American Cities are UGLY: Why We Don’t Build Nice Places Anymore
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- Have you ever been somewhere and thought: Wow! This place is beautiful! Maybe its the fine details in the architecture, the sounds of people chatting and enjoying themselves, or simply the energy and atmosphere the place gives off. But you might have also wondered, why are American cities so ugly? Its the cookie cutter sameness of suburban neighborhoods, and the commercial strips surrounded by parking lots, chain stores, and gas stations. Of course there are many exceptions, but the vast majority of our cities are forgettable and soulless places. Places you only go to if you have to, and leave as soon as possible. And if this is all you’ve known, how could anything be different?
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➜ References & Further Reading:
How to Make an Attractive City - The School of Life
• How to Make an Attract...
The Rise and Fall of Modernist Architecture
www.inquiriesjournal.com/artic...
North Vancouver Zoning Guidelines
www.dnv.org/business-developm...
The I-45 Expansion Is Happening, So Get Out of the Way
www.houstonpress.com/news/rea....
Donald Shoup - The High Cost of Free Parking
www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-...
The trouble with minimum parking requirements
shoup.bol.ucla.edu/Trouble.pdf
Henry Grabar - Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...
Walmart or Smallmart?
www.strongtowns.org/journal/2...
How to Fight Those "Boxy Buildings"
www.strongtowns.org/journal/2...
Why McDonald’s looks sleek and boring now
www.vox.com/22736636/mcdonald...
Parking Reform Map
parkingreform.org/mandates-map/
➜ Timestamps:
0:00 American cities are ugly
1:06 The birth of Modernist planning
2:41 Highways destroyed our cities
3:48 The high cost of free parking
6:28 How to design a beautiful street
10:09 What does your city value?
11:31 It doesn't have to be like this
- flurf
#urbandesign #urbanplanning #americancities
Humans are meant to walk everywhere. It's free and healthy. I wish we went back to the glory days of people-oriented cities of walking and bikes. Even my friends agree.
Before autos, my family used horses to get around. Still have old photos of them with their horses.
@@laurie7689The REAL horsepower.
I saw some people in my city in Texas on horses. It was a rare occurrence because I only saw it once.
even his friends agree
American city planners forgot that we have 2 feet and 1 ass for a reason. LOL
Exactly. Bc being able to walk everywhere is true freedom. You don’t need a license to walk, don’t even need to be sober to walk.
This is one of the reasons why in my opinion, the US is so boring. It's sameness everywhere. All people do is work, go home, turn on the TV or go on the internet, and that's really about it.
Not a lot of time to socialize and meet people either. People complain about being isolated, but then live the most solitary lives humanely possible.
@@felixthecat2786 in large part due to the horrible city and suburban design
What a broad sweeping statement..its all relative to a multitude of factors..there are many interesting places in US..
That is becoming a worldwide issue.
Just about the only places that aren't ugly are the the centers of small towns where much of the historic buildings survive but they are slowly changing for the worst.
I agree America needs more walkable and scenic places for people to gather. This has a psychological effect on people.
It will just be overrun with homeless or tourists. Look at Europe in the summer. You can hardly walk and cities are now banning air bnb and tours. People are not the solution to the problem. People are the problem.
Too much brutalism too...and cheap corporate buildings like Walmart and McDonald's everywhere.
There are walkables & mass transits of USA cities: Boston; NYC; Philly; Baltimore; DC; Chicago; Charleston SC; Savannah GA; New Orleans; Memphis; San Francisco; Seattle.
It definitely does. I see so much loneliness in young men and women these days, especially men. I feel like so much of this can be solved by having public spaces again where people can hang out and congregate
@@cjhan9816 Yeah, those cities have it, but some need more. Those are also not where everyone in America lives. Those are merely some of the largest, but a lot of the transit there is terrible.
Spot on. Car-centric infrastructure is not what make cities attractive to tourists, neither local visitors.
I'm fairly certain America is in 2nd place for international tourists.....
@@baronvonjo1929a quick google search shows you're correct. But I think the tourism is limited to a few cities (New York, Miami, Las Vegas, San Francisco).
@@baronvonjo1929 As an international tourist in America, my family and I visited Orlando and Miami, and planned going to NYC, but got ill.
But we’re not building cities for tourists we’re building them for the people whom lives, works and enjoys it on a regular basis
@@juangracia6394 That’s a lie I live in Cincinnati and by the traffic you can definitely tell when people are from out of town it’s crazy how people make these asinine assumptions when it’s plenty of areas in every city to go walk and play in the multiple parks in your neighborhood what I’m guessing is people must watch the propagandist NEWS media 🤷🏽♀️💁🏽♀️💁🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️
We build cities for cars.. not people
Future cities are designed for people to connect not for vehicles to connect. That is present cities
Soon, American cities will be built for airplanes, not cars.
Cars are amazing. They allow people to travel further. It means non wealthy people can travel to work.
@@Art-is-craft 🤔 Whoa.. deep
@@Art-is-craft This is specifically what this video is about, we don't need cars to live, we're forced to use them. There are plenty of ways to go long distances without cars, they're all useful but cars take up a disproportionate amount of space that should be space for people.
Houston IMO is the worst city I've ever been to. Landed, went to my hotel, made the mistake of trying to walk 2 blocks to get lunch. Literally the only people walking were me and the homeless. I had to sprint across a 6 lane road and god forbid you try to walk down one of their "sidwalks" that go past the parking lots for strip malls, you also have to sprint and be ready to jump over a car exiting or entering, because no one will even consider that someone would be stupid enough to walk.
This is no exaggeration. I recently saw a news segment here about a guy crossing a HOU street, was killed by a car. The comments blamed him for walking, that he must’ve been homeless, etc. The whole scenario is so dystopian now. Glad you made it out alive!
I appreciate this type of content but I feel like I'll be long dead before America is an urbanist paradise.
i think were going to start seeing small hubs of urbanism in and around strip malls, and around transit, in the near future, because there is a huge housing shortage and politicians may find that upzoning strip malls is more convenient than upzoning suburbs.
@@daikon711 But then you'll have the Toronto "Avenue Plan" effect: rows of mid-rise condominiums overlooking seas of single family homes.
Could be worse in Canada not just shown in video start
Places like that already exist and they're mostly historical cities. NYC. Boston. Baltimore. San Francisco.
The reason Europe is so walkable is because the urban fabric is from times when cars didn't exist and weren't the focal point of planning. As long as people want a large backyard and continue to drive their cars it's simply impossible.
I could well see things changing in the next 20 years but you have to lay the foundations for things to chnage , in the history of north America suburbia only appear in the aftermath of the post war period so technically not a big timeline in the history of north America. Things can change but we must take the steps to do so .
