I really think it matters "suburb of what city", or "what suburb"? There may be some plain jane boring places, but there are also some amazing places. Just as you can't generalize people and be accurate or fair, you also can't generalize a TYPE of community (made up of people!!!) and be entirely accurate or fair.
As a small child, I lived on a 24 acre farm, out in the woods. A wonderful 100+ year old wooden farmhouse that my parents rennovated with things like, a bathroom instead of the outhouse, etc. (ha!) It was fun to talk walks and explore, kinda lonely but I was also very young and just didn't have much of a social life. Growing up from 3rd through 7th grade I lived in a subdivision outside of Houston and had fun, but it wasn't SO built up yet---we could walk to the park, the neighborhood pool, my elementary school to the left and my middle school to the right. We could ride our bikes through the woods, down the bayou, behind our house biking distance we could rent horses, and we lived close to a lot of things so on weekends we could go to the movies, the mall, out to eat, and to a young teen dance every month. We were busy with track, softball, volleyball, swim team, and football. Then we moved to Louisiana for 6 years and had a big yard and more rural style playing, but you could drive 30 minutes to either Baton Rouge or New Orleans and had the great stuff there. I spent time in several developing nations. I got a great flat that I shared with friends downtown where we could walk to the orchestra hall and movie theater, a lovely square with bars, coffee shops, restaurants, a bookstore, etc. But I knew nothing about my neighbors except about what time they came home. That was neat as a young adult. It all came full circle and we had kids and moved back to the suburbs between Ft Worth and Dallas. LOVED IT. Best place we've ever lived, for our needs, at least. We could walk to the park, the spray park, a pond to feed ducks and turtles, we had block parties, we knew our neighbors and had them over (or went to their homes) regularly and always for birthday parties, we were 1 1/2 miles from our private community pool complex (a resort pool, a garden covered waterfall pool, 2 waterslides, a baby pool, a full sized playground in the water with a giant bucket above it, a lap pool with an added deep end square and a shallow end square, tennis courts, basketball courts, and a fantastic clubhouse on a hill overlooking everything), community events (loved the Christmas festival with hayrides, Santa, Mrs Claus, elves, real reindeer, snow machines, toy soldiers on stilts, costumed characters, a community lazer tag and Wii competition on large blow up screens, cookie bakeoffs, etc, etc, etc), community sports teams that competed with other communities, loads of parks in the area, a skateboard park, an indoor soccer complex very close, baseball, football, soccer fields very close, award winning schools within bicycle distance from wherever you lived, just a couple miles from an old fashioned arcade, a bounce house center, batting cages, etc. Within 30 minutes in any direction you could eat any kind of ethinic food, the zoo, tons of museums and playhouses, some lakes to play at, and downtown Ft Worth. There were more camps, classes, outdoor activities, clubs, and events than you could shake a stick at. While the community was predominately white, my son's preschool class had 16 children in it, 5 ethnic backgrounds represented. My tiny church (40 people) would have 4 languages going on at once at the Christmas party---French, Spanish, English, Swahilli. I was proud to be able to introduce my son to new ideas and new customs, people that were different in where they are from or how they talked, but the same where it really counts. He also went on his first mission trip at 2 years old. It is the parents responsibility to go explore and bring their children out to experience the broader world. I worked with an innercity hispanic youth center for years and you would be surprised how many of them could not tell you how to get to their house from the movie they just watched, without taking you the long 40 minute bus route back (when they lived a few miles away), or who couldn't give directions anywhere outside their own little zone, and that was downtown. So families that fail to see the "big picture" come from all places: rural, suburban, or urban. The house we loved so much was the suburbs. But it was clean, safe, had the best of all worlds, TONS to do, and I would take great exception to someone calling it "suburgatory". We are proud that we were able to provide the experiences that living there afforded. And we joined groups that made sure everyone was covered: when I had my baby, we had people bring a meal a day for 2 weeks. When I had knee surgery someone down the street came to check on me and brought "quiet toys" to keep my 2 year old occupied. We kept an eye on each other without getting into each other's business. SO much fun. Perhaps its the city you live in, or even your own attitude, rather than the suburbs? (Because I've noticed a couple people from near this home I'm talking about that also say they love where they live). Granted, my son LOVED downtown and we were there nearly every weekend.
Now we live in a mostly rural but growing town (moved because of work transfer). I do miss the ability to have "stuff" around me. I love the beach and I love the woods, but I miss "stuff", lol. The options. But, home is where you hang your hat, and I'm realizing that it's up to me to make wherever I live a home I can enjoy.