Final Thoughts on the “Move to SUMA”: Was Moving to the Suburbs the Right Decision?
June 22, 2017 By Joseph Rand
Eight years ago today, I moved out of the city. I was 41 years old. I had lived in New York City since 1992, for most of 17 years, and was horrified about how moving to the suburbs of my youth was going to destroy my urban sensibility, and turn me into another colorless suburban drone. The whole conceit of the “Move to SUMA” was the inside joke that “SUMA” was just another Manhattan neighborhood, that I needed to convince myself that I wasn’t actually moving into the suburbs if I wanted to survive. So for the past eight years or so, I’ve written about the good and the bad about living in the suburbs. I wrote about all my stereotypical suburban experiences -- like getting a dog, buying an SUV, having a child, trying to find decent takeout food – and some less-than-stereotypical … [Read More...]
Thoughts on the New “Quasi-Urban Suburbia” — What Do “Millennials,” “Young Professionals,” and “Empty-Nesters” All Have in Common?
December 19, 2016 By Joseph Rand
It's funny. When I started writing this blog about my experiences moving from the city to the suburbs about seven (!) years ago, I thought my desire to retain a certain urban sensibility was unusual. After all, I'd seen my city friends leave for the glories of suburbia, one after another, without ever apparently looking back. So I sort of thought that my desire to maintain a walkable, … [Read More...]
Will We See a New “Exodus”?
July 5, 2016 By Joseph Rand
Are home prices in the New York City suburbs on the rise? We're not seeing it in the data just yet. Even with home sales up pretty robustly for the past five years, home prices in the Manhattan suburbs have been relatively flat since their financial crisis correction back in 2008-2010. At some point, you have to think that increasing demand with a flat supply is going to drive prices up -- … [Read More...]
Humor
Who’s Moving to the Suburbs? Alicia Keys, That’s Who’s Moving to the Suburbs!
Okay, as you all know, we have a recurring feature here at the Move to Suma breathlessly covering any news about celebrities making the move to suburban idyll. And we're doing pretty good. Here's … [Read More...]
Another Hurricane! Seriously? That is so NOT the deal……..
It’s just not fair. As I write this, the northeast is preparing for our second major hurricane hit in the last two years. And if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also had an earthquake and an October … [Read More...]
Reasons Why You’ll Love Living in the Suburbs: Because the bedrooms are actually, you know, bedrooms.
You know why you’ll love living in the suburbs? Because the bedrooms are actually bedrooms. If you live in the city, you know what I’m talking about, right? That “two-bedroom” apartment where … [Read More...]
Reasons Why You’ll Hate Living in the Suburbs: You Don’t Get to See Celebrities Out in the Wild
You know what you’re going to lose when you move to the suburbs? Celebrities. You’re going to miss that moment when you’re on line at your local Starbucks and realize that -- HEY, the guy trying to … [Read More...]
Reasons You’ll Love Living in the Suburbs: Your Life Becomes Much Less Garbage-Intensive
I miss a lot of things about living in the city. The energy of the streets. The restaurants. The take out food. But you know what I don’t miss? The garbage. Garbage in the city is a … [Read More...]
Reasons You’ll Hate Living in the Suburbs: Losing Your Urban Identity
Everyone who moves from the city to the suburbs makes the same promise to themselves: I won’t become a suburban person, I’ll keep my urban sensibility, I’ll come into the city all the … [Read More...]
News
Who’s Moving to the Suburbs? Alicia Keys, That’s Who’s Moving to the Suburbs!
Okay, as you all know, we have a recurring feature here at the Move to Suma breathlessly covering any news about celebrities making the move to suburban idyll. And we’re doing pretty good. Here’s our tally so far: Tom Cruise Elisabeth Hasselbeck Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Usher Jay-Z and Beyonce Jonah Hill Any Winehouse […]
Who’s Moving to the Suburbs? Tom Cruise, That’s Who!
As part of my never-ending and desperate quest to validate my move to the suburbs, I’d delighted to report that we have yet another A-list celebrity who is thinking of making the move to the land of big lawns, chain restaurants, and SUVs: Tom Cruise is house hunting in the New York suburbs. Or rather, […]
Does Moving to the Suburbs Make You a Conservative?
Is moving to the suburbs a political statement? The reason I ask is that I’ve become increasingly aware of this raging battle between the forces of sprawl and the advocates of density, one that actually polarizes along familiar political lines: suburbs = conservative, and cities = liberal. Now, it’s not just about how the cities tend […]
Who’s Moving to the Suburbs? Elisabeth Hasselbeck, That’s Who!
One of the regular features of the Move to Suma is our breathless reporting of celebrities who have made the move to the suburbs, in what is an obvious and thinly-veiled attempt to validate my own decision to leave the city. I mean, am I really so uncool to live in the suburbs if people […]
The Return from Exile in Reverse: Re-Creating the Suburban Experience in New York City
Jesse McKinley had a great piece in the New York Times last week about trying to recreate a stereotypical suburban experience within Manhattan. A native suburban, his theory was that the city is slowly becoming “suburbanized“: The ’burbs seem to be everywhere, from miniature golf in the Village to batting cages on the Upper West […]
More Census Data Indicating that the Suburbs are Growing
Wendell Cox of New Geography has an interesting analysis of suburban migration patterns coming out of some new Census data. As we’ve discussed before, the Census reveals that the suburban population grew from the 2000 census, partly at the expense of urban areas but even more through migration from more rural areas: Despite the higher […]