Americans have some strange thoughts about urban planning. The big box stores at the edge of towns/cities killed the small shops on main streets. That’s the reason why these are prohibited in my country, permits to build these are scarce, I know of a few in the whole country. We have small supermarkets in town/city centers and no big supermarkets in the suburbs, so everyone can shop walking or cycling. The only big box stores outside town/city centers are furniture, home decor and DYI stores with big volume items you want to transport with a car or truck.
It wasn't some strange thinking, my boy, they did it so we can buy more cars, gasoline, fast food etc. 😂
it's about convenience... I rather be able to buy groceries, clothes, medicines and home improvement stuff in one store rather than have to walk or take trains/buses to several small shops. In a big box store like walmart/target/sams I can do it all in an hour, in one day, once a week (sometimes once every two weeks) and never have to worry about going to the store to buy something. The rest of my time I spend it with friends/garden/hobbies/work etc. Also I dont like being around too many people. I dont want to see them or hear them. So living in my suburb away from the loudness is very peaceful. If I want to play (bars/discos and stuff), then I just uber to the downtown area, then I uber back to my quiet suburb and sleep all day without ANY noise. I dont want to hear my neighbors have sex, their kids screaming or their teenagers blasting bass music through the walls of really close apartments one on top of the other. Also I hate loud cars and downtown areas that have housing very close to one another have a LOT of loud cars. I have a pretty decent backyard where I get to hear birds, crickets, frogs, wind, a waterfall I installed and enjoy my huge garden instead. Most people that live in suburbs are small families or retired folks. They tend to be nicer, I know most of the ones around me and we have built friendships. It's a win! When I lived in a tight city I didnt talk to any neighbors and everyone was just angry and pushing each other away. I understand why people are attracted to having mixed used living but some of us dont really like it except to visit as a tourist. Having both choices is a great thing. America has both.
@@ivanrodriguez268Typical suburban U.S. mentality.
@@antoniofranciscogarcia1707typical weird European worrying to hard about US lol
Dude, ever hear corporate who love money? Well, American is a hungry money who only needed
Gosh I'm obsessing over your videos right now, there's so much important info here.
When people say "Americans have no culture" this is why! Our cities are so flicking soulless! America DOES have culture but it's all been erased by our laws and corporations. Ugh, it makes me so mad.
If it's all been erased that means America no longer has culture.
Yep. People from the US say we have no culture, not because it's true, but because the culture we do have is so obviously hideous and shameful that we don't want to think of it as culture. Add to that a helpful dose of cultural ignorance and Americans assuming that whatever they experience is universal until shown otherwise, and treating the American ways of doing things as the default - same reason Americans think everyone else has an accent, but they don't. Yes we have a culture, it just sucks.
@@notnullnotvoidalso America is quite the melting pot and one of the highest places of immigration and people bringing other nations cultures in...makes it harder for one specific US culture to form and be present...when it's more like a hub for all other cultures from all around the world smashed together.
That and mega corporations and commercialism make it hard for a cultures to thrive...when nothing is made by real life people in the nation lol. Just soulness billionaires. Science also can damper culture a bit...or the more faith/religion side of culture. Not saying this is bad either...often times those sides of the culture aren't the best. But just saying...if you're not making up songs to pray for rain and believing in all sorts of gods and such. Its less of a culture in that regard.
Americans have culture not sure about Canadians though
@efeddwdw9782 canadians have culture too lol. Spoils ahead...every nation has culture. Simple as that. Some more than others perhaps sure.
It will never change as long as the vehicle companies and 2-day shipping companies lobby Congress to believe this is more important than habitable centers of humanity.
Amazon would save so much if they could ship by drone direct without trucks amd by bicycle
Good idea I forgot about that, it's in testing right now I think.@@fortheloveofnoise9298
@@fortheloveofnoise9298how tf they gonna just switch to drones? No matter what fantasy world you live in it wouldn’t happen
@@bigbk3278 maybe not "just" but they could definitely afford to adapt.
@@Saurygieldefinitely
A few months ago I started a new job and took public transport. I was walking roughly a mile a day all together, previously I was walking 1/4 mile at best. I have already lost 8 pounds and have gained increase mobility in my hips, and alleviated some back pain. I forgot how healthy walking is for the human body.
That's great I remember being able to walk or ride my bike to places
That’s good but maybe your problem was you just needed to start working out than walking everyday to work.
Fantastically inspiring!
This is what happens when corporations design a country. The number one importance is money, then it's people.
I think Asian and European countries do a good job of balancing walkable cities, cars, bike paths, public transportation, etc. While US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc decided to go with car dependency way. Over the years, here in the US we've gotten use to it, so we think this is the best way to live. It's until they travel overseas they realize there are better ways of doing things.
I have said the same thing for years -- I'm finding out that New Zealand is getting better slowly, though....
A lot of Americans treat European cities as sole tourist attractions. "OH yes riding the metro was fine and the architecture was stunning. Then there we go back to reality where we have to drive through dead cities."
I can't speak for all of Australia, but Melbourne has really lovely urban planning. Much more so than almost anything in the US
I was in a small city in the USA for a while and I couldn't go anywhere because in most places there weren't even sidewalks. You had to either walk on the road or step on the grass. Just horrible.
Also, all that parking reflects heat and the production of all that cement contaminates a lot.
Villages outside London are similar, with only the small centres having pavements (sidewalks) and higher car speeds (50, 60mph) in the suburbanized hinterlands, making walking more hazardous. You may have to cut through the countryside, on paths and in groups, to walk safely.
places without sidewalks drives me batty... residential areas and any area with high traffic like town centers and shopping centers etc needs sidewalks. why would I want to move somewhere and not have a sidewalk I would never want to go outside, especially with how high pedestrian death and injury rates are in the US
@@ninjagriff Absolutely! I’m always looking to buy a home & the one thing I refuse to even consider in a n’hood is lack of sidewalks. It’s uncivilized.
Thank you for including South American examples, even if it was just Brazil 🙏 I am not from North America and I grew up thinking that cities in the US and Canada were like New York becuase that's what media sells, but when I learned through my boyfriend from Georgia, US that's not the reality I was hugely disappointed.
AmeriKKKa is a prison, it's to not have any sense of pride or happieness.
We don’t if your disappointed at our country it’s not for you
@@adamblack6867 Yeah, it's not for me. But I was under the impression that it was different.
yeah so tell everyone to stop flooding into the US, it's not necessary..... life is better where they're from, and we don't have room for them, they're only going to be miserable, and we're already overpopulated -- by a large amount.....
