America's Missing Middle

[@AdamSomething]

Play War Thunder now with my link, and get a massive, free bonus pack including vehicles, boosters and more: playwt.link/adamsomething

[@bluzek3542]

death to the snail

[@demogorghon]

No, but I must give you, that you made me laugh with how you segway into the ad part.

[@MsCounterMax]

It pains me to see you accept wt sponsorship, fam

[@UnpersondesJahres]

Please Adam, I love your content, but it being interrupted by a Red-White-Black Iron-Cross flag like at 2:36 is really holding me back sharing your videos with my fellow (mostly German leftist) friends.

[@gairionysten3188]

@@UnpersondesJahres well theres your issue. Having leftist friends.

[@CZpersi]

As a kid, playing SimCity, I always wondered, why there were only two zoning options "High Density Residential Zone" and "Low Density Residential Zone", i.e.: either "skyscrappers" or "tiny houses" and nothing in between. I wondered, why I cannot build "normal" city, like the one, I used to live in. Back then, I thought that it was just a technical limitation of the game, but there are some nice KZbin videos, which explain the somewhat sinister side of urbanistic theories that influenced the game's design.

[@biglostboy]

Haha right and I always wondered at the game why I had to separate residential, industrial and commercial so strictly. Why I wasn't allowed to mix them. I thought that was technically the way it was in the game. Now I know that this is the American understanding of urban development. Greetings from Europe.

[@goncalobalanca4299]

same for cities skylines (except in CS you can make apartments smaller)

[@Indyofthedead]

I remember after completeing university and trying to find jobs, I and my wife were forced to move in with my parents because of how expensive housing was compared to wages. Being raised the "the only one stopping you is you, pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality, we started researching ways we could have our own place that we could afford and allow us to build up savings. We looked into tiny homes and thought this would be the best option, since even the smallest apartment would cost almost the entire average monthly income of one adult. We figured, if we built a tiny house for around 30,000 USD on a small plot of land, just enough to meet our needs so we could save, we'd be well off. Well, that entire plan ended quickly when we looked into it and found that the local state and city laws effectively banned buildings that had a layout that was less than 1200 squate feet. The more and more we looked into our options, the more we realized any solutions we could think of were outlawed. That's when we were redpilled on the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality and realized that the "housing crisis" is an engineered nightmare meant to keep housing assets expensive.

[@noseboop4354]

Some videos about the history of these by-laws explain that this was by design. The rich wanted to keep the working class as poor as possible by cutting away all the possible middle paths, thus forcing them to accept low-paying jobs to survive.

[@ifithrewmyguitaroutt]

I live in Atlanta, one of the most sprawling cities in America, and we’ve gotten rid of minimum parking requirements. More and more surface parking is getting replaced by mixed use development. Progress! The suburbs are still a disaster, but one step at a time.

[@acemagalor2519]

Kid who lives in the suburbs outside Atlanta, it fucking sucks

[@danielhilton1850]

I'm working on that in Gwinnett. Stay tuned

[@acemagalor2519]

@@danielhilton1850 Ayy no way, I live there!

[@gabetalks9275]

That's amazing news. Atlanta is the urban, cultural, and economic capital of the South, so that's going to be revolutionary for Atlanta metro area. Hopefully, it makes Atlanta a positive example for the rest of this country.

[@virginiansupremacy]

atlanta is basically a forest

[@gabetalks9275]

Three things you forgot to mention that I'd like to add: 1. In present day America, owning a car is an unwritten requirement for employment. We have effectively locked employment behind a paywall, yet we are still somehow surprised by our surging poverty rates. 2. To make starting a small business even more difficult, all businesses must have a minimum number of parking spaces, making starting a small business unaffordable for low income people because maintaining parking lots is extremely expensive and the huge footprint they create, dramatically increases the total land area of said business, making the property taxes for that business ridiculously expensive. This is same reason why single-family homes are unaffordable. Bigger = more expensive. Yet, if you advocate for minimizing the dominance that big corporate chains have over our "downtowns," then you will be labeled a communist trying to steal and redistribute our wealth, while completely ignoring the fact that most of the biggest retail chains of the past century all started out as walkable storefronts. Sears, JCPenney's, Macy's, and even Montgomery Ward which started out as a corner store in rural Kansas. Basically the middle of the nowhere. Big business always starts out small. If you support entrepreneurship, then you should be fiercely advocating for a transit-oriented future. 3. It traps disabled people and the elderly who can't drive into permanent house arrest, forcing them to rely on others to drive them around for everything. If I were in that position, I'd feel like a useless burden to everyone around me. Not exactly a healthy environment to live in.

[@jonragnarsson]

Climate Town did a good video on #2. The laws aren't even based on reality.

[@fallenshallrise]

It's true - even if you are able to live a happy life, car-free - and you already have employment - you are better off to hide it at work or just not talk about it. I work at a company that promotes fitness and being outdoors but even there if you don't own a status symbol vehicle and participate in the complaints about being stuck in traffic it marks you as "different". Next door is a bike company - even there the building is surrounded by a parking lot and everyone drives to work. They sell bikes for a living but don't even ride themselves. It's so cynical.

[@alwayshere6956]

I'm 20, there's no jobs not even viable restaurant positions for miles around and I have no vehicle, no extended family, I'm likely going to die before 30 of exhaustion and will have never drove in my entire life. Great job America!

[@Thepissheadman]

And 99% people don’t even know anything about what communism actually is. If you think people are misinformed about communism, they are delusional about anarchism.

[@cheater00]

I thought "smaller stores owned by locals" was a particularly lulzy fantasy. If you're missing eggs, you won't buy them at a small store owned by locals, you'll buy them at a Carrefour Express or something to that effect. Every country in Europe (except for France and Italy) has 3, maybe 4 different brands of grocery stores, all owned by maybe 2 huge corporations. Sure, they're closer, but they're not "smaller stores owned by locals", lmao.

[@Peter33033]

As a german that used to drive panzer IV's around us cities i am glad that you brought this problem up

[@ano_nym]

Thank you for your service.

[@lukasvondaheim]

I really miss driving my Panzerkampfwagen VI (Porsche) to church on sundays :(

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

It's worth noting that several US cities have abolished single family zoning including Minneapolis-St Paul, as well as ending parking minimums. This has resulted in a housing construction boom so great, rent costs have stabilized and inflation is among the lowest in the country for major cities.

[@LucasDimoveo]

Tell me more! An urbanist YT channel I follow just posted a video on the twin cities, but I can’t remember who it was 😅

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

@@LucasDimoveo That would be City Nerd, he uploaded that yesterday! But yes, as far as the Twin Cities go, it's been such an interesting time. A lot of dense infill midrise housing all over the place especially in suburbia

[@jamaly77]

Just took you several decades. Good luck building all the public transport required. 😂

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

@@jamaly77 You're joking as if the Twin Cities isn't rapidly building out LRT, BRT and multiple other transit projects like Northern Lights Express. There's a minimum of one rapid transit line opening up every single year. These housing plans are coordinated with transit oriented development. Suburban shopping malls are getting rebuilt as neo downtowns with rapid transit access and massive infill development.

[@ramochai]

@@goldenstarmusic1689 Is there a good social media channel that documents this progress?

[@thomaspalazzolo5902]

Not skyscrapers or single family homes, but a secret, illegal third thing.

[@kylejmarsh3988]

The Middle Way

[@elio7610]

Apartment complexes?

[@davidty2006]

I have lived in one thats over 100 years old for the past 13 years, and it's great.

[@dakzibbon6589]

You also made an underlying reference to the two-party system

[@ssjcrafter8842]

@@elio7610 I find them quite simple really...

[@JeffinBville]

As someone who was involved with planning and zoning I'll tell you this: the main reason suburbs don't do 'mid size' is the fear that affordable housing and in-town business means 'those people'.

[@WarriorOfWriters]

They'd rather an exclusive ugly neighbourhood than a vibrant diverse neighbourhood with character

[@5ynthet1c]

Who?

[@biglostboy]

i do not understand

[@megaladin1]

Problem extends even here in the UK; people who see their areas as 'clean' don't want to put affordable housing and business solutions into the area because they were trying to use the price to weed out people they see as undesirable.

