From the City to the Suburbs
Lessons from an unexpected move
I grew up as a suburban kid, 15 miles from Chicago. As long as I can remember, I loved going downtown. There’s something enchanting about the energy of the city — the hustle and bustle drew me in. I would stare up at the buildings and think to myself: “I want to live here”.
I spent a total of five years enjoying city: three in St. Louis for grad school and two in Chicago when I started working.
I loved every second of it.
My fiancé and I had a good setup. After graduating from physical therapy school, we lived in a trendy Chicago neighborhood with a lot of character.
Local bars were right down the street, and we could get any type of cuisine at all hours of the day. Social activities were usually short Uber or bus ride away, and our commutes were easy.
Covid changed everything for us. My fiancé’s hours were cut at work, and my future was uncertain. With an wedding coming up, we luckily had a safety net and my parents offered us the spare room in their home.
We took them up on the offer and left our charming A-Frame attic apartment. Though we only stayed two years, the space worked well for us. Skylights lit up the room, accentuating the wooden beams and beautiful hardwood floors. At the time, we thought only downside was the footprint of 330 square feet.
Surprises from our suburban move:
I like the space and the yard
I loved having a small space in the city. Smaller apartments mean less cleaning and cheaper utility bills. An added bonus is that it was easy to find my lost keys in the tiny apartment. At one point I glorified the idea of living in a tiny house, and now that just seems impossible for us.
Moving from 330 square feet to 1500 turned out to be nice upgrade. In a suburban house we don’t have to get as creative with storage because there’s just more room for everything. Having a garage is another luxury I missed greatly in the city.
Having a yard also suits my lifestyle. I like to grill, and I’ve gotten into smoked BBQ recently. In our apartment, grilling was difficult and having a smoker was not an option.
With a suburban yard, I can grill and smoke meat all I want. An added bonus is the fact that I can hit golf balls into a net in the yard- a luxury I didn’t have downtown.
We also want a dog. I know city dogs are very popular, but I like the idea of having space for the dog to play in my own backyard. I’d much rather walk right out the back door to let the dog out instead of trekking down three flights of stairs multiple times per day.
It’s more affordable
What I failed to mention in the last section, is that 1500 square feet of space in the suburbs costs the same as our little shoebox in the city.
We’re looking to buy a house after the wedding, and we’re frequently seeing houses for sale that will cost less than our rent in the city.
Decreased population density means less competition for space and resources. Cities like Chicago, Boston, and New York are already packed in pretty tight. The only way to add more people is by building upwards, which is prevented by zoning laws in most arenas.
It can be hard for cities to grow beyond a certain point. Just look at what’s happened in Seattle — zoning laws restrict the amount of housing available, driving prices up.
While the cost of heating/cooling a house is higher than a little apartment, you save in other ways — mainly parking. A monthly parking spot in Chicago will set you back $150 to $400 per month, leading many to abandon their cars all together. My fiancé now parks her car in the driveway or garage every night, free of charge.
You trade walkability for driveability
Getting around a city is easy by foot, bike, or public transit. Driving is frustrating due to traffic and limited availability of parking. In response, most city dwellers choose to ditch their cars and travel by other means.
My first reaction when moving to the suburbs was that biking everywhere is much more difficult. What I’ve come to realize is that I no longer need to bike everywhere because driving is just so easy. Traffic is minimal, and there’s always a spot to park.
My hobbies are more enjoyable in the suburbs
I love to bike, golf, and play hockey- all of which are hard in the city. Biking for exercise on a weekday morning was more dangerous than I wanted it to be. Commuting was fine because speed wasn’t my goal, but when I’m on a road bike trying to get a good workout, I need open roads.
In the city, I’d have to be on the bike at 5 am to avoid the morning rush-hour. It took me about 90 minutes to ride 20 miles with all the stop lights — now I do it in about 65 minutes in the suburbs. And I can ride at just about any time I want.
Golf wasn’t really an option for me when I lived downtown. I chose not to bring my golf clubs because there wasn’t room in our apartment. Even if I wanted to golf, I was 30+ minutes from the nearest driving range.
My fiancé barely knew that I liked to golf because I didn’t go a single time during our two years in the city. Now I’m hitting the links weekly.
The commute sucks
If you want to get in on suburban life, get ready for a long haul every morning. All the hot jobs are downtown. Many companies like McDonald’s have abandoned their once glorious suburban headquarters for urban high-rises to attract younger talent.
My 30-minute bike commute has transformed into a 60–90 minute ordeal. I ride a folding bike to the train station, hop on a train for 40 minutes, and then bike another 2 miles to my office. It wears me down.
If I wanted to drive, I’m looking at an hour each way, a car payment, insurance, a lot of gas, and $130 per month to park my car in the lot at work. It simply would not be worth it.
The only way to improve my commute will be to get a new job, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
I still eat at the same 10 restaurants
Chicago is home to over 7,000 restaurants. Initially, we tried every new restaurant possible. After finding what we really liked, we ended up eating at the same places regularly.
We’d try a new spot about once a month, but very rarely would the new restaurants make it into our weekly rotation.
The suburbs offer fewer options. I don’t have five different Thai restaurants to choose from like I did downtown, but I have one that’s very good. I miss a couple of my Chicago spots, but I’ve found new restaurants that fill the void in the suburbs.
I see my friends more than I did in the city
My friends were spread out across the city when we lived downtown. We’d usually meet at a bar for a few hours, before everyone took expensive Uber rides home.
Two of my close friends just bought a condo just outside city limits, and now they have the meetup spot. We’ve found ourselves enjoyed casual beers in the condo instead of going out to the bars like we used to. We can drive to their place without worrying about parking.
When we buy our own home, I imagine we’ll be hosting more people — something we never did in our tiny apartment.
Where to go from here?
My 21-year-old self would despise this article. All he wanted to do was live in the city. Life changed a little faster than I expected, but I now welcome these changes.
I’m still shocked that I don’t miss city living. When we moved earlier this summer, I had a rough couple of weeks at first. I’d get nostalgic just taking the train to work and seeing the skyline. At that point I was hoping we’d move back eventually.
With all the upcoming changes in our life, it just wouldn’t make sense to move back to the city, and I’m okay with that.
