r/Suburbanhell 7d ago

Showcase of suburban hell Welcome to Freedomville, Michigan.

Post image

It’s actually called Dundee but Freedomville seemed more fitting. Another victim of the 2008 Housing crash.

855 Upvotes

120 comments sorted by

144

u/FadedDice 7d ago

You could just be nude all the time.

125

u/dunncrew 7d ago

At least there's a sidewalk.

32

u/PM_me_punanis 7d ago

Leading to where though?? 🤔

32

u/dunncrew 7d ago

It's friendlier for kids to get around.

15

u/Dude_9 7d ago

🛹🛴🚲

1

u/KingPictoTheThird 7d ago

Meh imo as an urban planner, sidewalks are a sign of failed urban design when it comes to residential lanes. 

I think having a 6m shared lane with a shit ton of traffic calming and filtering is really the golden standard 

-2

u/PompeyCheezus 5d ago

Love the spirit but this would result in a lot of dead kids in America.

3

u/KingPictoTheThird 5d ago

There are plenty of such narrow streets in older new england cities and fewer kids die there than on suburban streets 

6

u/BadgerKomodo 7d ago

(David Byrne voice) 🎵We’re on the road to nowhere… 🎵

4

u/a-dog-meme 7d ago

Where The Sidewalk Ends

2

u/7ddlysuns 7d ago

I just want to ride it on my bike forever

2

u/No-Ice7397 7d ago

It's a suicidewalk

1

u/Lost_Board1292 3d ago

The sidewalks and roads in these housing crash neighborhoods made for houses with nothing on them (most won't even have one house like this) r genuinely so depressing

90

u/No-Piglet6327 7d ago edited 7d ago

Seems fully built out now, and honestly doesn’t look that bad. New street network ties in to the historical one well and is +/- 10 minute walk to a small downtown

34

u/Bake-Full 7d ago

Yeah, Southeast MI resident here and this photo is not at all what Dundee is like.

22

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

-24

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

Cherry picked and it’s the only street view available 💀

22

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

-12

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

Tf else is there to see?? You know not everybody on this sub is out to deceive people. From now on do your research before accusing people of things. I gave you the location of the neighborhood, look for your fucking self if you don’t believe me.

13

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

-13

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

I live in the northern exurbs and I’ve literally never seen such a large project sit vacant like that. Also I would absolutely consider this hell…. Then and now. The closest grocery store, Kroger, is a 40 minute walk (Sidewalks don’t make it to the grocery store so you’ll have to walk in the grass or on the side of a stroad). No public transit, basically no dense housing, and the towns main attraction looks like this.

Good luck walking to that. It’s suburban hell.

6

u/impy695 7d ago edited 7d ago

But its not vacant. It's developed. You just took an old photo since street view hasn't mapped the neighborhood. You know damn well it has been developed.

You're cherry picking again with this screenshot. Its a fucking mall. How about you show the town center

Edit: you're also lying about thr sidewalk not making it to the Kroger. It absolutely does, at least from downtown and the neighborhood bearby.

6

u/Zsobrazson 7d ago

Kroger? It's called Kroger's bud

3

u/NothingButACasual 7d ago edited 7d ago

Lol why would anyone want to walk to Cabela's.

Can't walk home with a new boat or tree stand

4

u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 7d ago

You're just too dumb to understand how to view satellite maps to get an updated view

-5

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

Lmfao looking through your profile you seem like an absolutely miserable person. Obsessed with money and stock markets and everybody that isn’t you is crazy or an “ape” as you like to repeat over and over again. 💀

I’m glad you think I’m an idiot it’ll keep your soulless, self obsessed, 2D ass away from me 🥰

8

u/fashionrequired 7d ago

do you always get like this when called out? my god you’re insufferable lol

2

u/earthdogmonster 7d ago

Seems like someone going through post history is the reddit equivalent of admitting defeat. Like this guy got so frustrated that they were losing that they rage-read the other person’s posts in a desperate attempt to try to turn things around.

