Suburbs that don't Suck - Streetcar Suburbs (Riverdale, Toronto)

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Car-dependent suburbs suck. But that doesn't mean that all suburbs suck. It is possible to build suburbs that don't suck, and the US and Canada used to design great suburbs all the time. But even though these pre-war suburbs are loved by many people, and in huge demand, they're illegal to build today.
Special thanks to @DaveLikesBikes for most of the Riverdale footage used in this video: / davelikesbikes
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---
References and Image Credits
High North Cannabis Testing
www.highnorth.com/
Suburban Space and the City of Rome: Liminality Fluidity and Differentiation
digitalworks.union.edu/cgi/vi...
Improving Modern Suburbs with lessons learnt from an Old NJ Town
Alan Fisher - The Armchair Urbanist
• A Car-Free Neighborhoo...
Pacific Electric Railway cars piled atop one another at junkyard on Terminal Island, Calif., 1956
By Los Angeles Times - digital2.library.ucla.edu/view..., Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Riverdale Population Density
www.areavibes.com/toronto-on/...
Other Population Density Figures from:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaughan
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterd...
Toronto / E01 Region Housing Prices from MLS (not publicly available):
www.realtor.ca/mls
How Wide Should a Neighborhood Street Be? - Part 1
PlannersWeb
plannersweb.com/2013/09/wide-...
On-street parking: good or bad?
Urban Kchoze
urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/...
NACTO Urban Street Design Guide
Lane Width
nacto.org/publication/urban-s...
London, Ontario Zoning Map
london.ca/business-developmen...
What If We Rated Schools by Walkability?
usa.streetsblog.org/2014/01/0...
Highschool Walkscore
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN
Journal of Environmental Psychology
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
Do Minimum-Lot-Size Regulations Limit Housing Supply in Texas?
www.mercatus.org/system/files...
Minimum-Lot-Size Regulations Mean Less Housing
www.forbes.com/sites/adammill...
Toronto’s two front doors issue pits neighbourhood character against renters’ dignity, expert says
Toronto Star
www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019...
Setbacks, Suburbs and the American Front Lawn
oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011...
Parking demand and zoning requirements for suburban multifamily housing
kingcounty.gov/~/media/depts/...
Scottsdale, AZ Zoning
library.municode.com/az/scott...
Tustin, CA Zoning
library.municode.com/ca/tusti...
--
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:05 Car-dependent suburbs suck
1:17 Suburbs are not the problem
2:15 Suburbs that don't suck are possible
3:20 Introduction to "Streetcar Suburbs"
4:05 About Riverdale
4:24 Why Riverdale is great
5:17 Walkability & schools of Riverdale
6:05 Shopping & Groceries
7:24 Storing your ugly metal boxes
7:47 Population density
8:24 High demand & housing prices
9:46 You can't build it: streets
11:07 You can't build it: zoning
11:46 You can't build it: schools
12:20 You can't build it: housing
13:00 You can't build it: lots & setbacks
14:23 You can't build it: parking
14:40 Conclusion & summary
16:16 Patreon shout-out
16:28 Outro
#suburbs #streetcarsuburbs #urbanplanning #riverdale

[@NotJustBikes]

Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/not-just-bikes-suburbs-that-don-t-suck-streetcar-suburbs-riverdale-toronto Or visit: go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes

[@naomirobinson975]

It’s interesting to me that two front doors is considered less aesthetically pleasing than a massive garage door that takes up the entire front of the house.

[@playlets6465]

nothing says freedom quite like "minimum building size"

[@comethiburs2326]

@@tartrazine5 lmao, what does desegregation busing has anything to do with this? if anything increasing transport time (for any reason) for a student is counterproductive. i have always tried to stay within an hour of daily commute from studies, then from work. Because fuck that waste of time. i have shit to do, and some sleeping time to protect. every country has different housing issues, and while big ass houses are cool, they are expensive to live into. harder to keep warm with secondary sources when the grid goes off, when that is even feasible, they need more of everything to stay in shape. i hate the modern trend of 50 year fallout for housing. carpentry with metal joints, concrete prefabs or plywood walls. hell, i know "hippies" who build houses out of medieval technologies and are perfectly fine (code is respected, heat management is great, lighting is optimal, yadda, yadda). It makes no sense to me, that if i wanted to leave the urban center of my city, i just would not find a small house for two, or a single level split house and be forced out into suburbia, without any pleasant way to wander around by foot. that is assuredly against my freedom of choice.

[@Weebwhacker]

@Cecilia Cole damn thats fucked, thats one of the highlights in my opinion of having a backyard, I got a peach and pear trees growing fresh fruits every year, along with some fresh tomatoes and bell peppers

[@busTedOaS]

the freedom of every house being the exact same. it really is ironic.

[@iansteelmatheson]

or the freedom to have to drive to be able to get anywhere. (instead of being restricted to the trash options of walking, cycling, driving, bus, metro, etc.)

Just shut the hell up already. A minimum building size is literally not a problem at all and doesn't mean there's no freedom.

[@cebbi1313]

When I visited my aunt in America, the thing that shocked me most was getting in a car TO GET BREAKFAST. Who drives to breakfast? What hellscape is this?

[@lucasfontainha9053]

😂😂😂 I live in Brazil, where small or big cities sometimes might not have a decent sewage system, but you can buy fresh bread in the morning everywhere within a short walk, and I still don't do it because I hate leaving the house hungry in the morning. I cannot IMAGINE the fresh taste of hell which is having to drive to get breakfast loool

[@RPRIMICI]

Grew up in Riverdale but strangely, we all moved out. I think it's perception. We are conditioned to believe that car-dependent suburbs are a step up so that's what the next generation aspires to. After watching this vid, your arguments make a lot of sense. Everything was close and we lived a 10 min walk from Gerrard Square (the nearest mall). The Gerrard streetcar was the main streetcar to get downtown. Went to Riverdale Collegiate for high school (5 min walk).

