In a study of 15,000 Americans, economist Jan Brueckner has found that the less crowded a neighborhood, the friendlier its residents, according to a Los Angeles Times article today (“Where to hear ‘Hi, neighbor!’: in the suburbs” by Roy Rivenburg). In other words, suburbs are better for people’s social life than cities.
For every 10% drop in population density, the likelihood of people talking to their neighbors once a week goes up 10%, regardless of race, income, education, marital status or age.
Brueckner writes that wariness of social contact in cities stems from a want of privacy in a crowded environment, fear of crime and an abundance of museums, theaters and the like that don’t require socialization. (That last one was one of the reasons I moved to a big city to begin with!)
Although not wholeheartedly, I agree more with the philosophy of playwright Eric Bogosian, who has made a cottage industry of slagging the suburbs. “I find the suburbs a difficult place to live,” he writes in a typical statement. “They’re cold and weird. I like people and in the city I get to see lots of people.”
I think I probably have just as many friends here in the city, if not more, than when I lived in the suburbs. And I’m required to bring up the true cliché that New Yorkers are friendlier than outsiders give them credit for. They really are but they’re sometimes not as immediately approachable. It takes work getting past the hard candy shell to reach the friendly nougat center.