You wouldn't be alone. My father is an engineer from Germany that travels a lot, mother is a teacher from Ethiopia. I lived in both countries, so when I heard we were moving to the US I had a bunch of great images of the US come to mind. I was so baffled when we ended up in an unwalkable Pittsburgh suburb (parents still happily live there) instead of the cute US suburbs you see on TV and movies.
But hey! I went to college in Philadelphia and had a great time there. Since college, I have seen a lot of great things about the US too, including cute pedestrian-friendly suburbs. I love the US, but man we need some TLC here!
I'm so sick of cars I can't even see straight anymore.
Same. I used to be a car head now I hate them I don’t like driving anymore
I agree. Noise, Traffic. Parking lots. It’s exhausting.
That’s all it is. Cars,Parking lots,Highways,Roads,Suburbs,More parking lots,and Money
We are not progressing at all.... In fact we are going backwards... even our architecture is way more inferior than the times when we had no power tools and the only transportation was horse and buggy.
You mean, we are regressing.
@@analyticalhabitrails9857 It'd be nice to regress back to the point of cozy livable places, I don't think regressing is even the right word for it either.
The best time of my adult life was the 13 years I lived in a large U.S. city with an extensive train and bus network. Not needing to own/park a car was FREEDOM! My former neighborhood has sensible narrow streets, not stroads, and the nearby retail/dining district (8 minute walk for me) features independently-owned businesses (hardly any national chains). It is heaven! People who ONLY know the car-centric, sprawl, cookie-cutter house lifestyle don't know what they have missed out on.
Being stuck in a concrete jungle is the opposite of freedom .
@@adamblack6867 Cities are not concrete jungles. That's a huge lie
Don’t let the secret get out.
@@adamblack6867 Hardly. Tree-lined residential city street is NOT a concrete Jungle. Get out of your suburb once in awhile.
@@adamblack6867 Why? Why do you say that?
Perhaps the title should say "North American Cities". There are a lot of Canadian places mentioned here.
Should just be titled “modern cities”. You go to any corner of the globe and you’re gonna find cities like this, albeit they did emerge in North America first:
Came here to say the same thing. I laughed when all the examples of bad cities were in Canada
@@sledgerendI think that's mostly just because the creator lives in Canada.
@@fatboyRAY24 Not really. Europe doesn't have these problems to the same degree. They're more a problem with the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Persian Gulf oil countries, and to an extent, South Africa and certain parts of Latin America.
@@fatboyRAY24 tell me you've not travelled the world without telling me
This is SO right, its so lonely out here man 😭
Why do you live anywhere but new york that's your fault bozo ur an npc
this video literally showed the city I’m living in as an example ;-;
It is so grey, so vast, so boxed in, so lonely. There is nothing here even worth fighting for, it feels like. They wonder why no one joins the military. Look at what they're defending.. This isn't fucking Italy, there's nothing here that feels like it was meant for us. 90% of the country is just this dreary pure-function, thing, it's a big nothing.
I live in Montréal. It has its problems, but the measures they're taking to repair the destruction car dependency wreaked on this city have really improved the quality of my family's life. Our street went from scary, dirty, and noisy, to way safer, cleaner, and more livable, due to increased priority for pedestrians and cyclists. They turned our street from a 2 lane nightmare to a 1 lane quiet residential street. We live a 15 minute walk from the local summer-pedestrianized street and can get there through ruelles vertes - green alleys that the neighborhood decided to ban cars from and turned into a safe place for families to play and walk. On holidays, the alleys are decorated, and when school isn't in session, all the neighborhood kids are out playing unsupervised, forming a sense of community, playing free like I used to in the 90s with my siblings and friends. In the summer when the main street is closed, the air quality is so much better, people go down to the street just to hang out and enjoy the vibes, and there's music, comfy places to sit, and lots of space for shops and restaurants to spill out onto the sidewalks. I really love my city and it gets better every year.
T'habites sur quelle rue?
I’ve lived in Annapolis, Maryland for decades. It is a tourist destination because much of the Colonial-era flavor that encompasses downtown and the State House remains. Moving away from the city core, we have some beautiful, established neighborhoods, but those are largely high-income, waterfront communities. The rest of the area is no different than most of the rest of America, with many swaths of the city being as ugly as the downtown is beautiful.
European cities are ugly outside of the main historical centres. There is grass is always green on the other side ideology at play.
@@Art-is-craft Your remarks on this video are a joke. You’re so jaundiced against anything that doesn’t reflect a “USA! USA!” bias that you’re making some very incorrect comments. You CAN love some things about America & hate others without throwing out anything better the rest of the world is doing. I spent decades visiting Scandinavia, for ex. & I KNOW the many burbs outside Copenhagen are attractive, functional, & house contented residents & business owners. Your attitude doesn’t help your case, whatever that may even be.
@@TeutonicTribe
European countries are experiencing a population collapse because they did not build suburbs. The Nordic countries cannot exist without the US protecting them. The Nordic countries are in better shape than the central and southern Europeans.
There was a former fish processing plant turned into a walkable mall with small shops & such. It pretty much was an ugly place. It surprisingly didn't take much to make it pleasant with some decorative lighting, themeing and the brick there still in good shape
Well, you're comparing a mall to a fish processing plant. Not a fair comparison.
@@HyperboreanJim861 yea fish processing plants beautiful it's not a fair comparison 😂
@@zuffin1864 There are some that are especially if they have beautiful fish. But, thats not most of them and most of them aren't intended to look beautiful. Thats besides the point because you said it was an ugly place before it was turned into a mall.
@@HyperboreanJim861 joke is traditional malls are uglier because of sprawling parking lots and bad architecture
I just accepted that we will never change our cities in my life time.
But you can always move to a better city :)
@@juangracia6394 No. You really can't. All walkable cities are for the rich. I could never afford it.
There is still hope
@@baronvonjo1929then you gotta move out of the us
@@costaskl6589 There is not single other nation on the face of this planet I could move to.
Moving would require learning another language in many cases. I can barely speak English after two decades. There is zero hope of learning another.
But there is also nothing for me in other nations. No home to welcome me. No friends or family to support me. No job to fund all of this in another nation. No idea about all the other small things.
Not certain I would feel welcome as a American either. The world has made it very clear how much they hate us.
Moving to another nation with the only pro being public transportation really makes no sense to me honestly. Even if they had stuff like healthcare and other safety nets there are far too many cons.
This US model with its zoning insanity is still infecting Australia today. Car ownership, the desperate rite of passage for the young, perpetuations the reduction of reliable public transport, inevitably leading further to social isolation and atomisation of these model and cheaper 'suburbs'.
That literally has nothing to do with America lol. Stop grasping at straws and embrace they fact your government screwed yall over. You just want to be xenophobic and blame something Australia is doing to itself.
