I live in a smaller german city and I know my neighbours. Before I lived more suburban (though 10 minutes with the train into the city) and I knew none because most were old I was a student sharing a home with other students. Some complained about us being loud after 10pm.

The stereotype is meant as something positive, but I associate something negative with it. I grew up suburban and I just can't imagine ever moving back. It's so boring, dull and while there's more proximity, you are so bound to you environment. If you don't fit in the you have a problem. I didn't fit in later in school, I didn't get bullied or anything, but I just lacked people with the same interest. I found them in the city in the 10th grade, so I started to commute by train into the city every wednesday after school and on the weekends. They were weird, looked weird and interested in music, art and protecting the environment. I regularly feel asleep saturday night on the central station because I missed my train and had to wait hours. I understand the positive association but the only thing I associate with it is being locked in in an environment you have no control over because it is not by choice but by geographic proximity. I don't want parties with people on my block, I want parties with my friends. Preferably every weekend until the sun starts to rise again and I am exhausted but happy.

Writing this was very interesting for me, I never really tried to reflect why I so strongly despise the idea of moving again into something suburban.

My experience is that neither of those two "groups" have parties with their neighbours. I think it might be too hard to generalize about things, the most sociable place I've lived in was Sopocachi in La Paz a high density walkable area, but I've never experienced anything like that anywhere else so it might be an outlier.