I think freediver had some very good points regarding youth living in the suburbs.. and foxy it's true that we face a different culture and different times.

Young people feel bored and isolated in the suburbs for a number of factors.

1. Streets are no longer safe to play on, in the good old days you could play cricket with neighbourhood kids on the street. Today there are many more cars on the road. It's too risky to play there.

2. Households are larger but with fewer people inside. With fewer people inside that means the average distance travelled to find a house of a friend or peer is further. And with a larger house that means the young people are more likely to spend time inside than outdoors, so kids never see their friends playing outdoors.
3. Kids get so used to having their leisure planned and structured by adults they do not know how to create fun for themselves.
4. Kids cannot get to exciting places due to lack of public transport services. Public transport is often only viable in areas of high density where more people are likely to come aboard and pay a fare at each stop. People are too dispersed in suburbs and it is too expensive to drive around and collect them.
5. Very little is within walking or biking distance. Kids and teens must rely on their parents for lifts to go any place interesting.

I believe boredom leads to deviant behaviour like vandalism, violence and drug abuse. with nothing to do, those kids who do find each other have the best fun by forming a gang and thrilling in destruction, violence and the high of drugs.

The monotony of suburbs creates this problem.. by breaking up the endless lots of houses with more shops and businesses and leisure activities (not just with grassy parks, fields and toddlers playgrounds), kids would be able to find stimulation and meeting places with their peers.

The main selling feature of suburbs to adults, (of quiet spaciousness) is the hell of boredom that their children must endure.