Sneaking Journalists into Suburbia

[@cut_and_cover]

🎥🎬🎞️Here's a little behind the scenes fact! While walking back to the bus, we were mercilessly mowed down with bb gun pellets in a bizarre suburban attempt at a drive-by shooting. The car slowed down and some guy leaned out and opened fire on us! And like, it kinda hurt. No, we didn't call the police or anything like that. But lest anyone say the metaphor in the video is an exaggeration, explain that.^^^ Anyway, good news is we were probably the only pedestrians they found all day.

[@heheheiamasuperstarcatgirl8485]

just another day in suburbia.... this is why you must never take the sidewalk (that is really fucked tho)

[@blackman7437]

Imagine living in an area so devoid of things to do that you have to do a drive by shooting of pedestrians with BB guns for fun.

[@bow-tiedengineer4453]

That's... Actually worse than my bike ride the last 4 miles home last weekend. I go to collage across the river from my home county, and St Mary's has been struggling against the advance of suburbia. The county is just poor enough to be largely ignored by the suburban regime, and as such their decades old urbanist pushback attempt hasn't yet been undone. Rumor has it that the transit network here was designed by a great urbanist from the struggling bastion of Baltimore, who liberated us from the crushing realities of rural transit, connecting residences to the aging urban centers, and designing a reliable hourly bus service with a multitude of guaranteed connections, and the ability to get nearly anywhere in the county for $3 round trip. We have clustered centers of small, somewhat dense housing within walking distance of services, at least if you are willing to brave the asphalt paths traveled by the suburban death machines. I myself have been looking into recieving proper urbanist training, in order to infiltrate the suburbanite leadership of the county of my birth, and provide viable alternative transportation for the suburbanites who are forced to unwillingly wage the war against pedestrians and cyclist in order to partake in the sad image of a walkable urban center this side of the bridge, which is the best they can get within a hundred weary miles. I'm loving this metaphor or suburban ideals as a police state, by the way. The HOA I grew up with actually isn't too strict, but it really does feel like an oppressive regime sometimes, and it's better to laugh than to cry.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I’m so glad I live in the UK with fierce gun control. If someone did that to me and I had a gun along with everyone else I would’ve shot out his tires to screw him over in response.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

What was that song in the intro called? I thought it was a lovely tune, I wish I could find the proper name.

[@popretmaster]

seeing NJB as an 'Exiled Resistance Leader' just took the cake. Fun stuff :)

[@Ifindoubt_flatout]

Had to stop and laugh there as well. At least the urbanites will win the "humour war" it seems ;-)

[@Hyperventilacion]

omg I didn't know it was him lol

[@potayto-potahto881]

Chef's kiss

[@vaiyaktikasolarbeam1906]

Exiled Resistance Leader LMAO🤣😂😆

[@michaelvickers4437]

Canadians are also fighting the suburban cold war. But we too have our casualties and our leaders in exile!

[@alexgehring8185]

This genuinely may be the one of the most underrated urbanist KZbin channels out there.

[@alanthefisher]

Interviewing old suburbanites is always the quickest way to get insanely jaded haha

[@Drew-nv1op]

"Nah, just leave it as it is"

[@cut_and_cover]

Hey, they're just trying to preserve their neighborhood character! This is small town America, where we don't need big city stuff like transit, multi-story buildings and a six-lane highway. Oh wait, actually we'll take that last one.

[@dvderek]

muh empty homes

[@denali637]

@@cut_and_cover neighborhood character = Dick's Sporting Goods, Target, Panera Bread, and 368,000 parking spaces.

[@cut_and_cover]

@@denali637 Sounds like GROWTH to me!

[@yukko_parra]

Some other countries fell to the rule of suburbia. Certain sectors of the Sydney Metropolitan Region have been toppled by Suburban forces, most notably the western sectors, whilst Urbanites in surviving outposts have reclaimed large swaths of land. Contrary to popular belief, certain Suburban sectors are thriving regions, housing the elites of the regime. These elites have been able to make parliament give them a new outpost along side the new Western Sydney Airport. This new outpost is supposed to be a tech and medical center. I guess it'll be researching how to reduce air pollution and how to cram a tonne of metal with limited space. As a note, the Sydney Metro area is the same size as the London Metro area.

[@cut_and_cover]

Wow, lore already! The States, Canada and Australia. I guess that's what happens when a country steals so much land they don't even know what to do with it.

[@ZMW7]

You guys are so brave. Thank you for risking your lives to share the travesties of suburbanization to the world!

[@Gimnbo]

As a lifelong Jersey Shore resident who went to Rutgers, your characterization of New Brunswick as "the suburbanite's first taste of freedom" is spot on. I was unfortunately too carbrained at the time to appreciate it.