[@LudwigVaanArthans]

​@@5ynthet1cyou know, 'those people'. The ones they think are bad because their skin tone is too dark and they might not speak English properly (as if natives do)

[@ytlurker220]

Australian suburbs are suffering from the same issues, particularly in Sydney. It's become characterised by busy stroads which are hostile to anyone not in a car, inefficient use of land by detached family homes and groups of skyscrapers here and there, many of which are incongruent with the surrounding environment and lack infrastructure such as public transport. And basically all the new detached houses suffer from a worse fate by virtue of being cookie-cutter McMansions in housing estates built by massive developers. Truly dystopian.

[@meta7gear]

What do you mean? Australian cities are consistently voted some of the worlds most livable by people who have never lived there!!!

[@kvm1992]

That's why it's called suburbs. It's not supposed to be designed like an urban area.

[@Stapler42]

@@kvm1992 the "suburbs" are often only a few kms away from the city centre, where I used to live we were so close to the city I could walk there but the only houses in the neighborhood were detached single family homes.

[@ytlurker220]

@@meta7gear it's not as rosy as you think, and especially in Sydney you don't get the big picture if you don't leave the tourist hotspots ie. CBD, Manly & Eastern Suburbs (which comprise only a fraction of the population). The traffic is really bad, and for a city of 5 million its geographic footprint is large. There are very few walkable neighbourhoods and the whole concept of "middle places" is completely missing in the suburbs. Even in established areas public transit can be sparse and irregular, and the train network has been slow to expand mainly because of a ridiculous fixation on slow light rail by the last conservative government, and bickering over creating Sydney Metro (underground autonomous rail). For decades there has been an urgent need for heavy rail between Strathfield and Hurstville, if you want to look that up. Edit: oh, hahaha I missed your sarcasm :)

[@ytlurker220]

@@kvm1992 yep, people seem to forget an entire city no matter how far out its suburbs are all form the same "urban area", which in Sydney lacks medium-density housing which is precisely the problem. As for Melbourne, the urban core is larger and attractive but further out all that effort in urban design is being trashed by big developers. As we know, our suburbs are full of detached family homes, and because they're inefficient and devoid of life there are major implications for quality of life and economic outcomes for residents. It feels like we collectively don't think about this even as much as some 'Muricans.

[@so.reckless]

South Korea's public transport was a thing of fantasy as an American. Went to Seoul for 2 weeks and traveled every where by subway & bus and it was amazing and like no traffic.

[@drill_fiend1097]

As a person who lived there for years… it’s still very car centric. Not as bad as America, but I’ve seen some awful traffic there. It would’ve been unlivable hell if it wasn’t for great subway system.

[@anubaral]

@@drill_fiend1097 Most of the peeps sayin i went there and there, they always went to biggest city. If they would only have travelled to smaller cities they would find out that sharing a condominium is a really shitty place. Public transport? Forget about it. Shops? Forget about it. School within an hour of walking? Forget about it... but they always point out to suburbs. They should just move to higher density area, i for instance don't want to have neighbors anymore. Loud music, all kind of noises, fights etc

[@haydenlee8332]

wait until you step outside of Seoul. You'll notice how quickly things become ultra car-centric. My relatives live in Danyang, Chungcheongbuk-do; and they can't get anywhere without a car. People say "South Korea is so hi-tech & convenient", but what they really meant to say is "Seoul is so hi-tech & convenient"

[@drill_fiend1097]

@@haydenlee8332 Seol day is great example of this. People would usually drive out from Seoul to meet relatives living in the countryside; extreme congestion in pretty much every major highway. I don't know if they still do that nowadays.

[@Nobody-pv9jt]

​@@anubaralprivacy is one of the many reasons suburbs even exist

[@spencerleifeld7517]

St.Louis native here. There was an area just north of the city center which was home to a housing project called Pruit Igo. While it was built in the 1950's to hold a mix of types of residents, it was mostly full of the city's poor due to sub-urbanization. Due to being overrun with crime, it was abandoned in mid 1970's. It was still a series of abandoned lots in a area with a series crime problem until less than five years ago. To take a guess what happened behind closed doors, I assume the city had no other ideas for the land, so when developers asked to build there, the city agreed. There, they built bike infrastructure, public greens, walkable commercial space, and tons of row houses and cottage estates. This city planning decision, probably built more out of desperation than anything, is changing the entire city. Retail development, abandoned due to a massive surplus, is being bulldozed for tons of mid-rises, especially St.Louis's new love of row houses and cottage estates. There also been in uptick in the construction of non retail and food service commercial, such as laser tag venues, ballrooms, arcades, discount cinemas, and sports clubs, along with an uptick in funding for public parks and libraries.

[@mralistair737]

that's the thing that makes me optimistic about the states, the cities have SO much space that knocking out good sized neighbourhoods can be done really quickly, an old mall or a walmart and a target and you can house 5-10k people. need some cycle lanes.. we've got the spare lanes! So it's 'just' a willpower issue which hopefully a few demonstration areas can help push. Compare this to the UK where new sites are rare, small and expensive.

[@ubermenschen01]

Wasn't a big part of the problem with Pruit Igo that there was no money set aside for maintenance, and the buildings went into disrepair? Rather than simply "crime"

[@Whatshisname346]

The UK has issues but land isn’t one of them. Only 10% of England is built on. Also there are a huge amount of ex industrial/commercial sites in the UK close to town and city centres. It just needs more creative thinking. Though thanks to Thatchers ‘property owning democracy’ plenty of boomers would rather protect the value of their 3 bed semi than see good mid rise housing in their area.

[@mralistair737]

@@Whatshisname346 I dn't mean the lack of space overall, obviously you could build on all the countryside, and put half of europe in the UK.. But the point about good cities is that you shouldn't need to build on the countryside so you want to add to existing cities. (plus green belts are a thing) And while there is some industrial land kicking around, it's not necessarily in the same places as the housing shortages and is still constrained by the lack of space for infrastructure and connection to towns. The point i was making that in the states almost every downtown is under-built and almost every town is surrounded by a well connected ring of massive parking lots, all basically ready to go, but requires a change of regulation and will-power.

[@spencerleifeld7517]

@@ubermenschen01 Yes, that was also part of it. The projects were supposed to originally be full of both middle-class rent paying residents and poorer subsidized residents. However, due a movement to the suburbs by the middle class, both projects themselves and the surrounding areas became poorer, causing a knock-on effect of increasing crime, causing more middle class citizens to leave for the suburbs, etc, etc. I am still in favor of subsidized housing, both projects and vouchers, though projects are probably better. The problem was that these high-rise projects were budgeted with the belief that their maintenance would be partially paid with rent. They fell into disrepair as the rent to fund their upkeep declined, and the conservative, anti-urban, and honestly racist leadership of 1960's St.Louis refused to increase funding. Adam has talked about it before, but America's shit Urban planning is based mostly in racism. A massive problem in US urban planning is often ghetoization, perhaps the equal and opposite reaction to sub-urbanization. Freeway construction was also heavily focused on working-class and middle-class black & Hispanic neighborhoods. The new development south of downtown St.Louis is more functional, admittedly, because it is all privately funded, with the cities poor getting housing through vouchers instead. While I do think state housing is a better use of tax dollars, vouchers are a decent compromise for now, especially with more affordable housing being built in the area. Finally, there is also that fact that black and Hispanic citizens are more on par with whites in terms of wealth, with this continuing to improve.

[@oliverturan2243]

There's an honestly amazing quote about suburbs from Hitman 2 of all places, where an ex-soviet agent says the following: "The cookie-cutter design, the unnaturalness of the hasty urban planning and the feeling of malaise expressed by most residents in suburbs are...connected... If you place people in big boxes, located inside big gardens, all surrounded by wide streets and long driveways, you create a prison. Isolation and a sense of solitude are is fundamental in the contruction of the suburb. The layout of the American suburb is designed to create an impersonal culture that fosters anxiety and fuels consumerism. You can only drive to places from here, and the only places worth driving to are places where you spend money. The suburb is the perfect commerical and capitalistic housing unit." I kid you not, this is an actual line in a videogame about killing people.

[@teslashark]

It's an European game, of course!