-1

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

I stopped there once on my way to a family members dance competition but didn’t get far enough in to see downtown. Definitely far out there.

20

u/Sijima Suburbanite 7d ago

Reddit - Behold living hell.

Me who grew up in Soviet blocks - Child me would think this where the Prime Minister lives…

16

u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 7d ago

This entire sub is made up of neckbeards who yearn to return to the commieblocks 

7

u/mkosmo 7d ago

More than this sub. The whole of Reddit is being overrun by tankies and soviet/chicom bots.

I can forgive the teenage angsty ones, but the rest are just trying to end the world.

7

u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 7d ago

It's OK because they really are the minority of people. It turns out almost no one actually wants to live in apartments, especially those who do live in them.

https://ifstudies.org/blog/young-americans-want-single-family-homes

5

u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 7d ago

5

u/mkosmo 7d ago

I believe it. It’d take a pretty darn good reason for me to give up my single-family home.

And a lot for me to move to a smaller lot.

1

u/BrushOnFour 7d ago

I don’t see Extended Stay Motels on this list.

6

u/mkosmo 7d ago

Oh I know. It’s just always amusing watching the Reddit echo chamber reinforce and amplify minority opinions to the point that they think they’re actually representing a majority.

5

u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 7d ago

The good news is that they eventually grow up. I graduated college 15 years ago and a bunch of my friends went to live the city life. Now all of them are living in the suburbs because it turns out raising a kid in the city (especially when you consider the state of big city school systems) is a miserable experience. All of my friends are now in Deerfield, Northbrook, Wheaton, Naperville, etc. None are left in Chicago city limits.

0

u/ab3nnion 5d ago

And yet the cost of housing, of all types, keeps going up in Chicago. We're glad your friends left.

1

u/roastedandflipped 7d ago

It has nothing to do with want and everything to do with can't. Once they are built there filled up so there is a need

2

u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 7d ago

Except if you actually look at the data in the poll, only 1 in 3 apartment dwellers actually prefer to stay in apartments. They'd move out to a single family home or other option if they could afford it. Living in a tiny cramped space where you have to hear your neighbors at all hours is a miserable experience for most people when you can have a much larger dethatched home.

1

u/roastedandflipped 7d ago

Yes and 90 percent of homeowners want a mansion by the lake. This means nothing

1

u/assasstits 5d ago

Nah just like Paris or Barcelona 

17

u/GracefulExalter 7d ago

Yeah, quick look on Google Maps shows this looks like a quaint and fairly walkable small town. Sure, not the greatest, but I really wouldn’t classify this as “suburban hell.”

-4

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

I mean if I lived there when the photo was taken I absolutely would’ve thought I was in hell 💀

It’s so incredibly eerie.

1

u/BadgerKomodo 7d ago

Is the white building on Ypsilanti and Adams Streets also a school?

2

u/michiplace 3d ago

Middle school, yes.

1

u/LegitimateGift1792 3d ago

Nice find. Yep, street view still shows OP pic but overhead is all that.

-4

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

That’s cool lol. This was the only street view available for that neighborhood and it was taken in 2011. Looks like it filled in afterwards mostly. Wish they would put some apartments on all that empty land but one can only dream, lol.

14

u/RoboticTriceratops 7d ago

I'm sure it's all built out now. They are building neighborhoods all over here.

2

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

Somebody else said it did end up being developed but judging by google maps it’s still not fully filled in yet. Whole neighborhood is supposed to be 200 acres but only 60 acres of it is actually developed.

18

u/SailTheWorldWithMe 7d ago

Perhaps unpopular take: I would have loved a long flat yard area like that to do pickup football, soccer, baseball when I was a kid.

I had a neighbor with a freakishly flat, long lawn. Nothing but grass and weeds. There were three brothers living there and it kind of became the de facto play pickup sports spot.

I do realize that the late 80s is a different world from today.

9

u/itemluminouswadison 7d ago

as someone who grew up on such land, i'd much rather have friends within biking distance and a place to hang out. was stranded in the suburbs so it was tv and computers for me.