[@SrCoxas]

I really don't get americans. I live in Brazil, little to none urban planning in my city, and I have 2 small markets, haircutter, bus stops, bakery, bars, all within 5 minutes walking distance. Larger markets, post services, clothing stores, gym, even a small clinic all within 10 minutes. Even when I lived in a favela it was common to see small stores every 2 or 3 blocks selling random things.

[@Loj84]

@@SrCoxas Riverdale is in Canada; this guy isn't American. I can't speak for all of America, but I live in a reasonably walkable suburb and I don't feel like people here aspire to move to a car-dependent suburb.

[@ahmedzakikhan7639]

@@Loj84 You know what he meant. Canada follows an American model of city planning with a slight European twist.

[@Loj84]

@@ahmedzakikhan7639 The original comment was not about the planning itself. It was about people in Riverdale aspiring to live in a car-dependent suburb. I'm saying I don't think that's the case in America (at least the part of it that I live in).

[@ahmedzakikhan7639]

@@Loj84 I am not sure if he is criticizing Riverdale in particular. Pretty sure there are suburbs like Riverdale in Washington DC.

[@christopherjurich8487]

I grew up in South Florida suburbs where the closest store was 3 miles away and I relied on my parents to take me anywhere. I had no idea what I was missing until I moved out for college. Now I live in one of the few streetcar suburbs in the state in Jacksonville FL. Because it was largely planned and built before World War I, we have over 100 businesses, parks, and other places to go within 0.5 mile walking distance and hundreds more within 3 miles on bike. I never thought I would be able to use my bicycle as a primary form of transportation in Florida. I'm so upset that I and so many other people from my generation were robbed from a better childhood and adolescence that a pre-war neighborhood would have provided.

[@AssBlasster]

Oh damn. I'm a life-long Floridian and never realized such neighborhoods existed here. I grew up in Orlando and went to college in Gainesville, so never really escaped the suburban sprawl. Sounds like a good future option though!

[@manoelleao680]

Which neighborhood do you live in, is it Springfield?

[@IkeOkerekeNews]

You still have time.

[@christopherjurich8487]

Riverside-Avondale, but Springfield (and San Marco and Murray Hill) would also fit the bill of a streetcar-style suburb.

[@aidancollins1591]

@@AssBlasster Hey, University of Florida, going there right now. Gainesville is making an effort to be more bike friendly. 13th street and University Avenue have improved somewhat for bikes since Lauren Poe got elected Mayor.

[@namenamename390]

Can I just say that it is amazing to think that Los Angeles, the city known for having awful traffic all the time, used to have a tram system the world could envy?

[@NotJustBikes]

Yup. One of the largest in the world. Crazy.

[@feritales5756]

@@NotJustBikes The only thing larger than that turned out to be the greed of automotive conglomerates :)

[@GreenLarsen]

@@NotJustBikes Want to hear something truly great. Las Vegas have build a "subway" where you inter, call for a tesla and then get driven in a tunnel to one of the other stops. At max capacity it can handle 800 people a hour (thats 19k a day), in comparison the subway in New york transport 4.3 million pr day. Cars are truly so amasing......

[@tyronewatermelon4278]

@@NotJustBikes what took you soo long, jesus christ.

[@riley_oneill]

During that time housing in LA was also about 1/8th of its current cost after you adjust for inflation. To think, 70 years ago Los Angeles was both affordable and had mass transit.

[@rrenatabp]

Love how you can't have two front doors because that's "ugly" but having two massive garages is the law somehow 🤔

[@kolawoleolayiwola3252]

Funny enough as a Nigerian living in Nigeria, this is also happening here, we have new neighborhood where there are huge house and great aesthetic, asphalt everywhere, usually very quiet almost like no one lives there, the schools are far away you never see any kid in the streets, always nice cars and all that. But old neighborhood are kinda different, kids walk to school, usually public transport, not very big houses there's a huge sense of community usually loud, but it's always fun There's always something that engages you. There's a lot of diversity In taste, aesthetic, functionality but the only thing I don't like is the noise. We haven't really gotten a hang of the balance of both.

[@kolawoleolayiwola3252]

@@ButterfatFarms wow, would y'all just give it a rest already 🙄

[@kolawoleolayiwola3252]

@@ButterfatFarms well America is Always in everyones business it'll be hard to keep it out

[@comment6864]

I love car-dependent suburbia because it offers so much privacy and quiet. Sitting in the backyard during the day on a day-off weekday in july, when everyone is at work... ahhhh such PEACE.. Not a sound from anywhere, just the blue sky above, and treetops gently bowing back and forth, nothing but the quiet russle of leaves and the whispering swish of the warm breeze. A neighborhood car goes by maybe once an hour somewhere, maybe an occasional lawn mower, ..or a dog barking. But such PEACE overall.. AND PRIVACY. No need to go anywhere on vacation. The suburbs are the best place for a family to live. After you've known all the endless irritations of apartment or condo life, NEVER AGAIN.

[@1975Rickson]

It's also happening in LATAM in general, and so many places around the world, I love mixed use neighbourhoods hopefully we'll learn from places like Netherlands

[@jpisty]

I live in an American suburb just like "Phoney London" and I have to admit that I didn't get your criticisms at first. I like having space between my neighbors homes and a nice big front yard. However when you mentioned that suburbs in Europe have pubs, shops and stores intermixed with the homes it got me thinking. It would be really nice to take a stroll to the pub without having to get in my car. Your videos have got me thinking of how much our society has sacrificed for cars and silly zoning regulations. I've been thinking about it all day! You just earned a new subscriber. Thanks for the great videos man.

[@allan3364]

Definitely good to have a pub closer to your home so you can walk home and beat your kids after getting drunk. If you have to drive, you either have to wait till the buzz is gone or risk killing yourself.

