Indeed. The phrase "hater in the house!" kept running through my head. If you live in a place you hate, shut up and move. If you don't, just shut up.

If everyone shuts up, how are people supposed to figure out where to move to? I hate the idea that no one should ever be critical of anything.

I'm not saying everyone should shut up, just the haters. They're so loud and shrill that they drown everyone else out. There are lots of people who like suburbia (and dislike cities). They're just not smug and self-righteous about it, and they don't shout it from the rooftops while looking down on everyone else.

bashing on the alternatives allows people to feel better about the choices they've made.

or perhaps bashing in a very wasteful lifestyle, narrowminded way of thinking, and unsutainable in the long run, when your choices to build strip malls, and drive everywhere with big trucks, contribute to global warming, geopolitical instability for the securing of oil, which affects people in the city as well.

Ah, and let's not mention all the money wasted in health care b/c of people in the suburbs, that move only by car, are more likeley to be living a sedentary life style, *being fat, and all the health problems that come with it.

Remember, Europeans live mostly in nice cities, they spend half of the gas, and create about 1/3rd of the trash of americans do, but yet they have pretty good lifestyles (and if measured by longivity, or healthiness, probably better lifestyles).

I live near San Jose, and I agree with jwz - the South Bay isn't exactly a shining testament to beauty. There are pockets of habitability (I'd like to think I live in one, but of course I'm biased), but that's about it.

Definitely. The North Side/South Side fighting in Chicago was pretty crazy to see after coming from California, especially as the borders seem to be drawn on socio-economical/racial lines.