Looking at comments, am I the only one being surprised, when getting email from recruiters with one of the perk "office in downtown"? For me it means - constant fight for parking, lines in restaurants, loud? Granted I live in suburbs (and love it)
Depends on your temperament, city, and age. I remember working at places like Initech in my twenties and hating it. Unfortunately I didn't know why. Trips to NYC and EU made it more clear.
If you are fighting for parking downtown you're doing it wrong. Instead take the train/metro.
Like most things in life, it's a tradeoff. My best drive time to downtown is about 35 minutes. My best travel time by train/metro is about an hour. I did that for about a year and a half, and it wasn't awful, but due to transit times, I barely saw my kids.
You have options: move. I was once burdened with traffic on the 405 every day and it was a nightmare. Had to pay an extra hundred or two in rent to live on the west side (of LA). Freeing up three hours a day of commuting (to walk in the sunshine) was definitely worth it.
or better office parks can be built in less congested areas instead. Like this one - http://domainofficesaustin.com/ - where you can work/rent/shop/eat/starbucking/buytesla. Instead of trying to squeeze one more soul into densely packed city.
the calculus can change when you have kids. Then you're faced with living in a good school district (unless you can afford private school). Good school districts don't always line up with downtown cores - at least they're still lagging our shift in housing preference in many areas.
You're not the only one who isn't a huge fan of dense environments. I like the idea of the walkability people desire, but I highly value the privacy of a detached single family home and a decent sized fenced-in yard.
The thing about cars is that they work fine in small numbers, but fall apart at scale. I grew up in fairly small cities with little traffic, so I know how painless cars can be. But I live in California now, and I can see how someone who has only known this could dislike cars.
I think remote work is probably our best bet right now. The trend of companies moving their offices to urban areas only seems to be gaining momentum.
Yap same here. See, I grew up in Europe, in a fairly dense city, with public transportation, right in the middle of the city, shops, bars, etc etc. So city life doesn't really have that romanic appeal like it does for many young people who grew up in American suburbs and now want to break out and feel the "energy" of the city.
Living in city for me, also means, more trafic, more people in your face, stepping on your toes. Apartments are fine, except when the neighbor above floods you, or has a party. When people piss in the elevator. When there is crime. When public transportation is packed and you are carrying home some stuff your bought and have a hard time getting onto a bus in rush hour.
So am quite happy in the suburbs. I understand it is the uncool choice here, but I like my flower garden, my grass. I like my neighbors but if they have a party, unless they light fireworks it won't bother me. I have to drive places but roads are well maintained and I don't got out in rush hour.
Also a big city (Washington, DC) is nearby and I can go there and experince all the energy, night life and other such things. But when it is over, I want to go back to my flowers and the green lawn.
I have worked in both, and business parks are useless for needing to get extra errands and things done, or meeting up with a friend for lunch or after work.
I live somewhere that we have a CBD but no "downtown" as such. If you wanted to park at the building, good luck, and if you wanted to park on the street, it would be better to shoot yourself early.
But there are quite a few dedicated parking buildings so for $15 a day you can park there, with only a 10-15 minute walk to work (if you didn't want to catch a train in, which I will never).
If I lived downtown, that would be a perk. But, living nearly 20 miles from the city center, yeah, downtown employment is torture. My wife tried commuting, two separate jobs, three years apart. Hated every moment.