[@jpisty]

@@allan3364 true

[@kurisu7885]

There used to be a grocery store within reasonable walking distance of my house. It closed years ago and was recently demolished. The only other things I can tell are there are possible an insurance office and maybe a beauty place that might be closed. I see some other store fronts on the road but nothing in them which is depressing. At least there's a Coney Island I can walk to.

[@djkim1019]

Well said. I live in car-dependent suburbia myself and do enjoy it actually, but it also got me to think about certain wastefulness.

[@andryij]

One of the quirks of American culture is that the bartender would take away your car keys if you drink too much. I mean, what the hell? Who ever drive a car to a pub? That's one of those things - Americans really drive their cars to pubs and then they drive their cars back drunk, simply because there is no other option. I would never drive to a pub, because... why? I can walk there and walk back. I can take a bus and take night bus back. I could even get a taxi and pay something like 2-beers worth for a trip.

[@karth15]

Hearing him refer to Vaughn as a "suburban hellscape" developed a deep kinship that I've never had with any other creator on youtube

[@davetremblay5237]

IKR, great video. I live in a big metropole but I come from a remote northern town where everything was turning to car centricity. Some users does not know how to behave online and just think their personal feeling are accounted for, in everything.

[@mwmwmwmwmmdw]

most people that shit on it are just angry they cant afford to live there

[@MistaSkilla692]

I grew up there and to be fair Vaughan is pretty expansive and has plenty of green/forested areas away from the concrete expanses. It's easy to cherrypick the area area the largest local movie theater and use it to represent the rest of the city I suppose

[@416to613]

@@badhombre4683 Listen to his interview on the Strong Towns podcast. He didn't actually start out with any intent to educate. He wanted to get it all off his chest and help folks back home understand why he left. He explains in the interview too that when living in Toronto, they tried advocacy. His wife was on the board of Cycle Toronto. They left, because they didn't see substantive change ever coming. And he's right about that. I love his approach. It's liberating not to see him self-censor to cater to the feelings of snowflakes. If you feel that a better job needs to be done on the education, get a camera and take him on. For now, I think there's a real value in just showing Canadians and Americans how shitty our cities really are compared to the rest of the developed world.

[@ppolow]

it is especially since york regions public transit is a joke

[@rocketGimbal]

I think a sorta midway example of this type of decent suburb that more americans might actually recognize is the basic american college town. In these places there is usually a sort of de facto ‘student neighborhood’ which has smaller and closer together houses and apartments which aren’t super set back from their relatively small (~6-7 meters wide) roads. The entire neighborhood is usually walkable to at least whatever campus the students attend and often also are walkable and/or bikable to the ‘downtown’/‘main street’ area which will have shops and pubs and such. I lived in such a place when I went to my state school in the US and I loved it bc I always hated cars and driving and I just didn’t have a way to express why until I found your channel and those like it. These college towns aren’t perfect but they may be more recognizable to the average american as most have attended college. Might be a more effective way to graft support for our movements. Maybe you could make a video on college towns or something of the like? Either way great video and keep up the great work!

[@lookoutforchris]

There's also an alternative to suburbia here in America. It is a thing called a town. Some towns even have discreet subsections called villages.

[@nefenze3924]

i live in a college town. like just down the street is a college campus. my town used to be its own town and still is but its also very connected to the rest of the city. but its definantly not the type of place you need a car to get around. the only thing preventing me from going places on my own before the age of like 11 or 12 was my mom being scared i would get kidnapped.

[@richskater]

Same, live just down the road from the University of Kentucky, walkability is great. There's several pedestrian paths that connect schools to parks to nearby neighborhoods. I will say I don't enjoy walking to the store for groceries or something similar, that's where all the traffic is. But for just going for a walk/ride to enjoy the day, there's some really beautiful spots that are really safe/easy to get to on foot.

[@shadowtheimpure]

@@lookoutforchris Unfortunately, many 'towns' and 'villages' don't have access to certain modern amenities like proper high speed internet access. Most are too small for major ISPs to be willing to bother.

[@scuba_tron5332]

@@richskater also currently living in Lexington and I love the Kenwick, Ashland, Chevy Chase areas. thinking about maybe staying here longer than originally intended because my hometown of Raleigh NC is turning into a nightmare. But Lexington also has some terribly soul-crushing suburbs too, especially off Man O War and out near Masterson

[@Gmx92]

I just came to the USA with my wife, who is from abroad. She doesn't know how to drive and we didn't realize how that basically made life here impossible for her without my help. The only option is for her to learn how, buy a car, pay for insurance, gas, ect. it's a horrible system

[@ANDSENS]

I just realized why Amazon has this huge retail sales market share in the US (even selling toiletpaper etc.). In Europe ordering something online seems silly when you can walk to a shop down the street and buy the exact same thing and not pay for shipping while also getting some fresh air.

[@africkinamerican]

You got it period. Of course, the earlier version of this was the big box store. We have a long history of fashioning suburbs around the big boxes.

[@Masterrunescapeer]

Still using Amazon for a lot of stuff just because I I want to get a certain item (e.g. bought a knife set that "normal" stores won't stock) or because it can be cheaper at times (just because the land price is so high, it costs the store quite a bit for some larger items to stock, so either they don't stock it or up the price, e.g. a few weeks ago some dishwasher salt that was 0.7 EUR/kg on Amazon including delivery vs the store's 1.2 EUR/kg). Usually prefer finding a local store though, especially if they do delivery, most products I check local first or at least e.g. for a good knife set I checked for a German store.

[@SandersChicken]

What's odd about amazon vs shops is that for example I recently needed a new water pump for my washer. At the local repair shop they had the pump for 50 USD but amazon had it for 11 USD and it was the same exact branding. Free 2 day shipping as well, Not sure how Amazon does it but its murdering the small shops with ease.

[@Masterrunescapeer]

@@SandersChicken lots of small shops just rip off people, since lots won't google it if they're going there. Always just shop around.

[@annoyedok321]

A limited selection at higher prices. If anything Amazon makes more sense in Europe as the US has megastores with huge selections, with good prices and we have SUV's to haul it all home. Online shopping in the US actually makes rural communities a good option for people looking for walkable towns. In the US we call them convenience stores and they usually are gas stations.