[@jiecut]

Very confused Canadian :)

[@elijahcrousse3366]

Yay somebody finally acknowledges that my home province exists! Oh wait, nevermind...

[@Drew-nv1op]

Viva la resistance! Great job guys. And in addition to exiled resistance leader @notjustbikes , let us raise a fist to Chuck Marohn @strongtowns still fighting in the trenches!

[@lizcademy4809]

Wonderful! I'm a refugee myself ... I grew up in a Levitt development, the first home I owned had a vigilante HOA ... I promised myself I would never live like that again. But Suburbia is hard to leave, and my kids were born into a suburban subdivision. We made our escape in stages. The first big step was to a colonial suburb in New England, a town that combined the best of a New England small town with a large dash of Suburban propaganda. But I taught my kids to rebel, walking the 1/2 mile through the forest to school, getting involved with community organizations ... when they grew up, they abandoned Suburbia completely. As did I ... my empty nest is a flat in a nice urban neighborhood in the upper midwest, walking distance from most of my errands, a transit trip from most others. I feel freer here than I ever did in Suburbia, tied to my car.

[@addvector4918]

Really fun! The idea "what if the war on cars was a real war" is really great and I love the "lore" e.g. "the Land Uses Wars", Fantastic! Informative too. Great work

[@Ifindoubt_flatout]

Really creative idea to (humorously) frame it as a "war". This is really top notch quality, especially if you consider how young this channel is. Great job you all. Looking forward to your future videos! :-)

[@georgelaxton]

Well it is the "war on cars" according to the suburbanites? In reality all we want is to not be forced to choose a car and instead be able to walk, bike or take public transport. If you really want to drive, that's fine. Just realise that most people don't want to drive. They are forced to.

[@Teaminflament]

Personally, I wouldn’t even see it as humorous. I see it as a conscious choice to show how selective language used as propaganda can often frame our opinions.

[@linkhidalgogato]

it is war tho the only war the class war

[@Teaminflament]

@@linkhidalgogato oh yes, absolutely

[@Mycotography]

Im suprised you made it through the demilitarization zone 😂

[@Gimnbo]

Only through pure grit and determination did they manage to cross the 18th parallel

[@hotswap6894]

this is a fucking brilliant video, great job fellas. I hope this gets signal boosted by larger creators and goes viral

[@Will_JJHP]

This context is brilliant. I really love your take on presenting the madness that is North American car-centric infrastructure and its crowning achievement to soul crushing, resource extracting consumerism that is suburbia.

[@888ettio]

''Exiled resitance leader'' I laughed out loud

[@sarahcarroll3753]

My laugh-out-loud moment was "...with a rapid assault of mixed-use infill development...", with "Johnny Comes Marching" playing urgently in the background. Brilliant!

[@lizcademy4809]

@@sarahcarroll3753 Even better, some of the editing cuts were sync'd with the music.

[@ilyakogan]

6:50 exiled resistance leader 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@alexwright4930]

I still don't understand how "liberty of death" types in "the land of the free" put up with rules - is it Home Owner's Associations enforcing it? - banning washing lines in their own gardens. That seriously wouldn't even occur to anyone on this side of the pond as far as I'm aware.

[@guy-sl3kr]

Love seeing US "journalism" being used against itself. It really makes the propaganda so much more obvious. And the best part is that you don't even have to lie to make this country look terrible!

[@blackman7437]

7:03 So in an Architecture course, I learned that about a decade ago, Rutgers wanted to redesign College Av campus to allow for more growth and improve pedestrian and bus flow. While other colleges, like UBC and UWash, did sensible things, like closing a couple streets to smooth links between pedestrianized streets and made plans to redevelop parking lots and low density buildings, Rutgers decided to host a competition between a bunch of starchitects. Predictably, all the competitors were too busy drawing attention to themselves with outlandish designs to come up with anything that had any chance of coming to fruition in the real world. (One of the competitors actually suggested replacing all the busses with a giant sci-fi bug that would roll around campus). In the end, Rutgers chose to go with a massively paired down version of a design from the competitor that most closely resembled an actual architecture firm. I'm guessing Rutgers was too busy managing such an intense competition to waste their times on silly things, like opening a NACTO manual to learn the minimum width of a bus lane or what a bike lane is supposed to look like. That is to say, the incompetent group of ineffectual morons, who refer to themselves as "The Rutgers Administration", need to be individually lined up and shot out of a cannon into the Raritan River.

[@cut_and_cover]

I'll suggest the same thing I suggest for the transit authority board members. I think we just make upper administration get around campus without a car. "Wait, what? Why is it stopping? This is the middle of the route!!"

[@roadmaster935]

Amazing content right here. Satire at its finest, and a good production quality as well. We need more of this

[@ttopero]

I love your spin on the “Suburbia” paradigm! Getting a few choice clips with suburbia citizens was a nice touch.