[@alexbaldwin4460]

I mean, it is the same game that used the final level to absolutely shred the hypocritical idiocy of billionaires trying to bunker out the end of the world, with a few digs at the fossil fuel industry along the way. Hitman was ridiculously on-point with it's commentary despite it being used for set-dressing.

[@gabetalks9275]

The irony that America, the world's embassador of capitalism was built by the railroads with dense walkable neighborhoods before the automobile went mainstream and bulldozed all of it.

[@VultureGamerPL]

wow a video game, deep

[@teslashark]

@@VultureGamerPL You know a bunch of real people wrote that line, and it's meant to be played by people in meatspace

[@Muninnnr]

As someone living in the suburbs of Sweden's second largest city, the thing I love most about it is not having to own a car. I'm nowhere near close to the city center, but I have an express bus line running every 10 minutes just 200 meters from my apartment that will take me to the city center in about 15 minutes. I can certainly afford to own a car, but I don't NEED to own one. Compare this to when I lived with my parents out in the middle of nowhere. Back then I either had to walk for 2 kilometers to get to a bus that ran at best once every hour, or borrow my parents' car, and if I did that, I had to find parking wherever I wanted to go.

[@aidanaldrich7795]

Busses suck. I got places to be things to do. I'm not stopping at 10 different places on the way to where I need to get

[@Whatshisname346]

Have you got a book to read, a language to learn, a friend to texts or some social media to check? One reason I love the bus is that for an hour a day I get to sit down and some other clown does the driving while I catch up on what’s happening in the world or just read a good book. Sometimes I even run into a friend and we have a good chat until one of us reaches our stop. You’d do none of this (legally) in a car. For me bus trips add to me free time.

[@aidanaldrich7795]

@@Whatshisname346 I listen to podcasts and audio books while driving anywhere longer than 30 minutes....

[@kjerins]

@@aidanaldrich7795 Humans don't multitask. If you're combining those activities, then you're not paying enough attention to either.

[@aidanaldrich7795]

@@kjerins speak for yourself. I've driven hundreds of places safely and listened to dozens of books

[@omlett6482]

Living within walking distance of both a train station and a shopping district has probably done more for my happiness and mental health than i'd ever realize and idk how people in America can even survive in those neighborhoods. Videos from people like you or Not Just Bikes showed me how valuable those living conditions actually are

[@aderi31415]

We survive in these neighborhoods because we've never known anything different. When I was a child, my family was on public assistance a lot of the time. And yet, we lived in single family homes (rented) and had at least one car at all times. Public transit didn't exist. Not even a bus line. I haven't been back to that town since my grandfather died but I'd be very surprised if anything has changed.

[@electric7487]

This is what I've always disliked about living in suburbia: it generally combines the worst of both worlds, as you don't get the space you do when you live in the countryside, and everything is far away unlike in dense areas. It's got all the downsides of countryside living with all the downsides of city life, with few of the benefits of either.

[@samelmudir]

I'm in Tokyo now. In a 15 minute radius I can walk to 3 subway stations, a couple grocery stores. 6 convenience stores, countless restaurants and multiple. shopping centers. Most buildings around me are 5 to 10 stories

[@aderi31415]

@@samelmudir Work sent me to Tokyo for a month. That was one of the experiences that showed me how a city can really work.

[@des4929]

As someone who lives in the suburban nightmare oh boy my mental health certainly isn't good in the slightest basically everything is a 20 minute walk or more away and forget walking to school thats a 45 minute to an hour walk there granted that's the most extreme example but even the closest school is a 20 minute walk so you either use the school bus (which you can't use past your first year of high school) walk for 30 minutes or drive

[@electric7487]

George Carlin: "They call the American Dream the American _Dream_ since you have to be asleep to believe it."

[@KristoffDoe]

""What happened to the American Dream?" It came true! You're lookin' at it." - The Comedian (Watchmen)

[@FemMushroom]

Imagine how much progress would be made if corporate lobbying was banned. So many problems originate from it.

[@l__l2328]

Yeah. But it would be really hard, people will take bribes regardless

[@hans3331000]

Corporate lobbying was always a thing, except other humans formed their own lobbying groups and would often successfully make a case against the corporate lobbyists once given the opportunity to voice their expressions. lobbying was a great thing for people who felt they were too insignificant to have a voice, so they would join groups that would speak to political representatives. Unfortunately one day a few decades ago, some corporate group hated that the normal people were putting up a fight and decided to offer politicians money instead or a good argument. They decided if they can't beat the people, they can just buy our politicians. In europe they have a cap on lobbying money, but america has no limit. Soon all they had to do was find a hack politician who supports their cause and pay them 30k to 80k in a one time donation to get bills passed. This is why sometimes we feel frustrated at live political sessions and scratching our heads wondering why this politician isn't listening to pure logic and common sense: it's because the money already made up its mind and nothing anyone says will ever trump logic. Imagine being the politician that takes 60k and doesn't side with the briber.

[@wsams]

Seriously, what was the point of electing congress if their decisions aren't swayed by the public but rather specific corporate interests etc.

[@snowdroog1]

​@@wsams Pacification

[@paulfrancistorres7144]

Honestly, they should just call lobbying "bribery with extra steps" at this point

[@Ivanfpcs]

Living on top of a supermarket was THE BEST SINGLE THING about my new place. Its not a big supermarket, so when I need something uncommon I wont find it, but for my day-to-day necessities

[@Joe-ij6of]

Two additional points: The US Fed gov't subsidized the highways and routes built after WWII that made euclidian zoning practical and scaleable... by matching funds as much as TEN TO ONE! That's right: local gov't would point at a neighborhood to bulldoze for highways and pony up only 10% or less in funding, and the Feds would come in with >90% to greenlight the project. No such generous subsidy for mass transit or urban development, obviously. Second, those big box retail stores and plazas have a secondary issue: when the stores fail and go empty, it is VERY difficult for local entrepreuners or developers to reuse the space for a local business. In reality, only another big box retailer has the wherewithal to utilize the space, otherwise it sits empty. In my metro area, there are A LOT of these empty spots that will mostly never be filled by a local business.

[@Br3ttM]

And an additional issue with the Federal subsidies is that they covered construction, but not maintenance or replacement, which meant the cities that only paid a fraction of the cost originally have a large bill come due several decades later.

[@sir_baldrick7266]

I Never understood why people in the Suburbs always hated on middle housing and public transport. The biggest curse about the suburbs is traffic and with more middle housing and improved public transport you can drastically cut down on the traffic allowing those in the suburbs easier access to the built up and downtown areas

[@gabetalks9275]

There are three reasons for this: 1. Density is seen as exclusively big city amenity, so the presence of density in the suburbs is seen as an existential threat to the survival of the suburb. It makes the residents think that the suburb is going to suddenly turn into a city because for most people, multiple types of housing in one place outside of a city is strange. Housing developers being greedy bastards that love to buy people's homes and the bulldoze them to build new luxury housing in their place just adds to this fear. They become afraid that the developers will buy them out of town and replace their homes with condo towers. 2. Because Americans are so car-brained, they think more residents always leads to more traffic because they can't imagine anyone being able to get around without driving outside of a city. 3. Density, specifically rentals, are negatively stigmatized as something for poor bums, and poor people are usually stereotyped as criminals, so building rentals is perceived as a threat to the safety of the neighborhood. Because of this, cities in general are looked down upon. Suburbs are seen as the American dream, so suburbs try to distance themselves from the city as much as possible because that's seen as the superior quality of life, while cities are seen as a poor quality of life. In other words, classism is so deeply ingrained into American culture, that it's just seen as how the world naturally works. This mentality goes all the way back to the Puritan settlers. They believed that your wealth is directly attributed to your morality. Their theology teaches that the poor are cursed with poverty as punishment for their unrighteousness, while the wealthy are blessed by God as a reward for their righteousness. This is why the poor are frequently called lazy here. Because they're constantly victim blamed for it, while the wealthy are seen well put together, no matter how evil they may be. This is why Americans idolize rich people so much, especially the "self-made" billionaire. Because they're seen as noble, successful people to be admired and inspired by, even though they're commonly tyrannical madmen. This is also where the heretical doctrine called the prosperity gospel comes from. It's where charlatan televangelists promising their followers that God will bless them with wealth if they just give them money and pray comes from, even though Jesus Himself was poor. Because according to America, being poor is a sin against God.