[@maxwellvigil6084]

one thing that really annoys me (i’m a 13year old who commutes to school by bike) is the lack of bicycle lanes and one stretch of quite literally bicycle gutters they got removed cause “ it hurt the local businesses” and on that road is a big box retailer and a giant parking lot

[@lkruijsw]

You as 13 year old, are more important than the big box retailer. Let nobody tell you otherwise.

[@ponderingraccoon]

🙄😑 Typical argument. Total nonsense. 😫😫☹️🙁

[@mist0098]

I also biked to school in college. I would have to bike to the "bike highway" and the one left turn to get into the bike highway is not friendly to bikes at all. I have been almost hit turning left so many times by cars going +40 mi/hr in a neighborhood that I have given up biking there. May I remind you all that the a car going +40 mi/hr has an 80% chance of making one die on impact. I'm so sick of cars

[@rainbowkrampus]

@@mist0098 I just found this channel and it just keeps making me more and more depressed at what has been taken from us. OP's comment got me all nostalgic for riding my bike to school way back when. Now I wouldn't ride my bike anywhere around here because I've seen too much insanity on the roads.

[@AntonioCostaRealEstate]

Big box retailers are ok. Otherwise where will homeless driving Winnebago park ?

[@willvanmoss6664]

It is baffling to me that in a CLIMATE EMERGENCY we are not allowing more suburbs like Riverdale to be built. It would DRASTICALLY reduce CO2, NOx, and Methane emissions, and make our population healthier and wealthier.

[@wren_.]

It’s because the money says no

[@squeedles_1943]

Car companies would lobby against it sadly

[@arjunarun3033]

cLiMaTe EmErGeNcY.....wasn't climate change supposed to wipe out civilization by 2021 or smth man stfu

[@joaolucassantosviegas3334]

​@@squeedles_1943 and owners of gas stations or repair shops too; In a big road city you think in big cars(SUVs or Trucks) that make more consumption, are less useful(you think you need that size of car because of the size of the roads) and produces more CO2 than in a small road city where you think in small cars that produces less CO2 and you can choose go walk or ride a bicycle (car is almost the last option).

[@Rose-bc3ll]

The comment about lawns struck something inside of me. My house growing up had a lawn out front that was literally three times the size as my backyard. Our backyard was literally just a sliver of concrete, literally the only game we were able to play back there was corn hole. Meanwhile our house is in California, so constant droughts coupled with gophers constantly digging everywhere made that large space unusable. Not to mention we were right next to a road that cars always flew down so our parents rarely even let us try to play on our front lawn since it wasn't safe. I'm just imagining if our house was built the opposite way, sliver of space in front, large area in backyard. We could put a basketball hoop and have room to play. We could put a sprinkler and have room to run around. We could've spent more time outside even when our parents weren't home since we'd be protected from cars by the house. We'd have more privacy when playing. And all of this literally would've taken one simple change, it infuriates me.

[@vurrunna]

What makes this all feel so insane is how there's so much demand for these classic-style suburbs, and yet our laws literally make it illegal to fill it. I live in Boise, Idaho, one of the fastest growing cities in the US--in our downtown area, we have the "Northside," a suburb that's exactly like you see in the video, with stores and parks and cafes. The Northside is exorbitantly expensive due to its incredible demand, and is such a popular location that people will drive down from upwards of thirty minutes away just to enjoy the parks, stores, and general scenery. What's so insane is that our house prices are skyrocketing, and instead of building more dense suburb districts that try to imitate the success of the Northside, we're just getting suburb block after suburb block of mass produced homes. We all want to live in the Northside, and yet we're so used to modern suburbs that no one's questioning why we don't just build more Northsides.

[@frankdelarosa9527]

Yes! Isn't this crazy? You would think that we should just mimic and copy what's actually popular and what works. Instead, we keep doing the same thing over and over.

[@justsomeguy1408]

I was just thinking about a similar situation here in Kansas City. Some of my favorite restaurants are in the Waldo area, which seems like a neat, walkable neighborhood. Unfortunately the houses are $300k - $500k and are smaller than the house I currently live in. Needing to double or triple my income to be able to walk to get a bento box feels pretty bad.

[@elenachristian9860]

There's a wonderful little neighborhood in Denver like this--Bonnie Brae. The small lovely brick homes start at $1million. And yes, I drive there to walk around :(

[@spencervance8484]

It would be nice if cities did their streets/transportation system like the Netherlands and zoning like the Japanese. That would be amazing

[@sleepeejack]

Nobody’s building more Northsides because it’s illegal, because the American governmental system is fucking dumb as shit

[@vincenzodigrande2070]

11:25 Oh my! Anyone noticed the squirrel running past the electric line? 🐿️

[@neil.simmons]

that's really really really really really normal in Toronto and likely(i think) anyplace that has squirrels if you didn't know

[@cliostronk2667]

Thanks to this comment, yes I did :-)

[@danieleckert3508]

yep, cute guy :D When there's no trees, squirrels gotta adapt

[@JacobBax]

@@neil.simmons We have squirrels here in the netherlands, and they never run over electric lines.

[@lemonade4181]

@@neil.simmons Yeah, it’s truly nothing special. You just get used to it.

[@ItsMeHello555]

It was years ago and here online, I can’t recall where though. I read an article about how the car dealership and manufacturing industry paid city planning officials to do away with public transit.. so every home would NEED a car.. or two. It was eye opening.. and sad. It spoke of how people became suddenly less connected and helpful to one another. No daily interaction but alone in your fancy car, going places. They sold it as independence and having funds for a better lifestyle. I wish the clock could be turned back on this one. Truly.

