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Comment by wolverine876 | Hacker News Reader

What do you like better about your quality of life? Also, personally, how do you feel about the level of activity?

I guess people who prefer city life are those who like the faster pace, dynamics of more and more variety of people, art, food, services, parks, festivals, etc. etc. Not that one preference is better than the other.

> If I ever want to go do stuff, its only 30-40 minutes away too.

Lol. Spoken like a suburbanite! :D Depending on where exactly you live, everything in Manhattan would be within 30-40 minutes.

> WFH has been liberating for so many people.

Also, many cities see an increase in residents (but a decrease in office workers). People like to work from homes in the city.

But I don't mean to be disagreeing. Glad you found what you liked, and many have followed your path.

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>What do you like better about your quality of life?

Mainly, how the actions of others (good or bad) don't have as much of an effect on me. Believe it or not, one of the main things was people smoking weed. People would smoke it endlessly. I attempted pretty much every solution before moving. It smelled awful and got into my sinuses and would make me get an instant sore throat. Similar to cigarette smoke. I guess I'm allergic but basically if it got in my respiratory system, my sinuses would be effected and make it next to impossible to breath through my nose. This often would then lead to sinus infections and always a sore throat every night. I literally felt like I had a cold every other day.

I moved apartments but the same damn thing happened. Now, that could be bad luck or it could just be a new normal, I don't care to find out though.

Also now, with an actual area to do "DIY" stuff, I can run power tools and play guitar with amp without annoying anyone, lol.

>Lol. Spoken like a suburbanite! :D Depending on where exactly you live, everything in Manhattan would be within 30-40 minutes.

My bad, by "stuff" I meant city stuff like shows, entertainment, fancy restaurant, etc. For day to day, I'm only a 5-10 minute drive. I've actually been saving a ton of time in tons of ways you don't really consider. 1-2 hours of groceries a week is better (at least according to my wife) than 20-30 minutes every few days.

>Also, many cities see an increase in residents (but a decrease in office workers). People like to work from homes in the city.

That's good. Seems we all are getting what we want, thanks to WFH.

I have the same experience in LA with the weed/tobacco smoke, but also just all of the damn chemicals my neighbors use in their daily life.

Before moving to the city, I expected the traffic and crowds would be the primary drawback compared to suburbia. But I’ve found that the smells and sounds of my own neighbors’ activities to be the worst, like running their loud AC 24/7 even in winter, and spraying copious Lysol and febreeze multiple times a day.

Love living in this city with all of the activities nearby, but I’m 100% ready to gtfo and don’t think I’ll miss it.

Right!? I swear people know when to do it at the worst times too. When I first moved, it was because they triggered the building wide alarm system at 2 AM. After that, I was sick of it and couldn't take it anymore.

Also, I get that you're going to smell food/odd stuff from neighbors from time to time but there's only so much you can handle.

That sucks. IME, one needs to pay a bit of a premium to live someplace where you can be assured of not having such headaches (not that wealthy people are better neighbors, but that problem-free residence is in higher demand).

It's interesting to see some people seek to be further from others. I imagine it like particles in a given volume: fewer particles collide less, while I happen to love the energy of more (though not things like second hand smoke in my home). To me, it's like going to a concert - I want it to be wall-to-wall, not mostly empty. (Again YMMV.)

>That sucks. IME, one needs to pay a bit of a premium to live someplace where you can be assured of not having such headaches (not that wealthy people are better neighbors, but that problem-free residence is in higher demand).

Oh yea, 100%. The second place I got the problem was not nearly as bad but still made me feel sick about once a month during a "party" or something.

I had the pleasure of living next to 3-4 college kids. I guess they split the rent. I also moved to Texas where its generally not as legal so I believe they tend to use devices that limits the smell/spread. So it wasn't nearly as bad but sometimes you just wanted peace from that, ya know.

And yep, to the particle analogy. I had plenty of good interactions with people. Sadly, the negative ones just sucked too much.

