Love vs. Location

I grew up in what many would call an unusual family. We were never the
family if 2.3 children and a brick veneer home. From a wealthy bayside
suburb where all the footy players now seem to reside, we moved to a
wealthy country area and then back into one of the most sort after
suburbs if the time. Redefining the term 'cosmopolitan living', it
mixed bayside living with close proximity to pretty much every
conceivable need one could have. Moments from the CBD, it was right on
the water and seemlessly mixed what is now a benchmark for cafe
culture in Melbourne. For me none of this seemed out of the ordinary.
After all, wasn't this how everyone lived?

So begged the question: What was the point of living out in the
suburbs? I never got it, I have to say. I concluded from my own
thinking that perhaps people liked the lifestyle of days gone by. Of
having kids and letting them play with the neighbour's kids, popping
next door for a cup of sugar...that sort of thing. From what I could
gather, this had to be the attraction. People wanting to live like
it's 1950 and pretend the 'stranger danger' was not a reality, but
that their child was perfectly safe down the street with little Timmy
Jones.

So, perplexed by the value the outer suburbs held, the time came for
me to move out. There were not really many options I could see I had,
or more to the point - needed. A large contingent of friends in a
concentrated area also happened to be the location for the types of
places I was going out and so it made sense to live there. An inner
city suburb rich in cafe culture, it was sporting a vast array of
clothing shops only a latte or two away. I settled into my new
location easily and was immediately comfortable calling it home! I
also managed to plug a geographical gap in a line of friends that
would lead straight to our preferred club, meaning that if the first
one decided they were going out, they would collect the rest of us
along the way...the final stop being the aforementioned PBF.

It was not until very recently that I was given a new perspective on
why people might live in these outer suburbs I hear so much about -
yet know so little. The new romantic interest lives in one such suburb
and is building another house close by. He alerted me to the notion
that perhaps people could not afford to live any closer to the CBD.
What? Who were these people and where did they come from? Was this
common I wondered? Where did these people work? Or shop? Or drink
latte even? It all seemed so alien to me - like noticing for the first
time a tree you have driven past hundreds of times.

This ignorance soon came to an abrupt end when the subject of me
moving into the soon-to-be-built home in the outer suburb came up. 'Of
course I would consider' I said, unaware of what I was potentially
signing up for. So where does one start in researching life in the
'burbs? And would I even survive if I was to make such a bold
geographical move? All are questions I need answers to before I shoot
my mouth off again...

And so the question begs, what sacrifices will you make to ensure your
relationship remains intact? Would I go crazy in an outer suburb
filled with growing families and screaming kids? Would I develop a
complex living in such a suburb knowing full well that the majority of
people surrounding me would probably read the 'wrong' paper (if they
read one at all). Would I be surrounded by criminals a parent had
potentially sentenced to lengthy jail terms?! All of this for love?!
Suddenly love seems a bit dangerous!

Al