[@Undomaranel]

In small, rural towns everyone needs a vehicle anyway to go anywhere and get everything done. Public busses were never a socializing hub, not like the school bus, and pretending they are all wonderful when everywhere has incidents of groping and abuse and such (looking at Japan and NYC, both busses and subways)? Is that a symptom of having no other options or is it a lack of control? I don't know or care why, all I know is as a female I do not want to be victimized again. Either clean up the act or let us use our cars.

[@ItsMeHello555]

@@Undomaranel , I hear what you are saying, loud and clear. I have never lived through that, but I got enough of it on the school bus and in school. My mother spoke of what you’re referring to quite a bit in her day.. here in the states and abroad while my father served in the forces. We get conditioned. If people could show decency at all times, wouldn’t it be a wonderful world?….

[@caldera11]

Wow I can't wait to talk to people on the bus every day instead of getting there instantly in a car

[@DiamondZombie]

@@Undomaranel Maybe the people living there shouldn't be as aggressive. Here with public transport if you have any condition or problem like 5-6 people will try to help you, and the city has like half a million people in it so it's not a small town (compared to other places in this country), and smaller towns with like 50k are even friendlier specially villages with like 1-5k people where everyone knows each other that is close by and greets everyone.

[@DiamondZombie]

@@ItsMeHello555 Also to add to this, only the real dangerous places here are the places where no one is around, even when someone gets robbed (from experience) someone will come to help you and run after them. Basically our citizens are doing more job than the police. Which is sad in itself lmfao, but if you have people that were thought like this in the first place it's going to be safer to walk and take transport anyways.

[@Jarekthegamingdragon]

It's amusing how you describe streetcar suburb because that almost perfectly describes east portland. The reason is that east portland originally was not part of Portland proper but was eventually pulled in. It's actually one of the oldest parts of the city. Let's take Lents for example. In Lents neighborhood you have a food cart pod, 2 bars and a brewery, a pizza place, a corner convenience shop, an Italian bakery, high rise low income apartments, a large park with astro-turf soccer fields a minor league baseball field basketball courts etc etc, Korean bbq, sushi, pho, teriyaki, a bike shop, bubble tea, and so much more. THAT'S ALL WALKABLE. It's not even inner city either. You go 20 more blocks and you're in a Portland suburb. This is pretty normal in Portland metro, too. A lot of this is because Portland is getting rid of said zoning laws that's causing these issues to begin with. I actually grew up in that neighborhood and while the potential for all of that was there before, it's wild to see the difference now.

[@NotJustBikes]

Yeah I'm noy surprised, because this was the normal way that suburbs were built before the 1940s. They'd have access to a rapid transit line, like a streetcar, and they'd have all the things you need within walking distance with a nearby main street. We don't even need to copy Europe to have better suburbs, we just have to go back to what we were doing a century ago!

[@wiim8228]

I also hate car-dependant suburbs! Imagine being forced to have only a single choise of driving a car which has windshield pillars obstructing my FOV!

[@oscarosullivan4513]

Dunnes Stores opened a supermarket few years ago in the Newtown park avenue area of Blackrock in what was the Playright pub.

[@oscarosullivan4513]

@@NotJustBikes Also Blame the American and Canadian Fire Brigades and their love for oversized appliances. What needs to happen is to bring back the old planning laws. That Semi D in Riverdale looks nicer than any car dependent house with single front doors. Where I live there are parks within walking distance, shops, pubs and cafes. You can do your weekly shop without a car. There is public transport as well.

[@swimmyswim417]

Yeah. My grandma lived in east Portland, so my dad grew up in that area and my brother and I spent a lot of time in our summers there. Went out for a lot of walks with Grandma, I’d love to buy my own place in that corner of town if/when I can eventually afford it.

[@wez3107]

Maybe I’m being dramatic, but I feel like suburbs subconsciously make Americans feel more isolated and divided in this country. Imagine the sense of community and unity we could have if we could gather in the center of a neighborhood at a park. Nowadays we watch the same news network, pundits, radio programs when we drive to work/school, maybe we interact with other coworkers/students, and then we go back home with our ideas unchallenged. Car-dependent suburbs normalized the echo chamber effect.

[@gustavosmith3980]

Its not subconscious if you just literally are far away from people

[@aliasoma]

Gerrymandering is the major contributing factor to the divisiveness in America. Gerrymandering makes extreme candidates more likely over time because they don't have to appeal to the other side in order to win election. Those extreme agendas then become more common in DC. There's so much more than can be said about this but I think we're all aware of it by now.

[@TheJohnreeves]

This is not being dramatic, it's called by some "atomization" and it is absolutely real. It puts us in a mindset where every person is this self-contained, self-interested unit out to maximize their own benefits with no possible thoughts of community (other than ways the community might affect property values). If you had people forming social bonds and communities, before you know it you'd have people unionizing and demanding things that help the community, and we can't be having that. I don't think it's a coincidence that the diaspora to the (horrible car dependent) suburbs happened along the same timeline to de-industrialization and reduced labor militancy.

[@wez3107]

@@TheJohnreeves Very well thought out reply. You’ve hit the nail on the head. Thank you for finding the term for what I’m describing too 🤣

[@ripred42]

@@TheJohnreeves Pringles in a tube

[@mdhazeldine]

I'm British and married to a Canadian. On one of my first trips to Ontario I noticed how unwalkable it was when we had to cross the road and my then girlfriend (now wife) wanted to drive! I laughed and said that's ridiculous, let's walk. And then we tried to cross 2 parking lots and a 6 lane road and then suddenly I understood why she wanted to drive. It's no wonder North America has an obesity issue if you can't even walk across the street!

[@differentnumber3200]

British obesity levels are rising faster than the United States. Not as bad as the US but not good.

[@muddywisconsin]

@@differentnumber3200 I find it funny that’s what you decided to respond too and not the many other points he made, we regulate our cities to be super unshakable but god forbid we regulate food manufacturing to be healthier, we Americans are fat, due to not only our politicians focusing on the wrong stuff but also our city walkability

[@differentnumber3200]

@@muddywisconsin Maybe people should take accountability to eat less and not have the government do it for them. Also eating healthy here is super fucking expensive so low income areas tend to be effected. Also if your 500 pounds you can walk all you want if you don’t change your eating habits nothing will change.

