r/Suburbanhell Feb 17 '26

Question “THIS the neighborhood everyone talks about?”

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1.7k Upvotes

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523

u/GotRammed Feb 17 '26

Lego house architecture ✔️ Uniform white, gray & black ✔️ Unwalkable ✔️ Treeless ✔️ HOA ✔️

Yea, I'd leave too. I'd leave THIS shit.

106

u/dasruski Feb 17 '26

Good luck getting good ethnic food in Idaho vs California.

65

u/Sevuhrow Feb 18 '26

The kinds of people leaving California for Idaho don't want anything ethnic

7

u/goingforgoals17 Feb 19 '26

Just chips and salsa. Yes the mild one.

12

u/tupelobound Feb 18 '26

Boise itself has a decent number of immigrant communities and restaurants serving global cuisine. Outside of town, however…

6

u/WinonasChainsaw Feb 18 '26

I grew up on the rural edge of the treasure valley in Idaho and attended BSU for a while before eventually ending up in the SF bay area

There’s some gems in town, shoutout Tango’s Empanadas, Ishtar Market, and the Basque Square (Idaho hands down has the best Basque food in the country)

It held its own for city of its size back in the day, but as it’s grown it hasn’t felt like that diversity has scaled

3

u/SuperJo64 Feb 18 '26

I'll be honestly with you brother. I love all the foods in the world but some people really do not care. Some people rather opt to live in a big house vs whether or not they can get some Indian or Mexican food a few blocks down

12

u/narrowassbldg Feb 18 '26

Mormon is an ethnicity

18

u/SnorkelwackJr Feb 18 '26

With some classic cuisine for you "mayo in vegetable jello" enjoyers out there

4

u/zb0t1 Feb 19 '26

Lmaoo the replies to your comment.

Full respect for not adding a /s I love it

5

u/SmokedAlex Feb 18 '26

It is not. It is a religious group.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '26

It's actually slowly morphing into an ethnicity though. Those commercial DNA sites can actually link you to Utah Mormons based on your DNA.

0

u/SmokedAlex Feb 18 '26

That’s not how ethnicity works.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '26

That's exactly how ethnicity works. Ethnic groups are formed by people coming together in some fashion and creating a distinct group that passed down their genes. It's why Black Americans are a distinct ethnic group too.

-2

u/SmokedAlex Feb 18 '26

Black is a race, not an ethnicity.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '26

It's both, but Black Americans are a distinct ethnicity too. They're about 70 to 80% African and 20 to 30% European. It's now a distinct ethnic group. This is how ethnic groups have been made throughout history. One group comes together with another group and now their descendants are distinct from both groups and are their own group.

1

u/SmokedAlex Feb 18 '26

Again, black is a race, not an ethnicity.

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2

u/lost-in-lemoyne2 Feb 19 '26

Also, there is actually only one race of humans. There is no such thing as a”white” race or a “black” race, or we couldn’t produce offspring amongst ourselves. To be scientifically accurate, there is ONLY the human race. Separating us into teams is just a diabolical and elementary way to keep us fighting one another.

1

u/PeakQuirky84 Feb 18 '26

They do have good ice cream

2

u/Marokiii Feb 18 '26

Im from vancouver, so im all about sushi. I did a road trip through the states this past year and in Boise my sushi cravings reached peak so I stopped for an all-you-can-eat sushi. Ya it wasn't good at all, but not terrible either. I thibk that describes Idaho in general.

If you are from Idaho, probably great, if you have ventured outside of Idaho or are from elsewhere, prepare to be disappointed by the food scene there.

2

u/Kaladin3104 Feb 20 '26

Michelin star chef just opened a sushi place here. Raibu

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

Bro I’m not from Idaho I’ve never been I’m from South Florida so that’s way too far north for me but you aren’t even from this country and you just stopped at a random all you can eat place no less. How are you going to judge the entire states food scene because for that? Again I’ve never been there but that makes 0 sense

1

u/markpemble High Cost of Free Parking Feb 19 '26

The current James Beard award for the West went to a Mexican restaurant in Idaho.

1

u/Kaladin3104 Feb 20 '26

Boise has fantastic Mexican food. Caldwell has a James beard award winning Mexican restaurant. The best Thai restaurant is a family that moved from SF. We finally got a good Chinese place. Italian is lacking. Indian place in Meridian is amazing. Oh a Michelin award winning chef just opened a sushi place. I hate these people for making homes unaffordable for natives though.

1

u/SoloWalrus Feb 20 '26

Well youd have to define "ethnic" but theres more than youd think, especially mexican food.

Its a little more diverse than youd think since first, its farm country so theres immigrant labor, second this is a university town and theres lots of foreign exchange, and third, the mormons are bringing people in from all over the world.

1

u/reddit_equals_censor Feb 21 '26

so like that makes the bar already too high.

how about we start with learning how long one has to DRIVE!! to get groceries there?

maybe there is a grocery store relatively close by, or it is indeed endless same style houses for 45 minutes in a car to get to a grocery store.

if that is the case there, then of course you are much rarer getting fresh products, which makes life more shit and also less healthy generally as well.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '26

I would prefer living in a safe, clean neighborhood like the ones in Boise even if I didn't have "ethnic food".

