Living near people or big separation

[jessmarimba]

I could be happy either in a cabin away from everything or in the middle of the city. It's the suburbs I hate. I'm surrounding by people but nothing useful is in walking distance. Except a gas station, which by nature probably needs driven to.

[roadie gal]

I live in a town of 16,000 people, in a house on 2 acres. My neighbors are close but I still have my privacy. This is just perfect for me. I can't stand living right on top of people.

I'd bike to work in the summer except for the 1000 ft climb in the middle of the ride. I can't face that climb on the ride home after a long day at work.

[Reesha]

I could be happy either in a cabin away from everything or in the middle of the city. It's the suburbs I hate. I'm surrounding by people but nothing useful is in walking distance. Except a gas station, which by nature probably needs driven to.

Ditto here.

[indysteel]

I could be happy either in a cabin away from everything or in the middle of the city. It's the suburbs I hate. I'm surrounding by people but nothing useful is in walking distance. Except a gas station, which by nature probably needs driven to.

This is how I tend to feel, too. I like urban settings a lot, but I'd prefer to live in an urban setting where there is also a fair amount of green space, too. Downtown Indy wasn't ideal for me in that regard, although I otherwise liked living downtown. A city like Portland would be better (for a lot of reasons). But I'm also not one to be particularly chummy with my neighbors--although this is perhaps more of a reflection on having has some really lousy neighbors over the years and would appreciate having some land, too.

How happy I am in my environment has more to do with how like minded the community is than it's size or density. I hate where I live now, not because it's a small town, but because it's an extremely conservative small town lacking in any diversity. Compare that to the smallish town where I went to college that I loved, mostl because it is pretty liberal and diverse. I could be happy in the country if there was some degree of progressiveness there, too.

[Biciclista]

I could be happy either in a cabin away from everything or in the middle of the city. It's the suburbs I hate. I'm surrounding by people but nothing useful is in walking distance. Except a gas station, which by nature probably needs driven to.

I agree with Jess here.
I lived in the center of a 50 acre farm. When the corn was tall, I couldn't see any neighbors, in the winter, I could see their houses but the closest one was 1000 feet away. I LOVED it.

I also love living in the city. As long as I have my postage stamp-sized yard, my OWN turf, I am happy. Not sure if i would like living in a high rise apartment although since D has been in the hospital on the 10th floor, I have REALLY been enjoying the panoramic view!!

[Owlie]

I could be happy either in a cabin away from everything or in the middle of the city. It's the suburbs I hate. I'm surrounding by people but nothing useful is in walking distance. Except a gas station, which by nature probably needs driven to.

This. Or in my case (and the case where I grew up), there are things within walking distance, but there are no sidewalks. I could walk to the grocery store or the bank (it's about a mile), but they only recently put in sidewalks.
I have lived "in the city" (technically an older Cleveland suburb, but it was spitting distance from downtown). Everything I needed on a daily basis (grocery store, coffee shops (yes, that's necessary), post office, bank, some very good but cheap restaurants) was within walking distance. If I needed anything else (Target, Whole Foods, yarn), it was a short bus trip away. (Cleveland had pretty nice public transit).

Here, however (not helped by the fact that it's a very white-bread area), there are no sidewalks, and while everything I need on a daily basis is in walking distance, there are no sidewalks.