[@scunekt]

Really good video, comparing suburbia to a messed up, over-controlling, less free "country" is honestly a great way of putting it. Keep up the great work.

[@Matty002]

'there's a lot of empty places' and if you ask them 'what if they turned it into affordable housing?' they cry 'but our precious neighborhood!' literally after admitting the neighborhood is empty 🙄

[@coolranch7537]

That’s a nimby for you

[@jonathanstensberg]

What's absolutely crazy is those massive parking lots could have apartments built primarily above them, and literally everyone would benefit. The municipality could increase both population and tax base; the businesses would increase their customer base; infrastructure would be used more efficiently; and the local commerical and residential markets would be strengthened; and nobody would have to change their lifestyle if they don't want to.

[@cut_and_cover]

No, but then the new residents would compete for existing parking, even if parking isn't decreased. So we can't change anything!

[@jonathanstensberg]

@@cut_and_cover Right! If we added residents, parking lots that currently aren't even full on the busiest shopping days of the year might occassionally be utilized to their maximum design potential by people (checks notes) parking in them.

[@cut_and_cover]

@@jonathanstensberg Yeah, sounds dangerous. What if I couldn't find a spot??

[@cut_and_cover]

@WalterUWhite Yo Excuse me. This is a picturesque rural community, not a city.

[@MikhailKutzow]

One of my new favorite videos on KZbin. Phrasing it all this way really highlights just how almost dystopian suburban development can be.

[@CheapWannabe]

I fucking teared up watching this. Nothing new I learned as I discovered not just bikes channel a year ago, but this film really tied my years of living in US together and made me very sad I did not get to experience college with thought provoking professors. I'm glad I'm discovering and learning things in my 30s, but damn great job you guys.

[@AlexCab_49]

"behind the asphalt curtain" lmao I loved that quote

[@arenomusic]

Loved the shoutout to exiled resistance leader NotJustBikes, what a valiant soldier o7

[@alexanderkruszewski7306]

That Pete Seeger song section was genuinely touching. Rest of the video was brilliant too.

[@jeremyzorek]

From one Rutgers planning student to another - amazing video!

[@AbsolutePixelMaster]

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

[@khumbolawomussa1935]

What a banger of a video. You guys are insanely creative

[@yukko_parra]

how does this only have 7k views? i thought it would be 700k views! great idea and executed well

[@Pietro-Smusi]

This is one of the best channels i've seen. It deserves way more subscribers.

[@Joeofsam]

Another banger Alex and co. We talkin revolution?!

[@MaxPrehl]

Alex, keep making these videos man. You're making a difference!

[@HowtoBuildtheWorld]

I am very impressed that this is a class project :0 Assignment: Change the world.

[@cut_and_cover]

"Hi, professor. Um, about that assignment where we have to single handedly reverse 80 years of auto-dependency. We're gonna need an extension." "To when?" "Eh, like 2100."

[@HowtoBuildtheWorld]

@@cut_and_cover make sure you site your sources ;b

[@cut_and_cover]

Works Cited: KZbinrs Jane Jacobs Every driver who's ever told me to "bIkE oN tHe SiDeWaLk!"

[@HowtoBuildtheWorld]

@@cut_and_cover very good reliable resources 👍

[@blackman7437]

@@cut_and_cover To be fair, Vancouver did it in like 30 years.

[@mandolinsam7901]

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

[@alecvip7562]

I hate it so much. The closest store to me is over a mile and a half away, with no sidewalks most of the way their. It's pitiful that this country is so reliant on cars.

[@thatpersonsmusic]

This was absolutely beautiful

[@ClassyWhale]

Nice work, Alex! This definitely makes me appreciate growing up in a walkable small town surrounded by farmland, and going to grad school in a dense urban core.

[@carbohydration9251]

this is one of the best videos on this platform. i love it

[@Thim22Z7]

Me when I realise Alex doesn't even have 5K subsribers but is already making such great content: *I will watch your career with great interest*

[@darthmaul216]

Love this

[@jamesf5303]

LMAO THIS WAS HILARIOUS. I live in East Brunswick and it really got me when you talked about how the suburbs are designed to prevent connections from forming and that the only place to see our neighbors are in massive corporation chain stores.

[@Zyo117]

I dunno about you, but that like-to-view ratio seems really good

[@hellabisys]

Great stuff, definitely going to be sharing this one around

[@frankchau]

I love your content man, it’s great! My small city is finally doing away with an abandoned mall and turning it into a mixed used space so there’s progress!!

[@cut_and_cover]

What project? (If you don't mind me asking)

[@m.someone6792]

The framing of the educational content within the comedic introduction of suburbia is superb.

[@K3end0]

This is genuinely brilliant.

