Newport, 3rd sexiest suburb

[Cotuit]

Newport, 3rd sexiest suburb

[Recchia]

""Ever since the Desperate Housewives moved onto Wisteria Lane, the suburbs have become the place to be," Elizabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of the ABC morning talk show, said at the beginning of last Wednesday's segment. "

What an idiot. Suburbs are back as the place to be? Stupid stupid stupid....

And Newport a suburb? Reading this article, I feel as though I have become a stupider person. Cocoran, or whatever her name is, sounds like a real moron. Sexy has now become how many plastic surgeons and gyms are in town....wow....what is wrong with this country....

""You have to really change your thinking," Corcoran replied. "Newport has really become a suburb to the entire Northeast. The very wealthy people in New York as well as Boston often fly their private jets there and they often go on a daily basis." "

So the definition of a suburb now is a place where wealthy people only live?.....this moron fails to notice the fact that Newport is pretty much a self-sustaining city, with ALL kinds of income levels, races, ethnicities, etc.

I'm so mad I even wasted my time to read the whole article. I'm going to go induce vomiting now, anybody have any ipecac?

[ruchele]

Reading this article, I feel as though I have become a stupider person. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm with ya. I always thought suburbs were where people lived so they could go elsewhere for employment, entertainment, etc. It would be hard to make the "suburb" argument to all those Newporters who never cross the bridge. . . It's a suburb because rich people vacation there? Who the hell vacations in the suburbs?

This woman is so dumb, we are all dumber by association.

Unfortunately, I also think this is a sign that Americans no longer understand what a "town" or "city" is. If it ain't Manhattan a la Sex and the City, it must be a suburb, becuase what else is there?

[TheBostonian]

Ever since I heard my mother call a computer keyboard "sexy," I have considered the term overused and devoid of meaning.

[Garris]

I'm with ya.  I always thought suburbs were where people lived so they could go elsewhere for employment, entertainment, etc. It would be hard to make the "suburb" argument to all those Newporters who never cross the bridge. . . It's a suburb because rich people vacation there?  Who the hell vacations in the suburbs?

This woman is so dumb, we are all dumber by association.

Unfortunately, I also think this is a sign that Americans no longer understand what a "town" or "city" is.  If it ain't Manhattan a la Sex and the City, it must be a suburb, becuase what else is there?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Every once and a while I read something that reinforces my opinion that the age of "Pax Americana," if it ever really existed, is nearing an end. This article was one of them... My goodness, I wish I could be there in the room 100 years in the future when sociologists and anthropologists read this one... Are we really this stupid?

Ruchele makes the outstanding point that Americans have somehow confined the idea of "city living" to NYC, Chicago, LA, maybe Boston, and decided that everything else should be suburb. There's a tiny village of 3,000 people in NY close to where I grew up (called Cold Spring) which is tightly clustered around a turn of the century Main St where it's possible to live far more urbanly now than it is on Westminster St in Providence... But I don't think even the people there would consider themselves living urbanly...

I don't know how we convince the populace at large that you can live an urban, pedestrian livestyle outside of America's 4 biggest metros...

- Garris

[d2Lw]

Ever since I heard my mother call a computer keyboard "sexy," I have considered the term overused and devoid of meaning.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[ruchele]

There's a tiny village of 3,000 people in NY close to where I grew up (called Cold Spring) which is tightly clustered around a turn of the century Main St where it's possible to live far more urbanly now than it is on Westminster St in Providence... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very true- this is why I doubt all those developers' arguments about people wanting to live Downcity for the "city living"- there really is very little "city living" currently available there, unless that is defined only by tall buildings. What may develop as far as amenities in the future is a different story.

Also- I remember going away to college (outside of NYC) and having to fill out forms that asked if I grew up in 1) a city or 2) a suburb ("town" wasn't even an option). I never really knew what to say- I grew up in Newport, a small city. That's not the same experience as my classmates who grew up in the Bronx, but it's certainly not the same as my other classmates who grew up in the CT suburbs. Everytime someone asked where I was from, I would have to give them a paragraph-long explanation, because most people just didn't understand what a small, urban place is like.

