Comment by mumblemumble | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mumblemumble | Hacker News Reader

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I grew up in the country, used to live in the suburbs, and currently live in Chicago.

Yes, we could afford to have a lot more space that we personally own if we lived in a less dense area. But no, I don't miss it. I don't feel cooped up in a small space where I live right now. Nor did I feel cooped up living in a college dormitory, for that matter.

I do feel cooped up in a small space when I'm staying with friends and family who have palatial homes out in the suburbs for any length of time. My sense of how much space I have at my disposal changes drastically when I'm in an environment where the only space I'm allowed to use freely is space I'm personally owning or renting.

It hits my kids even worse. For them, one backyard, even a big one, is simply not enough room to run.

Sure a small backyard isn't great... But I live in a major city and instead we just walk to the enormous park, which is way bigger than any backyard.

It's a very different mindset that I thought I'd hate but now that I'm here I couldn't imagine it any other way.

The enormous parks here were closed multiple times over the past 2 years. I'll never depend on such amenities again because they can be taken at will.

How did they close them? In Toronto they put up caution tape. The people walked through it. They placed reasonable restrictions, and the unreasonable ones were ignored. Honestly one of the biggest benefits of the pandemic (and there were very, very few) was the transition of classrooms, community and family events to the parks. I've never seen them so active and busy and it gave a liveliness to the neighbourhood that was refreshing.

> Sure a small backyard isn't great... But I live in a major city and instead we just walk to the enormous park, which is way bigger than any backyard.

In the suburbs you typically have both. We have a yard to play in (not huge, but a good yard with a few trees to climb, a treehouse, etc) and we have a large park about 1 minute away on foot. It's not only the major cities that have parks.

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