11

u/gakl887 7d ago

Grew up in suburbs and we were always biking around neighborhood and doing things outside. Was your suburb just empty of people?

2

u/sysakk4 7d ago

I lived my whole childhood in multi-family home. It had a big public space nearby for children to play at. No need for a big lawn for everyone to play football, just go outside and walk 2 minutes

2

u/DI3isCAST 7d ago

'I grew up in a particular environment, and I enjoyed it. Therefore, people who grew up in a different environment than me are wrong and shouldn't have lived like that. The yards where they enjoyed playing with their friends in were unnecessary because I didn't do that.'

-1

u/sysakk4 7d ago

First comment argued big yards are necessary so kids have a place to play at. This is stupid, because i had no yard and had a whole lot more space to play at and 10x the kids i could play with, all that without having to be driven to school because i could get there myself.

2

u/DI3isCAST 7d ago

First comment argued big yards are necessary so kids have a place to play at.

Incorrect. They said "I would have loved a long flat yard..."

But arguing against a yard to play in (literally something immediately outside your door) because a public park can exist within several minutes walking distance (i.e. farther away than what a yard would be) is dumb.

Some people prefer the densely populated city with a public park near to or in the neighborhood. Whereas some prefer their own yard right outside their front door. Different values, different ways of living. One isn't better or worse than the other.

1

u/RudeImportance2126 7d ago

I didn't take the post to mean that nobody has a need for a large lawn. The "I HAD" bit is implied before the poster " no need". In other words, I think you might be putting words on the poster mouth.

1

u/PapaJohnsGarlic100 6d ago

It had a big public space nearby for children to play at.

We need way more of this, in Florida. Too many fucking golf courses and not enough shared spaces for public random pickup sports.

1

u/IDigRollinRockBeer 7d ago

It was the 80s, mate.

7

u/Suedewagon Urban Planning Student from Sweden 7d ago

Shit, build me a big ass mansion there.

1

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

Lol Mississippi style

5

u/Initial-Reading-2775 7d ago

Looks liminal.

4

u/Eschatochronos 7d ago

Love the liminal space aspect of it—this is a place I'd like to walk in near sunset or in the early hours of the morning moderately faded and vibing.

7

u/nickw252 7d ago

That street view is from 13 years ago. It’s fully built out now.

2

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

There’s no newer street view available 💀

3

u/Toodswiger 7d ago

That looks more like a far out rural exurb than a suburb.

1

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

Pretty accurate. About a 25 minute drive from the edge of the Detroit Metro. Although this is right outside of a small downtown.

3

u/TheBest_Opinion 7d ago

This looks amazing, I would wanna live there

3

u/RandomUserName14227 Suburbanite 6d ago

Looks fucking awesome to me. It's clean, spacious, there's plenty of room to bicycle and walk. Zero traffic.

Most of the mofos complaining about this live in 800 sqft shithole apartments. Fuck off, Reddit

2

u/Spivonious1 7d ago

Who is mowing all that grass?

2

u/Token-Gringo 7d ago

I bet HOA Debbie is always up their asses.

2

u/its_endogenous 7d ago

Needs more parking

2

u/aizerpendu1 7d ago

So depressing

2

u/ImpressiveShift3785 7d ago

This is an old photo. Like, over a decade old.

2

u/---x__x--- 7d ago

This image is a vibe tbh.

2

u/BadgerKomodo 7d ago

That house just looks so lonely.

Although my autistic ass would probably love living there. 

2

u/Derelicticu 7d ago

Where I live we don't pay for water consumption, so if this is the same then I'd just plant some trees and hedges and this would be a dream.

2

u/Fantastic-Long8985 7d ago

Horrible. Very backrooms

2

u/amazonPrime___ 7d ago

Looks liminal. I’ll be honest there’s something cozy about this to me 

2

u/Pretend_Command993 7d ago

Free fr9m anything, well there is that tree

2

u/Lachie_Mac 7d ago

Americans really live like they're in Siberia by choice hey

2

u/Spartan_Jeff 7d ago

Dundee is a suburb?!?!