[@RazgrizWing]

Castle under siege mentality. My father believes that expanding public transportation will bring riff-raff and opposes expansion of it, even though we live no here near close the expansion is happening at.

[@Cafeston]

Because everything remotely collective is labelled socialist in the US. They can't go past it.

[@barbiedesoto7054]

My theory is this is tied to 1) rich people first adopting cars (built in classism) and 2) mid century white flight and the view of cities as being full of the people the whites fled from. And there’s with that, the idea that those in the suburbs are entitled to subsidized parking whenever they want to go into the city, where they rule with their cars, and the city should be grateful they might buy a meal or piece of clothing inside the city. It’s so American!

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

@@DiamondKingStudios "For many Americans, real estate/home ownership is seen as a way to build wealth. You want to make sure your house has a higher property value when you sell it than when you bought it, because to do otherwise is a loss of money." WHICH IS STUPID, ILLOGICAL, BECAUSE YOU GOT THE VALUE OUT OF IT BY LIVING THERE! I've lived where I am now for nearly 30 years, inherited the house from my parents. They paid $150,000 for it. I've gotten the value out of it even if I never made a dime by selling it.

[@mactep1]

As an european, this is literally the perfect place to live, at least for me, not packed like a sardine in a city center, but also not so detached from society were there is no infrastructure to speak of, how the hell are people even happy living in either of these extremes?

[@PeachDragon_]

Because Americans have been brainwashed with red scare propaganda, anything good for the collective is communism and therefore satan.

[@kylejmarsh3988]

Yes I agree - often I get lots of pushback when I parrot Leon Krier and his disdain for 'tower blocks' but I think the idea that there is an ideal height for a walkable city that allows it to be pedestrian/human scaled with buildings that generally top out at about 4 or 5 stories

[@mactep1]

@@kylejmarsh3988 Yeah, skyscrapers just don't make sense, not only are they way more expensive due to the complex architecture and maintenance necessary, but you are also stacking people on a 3d space, when the infrastructure around them, human wise, is very much 2d; a lot of these are also company office spaces with strict but similar schedules, contributing even more by creating "rush hour".

[@Sycokay]

I'm a European too. I live in a single family home in a very small village that doesn't have any shop, bar or restaurant. My neighbors are in 100m distance. Without a car I couldn't buy food or get to work. And I love it. If I would have to live in a midriser in a city, surrounded by all those people, I would develop agoraphobia and claustrophobia.

[@duckface81]

i prefer those former second world towns that have random housing blocks sprinkled into them because then people have easy access to services while also being close to the natural environment due to higher density and low population

[@IAmWarden.]

As someone who’s trying to make it in governance/politics. I am always advocating for more row/townhouses and duplexes. This also needs to come with an increase in social housing for the poorest, newest and youngest of us. I hope I can make that kind of difference in my area. But it’s always up to the people you represent.

[@krankarvolund7771]

Both are linked, you can't really buy social housing in one-family houses, you need mid-rise apartment complexes ^^

[@moreland01]

Build more single level patio-style homes and the gazillion of us empty nesters may just pry loose our grip on our way-too-large family homes for the newest and youngest of us. We're not giving up our big empty homes to live in a row house or townhouse.

[@krankarvolund7771]

@@moreland01 Why not? It's a perfectly functionnable home XD

[@peterabel81]

I really don’t get how people living in the “Land of the Free” let government reduce the options of developers to basically two types of buildings of the many existing alternatives. Also, how they let the government limit what activities they can operate in their own property.

[@Br3ttM]

Because the local governments, which control zoning, are strongly influenced my middle class homeowners, who have a lot of their net worth in their home and the plot it's on, and want that value to go up. Renters care less about policy, since they're not invested, and businesses, landlords, and developers all are outnumbered, so less influential.

[@FlanaFugue]

@@Br3ttM It's the culture (of fear). Property value is based on how people see value and for some reason having small businesses on every corner isn't seen as positive (may attract loiterers!). Also, individual homeowners are less influential than Homeowner's Associations, who often have draconian conditions imposed on their members while at the same time lobby on their "behalf" - but are really working in direct accordance with the developers that have likely sponsored their creation. The developers are never really the victim.

[@FlanaFugue]

It's the idea of single-family home ownership as the ultimate yet attainable status-bringer being crammed down Americans' collective throats for generations. Multiple-family units are seen as lower income, therefore their creation could bring down property values, and so, invidual homeowners all band together using grassroots organizing to influence local government... WAIT! - Just Kidding! People don't have time for that and so the Homowners Associations will gladly step in and take that role on. (see my answer to Br3ttM in this thread) And so the vicious circle repeats. The developers don't really care what kind of property is there. They want to make money and changing what's already there or challenging the status quo in any way are risks to that, so they protect their investments.

[@FlanaFugue]

Further to both comments, about small business creation: business lobbying in local governments IS very strong, especially from the big box retailers with corporate backing, but ALSO from local small businesses. The big fish near the expressway will never want new zoning for small businesses in residential areas for obvious reasons, but the existing small businesses ALSO don't want new zoning that could open up new potential for competition and/or change the conditions upon which they created their business models. So businesses are also at fault for their "maintaining the status quo" at all costs. Change is risk.

[@exoZelia]

When I traveled abroad my American brain couldn't even handle going to friend's apartments and the ground floor had a convenience store. Don't even have to leave the building for snacks and some basics. We're missing tf out

[@TitanRC]

Another thing you didn’t mention but I see where I live (Utah) is that expanding suburbia destroys farmland, endangered habitats, and rare land formations. Plus suburbs are downright ugly af. I wish I could enjoy my home town for years to come but houses keep creeping up the mountain ranges and I don’t think there’s going to be any real “outdoors” left in a few years.

[@BlitzkriegOmega]

I live in New Jersey. My local area was polled on what do use a bunch of prospective property on. Most of us wanted affordable housing and businesses. They used the lots on 55+ HOA neighborhoods and empty warehouses. Brilliant.

[@sabretooth1997]

I suppose that's still better than a golf course.

[@kfcnyancat]

They never stop catering to old people. Someday the USA will have a population crisis not dissimilar to Japan's (the US population has already started to age, but it's nowhere near as serious as Japan's yet.) People who would've wanted to immigrate here years past are shifting their desires northward to Canada, and everyone's priced out of having kids. Shit, it might end up worse since the most common country for Americans to say they want to immigrate to is...Japan.

[@Thatguywithadog152]

In Japan I lived two blocks from the train station above a line of shops. It was kind of awesome

[@mroiddzhem7311]

For all of you Americans, here is my experience while living in a multi-family building in Prague. Metro station, tram station and bus station are all within 5-7 minutes of walking. There is also a bus stop in two minutes which allows me to get to all of those places even faster if I wanted to. Through public transit I can get to my university and its hospital within 20 minutes (yes, the walk included). Some of my friends live on the opposite side of the city and it takes somewhat around 30 minutes to get to them. I can do all of this while reading a book, listening to music with propper headphones or studying before medschool. There is a large supermarket 8 minutes from me and two medium-sized convenience stores 5 minutes from me. There are also 3 small shops literally 30 meters from my apartment door. Multiple cafes, pizza place and kebab place are also really close. The same goes for specific stores for the stuff I sometimes need to buy (instruments, guitar store, little place with Italian goodies). This would be almost perfect if not for cars bellow my window, which I completely don't understand. It's literally as fast as public transportation and even slower during rush hours.

[@wipis59]

I've commented on this before, but a lack of third places results in homeowners having to spend way more money on their home, make it bigger, struggle to keep up with the Jones and buy more cheap crap. If you want to meet friends you can't go to the pub. So you need to build a bar in your basement. You want to have a BBQ with your relatives but there are no parks with tables nearby. So you have to build a big patio in your back yard. There are no cafes nearby so you need a place to invite your neighbor over for coffee. There are no libraries so each child needs their own study space. Your home can't just be a place to eat sleep and relax. Your home has to be a library, a pub, a park, a ball court, a cafe, everything!