I recently visited and it's tragic what Australia has become. It's practically North America but with a British twist and a generous serving of in your face racism. At least the overall aesthetic of Australia is not so gritty and ugly like most the US
/Canada.
@@featherkingdom449do us all a favour mate, don't visit again.
@joanneburford636he said the truth though4
@@joanneburford6364As an Australian, he has a point. Our architecture and zoning laws are terrible. It's doesn't reflect natural law or aesthetics
Many cities are just a work campus where ppl live and eat but it all revolves around work
I agree hate cities
@@reyy568 but suburbs suck even more
Basically most cities in the US
@@user-fs2yd3ky4t we just suck in general
This is sadly true. Most of them were functioning from the revenue of businesses and workers before Covid. It's a sign of an empty bubble economy.
We need to bring back urban communities again
As an artist, I have to comment that this gift is not encouraged any more because “there’s no money in it”. Except for the millions spent on an overly simplistic thing like a white canvas with a red square on it, which is comparable to the boring people boxes we now call buildings. Creativity is not allowed or taught in schools…..even 65 years ago we had only two hours a week for art, which barely gave enough time for set up, instruction, execution, and cleanup. It is an essential activity to balance out the right side of the brain. Hundreds of years ago there were amazing architects, sculptors, and designers that created beautiful rejuvenating spaces for people to exist. Now we have to go overseas on vacation to rest and have this experience. America has become the Dollar Store of the earth, not visually reflecting the Freedom which we claim.
In our 2,000 person village, there is a picture from the early 50’s and our square looked entirely different. The grass area of the square was much larger because it did not have parking all the way around. The sidewalks were larger because it was a 2 land road and not 3 lanes. Buildings had beautiful stained glass windows exposed instead of how they are not, boarded up with siding.
in Italy a 2000 person village means you basically can't drive in it, which makes it way more majestic and beautiful. In America on the other hand, a 2000 person village only means that you will have the same proportions of the big cities and the only difference will be it being completely empty.
love the worldwide examples, you really do it better than most urbanist channels
Exactly. Most urbanist channels act like only Northern European cities have gotten it right (with a special fetish for Amsterdam somehow), when there are plenty of examples of good planning in Italy, Spain, South America, China, India, and other places.
@@joeyp1927 They miss Southeast Asian Cities also .
Yes. Basically, they miss anything not European.@@bl1zz4rd25
@@joeyp1927
Europe had horrible planning. It was designed to restrict people hence why every European city has been a disaster. With out the suburbs Europe has no chance.
@@joeyp1927All they talk about is Northern Europe. Like what about Asia,Africa,South America, and Oceania some North American Countries have them too like Costa Rica and Panama.
9:54 there's an error there, that's not Rome, that's Barcelona
BarceRoma
@@Brindlebrother 😂 Good one! But yeh, it is Barcelona.
@@rayvaul3539 He wasn't making a joke. That's his accent.
Way to hurt someone's feelings, he has trouble with his Ls.
Labour is too expensive in Canada and the USA. Everything is built as cheaply as possible..
And STILL too expensive!!!
Lot of anti-North American rhetoric here. Perhaps you think WE SHOULD IMPORT MIGRANTS from ASIA like India and force them to stay not giving them returned visas till a project is line.... check out how they built the tallest building Burj Khalifa in Dubai with dirt-cheap migrant labor. DOES EUROPE DO THAT? I DOUBT IT. They too have a housing crisis NO? What is their problem?
On the flip side, if you want people to labor for you, you need to pay them enough to live comfortably. I think the real problem in the US is that too much money is being bottled up at the top, making the everyman work harder and longer for less and less. This creates an economy that will sooner or later eat itself.
Labour is expensive in Europe, especially when you factor in the benefits they get, but they don't build on the cheap to the extent we see in the US, it's all about the profits in the US, not labour cost.
Besides, arnt labour cost more expensive in places like New York? Which from an outside perspective, New York looks far more interesting than most of the US does.
@@davidw7 Canada has imported almost 2 million Indians in the last two years. What do you think we need so many? Provide cheap labour. Almost every minimum wage job is now done by Indian immigrants.
You said it! You mentioned all the factors, but still kept it short and sweet but non-repetitive. I especially liked the quote you added, "It's unfair to have cities where parking is free for cars and housing is expensive for people." Even as an urbanist, it really opened my eyes, and that made me realize how backwards we have it. Cars are not a bad invention, but they have been overused to the highest degree.
I love Seoul because of all the parks and places just to enjoy the city without spending money.
I'm surprised how Americans allowed the car industry to suck the soul out of American cities and have made them the ugly mess they are today.
When it comes to designing cities, usually it's quite organic and not organised, at least historically speaking, there's nothing wrong with having clever designs when building cities but there should be enough variety that makes them interesting and different from each other, and more importantly, people friendly, which a lot of North America isn't.
It does look like change is happening, but we'll have to see to what level it goes at, either way, trying to separate housing and business districts from each other was probably the biggest mistake the US made, it ended up forcing the need for cars, it pushed up the average energy consumption of Americans and made most cities look dull, whiles also lowering the quality of living.
America big. Europe small. Busses and trains work for whatever little ass country you live in but there is too much land to cover here for those to be reliable.
@@theImpaler710wtf are you talking about? Europe is literally larger than the USA in area.
It shouldn’t take a genius to understand that American cities require cars BECAUSE they were built spread out for cars… NOT the other way around.
It’s incredible you are unable to recognize this.
@@ROVA00 North America is 10,000,000 square miles. Europe is just shy of 4,000,000. Which number is larger 10,000,000 or 4,000,000. Most of Europe fits inside Texas.
@@theImpaler710 wait, are you including Canada??? The one with mostly empty unpopulated space and almost everyone lives along the USA border?? Lol
Because the USA is tough toy 3.5 million miles^2…. Definitely smaller than Europe.
@@theImpaler710 lmao I guess the population is evenly spread across the entire continent. Oh wait, no, we have concentrations of population which are called cities. Outside of the context of intercity rail the size of the country is irrelevant. Just look at the data, no actually, just look around you. Americans are routinely making car trips which would be completely viable and much more sensible through other modes of transport. Half of all car trips in the us are under 3 miles. Karen isn't driving 5 blocks down to queue her suv up at the local school because the country is too big. It's the result of decades of car-centric policy and the culture which has formed around it. This is the most lazy excuse and it's so extremely common that I think we need an faq or some shit at this point.
The U.S. has become a nation of shoppers. Esthetics takes a back seat - way in the back - if there's an opportunity to shop, no matter what strip malls and big box stores do to the landscape.
