Fuck no. I’ve mostly lived in real rural areas and mixed rural/suburbs and it’s hell. The shitty small city I live in that’s really just a university and infrastructure to support it and it’s still infinitely better than the small town full of confederate flags and no activities.

There’s a reason the demographics for every small town have basically no one between 18-35. Everyone who has the ability goes to college and never returns because there’s no jobs, no leisure activities, and no community. Just lots of driving, poverty, and isolation.

The way my mood instantly improves being in a place like DC where you can walk around places. Feel the safety of other people on the street when you’re out. Walk through a well maintained park on your way to the museum. Or a movie. Or a play. Or a concert. Or a bar. Or so many other things you can go do, with people.

Fuck I love cities and god I fucking hate cars, the internal combustion engine was one of the worst inventions of all time. Most of your complaints about cities are just about cars in the first place. The noise, the smells, the traffic, most of that is just cars. The sounds of car tires on pavement is so loud, and releases so much tiny debris which smells terrible and brings down air quality. Also they kill people all the time, far more than other “dangers” associated with cities

Choosing between being lonely in a place where everyone just knows you (at least from sight) and lonely in a place where you rarely see the same people twice, I'll choose the latter. Granted I don't live in the US nor in a big city. I lived in small towns until I went to uni, and I wouldn't come back. Maybe for a million dollars.

I hate cities, but I hate suburbs more, and I haaaaaaate rural areas so much more it's unbelievable. (I think what I'd prefer would be like, an actual good city with good planning, a socialist society, etc.)

Away from cities there is little to do, nowhere to go, no one to date. Rural people (around where I live anyways) are incredibly conservative. Like my whole state fucking sucks, but even in my small city I at least am openly and visibly queer and I'm not really scared of bring hate crimed. If I drive an hour out into the countryside, that is NOT the case.

I felt lonely when I moved to the mountains. I hate the feeling where if I wanted to do anything I had to spend an hour winding down then back up the mountain, just to get to the small town. Then if I wanted to meet up in the actual city it's half my day.

Also, I hate mountain folk drama. "Skeeter was using Cooter's water, everyone at Maggie's bar is pissed" or "now Billups is riding his atv over the corner of Jeanie's acreage, fetch my rifle." Such petty stuff and it never stops. And then if you stand out in any way, that gets rolled into it.

no

Nah

Some of the best placed I've lived have been both relatively rural, and right near an urban center. In europe there's far less suburban sprawl, which to me is the worst fucking place to live if you're talking about hating traffic, snobs, and noise.

actually as a socialist I like people and cities are where people are so I like them, in addition to enjoying all the other trappings of civilization like good food, sports, cultural events, and centers of knowledge. I'm a creature of the metropoles.

however, I do hate cars and they keep me from being able to see & interact with people so if a city is organized around them I dislike it - this basically means there are only a few cities in north america that I actually like (NYC, boston, DC, seattle, portland, SF, vancouver, toronto basically). My ideal city design is Hong Kong, which not even NYC is remotely close to.

Cities are "designed" extremely poorly, so you are right to hate them. I am finally back in the country and living more rurally than ever, and it really is great. I hope you get to experience it too sooner rather than later.

I used to feel the same until I found a good city. A well designed city with kind people makes it better, great even. I have lived in or experienced several horribly designed cities and it makes all the difference.

I just want to live somewhere i don't have to own a car.

I suspect it might be a mix of cars, zeitgeist ('I am just living for me, and I'm going to stake my own exclusive parcel of space out bunched up among all these other private individual parcels'), and feeling like just a number in a filing drawer of people-boxes.

American cities completely suck, but they suck less in many ways if they have a feeling of being composed of approachable and understandable segments rather than as one big expanse.

fuck cars fuck landlords

I hate the reality of american cities; mostly parking lot, constant car noise, little public green space, high housing costs, car centric sprawl.

But I'll take it over suburban sprawl where there's zero sense of community outside of whiteness and the HOA and the only way to get anywhere past your block is to hop in a car and drive for 30 minutes.

I've lived rurally and definitely see the appeal. There are definitely downsides but I don't feel like typing them out rn.

Yeah I've lived in the woods my whole life just off the edge of suburbs so I'm basically a mountain man who hates the crowded streets downtown.

There's nothing like the peace of being in the middle of nowhere and being able to see stars for the first time in years.

Cities are fun, but they're also expensive. If you have hobbies that require tools/space, you better have lots of money. If you're content with just walking around with friends doing things that requires little permanent space, its probably a lot cooler for you.

If you have hobbies that take place outdoors(hiking, kayaking, mountain biking) then good luck, you'll still need a car to lug your stuff. You're not going to be installing a thule rack on a zip car.

Myself, I have a constant urge to build things. I literally yearn for the saw and hammer. Living in a small apartment constantly introduces limitations where I can either live among my offcuttings and bother my neighbors, or limit myself to small projects. There's a maker space 30 minutes from me but if I need to spend an hour round trip just getting to where I can think about starting a project, I'm never going to complete it.

Ideally I'd like to have a small house surrounded by trees and space to build things, but not so remote that I cant hop on a train into the city. But that's almost non-existent in an affordable way in the US.

I envy my friend who lives in a farmhouse from the 1890s on the top of a hill surrounded by mountains, but the 2 hour trip to the nearest "city" which is just a asteroid crater of a forgotten industrial age + a state school, sounds really annoying day-to-day. The local farmers markets allows them to get most of the produce they need.

i grew up in a crappily planned city and don't like cities in general, though it took a while to realize that's what was going on. i've been to well planned and well designed cities with all those lovely features of civic life and those things are cool, but i still don't like the city. for me its the noise first and the busy visual/olfactory field second. in my late 20s, i "swam upstream" so to speak and lived in some very remote places for many years. it had its own challenges which grow remarkably the further you get away from civilization, but for sitting on a porch or ambling around game trails, it was aces. it also brought the noise of the city in sharp relief when i would be visiting my urban friends.

eventually the experience of the noise goes away as the mind filters much of it out, but then it's like living with my head in a bowl of cotton.

there are absolutely people like us for whom the aesthetics of the city do not recharge us the way they seem to do for others. i have many friends i've made during my rural adventures that are now scattered in hard-to-reach places. visiting them is a rare treat that invariably involves my favorite sort of unique adventure just to get to them, but one of my favorite things is to find a quiet, cozy hospitality in a little tucked away place with incredible views.

right now i'm nearing the end of a multi-year stretch in a smaller city to save up for my Third Act to move to something more quiet, but along a passenger rail line so i can take day trips to the city for the occasional spectacle, but otherwise live more quietly.