[@Dave-ie1fs]

Wow this was absolutely genius! Also, informative as well. Great video

[@JamesTsividis]

One day I will tell young kids how our cities used to be built.

[@loganbryck]

This is incredible - keep it up!

[@jackmccourt1541]

Amazing video! Thanks!

[@jonathanmayland3162]

Grew up in suburbia and I hated it. It just leads to isolationist thought processes, and I'm really glad I got away from that.

[@fluuufffffy1514]

"these sidewalks don't go anywhere" 💯

[@pkillboredom]

Lol you guys should have filmed inside the Monmouth Mall, possibly one of the deadest of the dead malls in New Jersey. Undead really, the way it lingers on.

[@BudgiePanic]

I loved this video, it’s great.

[@tyrantfox7801]

Exceptional work , mates

[@ianthomas2084]

If y'all start making "Defect from Suburbia" stickers I'm all in

[@grubert3535]

Pete Seeger? Wonderful pick for a video soundtrack. Love his work.

[@weenisw]

Whoa, I suspected you had potential but this blew me away. Clever idea and expertly presented! I’m subscribing, sharing, and looking forward to your future work 👏 👏 👏

[@ilyakogan]

Great job!

[@ch98hb]

this is so well made, even inspirational

[@TheOneWithComments]

I'm only halfway through the video but I already love it. I've genuinely been waiting for people to do journalism of the US's problems from an outside perspective, and this is exactly that (even though it's kind of satirical). I'm so glad y'all did this and I shall share it with anyone who will listen.

[@alfredogarbanzo2276]

Made me cry omg 😭

[@BaiZhijie]

I love this so much!

[@yukko_parra]

inspiration

[@EasternSeaboardProductions]

Great video as always!

[@EasternSeaboardProductions]

Im near New Brunswick, so this is an honor to know nearby town is Alex Davis's video.

[@EasternSeaboardProductions]

Also go over how bad train schedules can ruin a regional rail

[@Token_Nerd]

How did I miss this vid?

[@liamhodgson]

This is a great video!

[@zanebaldwin5978]

Great video!

[@jacksonletcher3523]

Great video guys! Keep making these awesome videos and spreading the word!!

[@sqrtof81]

Another amazing video as always! Your channel is seriously underrated.

[@dantesk1836]

Really nice work. :)

[@coolranch7537]

Everyone needs to see this

[@CJbrinkman602]

Those interviews were interesting, Ir would be cool to see more of those, getting opinions from more suburbanites, never and older generations. To see how they would react to that question.

[@Viivek2309]

Wow this was such an awesome and unique video.

[@terryoneil5123]

great video!

[@CharlieND]

This video was spectacular! The commentary, editing, music choice, and educational content were all spot on! This video deserves so many more views. Great job, guys! Also, I loved that you included NJB. As a resident of suburbia, I hope to one day leave and return to my homeland. I wish to reside in the quiet, dense, walkable sanctuary that I once resided in.

[@noahmarino]

shoutout to levittown woop woop

[@JamesTsividis]

What a video!

[@youtube79z]

get a more official looking mic and do more interviews... ask what they think of the new affordable housing proposal

[@stekra3159]

This is excelnt

[@cinnanyan]

That made me smile

[@jamesgray6238]

Love the video, great energy, may the algorithm smile upon you👍

[@r.williams8349]

this is amazing

[@joep041188]

Fantastic stuff! Loved it.

[@Raja-bz4yw]

I hate suburbs

[@jakehood7463]

Every video you put out just shows how clever you guys are. Well done as usual.

[@trainsdestinations3960]

Funny, I used to live in Eatontown and go to that mall. My parents used to work there too. However, that was years ago and now it's half empty. The parking lot is a wasteland. As far as I know, apartments will be built, but the broader remaking of the mall is uncertain due to cost reasons. There is a new health clinic through on space that was just parking spots before.

[@michaelvickers4437]

I know Arcade Fire is on the outs, but their songs will forever remain the anthems of the Suburban War.

[@benhanpeter4790]

Awesome vid, keep it up. This channel is seriously going places

[@spyderwillster]

Now this is dang good! Keep up the excellent work!

[@sniperer72]

NEED. MORE. ASPECT RATIO!!!

[@Teaminflament]

Idk know though, how would GM and Ford feel if we ended the land use war?

[@derrick5130]

this video is hilarious, great job!

[@Lumberjack_king]

Lol this is incredible story telling also very accurate to most suburbs though mine is on the poorer older side still bad but not as bad as most btw I live relatively close to Kona park Jacksonville Florida

[@marclikespigeons8240]

This video gives me a new perspective on the idea of the 'suburban war' from the Arcade Fire album The Suburbs... Great video! very smart idea

[@wesleyfreeman5918]

holy shit dude, you better get an A+ for this good lord