I miss when traveling to different states it felt like you were in a different state. Now they all look a like
I went from my neighborhood out into the suburbs the main roads are wide and lined with fast food chains and large soulless stores. The houses aren’t falling apart so they’re considered nice but they’re severely overpriced for their sub par quality. The only thing good about their neighborhood is that they have clear streets to drive on because snow plows actually plowed their roads unlike mine.
Philly used to look so nice back in the early 20th century. Even back in the 70s/80s & the public transportation was better.
Philly isn’t bad now by any measures.
@@phillygrunt2154 still looked a bit better. Public transport was so much better & 95 wasn’t built so you could have easier access to the river
@@Michaelengelmann we were left with a lot of grit due to 500,000 leaving
@@phillygrunt2154 that’s how many left bc of 95?
Philly is one of the most dangerous cities in the USA now .
I play a lot geoguessr amd I hate when I get American cities because almost all of them look like a gigantic parking lot or a totally generic suburb (except NY and SF)
"Places you only go to if you have to". That's a great summary of how I feel whenever I go outside. It's depressing but it's the reality for many Americans right now - especially when you don't live in a bustling city.
I landed temporarily in a southern Plains city where there is plenty of vast sprawl (because LAND!), few sidewalks, & the most barren, tree/shrubbery-bereft shopping centers & parking lots I’ve ever seen. And I have seen 40 of our states, at least & lived in eleven. So, until I leave I’m buying a lot of my needs via delivery. It’s just unbelievably soul-sucking what people will accept in America.
because of individualism and people disliking fearing their neighbors and surrounding people
When you work around people all day long, each day, all the frigging time; you get tired of looking at their faces and hearing their loud voices. US Americans, unlike Europeans, don't get many days off of work. We're lucky if we even get to take our required breaks. Our suburban homes are our castles complete with moat (wide roadways).
@@laurie7689 Europeans work as much if not more than Americans, in America you get atleast 2 weeks of work a year, here u are lucky if you get a week off, not mentioning that we sometimes work 7 days a week. The problem is that living in an enviroment which kills the sense of community, which kills happiness and imagination, living in an enviroment where everything is the same everywhere. That makes you sad and depressed, which leads to not liking people. America is no longer meant for people, but instead, for cars.
@@erbananito_3843 It wouldn't matter if cars existed, or not. I still wouldn't like people. Being around people has made me not like people. Personally, I wouldn't mind going back to the horse and buggy days. I'd still be riding on my own.
@@laurie7689 that is your personal hate for human contact, I was talking more generally but I guess you are right
@@erbananito_3843saying Europeans work more than Americans shows y’all are just being ignorant. Europeans literally have more benefits not to mention free days to no work. Y’all love to just be talking and putting others down to praise the things y’all think it’s better. It’s ignorant.
American cities ought to be a lot nicer than they are today, downtown areas especially in the west seem to be at least 25% parking lots if not more.
While European cities ban cars from their centers.
The highest appreciated cities in the world are those which evolved over centuries and retained those parts built in different periods and styles.
Examples are Prague, Czech Republic; Edinburgh, Scotland and Riga, Lithuania where different structures and building styles reflecting the development over the centuries exist in the same city.
European city’s are tiny
@@adamblack6867and beautiful
@@recipoldinasty
They are not more beautiful when you understand what they are. European cities have been a disaster.
@@Art-is-craft I don't think you 'understand what they are' yourself.
@@PoyYTTO
They are over planned societies now facing down a population collapse. That is what they are.
Thanks for the thoughtful ideas. I suspect that at some point commercial interests took over Modernism, and this 'clean' aesthetic has been pour into the unformed minds of humanity for decades now. I have an interesting lecture on the value of Texture, you might check it out. It adds more meat to your ideas.
Living in the Chicago area…some suburbs have tried to become more walkable, (Naperville, Downers Grove etc.) but others as the one I currently inhabit(Bolingbrook), while technically walkable, it’s just traipsing twixt strip malls, warehouses, and the occasional bike path (not connected to anything useful). On the other hand I can take the metro to downtown Chicago (gotta drive to that) and spend an entire day just strolling around looking at stuff.
Other walkable cities in the Chicago area, are Oak Park, Forrest city, and Evanston (which all 3 are located in Cook County Illinois where Chicago is at).
There are countries today that are far ahead the US in terms of development and innovation.
Please move to them please, stay out of US
@@azulaquaza4916Yeah, I don’t have intentions for coming to the US anytime soon, I don’t want to deal with gun violence and places that have no sense of place (or relying on a car to get around everywhere)
@@mikelherrasti2697 Good, tell your family too! It’s scary scary 👻👻. You WILL NOT SURVIVE
@@azulaquaza4916 this 2023, the US was ranked as the 131st safest country out of 163 countries. Yup, definitely do not plan on visiting anytime soon!
@@mikelherrasti2697 Ikr! The people at the border don’t seem to understand either though 😩
Incredible comparison at 6:20! Keep it up flurf! Loving the content and excited to see everyone connect so well with it 😊
i was always fascinated with cities and just seeing people walking around not in a car makes me feel alive… when i’m old enough and ready i’m leaving this country to someplace else with beautiful cities and lively people n stuff
You might, or you might travel & learn a few things but return back to be one of us who are contributing to a better US lifestyle.
I can completely agree with you. Where I live, there's this beautiful downtown city-area that's decently old and is fun to walk around in. There's a beautiful plaza in the center of it, a large statue, and a beautiful library. Unfortunately, cities today lack the charm and beauty of old ones,which is very sad.
The US cities and towns need town squares allowing for free human commerce. A shopping mall is private property and not like the old world common space. Good report, thank you
Yeah, even these new suburban attempts at “town squares” are just inside-out shopping malls. They always lack the real necessities like a grocery, a pharmacy, small hardware, 5&10 sundries, a library, etc. Sure, you can parade around, dine out & window shop the boutiques but you’ll also drive there & then you STILL have to get in traffic to the big box stores on the stroads for your basic needs.
Minneapolis ended minimum parking. The city kept getting more and more beautiful after that. Yes, even after 2020.
The impoverished North end is the direct result of Interstate 94 cutting through and dumping lots of cars into it.
Yup, people on holidays always raving about and taking pictures of people centric open markets and streets, shops, etc. Then come back home to car centric cities and resist any planning to make any areas more people friendly and less car centric. Sad.
Too many guns and maniacs to have open spaces in the USA .
And people who willingly spend a lot of money & time to ‘do Europe’ but never ever considered visiting the best of our own towns- Charleston & Savannah, for example. How cool it could be, too, if some of these lovely old towns (which have some poverty & neglect outside the tourist districts) were seen as places that could EXTEND the greatness further out… it’s not like progress isn’t gonna sprawl into the landscape anyway. We could have real n’hoods that are new but better than one more congested car-centric suburb after another.