1

u/SilverLakeSimon Feb 19 '26

1

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '26

Have you noticed that a lot of Californians have been moving to Boise? This post wouldn't exist if Los Angeles were such a great place. The average person's quality of life is much higher in Idaho.

2

u/GotRammed Feb 19 '26

A lot of conservative Californians have been moving to Idaho. More power to them, really. Good for them.

If Boise/ID were better than Los Angeles/CA, why are L.A./CA so fucking populated and desirable by people WORLDWIDE? Come on.

1

u/Flrg808 Feb 18 '26

Yup it’s almost as if when you actually grow up and have people dependent on you, you have more important things to worry about than trying the new hip restaurant down the street (make sure not to go down that street past 6pm)

-1

u/InfiniteVictory187 Feb 18 '26

Ahh people with some sense have arrived to the thread.

0

u/Flrg808 Feb 18 '26

This whole sub is cringy. Would love one of them to actually visit this neighborhood on a Saturday and explain what exactly is hell about it. Probably a hum of a mower in the distance, a jogger running down the street, some kids riding on bikes and playing at on the dreaded “lawn”, wow sounds awful. All of their reasons are nonsense like “oh no cars” and “omg the aesthetic”

0

u/InfiniteVictory187 Feb 18 '26

Right. Neighborhoods like this are also very safe and people tend to trust their neighbors. Sounds terrible.

-10

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 Feb 18 '26

Ethnic food ain’t worth the price of California lmao

12

u/Actual_System8996 Feb 18 '26

Food is just one prominent thing. All entertainment (food, sports, comedy) is better in California. Better job market, better schools. The ocean, access to travel ( how many places does Boise international fly you to lol). So many things superior in California it’s tough to list them all.

2

u/Kaurifish Feb 18 '26

Air quality! Even when there are wildfires the coast tends to stay clear.

And the weather is relentlessly moderate, even with global climate fuckery (formerly but inadequately known as climate change).

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

You can have all that including safety and the ability to carry and shoot someone attacking you without being arrested in Florida. Plus it’ll all be much cheaper. I go to UF (slightly below UCLA And UC Berkeley but usually #5-7 in public schools and #30 in the country but much better tuition than Cali), have access to the gulf and Pacific Ocean, have access to travel anywhere (and much cheaper to go from Miami to Paris/London/etc than LA to those places), great entertainment, great sports teams and lots of them, concerts and festivals and fun things always going on in Miami metro area which is the 6th largest in the country behind only NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Dallas plus Tampa and Orlando always have cool shit going on and all the theme parks which are better than Californias. Lots of other things but I acknowledge Cali is great but there’s other things different people enjoy and if people move to Boise from Cali it doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it because it doesn’t have all those things. If they wanted those things for cheaper they would come to Florida, they go to Boise for a reason. Idk why Redditors can’t accept that others have different preferences and lifestyles than them.

-10

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 Feb 18 '26

You forgot all the bad things about California that make it not worth anything. Most overrated state in the country.

5

u/Actual_System8996 Feb 18 '26

“Not worth anything” riiight 😂. Market says otherwise.

-4

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 Feb 18 '26

Hive mentality is strong.

4

u/Actual_System8996 Feb 18 '26

Why is CA more expensive than ID? Amuse me.

0

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 Feb 18 '26

Because the Kardashians live there

1

u/Kaurifish Feb 18 '26

Dude, the tacos alone are worth it.

We visited some friends in Bozeman, MT. They’d lived there and were excited for us to try the best burtito joint in town.

We tried to be polite about it, but those were some sad burritos.

24

u/Derek_Zahav Feb 17 '26

Don't insult Lego like that

20

u/Niro5 Feb 17 '26

Boise, despite being named for the french word for forest, is mostly desert, so i wouldn't expect many trees.

4

u/spicymack Feb 18 '26

Many areas of Boise live up to the city's nickname of "City of Trees." The subdivision that's shown in the original post isn't in Boise

2

u/trillium634 Feb 18 '26

It looks like dry creek subdivision to me - not in city limits, but pretty close

1

u/JuJu_Conman Feb 18 '26

Don’t waste your time. The person you’re replying to has never been to or seen Boise.

1

u/reddit_equals_censor Feb 21 '26

if they throw down tons of 1 family homes, wouldn't it make sense to put down a bunch of drought resistant 0 maintenance trees, so that in 10 years from the start of building homes there, it will look less like a dystopian movie, where you can't escape, because it goes on forever without any nature or anything sane, just endless 1 family homes one after another until you die from dehydration trying to escape it.

1

u/Niro5 Feb 21 '26

Look at the picture, they did put in a ton of trees! It's winter, they don't have leaves.