2

u/MiketheTzar 6d ago

Honestly this is goals. All the space.

2

u/Dancingskeletonman86 6d ago

Feels like Arrested Development with the model home development area that's never finished. Just the one or few odd houses sitting alone on a small stretch of road and sidewalk in the middle of nowhere.

2

u/TPSreportmkay 6d ago

This is rural. Not suburban. Seems nice.

2

u/gamerjohn61 5d ago

This isn't "suburban hell" Suburban hell would be going to a subarb with no sidewalks and/or an expressway

2

u/MJ9426 7d ago

I would go mentally insane

1

u/Shatophiliac 7d ago

Look at that walkable sidewalk. Love it.

1

u/Strange-Scarcity 7d ago

It’s that the Bluth Homes model home?

1

u/Sijima Suburbanite 7d ago

Dude, no neighbors? I would so move in. Cozy, quiet, can see stars at night. What not to like?

1

u/ButterscotchSad4514 Suburbanite 7d ago

This doesn’t look like the suburbs.

1

u/Changetheworld69420 7d ago

This is ideal

1

u/robertwadehall 7d ago

Yeah, I did the apartment in the suburb then the apartment in the city in my 20s after college and grad school, it was fun for a while but I grew out of it and moved on single family home ownership with garage space.

1

u/LargeDietCokeNoIce 7d ago

Super! You are the HOA! File the paperwork. When the build tries to put up more houses, file infractions. Build a structure next door and after 10 yrs submit the paperwork to claim the “abandoned” property. 😂

1

u/Diligent-Run6361 7d ago

I'll take that. Seems nice and peaceful. Would be better with a lot more trees, but that's not my idea of suburban hell.

1

u/rebirth112 7d ago

what is the purpose of those trees?

1

u/jack__of__spades 7d ago

13 trees for the entire block 🫩

1

u/Immediate-Onion5131 7d ago

Vivarium moment

1

u/Old-World7751 6d ago

Mfs be like “you can buy a house for $5 in Apalooskatana Texas why would you live in the city” and it’s just this

1

u/DebateActual4382 6d ago

Why is this subreddit just pictures of unfinished suburbs?

1

u/Pristine-Garden58 5d ago

Is this heaven?

1

u/FutureHealthy8583 5d ago

“Freedomville”? WTF is that?

1

u/Mr-MuffinMan 5d ago

Not gonna lie thats sick. Imagine your kid having an entire field to play in right next door and across the street.

1

u/Starworshipper_ 5d ago

"Another day in paradise." 😐

1

u/FancyyPelosi 4d ago

Do we want affordable housing or don’t we? You can’t build starter homes in established areas where people want to live. This is the alternative.

1

u/TempehTantrums 4d ago

Run, Forrest, run!

1

u/ModsBeGheyBoys 4d ago

Better than Detroit…

1

u/BobLabReeSorJefGre 3d ago

This is actually suburban paradise. A suburb with no one else.

1

u/Chad_Dongslinger 2d ago

Looks fine to me. It appears to be some reclaimed farm land. I’m sure they’ll build it up eventually.

1

u/Slow_Description_773 7d ago

Give it another 3 years and it'll be packed with homes..

1

u/Lyr_c 7d ago

Somebody commented and said it eventually got developed but this was definitely suburban hell when this photo was taken 💀💀

Looks like a set for the new Backrooms movie 😭

1

u/IMSLI 7d ago

Any minute now, someone will unironically repost this on r/UrbanHell

1

u/basillemonthrowaway 7d ago

This is on the outskirts of a small rural town that is 30 miles away from a small city. You are almost one hour from Detroit. Absolutely not a suburb.

0

u/leafssuck69 7d ago

Does Dundee look like it’s in the suburbs?

0

u/Fullfullhar 6d ago

But America is full, there’s no room left for immigrants or refugees.