Capitalism and profit motive of American corporation.
Highways did absolutely destroy America, in the United States one of the dark truths about highways was that they were built for to split black and white communities in a lot of major cities we see today, true American cities are ugly but there are still many very beautiful ones like, key west, st Augustine, Charleston, Savannah, and so on. But we gotta accept that things will always change and never be the same and we can’t stop change no matter how hard we try. On another note, its also up to our politicians to but only if they cared about the actual people and not themselves and their money.
All our food and supplies arrive via highway
@@adamblack6867 But he's not wrong in that many politicians purposely built them in a way to destroy urban housing and separate/isolate black communities. It's a pretty well established fact at this point.
I'm all for a functional and practical highway system. I just don't think we have to destroy cities for them. Rochester NY is a great example of a city that chose to fix this issue.
They split black communities. Not white.
Who would want black American neighbors? What a nightmare that would be.
"We can do absolutely nothing" is what I got out of your statement--also got the notion that our politicians are shipped in crates, they're not actual people living here.
I think they don't change it at all because the automotive industry doesn't want to and it doesn't suit them. Its sales would decrease due to the fact that people begin to use fewer cars
in the 1950s GM and sun oil bought majority shares of streetcar companies and disinvested in them until they were out of business. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy#:~:text=The%20General%20Motors%20streetcar%20conspiracy,to%20own%20or%20control%20transit
Besides, who wants to have to use public transportation wherever they go?
@@sa3270 Many young people. I always here parents complaining about how their kids are inside all day staring at their screens, but this likely would be a smaller issue if we had better public transportation.
If there is more demand for it, the infrastructure will change to accommodate it. Aka improvement due to need. It wouldn't suck if it were a important public service again. @@sa3270
@@sa3270
People who can’t, or don’t want to drive everywhere they go.
One of the best videos on the topic I’ve seen. Thank you for making this 🌟
That's why i moved to Chicago. I love the old set up of the parking behind the houses and stores...sadly that's changing with more parking lots being build and the old buildings being torn down.
great channel ! keep it up! this channel will get BIG soon.
Cities used to be build for living, now they're build for profit
Not me seeing new Oakville streets that are rlly close to my house in here. Great video btw, thoroughly covered bost the urban planning and market related reasons!
Thank you for mentioning Hawai'i and it's car-dependency. As an O'ahu local, I hope that the islands become more walkable and liveable within the next few years. We just recently got a train system, which is a step in the right direction. However, there's still a long way to go, as walking here is a nightmare. Getting to the bus stop always feels like trying to cross a river infested with crocodiles.
When you live in or travel to this bit of paradise & want to leave the car & traffic behind, work off the flab naturally, but… no bike lanes, often not even a sidewalk on the sea level areas. Few if any buses. And the hideous blocky “architecture” typically used for residential areas… It’s just incredible how they brought Cali over with them. The islands deserve so much more than this.
This is particularly why I like Santa Fe New Mexico and is an underrated US city when it comes to its architecture. it adjusted to have modern practicality and preserve its character and heritage.
6:12 just gonna put this is Denver, not Houston. Only solidifies your point though
Great video, king! Love your work.
In Atlanta, the situation is getting worse with the highways, more and more neighborhoods are being packed and biking anywhere with my friends is a pain. Just look at the “spaghetti junction” in atlanta, this needs to be fixed
In defense of the design method 'Form follows function' I would say that in its infancy this design style was a good solution, specially in its days. As the architects and designers of those days never forgot two things, who is to use it = humans and add some kind of aesthetics as that is what architecture and design add to engineering and construction. As soon the style took off, mainstream developers ran with the idea and rationalized not only the life but also the hell out of modernism and 'form follows function'.
And you see that same thing happening again and again in later styles of design and architecture. As soon a style or development becomes mainstream adapted, people start rationalizing the spirit out of it. That is what I see in most US cities and towns. Those are not 'ruled' by the people and the use of spaces. Those are ruled by the rules in stead. Many rules date so long back you can question what they still are doing in our rule-set of today. And we have to make sure one rule never disappears form those rule-sets, if it is us that have to live and work in those places, design it for humans, not for cars or whatever things we think are important at the time ...because those things are not important in the end!
What sucks is now that we have our cars, going back to what's healthy and natural is seen as "taking" something away or "restricting" choice, when in reality that could not be more opposite of reality
Very well documented and full of examples; thanks mate! You deserve more subs :) liked the video and subbed; keep on going with the great work.
I did not expect to see my local coffee shop in your video. That was nice that it was used as a positive example.
We don't build beautiful things for now but the future can be different. We can change the future!
5917th viewer!
I've known for a long time that US cities and suburbs are horrid, save for the old areas that have been kept up or renovated with quality materials and good workmanship.
I love how you post the native spelling of all the cities/countries!
This is a really good video. I've always felt like America is a really weird place when I travel there from Europe and this is why!
I just rolled on the floor fkn crying at 1:03. Seriously, and America wonders why every single person is mentally ill.
I live in Toronto I have always noticed how ugly the city is! Deppresing rectangular concrete buildings, steel and blue glass cookie cutter condos everywhere. Grey dirty ashplat plus the schools look like prisons. Overall just a lifeless, misrable, dark gritty car-centric concrete jungle. Toronto looks and feels just like Liberty City from GTA IV.
I think your statement might be a little true. I’ve never been to Toronto, or even the country of Canada itself, but I think some interesting places over there are the CN Tower, Centre Island, Fort York (a freeway nearby sort of ruins the historic vibe though), Eaton Centre, Old City Hall, Nathan Philips Square (for the Toronto sign and social aspect), Kensington Market, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the area surrounding Queen’s Park, which includes the Legislative Assembly and Royal Ontario Museum.
Ouch!
Toronto thinks it's so ahead when in reality it's stuck somewhere in the 70s and 80s. I would not call it an ugly city but it's also not beautiful or very modern when you compare it to most big European cities or Japan/Korea etc...
I stayed around Young St downtown for a couple days and had a good time not driving. But I also understand most of Toronto proper is one big suburb slightly denser than what you see in the States.
What city do you think was better than Toronto.
That photo of Houston in the 1970s is actually a photo of Denver in the 1970s.
During covid, my town blocked off part of the city center that had a lot of restaurants to allow for outdoor seating for health. They kept it and it's great.
thank you, this is informative and awesome!
Since the post war period North American cities have terribly beem destroyed with terrible suburbia. Pre wwII north America was far more appealing and truly functional. This fail suburbia experiment hopefully will end soon.