[@uss_04]

Saw a sign earlier where single family home owners did not want Missing Middle housing “ruining the character of their neighborhood” as if its a lower class of home

[@krob9145]

Isn't that what LA didn't want so now they have homeless all over the place even by schools. The have to deal with human excrement on those streets since there's no toilets available for homeless.

[@Gage_The_Comrade_or_Something]

“BuT THe cHAraCtER Of MuH nEIghBOrhoOd” Imagine thinking your copied & pasted generic single family home has any character

[@laurie7689]

Renters are generally considered to be a lower class of people than owners.

[@lindsaycole8409]

@@laurie7689 Only when property owners are in the majority.

[@foxbeans1509]

Couldn't exactly come out & say the "color of their neighborhood" now could they?

[@piotrczubinski5796]

Hi Adam, try to visit Warsaw. It's a great city where you can both see car depandance, bad planing and single family zonings (polish style tho) and new, modern city with pedestrian infrastructure, bike lanes and great transit. I think it would make a great video and I can be your companion :D

[@wawrzynieckorzen78]

When visiting Warsow it would be great to compare socialist and capitalist urban planning - difference is stunning (however as a capital Warsaw had pretty poor planning for communist era standards, but still the difference is visible).

[@Rhinemann]

Yeah, have briefly been there in my "refugee era" and it was interesting, to say the least, to see the contrast.

[@robinsandquist]

I was visiting there a few times and got a taste of both the public transport (which was great) and the vehicular (which was god awful). Interesting city overall with a unique blend of infastructure.

[@drewcipher896]

I think something not talked about is how rare it is to be able to buy an apartment nowadays. Like maybe in New York or if its a luxury condo. But for middle or low income people apartment are rent only with the rent being 2x or more what the morgage would be. Ensuring they will never be able to break out of their class and the national property management company will just get richer and more powerful.

[@akiraraiku]

it is born out of concentrating all the economic activity in a few dense key areas, everybody has to live close by, the land value goes through the roof, most people can't afford it, even those that can get very little space. All the meanwhile you get vast expenses that are almost empty of any economic activity. It is especially the case in France, all was done to concentrate around big cities, Paris is almost the whole economy, followed a bit by two, three other big regional cities and that is it. The rest of the country, middle size and small size towns are dead. The countryside is a wasteland. Everybody is crammed onto jammed roads and filled up public transports, commuting between a shoe size apartment and work for an hour or more everyday. At the end of the day, people are tired and left devoid of energy when they go back home, so they stay there vegetating. Thus you get dead residential areas where nothing happens.

[@sam08g16]

"These houses pay so little tax it's hardly worth my time!" - Caesar 3 tax collector

[@baconblitz772]

my man out here bringin' some premium grade urban renewal vids for me to binge before I go to work, thanks!

[@orapoix6877]

1:24 Ah yes me casually on my way to school on my T30 heavy tank (Don't tell anyone I'm gonna do some moderate ammount of trolling hehe)

[@kristscheen]

Another point for these middle houses is that you mix up all the different people not just in their third places but also in close neighborhood. You could have students, pensioners and families in one house, "forced" to work somewhat together to create a peacful situation in their house.

[@losh330]

Thank you for mentioning that these bad housing codes are changing for the better. My city in Oregon just broke ground on a large mixed use, walkable neighborhood on the site of an old factory in the middle of town. Also, every new subdivision has the missing middle housing and medium density apartment housing and many have little town centers with shops. A pizza shop just opened in my neighborhood within walking distance from my house for example. I think the missing middle housing is required to be built in every new neighborhood in Oregon now. Its not perfect since most housing is still single family, but it is a start.

[@mbogucki1]

Its not just America but North America. Canada, at least the English speaking part, has the same issues. Montreal seems to be the only city up here built mostly around people. The city of Toronto just woke up to the issues and are now scrambling for a plan to fill that "missing middle" but our provincial premier is very much in a 1960s R1 zoning state of mind and now bulldozing farmland for highways and single detached homes.

[@randomtinypotatocried]

My friend is trying to convince me and my partner to move to Montreal because of that reason

[@mbogucki1]

@@randomtinypotatocried I live in the Greater Toronto Area. If I could get a job in Montreal I would move tomorrow.

[@davidjames4915]

I live in a part of Ottawa where 'missing middle' has been allowed for most of the 2000s. Indeed, not only allowed but actually "encouraged". But... I can count on one hand the number of such projects to have been completed. That's because Ottawa's developers, instead of buying a plot and proposing a conforming missing middle project almost invariably go in for a rezoning for some sort of tower project, which are also almost always granted. And do we at least get a tower-and-podium out of it so that the streetwall at least vaguely looks like missing middle? Well of course not: the "podium" consists of a 2 m setback before the tower continues on up, and "tower" is generous given that a lot of the times it's less tower and more just a great long mass. The best part has got to be the fact that these projects' height (and small unit sizes) means that they exceed the point at which there is sufficient space for one parking space per unit with just one underground storey (they have to dig out one regardless for frost depth), so they blast and chip away at the bedrock to add in two or three levels of underground parking, often in excess of the zoning requirement (but curiously the bike parking allocation is never exceeded). So while I'm all for enabling 'missing middle' in the zoning, I also have my doubts that it would actually result in much of it being built.

[@oisinbutler]

"But I like my space", nobody is forcing you to live in a more dense home, it's just to offer more options rather than only single family homes

[@alexanderveritas]

The solution to the *US* housing crisis: *War Thunder.*

[@euanstokes2828]

I live in Scotland and whilst my area isn't bad for public transport and 'third places' I've definitely realised that better is out there since going to uni in a small town. It has a dense town centre where students, workers, pensioners etc will all gather together and interact and being able to reach everywhere I need to go in 20-30 minutes is great. Whilst Britain may not be the best for urban design (although its doing far better than America) I'm glad we seem to be on a trajectory of improvement here.

[@SKy_the_Thunder]

I like my little apartment on the 4th floor of a former British barracks building in a decently sized German city. There's a few of these around this corner, with a decent amount of green between them (including a couple of playgrounds), and a bit up the road it transitions to double and single houses. There's a kindergarten, an elementary school and a church in walking distance, and one of the complexes directly neighboring the house I live in has a bakery, a restaurant, a pharmacy, a salon, a small grocery store, 2 doctors and a bank. Across the larger crossroads in the area (which has stops for multiple major bus lines to every corner of the city) there's another bank, a shop of a postal service, another kindergarten, and a handful of smaller office buildings (one of which I used to work at). And within 15 minutes walking distance there are 2 medium-sized supermarkets, a large pet store, 2 furniture stores, another post office, a garage, a couple more restaurants, a car dealership, a high school, and a bunch of other stuff... I have a license, but owning a car would frankly be a waste of money for me. Work is just 10 minutes away by bus, and the few times I go anywhere outside the city, I can do so by train or bus. Anything inside the city is easy to reach on foot or by bus - which only costs me 25€/mo. I'd go insane living in a 'murican suburb.

[@VulcanLogic]

Detroit is being rebuilt with both skyscrapers (including the remodeled book tower and train station) and mixed use medium density. Seriously. The one blessing of the torn down blight Detroit had to suffer from its huge population loss is that it's easy to rebuild in a more sustainable manner. And they aren't ignoring the affordable housing percentage, either. Take a look at some of the drone channels or street drive 4k video. It's walkable and nice now. They could seriously do without some of the surface parking, but that's in the works.

[@safuu202]

Now Detroit just needs a decent rail based public transit network to boot.

[@Eagle3302PL]

Detroit really looks like the sort of place that in 20-30 years will come back from the dead and everyone will be surprised it happened.

[@marcello7781]

The car centric and nuclear family centric way American cities are built seems like a rather dystopian scenario. Vast sprawls built and perceived more as dormitories/workplaces than as a hub of different people.

[@davidty2006]

Meanwhile in europe the pub is manditory, long as it isn't weatherspoons.

[@stevieinselby]

Another key feature of modern developments in the UK is that any sizeable new residential area has to include a mix of housing types - so they will typically include large family homes, smaller rowhouses, townhouses and low-rise apartment blocks. This has a similar advantage to the "third space" idea, in that you get a mix of people from different incomes and backgrounds living alongside each other, rather than having ghettoes of poverty in one area and exclusive areas for the wealthy in another.

