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Disregard
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I live in a suburb so it would be the one that I'm in, in Branchburg NJ. Has almost a Alice in Wonderland vibe going on as its hilly, with different flora and trees. A lot of folks renovated their homes, so all the splashes of colors make every block quite unique. Its not like those suburbs where everything looks the same.
Its a mature suburb, with property taxes upwards of 12k a year. Houses that are in the range of 550k-1.2 mil in price, average lot size is about an acre to acre and a half. Folks tend to take care of their homes, with landscaping and no cars parked on the lawn. Its a civilized suburb. No crime, good schools. Our cops are overpaid, and have the latest high tech equipment thanks to taxes. The roads tend to be fixed. Our local shopping is a Wegmons and Shopright (overpriced). Our entertainment are a few parks. Sometimes pedestrian volume on some streets is 1-2 people, if your lucky, you might see 3-4 people. Low traffic, not many people outside. We do have one train station stop, the Raritan line, which goes to Newark Penn. The negative are the property taxes, but its NJ, its expected. Although homerism aside, I love Saddle River NJ. If there is one suburb in NJ thats super nice, its Saddle River... likewise with Edgewood NJ. Both are very picturesque, and 4x as expensive as where I reside. Bergen County (NJ) has some nice suburbs, but prepare to pay! $$$ |
Redwood City, California.
Oak Park, Illinois but also the Berwyn, Cicero cluster on the west side. |
Coral Gables is pretty good all around. It has its urban parts, it purely suburban parts, a university, its only about 4 miles from Downtown Miami, a couple of heavy rail transit stops (though Downtown Coral Gables doesn't have a metrorail stop, grrr).
South Miami is pretty nice too, could be better if someone could ever get something to work at the Sunset Place site. |
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Evanston: white: 58.6% black: 16.6% latino: 11.5% asian: 9.6% other: 3.7% median household income: $74,901 zillow housing value index: $338,200 pop. density: 9,583 ppsm % SFH detached: 31.4% # of el stops: 8 # of bus routes: 10 Winnetka: white: 90.2% black: 0.2% latino: 2.9% asian: 4.3% other: 2.4% median household income: $216,875 zillow housing value index: $1,165,100 pop. density: 3,262 ppsm % SFH detached: 84.1% # of el stops: 0 # bus routes: 2 i feel that writing off evanston as just another ritzy north shore burb is more than a bit disingenuous. it's FAR more real and regular and city-like than the burbs to the north of it. and being home to one of the top 10 universities in the nation (Northwestern) also brings a youthful vibe and energy to evanston that you won't find anywhere to the north either. |
For St Louis: University City. It checks all the boxes: charming, historic, vibrant, walkable, diverse, progressive, centrally-located, served by rail transit, adjacent to Washington University.
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Yeah, Evanston has its moments, but I wouldn’t call it ritzy.
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I really love Madison, NJ. It's as quaint as can be and the beautiful campus of Drew University is right in the center of town.
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South Pasadena (my hometown):
1) You’re a 17 and 7-minute train ride away from Downtown and Old Town Pasadena, respectively. Once the Regional Connector is completed in a few years, it’ll be a one-seat ride to Broadway, the cultural amenities atop Bunker Hill, one of the city’s busiest intersections (7th and Figueroa), and Staples Center. 2) Close proximity to Dodger Stadium. The reason some fans leave early is not just to beat traffic, but also because they have work the next day and live far away. Once out of Chavez Ravine, you can be home in 10-15 minutes if you live in SP. 3) Easy access to some of the best, most authentic Cantonese cuisine on the planet outside HK/Guangdong. 4) Proximity to the majestic San Gabriel Mountains. 5) The town itself. A quintessential streetcar suburb that’s peaceful and quaint, yet close to cosmopolitan amenities. Everything is of a more human scale, the homes aren’t cookie-cutter, lots of trees, great schools, great public library, Pavilions is open until midnight every day of the week, etc. The list goes on. My only complaint is that the main commercial thoroughfares (Fair Oaks and Mission) could use more/better retail and dining options. |
Although I hate (auto-oriented) suburbs, Philly has quite a few great ones! New Hope is probably my favorite, with Media, West Chester, Ardmore, Doylestown, and Yardley following close behind.