That moment when a small village in Mexico has more color and life than an American town
Lmfao what? Where did you get this from? I’ve been to Mexico myself. Other than the beautiful coastal area (Rocky Point) it is all slums that are run down and far uglier than an American city.
the fuck? hell no. There's life in the streets of any town in Mexico. You see people every single day, you see culture, you see what we humans are meant to be like when living in communities, unlike these depressing suburbs with house on ends with a strip mall with the same fast food restaurants and stores every 2 miles. It's extremely depressing and isolating. @@giovanigeorgis3848
@tems6 Yeah you may want to check out some more villages in Mexico : P
Y porque no visitas Ecatepec y dices lo mismo
@@lemmy154este vato nadamas fue a cancun y cree que sabe😅😅 mi pueblo rascuacho esta mas vivo que el propio Huston 😂😂😂
As someone who lives in Colorado, i’ve been to the place shown at 12:38
And i must say that’s one of the reasons i wanna move to the city at some point!
Feels very cozy and lots of people to meet
Thank you for your important video. If we want to live in warm, cozy, attractive places, we need to get our priorities right. Creating thriving, charming, and inviting places is not complicated; however, we must also be willing to walk, cycle or take public transport. I live car-free in glorious Middelburg. Although the Dutch have also replicated some of the most egregious aspects of American city expansion (i.e. ugly strip development, urban sprawl, ubiquitous motorways), they have created vibrant, delightful city centres. Others can learn a lot from the Dutch.
I can't watch videos like this cause they just point out what sucks that i can't unsee but have no power to change
Well the world doesn’t revolve around you .
@@adamblack6867 And the point of your comment was?
@@koolmckool7039 make him go back to reality?
Well, i think similar ... i do think we need to open our eyes to the reallity, we definitely don't live in a wonderland( no matter which country u live) all countries have their problems somehow, but i think not all is bad, some ppl only see the bad side, some youtubers seems to enjoy showing ONLY the ugly side(dont know about this one cuz this is the 1st video of him i watch) the dark sides, well that's what it seems , i like to see both sides, the bad and the good,we can't live like blind ppl, but we need to be able to see the good side of things too 😊
@@gabrielsr4791 I totally agree with you. I had a few friends in the past that mostly brought negativity and later they admitted that it was intentionally for attention seeking. I don’t like people like that. But we need to break out of this matrix that our government and corporations had brought us to, and we’re not doing much at all about it.
At this point? I am actually thinking about moving to Germany to join my Germanic brüder und schwestern. I do have German heritage and I have a desire to reconnect. But I still love my state of Texas and the U.S., I still love this country and I’m also thinking that I should stay and fight against corpo and car-centricism and our terrible zoning and cookie cutter “communities” that are destroying us.
Also, these gigantic parking lots are non-productive spaces. Should minimum parking requirements be reduced by a third, one could already make per mall at the very least a few mini-duplexes and proper solar ovens (there was this Northern Frenchmen who ran the majority of his bakery on a solar oven of his own engeneering, in a place of the globe that is frequently overcast, chilly and rainy). Probably many bakeries and restaurants would be glad if they could downsize their electric bill by at least 10%, and US has places like Texas, Arizona and California, which are quite sunny. Like, some solar ovens got engeneared to bake brownies when the outside is around 3 degrees Celcius.
Now, it would be difficult to build and organize such structures, but, it'll be massively more productive than unused parking lots.
Another fantastic video
I lived in Florida, since moving here during my middle school days, there had been many towns they have here, including some historical African American towns. However, Downtown Orlando has some walkable and pedestrian friendly spaces which I considered my favorite. But also if you ever take the I-4 interstate freeway you’ll go down the a district which is called the tourist district where Walt Disney World and Universal Studios is located, they have a lot of hotel’s, attractions, gift shops restaurants etc. Although Orlando is the city for kids and families, However, the downside is that they have they’re always construction work on apartment buildings and despite building new houses they always build behind a gated community but they cost a lot of money. And let’s not forget some of the dangerous roads to cross, and if you ever seen one of those signs that said “Drive Safely” you know what I’m talking about.
It’s a tribute to the desirability of keeping things local, to walkability & tradition that every pre-WW2 n’hood in old Orlando is bustling, popular & now even more wildly expensive (thanks pandemic). However FL IS & always will be a transient state: there’s poverty & gangs, drifters, snowbirds & elderly who may never know their neighbors & fear crime to a great extent, hence these bland gated communities- that one thing the aforementioned historic districts do not have, & yet all kinds of people are waiting in lines to pay top dollar to move in to a hard-to-find home.
It says so much about what we’re doing wrong in the US.
Omg this is so true… I don’t think US is a good place for Europeans at all😂
Europeans are 5x more likely to move to the US than Americans are to move to Europe.
The USA is best suited to people that are entrepreneurial, innovators and are self accountable.
Imagine how we as black americans feel living here....
@@itsoktobehappy461European countries are pretty innovative (some more than the US) now a days
Americans living in Europe: 800k+
Europeans living in USA: 4+ million
Zoning laws and the interstate did change the landscape; however, the citizens and their society changed too. This period of rapid advancement over the past 100 years has been faster than our ability to keep pace by advancing our cultural norms and values.
In America the degradation is evident everywhere. It feels like we’re just consumers going from place to place doing whatever serves our individual interests and needs at the expense of everyone else,
It’s all bland, sterile, or decaying. Architecture, art, music, philosophy… education, politics, just everything is so soulless.
My rant’s over.
I agree. The suburban experiment was a colossal failure
I live in a suburb in Ottawa. It sucks to the 100th degree. I love your videos (although they depress me so much). Thanks for the links.
Look for vids & other info on how you can put your love & concern for better towns to use, too!
13:26 I love those "wipes" (pun accepted). Are we to presume that they are identical (or nearly so) photographs, being taken at different times? ( New Subscribe ) 💕
8:43 "...an extension of our homes" it's good feng shui.
Good video. 👍 I have been thinking this for a while, American cities are just depressing.
A lot of Americans are starting to avoid large public gatherings and common areas due to the rise in mass shootings. Going to the mall, the parade, Wal Mart, or even a concert is scary now. I've seen a ton of these videos talking about how America needs more public spaces and plazas, like you see everywhere else in the world, but none of those videos ever addresses the idea that many Americans now look at those places and see nothing but potential shooting galleries.
Oh yeah because europe and other parts of the world don’t deal with crime and shootings🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
@@ButterflyG673 "19 Countries with the Most School Shootings (total incidents Jan 2009-May 2018 - CNN)":
United States - 288
Mexico - 8
South Africa - 6
Nigeria & Pakistan - 4
Afghanistan - 3
Brazil, Canada, France - 2
School shootings are considered by many to be an epidemic in the United States, as is gun violence in general. According to data from Everytown Research, the United States averaged just over 87 school shootings each year from 2013 to 2021, resulting in an annual average of 28.4 dead and 59.6 wounded. A 2018 CNN feature used slightly tighter criteria and tallied a comparatively lower 288 school shootings in the United States between 2009 and 2018-however, the country with the second-most school shootings during that period, Mexico, experienced only eight shootings during that same time period.
