My relationship with suburbs is... tepid at best.
The noise level is never a constant. It is always fluctuating, never settling on either a flood or a pasture. You stand out on a curb, waiting on the bus in the rain, and a wave of cars comes. Your mind goes into urban mode, getting ready to rev out the noise via your personal mufflers. But then there are no cars, and in front of you lies a three lane stretch of pavement; an abandoned highway in a depreciated rural town. But then the cars come again.
And the pattern is not even consistent. There may be lines upon lines of cars impeding your path, only to succeed to an empty road that you can dance in.
What baffles me more is the pattern of development in a suburb. Lines of roads, main arterials lead to dead ends. Cul de sacs that lead nowhere except in a circle to exit right back out where you came from. There are no through-ways, only walled off communities with one or two roads in and out. It's a closed system, full of conveniently placed barriers to impede your progress.
It is almost like in a game:
In a game, sometimes one of the key elements is immersion. That intense focus and feeling that you are the game. Sometimes your reality flips away in an instant, sometimes it slips away gradually as you are drawn in. Some games also have the conveniently placed barriers that make you follow the story, and prevent you from free roaming or exploring your surroundings. But some games have open world story lines, that allow you to go anywhere and everywhere you wish at first dawn.
Maybe "place" shares some of the same qualities. I usually find myself immersed in a place wherever I go. I usually am able to free roam and explore to my hearts content. Maybe Vancouver is ready to reel you back to reality in an instant, just before you become too complacent. Maybe suburbs are designed in a more linear fashion, ready to shuffle the folks who live in them on their merry way in the next chapter of their lives.
That's too complacent for me. I cannot take being offered one path, or possibly two, that ultimately leads to the same outcome. I cannot do the constant snapping back to reality, nor can I take the acknowledgement of the player in my life, or some fatalistic plan going into action.
But let's not turn this into too much of a philosophical debacle or entanglement. The thing about places is that they change; in themselves as well as with the movement to other places. Along with the fact that everywhere is a place with it's own qualities, with it's own character.
I try to not think that somewhere is nowhere, but it's hard sometimes.
I don't think Vancouver, or a suburb or bedroom town, allows me get immersed. It's always interrupting me, reminding me of the things I'm uneasy with. The town is linear, with many, if not a majority, of it's residents complacent in a path that they have chosen and are happy with.
There is nothing saying there is anything wrong with that framework. It just ins't me. I strive to be somewhere innovative and exciting; somewhere with an acknowledgement of the need to move forward and discover the heart of the issues, rather than addressing symptoms. That is why I'm searching for more. That's why I am searching for better for me.
It may be individualistic, but I believe that an area must balance, be receptive to new ideas, and have plenty of opportunity for all. Where I am at now has all of that, it just happens at a rate and method that does not agree with me. It is focused on nuclear family needs rather than communal societal needs. And with nuclear family needs change will come, with the shifting of paradigms of the children. But for those who are not quite on that track yet, other places beckon and call out.