[kurtosis]

  Everytime someone asked where I was from, I would have to give them a paragraph-long explanation, because most people just didn't understand what a small, urban place is like.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tell me about it. Outside of New England I've lived in Pittsburgh and Chicago (both relatively isolated cities) and the idea of a region with lots of small/medium cities scattered about is strange to a lot of people. I'm planning a vacation in NE next month and it's been really exciting thinking about all the different cities you can go visit- providence, newport, northampton,burlington,portsmouth,NH, portland. do we really have to start calling them all suburbs?

[kurtosis]

The other thing I can't stand is people who think that anywhere that doesn't measure up to nyc isn't a "real city". There was a lot of this when i was at brown. i was in a late nite diner once and i remember, out of nowhere, some student from manhattan saying "yeah, i guess this place is nice but it wouldn't last a month in new york!" i had to point out to a friend once that a lot of the most urban cities in the world (paris, london, rio) do not resemble new york or chicago with their skylines.

[Recchia]

The other thing I can't stand is people who think that anywhere that doesn't measure up to nyc isn't a "real city". There was a lot of this when i was at brown. i was in a late nite diner once and i remember, out of nowhere, some student from manhattan saying "yeah, i guess this place is nice but it wouldn't last a month in new york!" i had to point out to a friend once that a lot of the most urban cities in the world (paris, london, rio) do not resemble new york or chicago with their skylines.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know exactly what you're talking about. I go to school in Albany and all the people from NYC don't understand that other cities actually do exist outside of New York. The worst are the people from Long Island (which is basically one massive suburban disaster outside of a few urban centers like Hempstead maybe) who consider anything that's not NYC or Long Island to be hickville. I remember this really stupid girl one time, when I said I was from Rhode Island, said "oh you must live with cows on a farm." I had to explain to her how Rhode Island is over 90% urban and is the second most densely populated state, with multiple urban centers including Providence, Pawtucket and Newport. People are very ignorant sometimes.

[Frankie811]

The other thing I can't stand is people who think that anywhere that doesn't measure up to nyc isn't a "real city". There was a lot of this when i was at brown. i was in a late nite diner once and i remember, out of nowhere, some student from manhattan saying "yeah, i guess this place is nice but it wouldn't last a month in new york!" i had to point out to a friend once that a lot of the most urban cities in the world (paris, london, rio) do not resemble new york or chicago with their skylines.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, I hear that all the time. It drives me nuts. People, especially the young ones hate it here because it dosen't stand up to NY standards. They want to wake up in a city that dosen't sleep I usually tell them that they should go back to NY as soon as possible. Then I'll say something like, "yeah, to bad we don't have piles of gargage sitting on the sidewalk like NYC does."

[Frankie811]

  I remember this really stupid girl one time, when I said I was from Rhode Island, said "oh you must live with cows on a farm." I had to explain to her how Rhode Island is over 90% urban and is the second most densely populated state, with multiple urban centers including Providence, Pawtucket and Newport.  People are very ignorant sometimes.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, you'd be surprised how many people think Rhode Island is part of Long Island

[ruchele]

Then I'll say something like, "yeah, to bad we don't have piles of gargage sitting on the sidewalk like NYC does." 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

uhhh. . . what part of town do you live in? We DO have piles of garbage sitting on the streets here. (and when was the last time you were in New York, the garbage strike in the 80's?)

[Garris]

Tell me about it. Outside of New England I've lived in Pittsburgh and Chicago (both relatively isolated cities) and the idea of a region with lots of small/medium cities scattered about is strange to a lot of people. I'm planning a vacation in NE next month and it's been really exciting thinking about all the different cities you can go visit- providence, newport, northampton,burlington,portsmouth,NH, portland. do we really have to start calling them all suburbs?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good point... The Northeast (New England especially) is a bit different from the rest of the nation.