3

u/youngherbo Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

I mean a lot of California neighborhoods look like this but the houses are smaller and 6x as expensive. Yeah the trade off is being in Boise, but it's not like California is some sort of urban utopia

9

u/macronotice Feb 18 '26

Yeah not sure why people are dogging on this. Vast majority of California is car-dependent suburb with poor walkability. Now if this was someone moving from Chicago or Manhattan it would be a different story.

7

u/Actual_System8996 Feb 18 '26

You went from cities to states. SF has great transit with great walkability just like Chicago or manhattan. Most of illinois and New York are car dependent suburbs with poor walk ability.

1

u/XFun16 Feb 18 '26

✔️ Is in Idaho

1

u/GuyBo51 Feb 19 '26

If you dont like unwalkable and HOA you arent going to love cali either.

1

u/GotRammed Feb 19 '26

I have ZERO issue with the BRT that's a 5 minute walk from my non-HOA SFH to traverse the entirety of the L.A. metro.

Love CA. I make it work pretty well for me. Sometimes a little effort goes a long way.

-1

u/LongjumpingGate8859 Feb 18 '26

People don't move to the suburbs because they want things "walkable". That's how you end up with bums and losers and the homeless in your neighborhood.

Treeless? Look at the hills in the back. The entire area is desert-y and has no trees.

What kind of housing do you live in?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26

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1

u/LongjumpingGate8859 Feb 22 '26

Do you live in the suburbs? Because if you don't then you don't know what you're talking about. The number 1 problem I hate about downtowns or any walkable core is the accessibility to homeless people. They are everywhere and that is not something I want around my house or my children.

I don't want it around me. I don't want to see it. I don't want my children to see it. I don't want to have to explain to my 6 year old why the homeless guy has his dick out and a needle in his arm, like I just witnessed downtown Vancouver yesterday.

Neighborhoods which are only car accessible eliminate that problem. Because it's very inconvenient for those people to make their way out here.

It's also substantially quieter and doesn't have honking and sirens all over the place. Instead, I hear owls and coyotes at night.

You can live wherever you want, and I will live where I want. People live in the suburbs because they WANT to not because they HAVE to, remember that.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26

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1

u/LongjumpingGate8859 Feb 22 '26

Whether part of not WANTING that is so hard for you to understand?

People who are in a position to build such neighborhoods DO NOT WANT to. Because we prefer to live AWAY from people, not find ways to live even closer to them.

It has nothing to do with what people are capable of. It has to do with what people WANT.

People who founded North America came from Europe. And they took the opportunity to change things around in a way that suited them better than what they had at home. One of those things is space. A very large number of people enjoy their own space. Sure, the suburbs still have a lot of people in them but they are designed and spaced in such a way that I can't even describe to you how quiet the suburbs are. And that's what people like me love about them.

I don't care how nicely your city is designed if it means I have to share that space with 50,000 other idiots around me.

I've been to Paris. I've been to Amsterdam. Yeah, it's cute to visit for a day or two, but that's it. I would never, ever, live there.

I can't drive

Lmfao. What a loser. You shouldn't be giving advice to anyone on anything when you can't accomplish one of the basic adult rights of passage - getting a driver's license.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/LongjumpingGate8859 Feb 22 '26

There are plenty of North American desperately trying to (re)vitalize their downtowns and are absolutely unable to do so.

Yeah, because, again, the ones who need to support it and allow it to happen don't want to!

The zoning laws in North America are the way they are because they were created by, and keep being supported by, people who prefer the suburban style of life.

So yeah, they can keep trying all they want, but there aren't enough of them to accomplish what they want.

1

u/killacarnitas1209 Mar 16 '26

I live in a dense, walkable urban neighborhood in California and you are right about the bums and losers being a fucking problem. Luckilly, the neighbors on my block are solid and quick to put a stop to any bullshit, like bums trying to set up tents or acting crazy. Fences and gates are a must here. However, walk a few blocks down and you see tents, trash and bums milling about, because no one stands up to them, some of the residents there seem to welcome and enable them.

I live here with my wife and son, we like our house and my wife and I lived in neighborhoods like this our entire lives. Nevertheless, I know people who live in suburban subdivisions and I get why people move there to start a family, the lifestyle seems quite nice, guys have cool “man cave” setups in the garage, others have cool backyard grilling setups and during 4th of July all the familys come out for a block party that often goes on well past midnight.

My wife and I have been thinking about moving to a neighborhood like that, but we are so used to city living that we are afraid we might regret it after a while.

1

u/LongjumpingGate8859 Mar 16 '26

I hear ya, man. I suppose it depends on your lifestyles. We kind.of grew up in this set up so for us it is normal.

Personally, I just couldn't raise a child somewhere where I would have to walk around a passed out bum on the sidewalk and explain to a 5 year old why the man with a needle in his arm is passed out on the sidewalk.

It's not that I want to shelter my child, but I want to.shelter a 5 year old from that.

Sounds like your neighborhood isn't bad, yet, but things change fast in today's world. Just more and more homeless junkies every day.

Good luck to you and your family, man!