[@wohlhabendermanager]

@@differentnumber3200 It's funny how you contradict yourself. "Eating healthy? Do it yourself!" but at the same time "eating healthy is expensive here". So... people should take care of healthy food themselves, but they can't because they don't earn enough money to buy healthy food.

[@differentnumber3200]

@@wohlhabendermanager I said maybe people should eat less😂 love how you left that out. You can eat like shit and still not be obese.

[@tnmtb3599]

No kidding this is almost a scary perfect YT recommendation so… My dad grew up in Canada specifically Toronto in an identical suburb literally 10 miles from Riverdale and is again identical. The house which my grandfather still lives in is still close to shopping and has a park RIGHT behind it whit no houses and whenever we visit we walk EVERYWHERE. His points are completely true and I always love to go and just not live in the plains of ashfault. Great work all completely true!

[@comment6864]

I love car-dependent suburbia because it offers so much privacy and quiet. Sitting in the backyard during the day on a day-off weekday in july, when everyone is at work... ahhhh such PEACE.. Not a sound from anywhere, just the blue sky above, and treetops gently bowing back and forth, nothing but the quiet russle of leaves and the whispering swish of the warm breeze. A neighborhood car goes by maybe once an hour somewhere, maybe an occasional lawn mower, ..or a dog barking. But such PEACE overall.. AND PRIVACY. No need to go anywhere on vacation. The suburbs are the best place for a family to live. After you've known all the endless irritations of apartment or condo life, NEVER AGAIN.

[@charlessimerly266]

What blows my mind is that even with an astounding market for more walkable suburbs, laws still remain the same. So many people want to live in non car dependent areas (including me) but simply can't because of the extremely high price points that are so out of reach. A real shame. Their is no community in Suburbia. Many people live years in suburbs and don't even know their next door neighbors.

[@heathershimamoto121]

This is pretty true. In my home city, we knew the neighbors who moved into that suburb at the same time as us, but never got to know new people as they moved in. Granted, I'm pretty much the opposite of social, and the only people I want to be in extended close contact with is immediate family, so I feel like I benefit from the lack of neighbor-contact. I just wish that America had a better mix of my type of wider-spaced suburbs (but with safer streets for walking, and some shops still within 15 minute walk), and this type of suburb for the folks that want it. Then everyone gets what they want. Will that happen? Who knows.

[@pera1295]

The "land of the free" sure has a lot of rules and regulations about how you should be living your life.

[@653j521]

Daniel Azevedo Free to start a movement for change.

[@pera1295]

@@653j521 sure, as long as you're not a socialist or union leader.

[@gabudabi]

@@rajahbitancor8960 not sure that lines up, though. I don't think the issue is not having unions, I think the issue is that the governments are putting in policies that don't allow flexibility or 'freedom'

[@TheInsaiyan]

Statism shouldn't be confused with capitalism vs socialism arguments and fights. governments love to regulate everything bc it gives them a raison d'être. And especially in the US, government has too much of a say so they often regulate stuff without a cause. Its the nature of all governing bodies and one thats very very hard to combat.

[@Notmyname1593]

This video gave me a "this seems so much like a commieblock" feeling.

[@Oldschool_Gamer_]

It isn't a NJB video without a "but i'll talk about that in a future video"

[@hamilpatel4025]

I was thinking the same thing.

[@NotJustBikes]

My "video ideas" list is over 300 lines long now.

[@danieleckert3508]

@@NotJustBikes Wow. But at least you're now more often able to say "I've talked about that in a previous video" :D

[@thijsvandalsen2989]

@@NotJustBikes Is it public? Can we vote? :D :p

[@jadenaxi5796]

@@thijsvandalsen2989 I vote to omit that line.:)

[@xipheonj]

I'm suddenly very grateful for growing up in a "retro" suburb. I walked to school without crossing any stroad, I could walk to two different strip malls with convenience stores, a grocery store, a doctor, a dentist, VHS rental, and a few others, and we the neighbourhood park was right in front of my house (although the playground equipment was on the far side of the rather large park, past the baseball diamond). I didn't even realize why this new neighbourhood I live in felt so weird until I watched this video. I remember trying to walk to the store, or even just the Tim Hortons (the one thing we ironically didn't have in walking distance in my old Hamilton home, the Tim Hortons capital of the world) and they were all on the other side of the 4 lane highway that ran right through town. It took them until a few years ago to finally at least put in a pedestrian crosswalk system that wasn't 1/2 km away. I miss being able to walk everywhere.

[@Ronny_van_Gerwen]

I’m Dutch and those houses in Riverdale are beautiful, they look like a proper home. I could live there. But those 13 in a dozen blocks in suburbia without character gives me the creeps. Big garages where you build your house (not a home) around.

[@VolcanoEarth]

A lot of designers call those garage-centric suburbian homes "snout-houses" because with their two-bay garages out front and the rest of the dwelling set behind, they look a bit like a string of pigs poking their snouts pushed toward the street.

[@Ronny_van_Gerwen]

@@VolcanoEarth A garage should not be the centerpiece of a house

[@Ronny_van_Gerwen]

@@LilBoulevard Your nickname couldn’t be more yank. Ask yourself what came first: Houses, or the garage? I have a garage, but it’s not the first thing people see when they come and visit me. They see the front door that ‘welcomes’ them.

[@certaindeath7776]

2 entrance doors into a house is completely unesthetic, but look at those nice and big and boxy garage doors... 2 aint enough, need 4.

[@stefanb6539]

...b.b.b.but if you allow 2 doors to the house, then maybe two families could share the house to lower their lifestyle costs, and that would attract... THOSE people! You know, who, wink, wink...

[@riley_oneill]

Cars are family members and need their own big doors for the car house.

