Suburbs

I was reading about this with respect to San Francisco] and how Google employees are ruining the property market there, but it's a worldwide phenomenon apparently (though I might misremembering the claim): suburbs are over. Where in the past the rich people sought to escape the inner cities with their poverty, poor infrastructure, and insecurity, apparently now they're moving back. City centers have changed in some life-affirming way and whatever used to make suburbs attractive now makes them seem empty. There's a long article somewhere explaining the trend but I can't find it now.

Anyhoooo, I grew up in suburbs in Australia, and my first place away from the nest was a rented unit in the suburbs of Melbourne. It was awful. The suburb was pleasant of course, but the experience was deadly dull. My second place was right on the edge of the CBD and since then it's always seemed to me that renting a place in a CBD is a superior choice to even buying a place in a suburb.

Not sure how this relates to China, except that homeownership is some crazy mixed up dream here and saying, let's rent, is akin to killing grandma - maybe a good idea in the short term, but it'll undermine your security.

Sorry for my ignorance,but what is CBD? I grew up in the burbs (of London) and hated it.I needed my Dad to run me home from parties,and the public transportation was slow and annoying.I studied in the heart of London a stone's throw from The British Museum and all the West End theatres and art galleries.Could not go  back.I am a city girl, and the countryside bores me to tears. The burbs is neither city nor country.Has no charm and no attractions imho. 

Calach, I grew up in  the Country town of Tenterfield (Peter Allen's song re his Grandfather the Saddler)  I now live in Northgate, a Brisbane suburb, which is only about a 20 minutes drive into the City of Brisbane. I have a railway station close by and a bus stop in front of the house next door. I drive myself most of the time as my local shopping centre is close by and has plenty of parking spaces.  I guess I'm lucky in that Brisbane City is not large by City standards. As far as I can see, there would be nothing of value to be gained by my living in the central business district (CBD) and most people here seem to think that way. I only go to the city to the Casino and I get free parking there. The Queen Street Mall is virtually just outside the front door of "the den", but I don't even bother going for a look, as the local shopping centres seem to cater for most things and the bus stops to the city and other places, is located at the front of the shopping centre and the railway station is just across the road. I guess that will all change as we get more people from other Countries, particularly Asia. I wish things could stay as they are, but humans, being humans, will destroy this lifestyle. I find myself constantly saying that I am glad to be on my way out the door. I hate to think what will become of the type of lifestyle which I now enjoy.

Found the article: How Burrowing Owls Lead To Vomiting Anarchists (Or SF’s Housing Crisis Explained)

The short version: people are marrying later, living longer, and working different. They derive security from large networks of weak ties rather than lifetime connection to one company. For that kind of lifestyle, and for the kind of "social" industries that have grown up with it, suburbs are isolated and alienating. People are moving back to where critical densities of people exist - the urban cores.

I find this idea compelling and attractive. Perhaps it depends on what industry you get your paycheck in. I've always been a job-hopper anyway. One of the main reasons I came to China was an untested horror at office work. I thought office work would call on all sorts of skills, none of which would be "mobility".

I'm unsure then if it's strange that I now associate myself with a relatively isolated school environment. I'm not sure. For most of the years I've been in China, I haven't recognised the way people live as "suburban". (I do recall job hunting once and visiting a housing development - row after row of "villas" and no people - it was nightmarish.) Until recently, the area I live in would be better described as like an extended village (in the western sense, same as parts of inner cities develop a "village" feel). Now it's getting richer and the small restaurants are disappearing. (It's surprising - the teachers get richer and the myriad small restaurant scene catering to students goes barren?!)

Anyhoo, CBD is "central business district". Possibly an Australianism. And possibly no longer the kind of expression that suits, since people are moving into these "business" districts.


/conflating

Sorry for my ignorance,but what is CBD?

Central Business District. IMHO. FYI.