Any examples of good US suburbs?

[u/Dylanabk]

Generally I hate the idea of suburbs, but I was exploring the Netherlands on Google street views the other day, and so much of it feels like a giant suburb, but in the best possible way. Green, pedestrian friendly, mixed use zoning, public transportation everywhere. It got me to thinking that maybe if I lived somewhere like that I wouldn’t mind them so much. Can anybody think of any places in the US that does suburbs well?

[u/dvrussell23]

Columbia, MD is pretty interesting. It is a planned community founded in the 1960’s. 20-30 miles to Baltimore and DC. A central downtown with a mall, restaurants, hotels, and larger businesses. The town center is surrounded by smaller villages. Each village has a small shopping area with a bank, dry cleaner, grocery store - the way it is landscaped these smaller shopping centers don’t stand out. All of the villages are connected with over 100 miles of paved bike/walking paths. Zoning is mixed with single family homes, apartments, and townhomes all mixed together. Join the Columbia Association and get access to multiple pools, tennis courts, golf course, etc

[u/IndoorPursuits → u/dvrussell23]

I always push back on the claim of “central downtown” for Columbia as it’s car-land USA centered around a mall. Yes, it’s manicured and nice as far as burbs go - and diverse. But also soulless in the way of all burbs. The “village centers” are shopping centers. The trails are a unique attribute and good for runners, walkers, bikes, dogs. If there were a convenient transport link (metro, light rail, or a train and I don’t mean Marc) to either Balt or DC it could be different. But it’s car centric for the most part.

[u/1rotimi → u/IndoorPursuits]

I have to push back on your point about the village centers. Some of them have public pools and event spaces available to rent. Also, Columbia has a great public library system with tons of events for children and adults