Everybody is different, but what I like has changed a lot over the past 35 years and I don’t expect that to stop. The city was the right place for me for part of my life, but right now it really isn’t. When I get old and need more access to healthcare, it might be again.

That seems like the typical pattern? City when you're young, move to the suburbish place when you have a family, and back to the city (in a different neighborhood) when you're retired.

For retirees, especially when driving is a problem, all the service, transportation, etc. can be great. Also, you have time again for all the fun and want activity, unlike people raising a family who barely have time to sleep.

Toronto is such that you can go from the financial district to farmland in less than 40 minutes.

It's a bit annoying living outside the core when you are young since cabs are expensive and regional pubic transit unavailable late but outside of that everything else is pretty close to just as accessible you just have to plan more in advance where when i lived downtown I could just be bored one afternoon and go find a cool event

>I could just be bored one afternoon and go find a cool event

Yea, I'd say this is probably the worst part about living outside of a city. Just not as many events to go to easily. At the end of the day though, the 30-40 minute drive isn't too bad when its something you really want to go to and plan for.

Yeah and having a decent backyard can fill a lot of those days too.

Also lots to do outside the city of you like nature.

> It's a bit annoying living outside the core when you are young since cabs are expensive and regional pubic transit unavailable late

Use a bike? If you don't want to cycle all the way to the city park it at the last all-night public transport stop and take the bus/tram/train/whathaveyounot to the city from there?

Maybe it is my Dutch heritage or maybe just common sense but anything up to ~15km is within an easy bike ride range, 20km if needed. OK, you can't get drunk like a skunk but why would you do that anyway? A few beers are fine, you'll cycle them off anyway.

In my eyes cities look at their best when you see them disappearing on the horizon after a pleasant night out.

I've never been to Toronto so maybe this prospect is totally unthinkable there but I've spent a few weeks around Vancouver - it was meant to be only a few days since I was scheduled to fly out on the 11th of September, 2001 - where cycling was just as feasible as in most European cities.

The city would be a 40-100km ride.

As mentioned regional transport is spotty at night and even then you are probably looking at a 15-30km trip from the nearest stop on 80km roads with small shoulders. It's also completely out of the question for the 6-7 months a year snow is on the ground.

15 km is doable, 30 is (literally) taking it a bit far so that would be reserved for once or twice a year events. Snow on the ground is not that much of a problem as long as it isn't a metre deep where you're supposed to cycle. I live in Sweden where snow isn't uncommon either and cycle the year trough, if need be on a bike with studded tyres but mostly on a fairly normal 24-speed 29" wheel steel-framed bike. Cycle paths are mostly absent here as well, at least in the countryside where I live. The 80km roads are 70km gravel roads but for the rest the situation is quite comparable I think.

Honestly riding a bike in the winter with little shoulder space on 70km roads sounds like a death wish to me. I really don't think it'd be appropriate around Toronto countryside as a solution and I find it hard to believe it's common where you are too but glad you found something you enjoy.

No, it is not common, as said this might be might be my Dutch heritage showing. My daughters - 12 and 18 - are also 'affected' in that they are used to cycling where their friends expect to be driven.

Yes, different people have different desires when it comes to their living situation. Your comment does however come across as dismissive of living outside of a city. “Parks” for instance…from my experience, a city would not be where I’d first look for this.

Sorry, I'm not trying to dismiss anyone. I do love cities, but that's my thing.

> “Parks” for instance…from my experience, a city would not be where I’d first look for this.

Cities often have all sorts of interesting and varied parks, often beautifully designed, with public art, museums, etc. Look at Central Park, Golden Gate Park, the parks along the lake in Chicago, etc. Look up all the parks in Manhattan alone. LA has wild valleys near the Hollywood Hills. And if you look around, you can find lots of wonderful, unknown, small parks. The economy of scale - resources to design, build, etc. - can lead to some wonderful spaces.

Obviously, out where there's more space, there are larger undeveloped areas; those differ from urban parks.

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