Your family experience describes to a “T” why the suburbs of the West Coast, Midwest, and Northeast trended strongly GOP in the 1980s. During the 60’s and 70’s, the cities became RAT holes. Whites fled the cities for the comfort of the suburbs. Their bad experience in the cities caused them to be wary of the Dems, so they voted for Republicans. Today, the cities are more manageable and livable. As a result, people are having positive experiences with urban life. As a result, the city dwellers are keeping their Dem voting habits where ever they go.
Well, the suburbs had been going GOP for a long time before that, for that matter. Astonishingly, a lot of those GOP-heavy suburbs, especially in the northeast, midwest and west coast, have all had a particularly nasty swing to the left. A lot of those “spoiled rotten” kids raised in relative privilege now vote as if they were raised in the barrio or ‘hood.
Alas, the section of Nashville my parents moved to when we fled NYC was a fairly decent semi-rural area that over 35 years became middle class suburban and more lower end today and Whites have fled, displaced by Blacks and illegals (with Blacks even leaving and being replaced more by the latter). Now our section of town is synonomous with crime and illegals. What’s really funny is that our section of town voted in the last Mayoral election for the more Conservative of two candidates (who had multi-racial support) while the rich (and ostensibly “Republican” areas) voted for the moonbat liberal (who won).