[@5ch4cht3l7]

Just build the other entrance as a garage door. Problem solved

[@allws9683]

Could you bypass it by building 1 front door enclosed porch, with letterboxes and behind it the two real front door entrances. ? (Like you have in NL with 'portiekflats', 3 story appartments around a stairwell with a street door entrance. )

[@stephanweinberger]

Simple solution: use garage doors as main entrance.

[@basoon]

I live in the Uk and to my ears it feels like what you call 'walkable suburbia' is just what we'd call a 'town'.

[@adammiller8133]

That’s the point. That the idea of the suburbs here in the United States has changed so much we forgot there was something before.

[@basoon]

Yeah this channel is absolutely fascinating to me see how you got to where you have. Genuine question: is there a concept of a town or a village much in your country or is it just city or suburbs?

[@slavenrasic2173]

Same in Croatia

[@andrewouss]

@@basoon From a Canadian perspective, for places that developed pre-WWII there are towns with main streets, shops with storefronts close to the street, that kind of thing. Although it's not uncommon that a good portion of the storefronts are unoccupied, and people shop at big box stores on the edge of town. Villages usually have a church (maybe still functioning, maybe not) and a building that clearly used to be a general store, but now is just a house. For places that developed post-WWII, it's basically just suburbs like in the video interspersed with strip malls and big box store developments. Look at a town like Ajax, Ontario on google maps and try to find where 'downtown' is... you won't find it!

[@guy_middleton]

Exactly right. Several of the "streetcar suburbs" actually started as towns in the 18th and 19th centuries and were absorbed by Toronto as it grew.

[@kauevampiro7186]

11:26 the squirrel walking though the electric line shows that a good planning neighbourhood with arborisation connect us to nature (also commerce’s)

[@sepfms]

Japan has some great examples of suburbs that were built around train stations, such as Kashiwa City, a suburb east of Tokyo. Not much cars around there, everything is walkable and bikeable. And of course, a busy train station through which you will get into the nearby city centers really fast. The housing is typically dense (Japanese style) but everyone there is a house owner. So you get the best of both worlds. Owning a house and having everything important in a walkable distance.

[@jellyj220]

Everyone assumes I want to move to Japan because I like anime or like thier food. Thats the bare minimum of why I want to go, I’m in love with their transportation systems and hate cars. So as an American that’s all I really want, to fucking be able to walk places.

[@heinrichm2594]

@@jellyj220 not to mention a low amout of annoying people in public transport...

[@parrotilol]

@@jellyj220 well yes but people there are also a bit depressing or maybe its just stuff i saw on the internet

[@jellyj220]

@@parrotilol yeah it’s distressing to hear of stuff like that, but they have female only trains a lot more now

[@CarmelloVision]

@@jellyj220 that’s exactly how I currently feel. Sure you trade culture, but I mean the lifestyle makes sense in terms of neighborhood connectedness

[@LeahandLevi]

I absolutely love your unabashed hatred of these places. It makes my heart sing. 😂

[@10z20]

It breaks my heart as a young person looking to live in one of these neighborhoods.

[@tsz5868]

So american like apple pie..hate the beautiful places where billions of humans would like to live. You are becoming the sad joke of the world.

[@armedvsokord]

@@10z20 I'm not a young person but it still breaks my heart because I want to live in a non car dependent suburb too.

[@delighteddino9363]

@@tsz5868 Suburbia isnt the issue, it’s car dependence Yk how walkability is something they advertise when selling homes? People don’t hate suburbs We hate Car dependence

[@rajadhirajmaharaj]

@@10z20 it is just "grass is greener on the other side" situation... in india, all suburbs are build like that netherland suburb.. and there are a lot of problems.. for first, netherland is cold, like really cold.. but a place like india or miami, where insects like mosquitoes thrive in dense neighborhoods... in the indian city Calcutta, riverdale type neighborhoods are cheap but awful to live.. whereas big spacious neighborhoods are desired and more healthy to live in...

[@gmart225]

I love my American friends but in all honesty when I first visited the US as a teen, I couldn't wrap my head around why anyone would want to live in a concrete, unwalkable road desert. Still can't.

[@isaachayman9231]

Trust me, no one here wants it either. I live in a small town, but it’s still sprawled out over 10 miles for some forsaken reason. It’s impossible to do anything here without a car

[@ryanscott6578]

Judging by the comments on this video, _plenty_ of Americans will happily live in car-dependent wastelands. They'll actively fight against any changes too

[@gmart225]

@@ryanscott6578 yes, and it is really sad.

[@jaroj1112]

@@ryanscott6578 yeah I am. I just don’t find the problem with car dependent places.

[@cesyneighistaut3451]

Because Americans rarely get exposed to the outside world and it’s ingrained in our culture that buying one of the shiny boxes on the un walkable desert road is the key to happiness

[@longlivebeans]

Now that gas prices are outrageous, I hope the people who are suddenly unable to drive realize how bad it’s been for pedestrians all these years. At this point we should be rioting in the streets over it lol.

[@liammcconlogue7266]

Realized my hometown - Greenbelt, Maryland, USA is actually a pretty great suburb to live in. Was first built in the 30s part of the New Deal to be an affordable DC suburb and its got a grocery store, pool/gym, community + youth centers, restaurants, all within walking / biking distance of all the homes and apartments. Plus its still one of the cheaper places in the area to live since most homes are cooperatively owned townhouses.

[@fogrunr5075]

And it's not far from the University of Maryland! Yes, Greenbelt is cool. I like going to the Green Man festival. A lot of fun 😄

[@liammcconlogue7266]

Nice! Great to see a local here!

[@adegun10]

Ayy I’m a UMD grad, I’m from Burtonsville not far from you at all!

[@apmgold]

It amazes me that, in a country like the USA that seems to be so against government control, one of the most basic needs, a place to live, is massively prescribed/controlled. Great video and a nice insight into the difference in cultures and what they offer, or don't. Thanks for the effort put into this video.