European countries have had their share of school shootings, although not as frequently as in the United States or Canada. These include eight in Germany since 1913, one in Lithuania (1925), one in Sweden (1961), three since 1967 in the United Kingdom (none after the 1996 massacre), three in Finland since 1989, two in the Netherlands (1999 and 2004), one in Denmark (1994), one in Hungary (2009), two in France (2012 and 2017), one in Estonia (2014), Spain (2015), at least five in Russia since 2014 (including events in May and September 2021), one in Crimea (2018), and one in Poland (2019, no deaths).
*The USA absolutely has a major problem with school shootings that far surpasses the rest of the world. Do your research.*
@@ButterflyG673 Yes, you are correct. Other countries do not deal with mass shootings in public spaces the way the US does.
@@Brindlebrother that’s the biggest lie I have ever heard of!!! Especially when you mention Mexico and Brazil!!! 😂😂Please don’t go misinforming people with these types of comments 🙄
@@wtaylor9408 yes they do but the media does not mention them! Ireland just had a mass shooting at a restaurant and where was video about it??? No one reports it🙄
Everything you said about the soulless cities is true,
Humans need connections with each other and with the place they live,
Keep up the good work
Great video and concepts.
Although i agree with your point of view, you should compare apples with apples.
For instance the suburbs of Rome with the suburbs Toronto. Downtown of new york and downtown of Vienna.
Simple answer: Because bad people ruin nice things
AHH! Places that are What?! at 13:26 😣 I was so hoping the video to be longer I didn't want your speech to end there as I'm a new commenter here and felt quite shy to type my thoughts because I 4,004% AGREE on everything with what you've spoken *flurf*! 😇
I had was watching The Simpsons special on FXX after I got done brushing my teeth by being awake barely an hour ago and felt so widely awake knowing how much passion you expressed on our American vehicle industry history! This is an important presentation that should be taught in high schools and even in college/universities!
My origin as a Fire Bird living here in Arizona, being a pedestrian is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! Similar to how you risk your life taking the crowded train in Mumbai or New Delhi which are known for fatal deaths/injuries of Indians being ran over and something worse after graphic videos I've witnessed on Reddit for example, I never understood how our American driving system can't be more urbanized for being more commercial and pushed into the business scene which can seem quite.... empty. Here in Phoenix, we don't really have a downtown scene except for a few art buildings and pubs which aren't enough being that you still have to use a vehicle to get by around the city that's filled with banks and empathy warehouses. It is however, becoming better in a way being that it's quite walkable, safe, and a few Catholic churches around then neighborhood as I would view a small river that travels across downtown where you can view the mountains where you come across a high school named Central High School which sadly had a shooting incident months back if I recall. I would even see many adults walking their dogs around, quite quiet, and even more apartment buildings being built and more plants being planted even to form the city to become a tad more urbanized in nature. 💧🌱🌴🌞
We're the youngest state outside the 48 states which explains why we're still developing similar to how the UAE is developing their own skyline and urban regions outside Dubai for being outside the Sonoran Desert and known for having one of the most beautiful sunsets on 🌎!
However, I can't assist to feel so much envy for Paris which I've traveled once to when I was 10 as my mother & I flew first class to visit an old best friend at the Disneyland Resort Paris and never knew how foresty and cold it was compared to Phoenix as the air smelled too fresh lol and having many ancient architects considering how our state is a little over a century old. The only issue for the American cities is how I've always see how narrow the sidewalks are to walk on, no tables or bunches to stop and take a break on long travels unless you're nearby a park, and the freeway being quite LOUD when it comes to certain neighborhoods people live in. We have a highway I-17 that I normally walk past by almost nightly as people live through behind apartments where we have Motel 6, Quality Inn, and a couple others and always feel how lame it looks considering how beige our city can be in many neighborhoods and us putting up a fence to prevent people that would jump off as suicide.
I'm not sure my comment may have made any sense here but just seeing many cars travel by during the afternoon & evening hours to lack of bus travel does worry me for the disabled and even elderly that can't travel far and how expensive hospital bills can be if injuries happen which is the most corrupted issue we have here in the U.S..
Otherwise, I still do feel blissful being an American and taking pride for how far my state has developed for cleaner parks which we have a huge one not far from my house, constant construction to repair damaged roads, and seeing many healthy citizens jogging, biking, and even walking their dogs since we're quite a dog friendly neighborhood and seeing the beautiful Camelback Mountain whenever I walk back home before dark. ☺
Beside that, I don't even recall seeing a TOYS 'R' US around my city at 5:30 as it's been EONS since I've last one before they went out of business alongside k-Mart back when I was 8 as my mother would take me to buy a Finding Nemo Backpack and smiled seeing how that store is still operating in business! 😁
*Edit:* OH YES! I hope your Christmas/holiday has or went great flurf and everyone that may have read my comment all the way since I've forgotten Christmas Eve is tomorrow and can't even bare imagining hearing all the tough traffic outside my porch at a frigid 54°F out with 81% humidity! 😨🚑🚗🚕🚓
Sat. Dec. 23rd. 2023 @ 7:25pm.
Arkadaşım senden ülkenizle ilgili bilgi almaya ihtiyacım var.
Wayyyy TMI
Went to Boston recently, their public transport is on point. Unlike Atlanta, what a trashfire.
the "American dream" of the cities is that nice, well-kept town with a friendly and safe atmosphere: "Stars Hollow" from "The Gilmore Girls". There all the inhabitants walk around the city and they can go to different places on foot, they go shopping on foot, houses are further away from downtown, but no more than half an hour on foot. Like a European city
Fun fact, the Interstate Highway System was meant for military transport in case the Soviets invaded.
I know it’s a hot take, but something tells me life in the kowloon walled city would be more enjoyable than American suburbia.
Then go live there lol
I'm not a suburbs guy, but if you have a family, maybe not. Having a garage with a bunch of dope ass dirt bikes can make the suburbs fun.
@@Zaheed-ip8mp I might if it still existed.
6:51 same thing in Brazil’s capital Brasília, before GPS I was constantly lost there!
Consumerism, my home town has a decent approach but the town is preserved it looks like its the seventeenth century walking down the cobblestone roads. With super narrow stairs. The old buildings at least at ground level a lot were converted to small shops.
I live in the old quarter of Quebec city, outside of the old quarter it is a regular city.