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Probably Gilbert and Scottsdale.
They are just really nice, I would raise family in such places. |
LA seems to be covered here quite well. I will also vote for Pasadena/South Pas and the South Bay beach cities of Manhattan, Hermosa, and Redondo.
For Cincinnati, my favorite suburb is Mariemont. The village was master planned in the early 20th century, and has a lot of unique and different housing typologies centered around a little village square with a movie theater, ice cream shop, historic hotel, and other shops and restaurants. It's pretty ritzy, but very comfortable and homey feeling. Much of the older part of the community is built in a tutor revival style, and there are big, tall trees throughout the neighborhood and lots of parks scattered around. Mariemont https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1452...7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1465...7i13312!8i6656 Rows and townhomes https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1468...7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1421...7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1457...7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1452...7i13312!8i6656 |
Mississauga: only because this is a skyscraper forum.
Fields turning into suburban plazas and vast tracts of homes ... turning into a few notable skyscrapers (the best twist towers - Marilyns, and a couple of other 200m underway). This will never be a "city" of course but a pretty good lab for tower design. Toronto wants them moved downtown. If Missie was in China, it would become Guangzou - lite. Nearly a million residents now I think. |
Chicago: Evanston and Oak Park are obvious choices considering the sensibilities on this forum, but some other honorable mentions: Park Ridge, Geneva, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Wheaton... I'll even throw in Naperville, even though it is second only to Schaumburg as a lightening rod for Chicagoans' disdain for the burbs.
Park Ridge: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0109...7i13312!8i6656 Geneva: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8878...7i16384!8i8192 Highland Park: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.1862...7i16384!8i8192 Lake Forest: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.2519...7i16384!8i8192 Wheaton: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8649...7i16384!8i8192 Naperville: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7724...7i16384!8i8192 Any place that has some downtown density+METRA station is usually a sure bet for at least a couple good restaurants and some interesting pre-war architecture. And actually as I was editing to add google maps, I remembered a dark horse: Elgin, IL. This was a pretty big outpost in the 19th/early 20th century (some of you may know Elgin Watch Company). It's a little rundown these days but it has the bones of a good town: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0372...7i16384!8i8192 |
Evanston
La Grange as a non-Evanston/OP option |
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For Phoenix, on this forum, Tempe is the obvious choice. Other than the canals in Scottsdale, Tempe Town Lake is the only water-side development you're going to get in Phoenix. Tempe definitely keeps pace with and at times seems like it outpaces Phoenix for urban development. It outdoes Phoenix from a transportation perspective, with light rail and an under construction street car supplemented by a nice free neighborhood circulator system and excellent bike network. And then if you feel like it, south Tempe is very suburban, affluent and quiet with some of the best schools in the state. Plus I kind of like that it's land-locked, so they are motivated to grow up, as opposed to most other Phoenix suburbs that have ensured they can grow out into the desert ad infinitum. |
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older aerial of the west end of the main commercial district, the main (or at least densest) apartment districts (they are partially cut off but is all university city and not st. louis city, i don't think there is any st. louis city in this view), and the sort of mini civic/religious district without large trees but is generally very similar today: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0b/25...3f025f5c6e.jpg pinterest.com |
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I'm especially kind of interested in these old Fox River towns like Elgin, Aurora, St Charles, etc. I have yet to see them in person but they seem to have a lot of "urban bones" worth exploring. My only beef with Aurora and Naperville's commercial cores is that they are a bit of a hike from their respective Metra Stations. If only their stations could've been just adjacent to their downtowns, as is the case with most of the other commuter burbs, the synergy would be that much better. |
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