, parks, interesting shops, etc. walking distance from your hotel. But since SLC isn't a tourist destination, I just don't spend any time there anymore.

Ultimately, though, I think it all boils down to the fact that I don't like people. What will really make me feel safe, secure, and happy would be having an ocean separating me form everyone else so I could be left alone. Been eyeing this property recently, as usual my GoFundMe is up:

 

[Skylinerider]

I've been feeling like even Ephraim (pop 8,000) is getting too big for me, or maybe it's just the city councils lame ass decisions that chap my ass. Either way I've really been eyeing places like Panguitch and Circleville where my mom grew up. My kids have a few more years in High school and then I'm seriously considering a move somewhere. I used to love going into SLC when I lived in Stansbury Park, but now I cringe at going "up north".

 

[Houndoc]

Why do I read this and walk away with culture = not white folk?

I think it was clarified about about "diversity of culture"- something very important to some, indifferent to others and a negative to a few.

Without question what type of place we all want to live is very personal. I enjoy Grantsville enough to do an 85 mile a day commute for well over 20 years. I love my 6 acres and it was great size of community for my kids- a 3A school was large enough to have a lot of opportunities but small enough to have individual focus (don't see larger schools accommodating my daughter being a starter on the soccer team and running cross country in the same season, but coaches made it work because neither wanted to loose her.)

As the same time, it does lack that cultural diversity mentioned above (something my wife and kids certainly were aware of as part of a very significant minority.)

Without kids at home, part of me would not mind at all being in an even smaller community, especially post retirement. But I would also miss the access to variety of foods etc that are available in the Salt Lake Valley.

There is also some unfair stereotyping of the urban core. A lot of new development is the downtown area is very up scale.

 

[DAA]

I miss working downtown, myself. The easy walk to anything was awesome. And the homeless didn't bother me at all. Far from it. I always figured it was mostly dumb luck I'm not one of them. And even met a few I actually knew from earlier in my life. Had a handful of favorite homeless homies that were legit year round choose to live on the streets folk that I'd talk to almost every day (the seasonals and fakes I shunned). Every once in awhile I'd slip one of them a ten dollar bill and make them promise me they wouldn't spend it on food and we'd have a good laugh. But I used to go for a long walk around town early every morning and the only homeless that asked me for a handout were the clueless noobs. All the regulars knew my stock answer "I got habits of my own to support". The homeless are my people, really, I just got lucky and fell into a different spot in the pinball machine of life.

I could easily see myself living downtown, but only if I was Richie Rich. But if I was, heck yeah. I could dig affording to have a shop/storage building on the outskirts of town but being able to walk out of my residence to go get food or a show or whatever. Living in the burbs of Mayberry here in the Outfit stronghold in Davis county is fine, and has many perks, no complaints, but it's awfully whitebread and that's not really who I am.

- DAA