I am a Suburbanite

Yes. Yes I am.

And I like it damnit.

With a few exceptions I have lived in suburban COTU all of my life. For all my protests about wanting to live in the downtown core proper, I am a suburbanite at heart.

I like my new subdivision with the view of farmland/the Niagara Escarpment in the distance. I like the fact that we live on a street with families. I don't mind the fact that there are only about 10 house designs and I live in a "cookie cutter" home. I like shopping at WalMart, Food Basics, HomeSense. I like eating at Swiss Chalet and East Side Mario's. I prefer to do my baking via a drive thru facility.

Of course, my little town has a lot of "little town" amenities even though my little town was the fastest growing suburb according to the 2006 Census. We have a weekly farmer's market from May-October. We are close to hiking, a (man made) beach, rock climbing, mountain biking, skiing (if you want to call it that), farm with pick your own options yet we are still only 45 minutes away from Toronto. We still have a true "downtown" strip with little shops and stand alone restaurants. Perhaps this has skewed my view of living in the 'burbs.

All I know is when I am at work and we begin to discuss targeting, we inevitably end up in a debate about the urban dwellers versus the suburban dwellers. Many truly believe that if you want to reach the young, hip, early adopters you will be only able to reach them in the true COTU, not in the outskirts. I vehemently disagree. Sure, I'm a 31 year old married mum who owns a home and drives a micro-van. But I wasn't always. I was also a young, hip, chick who had loads of discretionary income and lots of opportunity to spend it. All while living in the suburbs. Just because I don't have a "M" postal code doesn't mean that I'm not worth advertising something "cool" to. Just because I decided to put my roots down 40km away doesn't mean that my life is over and I'll never purchase a non-big box product again.

Just keep it in mind. There are loads of people 18-34 in the 'burbs. And we like it. And we'd like you to understand and talk to us too.