[@RedbadofFrisia]

Something i regularly see on Strongtowns is Americans saying: yeah well I would never want to live in a duplex/midrise building. Okay, no one is foricing you to live somewhere, but how about we give people the option, there are lots of people who WOULD like to live there.

[@rilmar2137]

That would require... actually caring about something/someone beyond the tip of your nose

[@Silver-lq4qc]

Noooo dont you know that everyone else hold the exact same opinions as me? Someone LIKING affordable housing? preposterous

[@specialingu]

i think it can seem really unattractive, until youve experienced it...

[@sashkad9246]

yea many people wouldn't like it but even more people can't afford anything better.

[@MrMisties]

You should have asked them why they wouldn't want to live there. Look at the prices it's laughable

[@chame17]

It may not be the same for every American City, but I work at an Architecture firm and without exception, every single multi family housing project we are working on is mid rise mixed use building. The city codes are still hell to follow, but mixed use multi family is by far the most affordable and incentivized typology of building.

[@fatrobin72]

Where i live, in the UK there is a bus into town, it turns up every 15 minutes and a trip takes 30 minutes... walking takes 45... bicycle 11 minutes... car, well if it is midnight... 8 minutes... And people wonder why i walk...

[@strohbertl]

Not to forget the lack of movement by even walking less (only partially compensated by walking over the huge asphalt field of the parking lot)

[@SemiIocon]

I never really thought about how this type of housing leads to a more cohesive society, but it does ring true. I remember as a child being bewildered by the concept of a "Chinatown" like I saw in American media. Impossible over here and it felt kinda weird how comfortable Americans are with segregation like that.

[@laurie7689]

Yes, we prefer segregation, particularly of neighborhoods.

[@shrayesraman5192]

Segregation especially among minority groups is way more noticeable in europe.

[@ryanh5568]

There's also another plus to putting in the missing middle: more green space. The added green space within the city where there would be parking lots or big box stores would not only mean such cities would be more pleasant but they'd be cooler. IIRC you can knock off several degrees from the urban temperature by just having more trees and green spaces instead of concrete since concrete is a thermal store.

[@SpencerBilodeau]

Here in Montreal, the vast majority of the city's housing is low-rises and duplexes and triplexes. It is incredibly efficient high density housing that still stays human in scale.

[@JKBockstael]

Montreal, referred to in travel guides as "the most European city in North America". (indeed it is)

[@trainsandmore2319]

Heh once you get far enough, you’ll see those same car-centric suburbs found all over the country unfortunately.

[@SpencerS.GBilodeau]

@@trainsandmore2319 and? People nowadays are convinced single family occupancy house, or high rise condos are the only way to go. But that has nothing to do with how it is in the core, non- suburban city. So not sure why you need to bring it up

[@trainsandmore2319]

@@SpencerS.GBilodeau I’m just telling the truth. Montreal is dense but it’s in Canada so that doesn’t mean it is free from any car-centric SFH suburbs at all.

[@smilingearth5181]

And the thing is, the bigger and older American cities DO have mid-rise housing in abundance--or at least they used to--so this shit zoning hasn't always been a thing.

[@Atoll-ok1zm]

I took a "history of the American city" class a while ago and honestly, it's amazing what a lot of our older cities used to be. Particularly in new England. The cities were constrained to a grid (mostly) but apart from that they were shockingly organic. With rows upon rows of dense townhouses and apartments. They had tram networks, mixed zoning, etc. Obviously they were far from perfect, but there was a sort of human-ness to them. But most of those areas outside the city center got bulldozed to build highways. Or bulldozed because they were "ugly", or to force majority black neighborhoods to just stop existing. Supposedly so that developers could build something newer and better but often they just got demolished and nothing replaced them. Which only served to push people out of cities even more. Luckily there are some repairs being done, but it's slow work and we'll never be able to replace all that history we destroyed.

[@chefssaltybawlz]

I’m in Houston which is neither old nor has zoning laws. We have TONS of duplexes and midrises in the inner city. It’s the suburbs that love their cookie cutter tract housing and stroads. Row houses are also prominent in New Orleans. Here, it was essential to combat heat. Row houses make air flow better and keep homes cooler. Unfortunately it’s the tearing down of historic homes to build modern townhomes that ruins it. These new homes are built awfully with terrible insulation. When we froze for a week without power, old homes retained their warmth like mine did. New construction homes dropped to the 30’s inside.

[@smilingearth5181]

@@chefssaltybawlz Houston is an example of both why you need zoning laws of some kind and why just building tons of homes doesn't overcome bad urban planning practices.

[@smilingearth5181]

@@Atoll-ok1zm Unfortunately, that's true. In so many majority black neighborhoods, the damage has already been done and nothing short of razing and rebuilding them from scratch with actual people in mind will help. Even in the fight for better cities there's racism--it's mostly the white neighborhoods that can muster the finances and manpower to fight to get freeways torn down, schools funded or streets realigned for people and transit instead of just cars.

[@kyleoates6367]

Call it what it actually is, small government overreach (we have WAY more of this than big government overreach). Zoning laws are decided by states, not the federal government. "Big government" means something specific in the US- Federal Government.

[@angestellterderantifagmbh]

When you made the example with the pub and the different kinds of people there, I remembered a night in a small pub in Heidelberg, where my friends and I met two men in their fifties. Turned out they both were wealthy lawyers and every once in a while they go to the pub, because it was their favorite in university. They paid for many of our drinks :D

[@leightonolsson4846]

In the UK it feels like unless it's social housing or conversion of existing commercial buildings it's either single family homes or high rise too.

[@KerbalRocketry]

"land of the free" banning anything

[@vylbird8014]

The land of the free likes to keep things expensive.

[@frtzkng]

Also the highest incarceration rate among the traditional 'Western Industrial' nations

[@sabretooth1997]

Most of our freedoms are "negative". The "you can do what you want, as long as it complies with x, y, and z" variety.

[@ano_nym]

@@frtzkng freedom don't apply to criminals. Should be self evident. Once you attack your fellow man you have lost the right to your own freedom.

[@saoirseislive]

Something I found out about my city that I never realized, in Hagerstown MD there is no single family zoning. It goes from medium density to areas with no zoning. Out there it's typically single family homes, but it's not uncommon to see developments of duplexes and apartments.

[@mp5856a]

Note: zoning is done at the local level, not some federal agency. So it’s important to vote and engage at the community level to make this change.

[@badluckbrian46]

One thing that amazed me last week was a video from the 1980s, where researchers analyzed which plazas people would spend time on and what made those special. Literally just sitting there, discussing with colleagues, reading, observing other people... everything from businessmen, pensioners, young couples and children. But nowadays that thing would either be a parking lot or commercialised by one or the other restaurant or market (which are much better than just parking, but I still somewhat miss places where you can just chill out in the city without having to buy a coffee, beer, haircut or whatever).

[@comandit]

I don’t know what’s better, the increasing quality of the videos or the smooth af transitions to war thunder

[@NIN0ID]

This is a massive problem in Australia. Whenever I've tried to talk to people about the problems with suburbia, I get the response "but I don't want to live in a high-rise". A lot of people can't seem to imagine medium density housing being built extensively.

[@kantheasian836]

"The problem with the Australian Parliament is the fact that it is filled with Australians" - Robert Muldoon, former PM of New Zealand

[@sophiedowney1077]

I live in a very dense suburb right outside the city that's mostly single family housing but has mixed zoning that allows for corner stores, and it's so great. There's a soda shop that's a 7 minute walk, 2 grocery stores that are about 10 minutes by foot or 3 by scooter. If I want to take my pet snake on a walk I can go get some gelato and then eat it at the park on my walk back. And there's a bus stop about 2 blocks away that will take me to the university and light rail system, which can take me all over the city. Downtown, the mall, the planetarium, whatever! I moved there from a very sprawlish suburb with garages that are 50% as big as the houses and everything is a 10 minute drive away even though it's only about a mile because of the insane curves and twists and turns. I like it better in the multi-zoned area.

