&gt; The elephant in the room people don&#x27;t want to acknowledge is that suburbia has mostly been a way to flee from and exclude social decay.<p>This is why I bought in a socially conservative neighborhood: people implicitly police one another into basic civic decency, and I&#x27;d much rather suffer an occasional scolding from a few overzealous busybodies than bear the burden of intergenerational poverty and crime. Sure, I may need to drive a bit to find interesting shopping and entertainment options, but at the end of the day if I&#x27;m going to make a commitment into an asset as big and un-diversified as a 30 year mortgage, I&#x27;d want just about every &quot;negative&quot; the author brings up. And if I&#x27;m going to get the fury from HN for saying it, so be it. I&#x27;m happy to give up grime, drug trafficking, and violence for an internet tongue lashing.