The Midwest is interesting. Certainly, cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Madison, etc follow this pattern where there is "The City," a ring of suburbs (some of which might approach urbanism, like Oak Park, Illinois), and then a "rustic area," then nothing at all for hours and hours in any direction. This is also largely true in the SW as well, where the cities are often very suburban in total, and often even the city centers are barely urban (for ex, Phoenix).

The problem is, in addition to this split thinking over what constitutes urban/suburban, the populace at large doesn't seem to really desires cities. Look at cities like Rochester, MN, which has all the tools, setting, economy, population, etc to develop a true urban core, but the population, even that living in the city, doesn't want it. When hard funding choices come up in elections between downtown development and sprawl development, the votes clearly favor sprawl. The same is happening in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Despite a large (30,000 hard core living right in the center of downtown in Minneapolis alone, vs our like estimated 3,000 eventually for Prov) and growing urban population, the suburbs are growing even faster and are having more pull over funding and development .

As someone wrote in a recent Atlantic Monthly article, "When did America start to hate its cities?"

- Garris

[Garris]

I know exactly what you're talking about.

[gregw]

I think unfortunately that there is still a strong preference in the US for the suburban ideal as opposed to an urban one.

The much touted rediscovery of cities is real, I think, but nevertheless statistically minor compared to the larger draw to the suburbs.

For instance, in Providence there may now be 3000 people who would happily live downtown whereas 20 years ago maybe that number was, say, 1000. But far more people still prefer living in suburbia.

Interestingly, many recent immigrants, as soon as they get a sufficient economic footing, are the first to move out of the city and to what they perceive as the safety of the suburbs.

Many Americans are now rejecting the smaller scale of the older inner ring suburbs (like Cranston) and moving farther out into previously rural areas where they can live in a really big house and have their big landscaped lot.

The problem is, in addition to this split thinking over what constitutes urban/suburban, the populace at large doesn't seem to really desires cities.  Look at cities like Rochester, MN, which has all the tools, setting, economy, population, etc to develop a true urban core, but the population, even that living in the city, doesn't want it.  When hard funding choices come up in elections between downtown development and sprawl development, the votes clearly favor sprawl.  The same is happening in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  Despite a large (30,000 hard core living right in the center of downtown in Minneapolis alone, vs our like estimated 3,000 eventually for Prov) and growing urban population, the suburbs are growing even faster and are having more pull over funding and development .

As someone wrote in a recent Atlantic Monthly article, "When did America start to hate its cities?"

- Garris

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[AriPVD]

At last count, suburbs are growing 9 times faster than cities. With that said, this is the first time that MOST cities have been growing in awhile.

[kurtosis]

The only people I've never known who are more self-city centrists than folks from NYC are Chicago residents (although Atlanta folks are getting close in delusional devotion).  This is no doubt because Chicago really is "IT" for 7 hours in any direction, they totally have no concept of any other urban area (or any area, actually) mattering.  These people totally crack me up, as they'll be standing on Fifth Ave in NYC, saying, "Well, it's OK, but it's no Miracle Mile" or being in Boston, or Minneapolis, or LA, or anywhere and just whining all the time about how Chiago is just the pinnacle American urban expression of any type.  At the Walker Art (amazing) museum in Minneapolis, they'll be droning on about how it's hard to enjoy when you're used to the Art Institute of Chicago  .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Funny, i was just going to say that chicago is free of attitude. you're right about nyc, that almost anyone within 100 mile radius feels the need to go on about how hip and trendy new york is. i never understood why people from long island feel

so strongly about this.

i think part of it is that there are so many cities on the east coast, and there is such an annoying status-conciousness, that new yorkers, whenever they stray too far from nyc, feel a need to assert their superiority over their rivals in boston, washington, etc.

in chicago i felt like people genuinely liked the city, and probably wouldn't want to live in other parts of the midwest. but, maybe b/c it's undoubtedly -the- big city in the area, they enjoy it for what it is and don't feel the need to lord it over everyone. but hey, maybe people in milwaukee or minneapolis or st louis see it differently.