[@죽은_시민의_사회]

Hey Adam I would love to her your perspective on the urban landscape of Seoul. It's quite an interesting city where smaller apartments, commie blocks, and high-rise apartments can all be found right next to each other.

[@lol-ih1tl]

Seoul has the best train system in the world.

[@randomdude2600]

I live in Ann Arbor, a ways away from Detroit, and we have a ton of mid rises here and more being built constantly. It's amazing since there is an actually good bus system. It's essential since this city is expensive af to live in, so it allows for more housing in less space.

[@wills9482]

I love the transition into the ad, as a war thunder player myself.

[@OumuamuaOumuamua]

It really sucks being an American, and seeing how much better European cities are but our government refuses to do anything. I don’t understand why people feel the need to mass comment on this post

[@kvm1992]

European cities aren't that much better either. Yes it seems to be more appealing but that's about it.

[@nessa-parmentier]

@@kvm1992 as a European I don't really like going in any city, but in comparison american cities look like absolute hellscapes, especially for someone like me who doesn't have a driver's license yet.

[@danmanproking2179]

@@kvm1992 how are they ‘not much better’? Easier access to amenities, and less car-centric with actually good public transport. How is this ‘not much better’?

[@DOSFS]

Depends sometimes States or even the local gov. itself is the problem or have to start itself (but Fed still needs to do more though), as not like gov can do everything anyway, state and county still hold a lot of power and push back (aka suing). Thankfully it is changing in a positive direction recently but I still hope for faster and wider adaption but late better than never I guess.

[@flosset6070]

@@kvm1992 try living in American suburb

[@Exquailibur]

my town has so many abandoned homes that are single family residential types, its so bad and there is no third place for most people. The woods are also doing a great job taking back some of that land, there are houses with plants growing inside them. Where I live its rather wet so a lot of moss tends to grow on the rooves of buildings which allows for plants that destroy a roof over time, a house that isn't lived in will decay very rapidly here.

[@andersdenkend]

I'd love to see longer videos from you, so that the ad doesn't feel like it's taking up 50 % of the whole video runtime. :D Other than that, great work.

[@noseboop4354]

I'd rather not watch ads at all. Paying for KZbin premium, only to get hit by two ads anyways, and very long and poorly transitionnned ads, and for a dubiously ethical pay to win app, is just too much. I'm not watching any other videos on this channel.

[@babelhuber3449]

The problem is that you cannot change cities overnight. Take Cologne in Germany as an example: About 100 years ago Cologne got rid of its outdated fortifications which basically formed a ring in the city - the city grew beyond its fortifications even when they were in use, so they weren't really outside anymore even back then. In the 1920ies, Cologne's mayor Konrad Adenauer (yes, _the_ Konrad Adenauer) refused to convert the fortifications into living quarters and industrial areas and instead turned them into a park. He saw this as an opportunity to provide natural recreation areas for the people living in the city. Now 100 years later, Cologne still has these areas - which are heavily used by the population and still make Cologne a relatively "green" city. Thanks to one mayor 100 years ago.

[@Micha-qv5uf]

You're contradicting yourself a bit though by saying "you can't change a city over night" to proceed describing how one person basically changed a huge city over night :D

[@rsj2877]

In a question by that Konrad Adenauer, was he the first Chancellor of West Germany (Current one)?

[@babelhuber3449]

@@rsj2877 Yes later he was West Germany's first chancellor after WW2

[@babelhuber3449]

@@Micha-qv5uf True. But once the damage is done, you can change only slowly...

[@Jump-Shack]

​@@Micha-qv5ufthink what they are trying to say is it will take time for the changes to occur

[@ikelom]

2:35 what is that flag in the background..... who is sponsoring you?

[@NoSlaying]

theres a cafe i go to, and what you said about people from different classes and background getting together reminded me a lot of that cafe, i go there regularly and so do the others i meet, i'm an engineering student, while i meet often with a charity worker, senior engineer, taxi driver, carpenter, stock trader and a teacher to name a few, not to mention the cafe owner who offers me a ride sometimes because i dont own a car, i mainly walk or take the bus, anyways we always get together and talk whatever from philosophical things to politics to just literally mundane or everyday stuff. it's the best thing ever and i love staying with them and having deep and meaningful conversations that isn't a small talk with a passerby in a supermarket.

[@pavelcic2826]

That transition to an add was SICK

[@neres5795]

Salt the snail

[@NicMediaDesign]

*ad It is short for ADvertisement

[@Elliamy01]

Crikey, it's the spelling rozzers

[@Menelutorex]

promoting russian company is sick. Especially because he live few hundrets km from Ukraine ....

[@Bloomy49]

​@@MenelutorexWAA WAA WAA, I DONT WANNA FUCKING HEAR IT!

[@mattdinu6417]

We do have positive examples in North America too. Montreal and Vancouver stand out as cities prioritizing transit oriented development and changing codes to build more medium density. Could be nice to see some of those mentioned in your videos, I think it would do a lot to help show North Americans that its possible for us to make this change, and enjoy it too.

[@mattdinu6417]

We have so many barriers in NA to creating livable cities. We know it sucks, seeing some positive could be refreshing.

[@Ellipsis115]

1:20 OK that was actually pretty good. 8:18 It seems thats 2 ways I have to learn from adam something in terms on retention.

[@Chris.Davies]

I am lucky to live in New Zealand, which is car centric, but we still have corner stores. I can walk to them in under 2 minutes from home. I can also purchase gas at the gas station, get a Thai takeaway, a Turkish Kebab, visit a Korean food mart, get a haircut, have an Indian meal, buy some booze, recharge a vape, get some fish & chips, have a facial, buy a pie, get a coffee, or you could buy a disc golf disc from the small retail store I run. :) And yes, even though it's 2 minutes walk, I still drive my car, because I have to take home large boxes of wholesale discs orders, so the courier can pick them up from my home - which has a secure area I can leave them for collection.

[@emilynelson5985]

We gotta just start building ancient roman insulea to spite neoclassical zoning requirements.

[@the1gip]

Land of the free where you get sued for opening a lemonade stand in your garage 😂

[@Daisy_Chainnn]

I’d really love for you to do a video looking at some North American cities that don’t suck for public transit and zoning. I know Toronto has really good public transit along with rentable e-bikes and just got rid of single family zoning.

[@_JayRamsey_]

I think a lot of Americans miss that we can fix our cities and still have Joe Dirt out in the woods with his ancient gas-guzzler, no grocery store within twenty miles. Best of both worlds!

[@alwayshere6956]

Dude you look cool

[@Buc82]

Unfortunately there is a trend nowadays in Madrid to convert ground floor stores to flats just because the price of housing became ridiculously high.

[@Buc82]

@@donaldothomoson well, the banking system offers loans for up to 40 years period. For some reason the culture (series, movies and whatnot) feeds us with this thought that we absolutely must live next to the people with insane purchasing power (where all the prices are skewed), in the capital or other metropolis which in turn, via housing developer system is being converted it into a human farm with increasingly smaller cells. With all this technological advancement available, we still force upon ourselves the Greek polis system, where being exiled from THE city was considered punishment worse than death. Thomas Piketty was right to observe that the housing is to the late capitalism, what land was to the feudalism.

[@michael90cr86]

In Brighton we are essentially the size of some large towns, however our city centre has the three story terraced housing for about a mile in each direction, with lots of flats and shared housing for students and young profesionals. I feel the community is stronger than most small towns or large cities because the density supports lots of mixing in third places, where old profs. will go to the same social venues as gardeners and young profesionals. Really breaks down those gaps.

[@5Komma5]

Local shops worked when people had a bit of respect and older technology. The air brakes from delivery trucks will ensure that you wake up long before you have to in the summer. That bar/restaurant around the corner ensures you will not get to sleep when you want to. Berlin is full of small restaurants across regular houses. I absolutely hate going there in the summer because you can not find any sleep with an open window. So much fun when you have a business meeting in the morning. Also the trash in the morning is disgusting. I will not move anywhere if there is a shop/bar type business in the same street.

