> There is almost no chance for spontaneous interactions with strangers."
My family lived in a suburb of an east coast US town. The "town" was about 30k residents in just under 5 square miles. It had a well-developed downtown, but driving was still the norm. In the five years I lived there, I ran into an acquaintance (neighbor, parents of our child's friends, etc) while "out and about" about 1-2 times.
When we moved to the city, running into someone we knew was a daily occurrence. Even after school was out for the summer, we went close to 40 consecutive days of running into a classmate. Most hilariously, I was on the subway with a coworker and explained out I ran into more people I knew in the city than in the suburbs. As we exited the subway, the father of my son's best friend rode past on a bicycle and stopped to chat for a bit.
While these weren't strangers, I felt more like I was part of a community in the city than everywhere else.
My family lived in a suburb of an east coast US town. The "town" was about 30k residents in just under 5 square miles. It had a well-developed downtown, but driving was still the norm. In the five years I lived there, I ran into an acquaintance (neighbor, parents of our child's friends, etc) while "out and about" about 1-2 times.
When we moved to the city, running into someone we knew was a daily occurrence. Even after school was out for the summer, we went close to 40 consecutive days of running into a classmate. Most hilariously, I was on the subway with a coworker and explained out I ran into more people I knew in the city than in the suburbs. As we exited the subway, the father of my son's best friend rode past on a bicycle and stopped to chat for a bit.
While these weren't strangers, I felt more like I was part of a community in the city than everywhere else.