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Suburbs, for sure. We both grew up in the burbs and like the feel of being outside of the city. We lived in a city together once and I will admit, it's nice having amenities within walking distance. I like having a big yard more than those amenities, though. Someday I'd like to live in a town where we have the yard and we can walk to the library or the store. That would be perfection.

@mrs. bee - wow, could it be that new yorkers are friendlier than people in california? that would be a shocker! i'd say that everyone knows their immediate neighbors around here (westchester).

I grew up the city, while DH grew up in a suburb of Boston. We now live in the burbs but in the future we would like to get a place closer to the city. I want my children to be exposed to different people/culture/experiences.

My husband and I both grew up in really small towns. The closest stores to us were a 30 minute drive away. We both liked the privacy and the freedom, but I hated being so far away from everything. Now we live in the suburbs, and I LOVE it. We're close enough to everything while being in a fairly small little community. So we'll be raising our kids here! Should be fun...

We live in the Bay Area, in a city of about 130,000 and I wouldn't mind raising kids here. We're a 45 minute train ride from San Francisco, have decent weather, all the stores that we want, people are friendly and we're 1 hour away from his parents, 3 hours away from mine. It's pretty perfect, for us.

Suburbs, for sure. I love having a nice big yard and BBQs and all that stuff, so I would definitely want to raise our children in that environment. Although living in the city does have its perks...

So torn on this. I love not having a car and walking to our favorite restaurant down the block, to the park, or hopping on the subway for a quick ride to Manhattan. Who needs a backyard when you have prospect park?

But the school situation freaks me out. Growing up in a suburb, there was no such thing as a bad school. We couldn't afford private schooling and we're probably priced out of the neighborhoods that have the good schools here.

I don't care so much about home owning, or having a car, and I could go the rest of my life without visiting a strip mall or seeing a cul-de-sac. But I don't want to sacrifice education and private school will never be an option for us.

My vote is for the suburbs, although I am biased because I have live in the suburbs most of my life. I'm not really a city person.

DH grew up in a small town and I grew up in a really small town. We live on a small lake with neighbors close enough to have a small town feel. We'd like to stay where we are until we grow out of our very small house and then move further out in the country. We are kind of in a sweet spot halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh and not much further from Columbus so day trips to a big city are not a big deal. We feel we have the best of both worlds. We're not really suburb people.

We are city people (Chicago) for sure!

I love the city and in Seattle, there are neighborhoods that feel somewhat suburban but have the benefit of being in the city! We just moved here from SF so that we could have the chance of affording to live in the city....we start house hunting seriously early next year.

Its funny because I sort-of think we live in the burbs now...when the reality is we live IN Boston...as in, if the paddywagon comes, it's the Boston Police. And we have our share of crime and grime. But since we live in and among single family homes, I don't consider it 'city'. So really, it is the best of both worlds. We know all of our neighbors - which is a total testament to our annual meet-the-neighbors after-the-holidays party - and we have a small slice of a yard and access to some awesome playgrounds...but we also have access to everything being downtown has to offer from both cultural and socioeconomical diversity to one of the best children's museums in the country to just the daily experience of getting on the bus/train/subway.

We don't plan to move until the kids are out of the house - in which case, we'd probably move closer into the city