[@sarat6488]

out here in the midwest, 5-over-1's tend to have shops on the ground floor, but they tend to skew towards chains or boutiques with prices not accessible or affordable to most people

[@stevejames7930]

I had no idea how not having middle space creates prejudice before watching this

[@TomaszJakubKusienicki]

I think this is one of the best videos about this topic. It’s short, but still covers the most important points and shows how better planning would benefit everyone, including people who wants to drive or live in a suburbs. Well done!

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

Suburbs also creates more loneliness and incels.

[@RextheRebel]

I love pocket communities and bungalow courts. Duplexes, sixplexes, mixed use developmens, row houses and housing blocs are good and useful in the heart of cities, but really don't work anywhere else. Single family neighborhoods should have more amenities, communal space and a market space but otherwise, keep them as they are. The suburbs aren't broken, just needing a little touching up. Garages should be used to open small businesses too.

[@Bzuhl]

Multi-family homes in Europe also mean better negotiation with the landowner (for renter) or an approach to H.O.A. which is more about the common property over the building (with care of maintainance, shared spaces and services available) than some kind of rogue local government.

[@krankarvolund7771]

Yeah, I'm always amazed byt the concept of a "H.O.A." in a suburb where everyone has its own house, like why are you organizing? You're all owners of your own house XD When my family lived in a suburb of single-family houses, each one had its ow garden, and if they didn't liked what we were doing in our garden, they just sulked.

[@ano_nym]

@@krankarvolund7771 Because you have to keep the street, water, electricity, and other amenities functioning, which is cheaper and easier to do as a collective. Now I agree that the controlling aspects is extremely cu*ked, but the base idea is sound. I assume they do that too, they do in Sweden at least. Here they are generally not controlling such thing as far as I know, but we instead have the government deciding what you can and can not do if the neighbors should complain. (This can include stuff as paining your house uncommonly, i.e. toning it from red to orange...)

[@krankarvolund7771]

@@ano_nym THat's something I'll never get, if I want to paint my house red with fuschia dots, I'll paint my house red with fuschia dots, and I don't care what the neighbours or the government think about it. The only reason I can see for limiting the colour or style of housing is if it's a historical centre, and even then, skyscrappers and pollution do more damage to the historical architecture than the paint of my house :p Our neighbours had painted their house in green, it was perfect as a landmark for guests "follow the instructions if you see a green house, you're here" XD

[@ano_nym]

@@krankarvolund7771 well I can see some point in it. I mean your neighbors have to look at the house more than you after all. So it's quite understandable to not allow colors that would be too intrusive for the neighbors. In many cases it do get ridiculous though...

[@krankarvolund7771]

@@ano_nym How is it intrusive? I'm not painting their garden XD

[@nippe97]

At 3:21 you display a map of a transit stop 34 minute walk away while you can take the 78 bus just 12 minutes away from Ingleside Avenue stops to downtown, another bus runs from this same road to the local mall and other cross traffic destinations. The bus stop that you pointed to on Woodland drive only takes you around on the edge of the city on line 37. On that note about shopping opportunities from this same location the closest shop is a 7-11 14 minutes away on that same bus or the mall area 18 minutes away. The bus stops right next to the mall. Also interesting that you chose to have examples from Baltimore as it has miles and miles of mid rise.

[@TotallyNotRedneckYall]

If my car stops working, my wife and I are both immediately unemployed.

[@Zugdurchfahrt311]

3:19 I live in a mid-rise area in Berlin, Germany and all the close public transit stops are around 10 mins or less away: 5 mins for the S-Bahn and depending of where i'm going between 4 and 8 minutes to busses and 12 minutes for the U-Bahn.

[@voidstarq]

A little bit of the "Age of Empires II" soundtrack mixed in right at the end, innit? I see what you did there. (Starting around 7:50)

[@SRFriso94]

And you even leave out the tax benefits. Not Just Bikes has an entire video on this, but the TLDR is that mixed-use midrise buildings are some of the most profitable buildings for cities in terms of tax revenue per square meter.

[@Josh-99]

There are SO MANY problems with urban planning and regulations in America, and this video barely scratches the surface. It's appreciated nevertheless. I feel like I should play it at my next City Council meeting.

[@ICountFrom0]

The midrise with shops on the ground floor is my favorite town esthetic.

[@franciscol3510]

I've always found USA cities so unsettling coming from South America, everytime I take the bus I see countless small business that are probably the living of a family each, all of them facing straight to the street, I could just take a walk from any bus station and buy a soda and streetfood in less than 5 minutes from the station itself, wich I wouldn't even need because there's always street vendors in the stations themselves, the flow of people makes the city feel so alive, when I look around, for as much as I can criticize my city, I truly feel like people live here

[@brandonmorel2658]

I also come from a neo-colonized country from Latin America and the alienation North American city planning gives off is pretty big. The neighborhoods are all sterile and the stores and public spaces are far away, you can't walk anywhere. Down here (dominican republic) the hoods are lively and needed amenities are walking distance, I do live in a priveledged working class place so my point of view may not be representative of the actual proletarian inner city.

[@franciscol3510]

@@brandonmorel2658 hasta cierto punto agradezco mucho que en Colombia tengamos relativamente poca influencia gringa en estos temas, aunque si lo noto mucho en nuevos proyectos que están ridículamente centralizados, como un suburbio gringo, pero esos siempre son para gente de clase alta así que dudo que la mayoría de la población los acepte, o al menos espero que eso no pase

[@brandonmorel2658]

@@franciscol3510 Los barrios suburbiales tipo yankee son carisimos de hacer y la clase trabajadora media-alta privilegiada en nuestros paises (excepto argentina y chile quizas) no se ha desarrollado al mismo punto que la gringa, asi que quizas por ese tipo de construcciones no son tan populares aqui mismo.

[@franciscol3510]

@@brandonmorel2658 Precisamente, ademas por el estilo de vida, yo personalmente me sentiria muerta si viviera en un suburbio gringo, es como un espacio liminal, y el simple hecho de no poder salir de tu casa e ir caminando a comprar una cebolla se siente que te quita libertades, basante ironico de por si, no por mencionar que si te pusieras a ello podrias investigar sobre los habitantes de cada casa y te contarian historias sobre el sitio, cuanto se esforzaron por remodelar la cocina o por construir un tercer piso, las casas literalmente crecen con sus habitantes y se adaptan a sus necesidades, igual que los comercios que las rodean, yo misma en mi ciudad veo sectores comerciales que por algun motivo se especializan en algo (tecnologia, electrodomesticos, ropa, instrumentos musicales, etc.) y es precisamente por esa libertad que la ciudad se siente viva.

[@olli9722]

I think its about american snobism: "you can't raise your family in an apartment building!"

[@Br3ttM]

When I was a young kid, we lived in a few apartments, where I played with other kids my age, then we moved out to a rural area, and while we had a big yard and wildlife, it was just me and my sister.

[@maniak1768]

I also sometimes think that this American panic of not living in a suburban single-family home is a hereditary fear of having to live in one these typical NYC-style migrant tenements with six other families back in the 1900s. I have a friend from the US living in Germany and when he married and wanted to start a family, literally his entire family was like: 'You better buy a house immediately, you cannot live in an inner-city apartment with a family, that's way too cramped and cities are too full with crime to raise kids.' They weren't even convinced by the fact that they have 5 rooms and 100 m2 and the fact that crime in German cities isn't really a thing.

[@RUNN3R1]

@@Br3ttM Maybe invite some other people? lol

[@charlo90952]

Interestingly London is the first example of urban sprawl. It's composed mainly of low density two storey row houses. It was pre automobile so it was enabled by surface and underground electric trains and trams and small shops were allowed. But it has nowhere near the density of European cities hence the modern traffic problems leading to the controversial ULEZ traffic reduction schemes and low bike usage. And also interestingly the reason Los Angeles sprawls the way it does is due to both the zoning codes as described here and the extensive Pacific Electric railway system now torn out.

[@djrocko410]

3:21 Literally my neighborhood lmao. Woodlawn, MD. Fun fact, the local mall, Security Square Mall is being redeveloped into a mixed use area over the next decade...so thats a plus. Also the Maryland Red line (that was cancelled by our last governer in 2015) would run through the neighborhood just north of whats shown in the video (the mall is also along that proposed transit route) Another note is there is actually a bus that runs down ingleside which would cut that walk by 2/3. I see the point you're making though.