[@goodgoyim9459]

a country cant be against government control, people can be against governmnet control and most people in the US today are not against governmnet control and this is how corruption and tyranny prevents growth and progress by psychopaths with a gun.

[@seasonsgreetings7191]

The rich people don’t want government control, they want to be in control.

[@rp-wn5or]

@@goodgoyim9459 yup! And don’t get me started on property taxes

[@garethbaus5471]

@@goodgoyim9459 actually a significant portion of early US law was specifically about limiting the government's control.

[@goodgoyim9459]

@@garethbaus5471 actually, we arent living in early US law.

[@SkylarsTerribleMemes]

i wonder if a workaround would be to build an ideal neighborhood as a theme park, intentionally have the park go bankrupt, and buy it with a real estate company and use it as housing lol

[@xFD2x]

Just to circumvent zoning rules ? A great idea !

[@Jerbod2]

Lmao that'd probably work lol

[@NotJustBikes]

That pretty much what the "New Urbanist" towns were. They would get a big plot of land in the middle of nowhere where there was no zoning and design a traditional town. I'll make a video about them some time.

[@ace5]

@@NotJustBikes ooh! That sounds really interesting!

[@brianvanderstar4048]

@@NotJustBikes I Haven't heard of this. So please do! :) Also, thx for the vid as always!

[@justice5408]

this video brought me to tears. everything feels so bleak i don’t want to live in this car dependent hellhole anymore why must i be forced to live in one. i’ll never have a million dollars to live in riverdale but that’s all i want

[@mav1969a]

I remember reading in the book “Seabiscuit” (which talked a lot about the development of the auto industry in the early 20th century) how it was the big Automobile companies that went around American cities, buying up the light rail systems and then scrapping them so that people had to buy cars.

[@ComCommie]

As a dutch person, the way that those suburbs look is so weird to me that it looks kind of alien or dystopian. Like i already have trouble going outside of the house on my own, how do you expect me to go outside in that

[@bbmikej]

It's really funny. They make us have these huge yards and properties that we have to maintain and then we are so far away from everyone else that we really don't want to go outside.

[@LiquidShivaz]

Ikr? I live in a suburb in the Netherlands and it would be so weird not to be able to walk or cycle into town.

[@swedneck]

they've built a somewhat american-style suburb in my city in sweden, and it's jarring how soulless it looks compared to the rest of the city

[@hamilpatel4025]

It's crazy, but it was the only we knew. I literally didn't know there was an option outside of: farm-land rural, just-houses and yards suburbs, or the city-that-never-sleeps or showers or cares about people NYC urban.

[@HBCrigs]

I live in one. It is alien and dystopian

[@Whole_Note]

Just as I was about to graduate high school, my first car was totaled in an accident. It took an entire year for my parents and I to find a good replacement car in a decent price. Because of the suburban sprawl, I sat at home doing nothing during that time when all I wanted to do was find a job. Couldn't get anywhere without a car. Ever since then, I've despised the car centric development of North America.

[@AberrantAberrant]

I'm 22 and only just about to get my license.. Mental illness prevented me from being able to adequately focus on the road. Funny how this completely isolated me at home and thus further postponed my chances of fixing myself.

[@npgibson69]

I work with low income students in car dependent US. Any kind of car problem can disrupt their job training. The “cycle of poverty “ has a lot to do with transportation costs.

[@BGRANT777X]

how the hell did it take a year? I get that you want to shop around for a good price but a fucking year of your life isn't worth saving 1200 bucks on a used car... now if your parents were just waiting on the right price for a 250k lambo I take it all back.

[@witoldschwenke9492]

what's up with people only wanting cars. so many countries in the world have a large part of traffic being small motorcycles or scooters.

[@depthsothenso813]

My first car was bad, didn't last that long and was expensive to maintain. I just went back to using my electric skateboard and bike.

[@youraftermyrobotbee]

In the city where I grew up, I lived in both a car-dependent suburb and a walkable suburb at different times in my life. In the former suburb, the nearest non-residential building was a gas station convenience store a mile away and it was like playing IRL Frogger to get there on foot. The latter suburb was a twenty-minute walk from downtown; from our house, it took less than ten minutes to walk to half a dozen pubs, two convenience stores, two parks, a church, a bowling alley, a salon, and a weed store. Night and day--and both inside the same city.

[@kommisar_chiptune]

Just came back from a trip to Toronto and I complained to my finacee about how our Dieppe NB suburb is rapidly developing into every problem described in your videos. People from Toronto are moving here in droves for cheap big houses creating this massive sprawl with nothing nearby. Wish I had time to go through Riverdale, I think I would have loved it.

[@Pos3id0n.]

God, it's almost soul-crushing seeing that other places understand that there's a problem and are actively trying to solve it while living in a place that absolutely is not doing that

[@ImGonnaFudgeThatFish]

That shockingly applies to a shitton of things happening in the US.

[@DoormanSoorman]

@@ImGonnaFudgeThatFish “shockingly”

[@AleksandarBosakov]

"They're an entire culture dedicated to a common goal, working together as one to turn a lifeless rock into a garden. We had a garden and we paved it." -- Franklin Degraaf to Chrisjen Avasarala

[@AssBlasster]

Yup the future of humanity is bleak. Didn't expect such a reference here.

[@azbgames6827]

ayyy expanse reference

[@africkinamerican]

They paved paradise and they put up a parking lot. Wish that was my line but it's Joni Mitchell.

[@mourlyvold7655]

@@africkinamerican Cut all the trees, put 'm in a tree museum...

[@newperve]

@@mourlyvold7655 Remember when you could pay a buck and a half just to see 'em? Inflation sucks.

[@jordanmcintyre5148]

When I was growing up my grandparents had a semi-detached house right off of Broadview Ave in Riverdale. Big backyard, streetcar 30 seconds away, beautiful Riverdale Park across the road, and a guidebook-worthy view of downtown TO. When I became an architect and studied urban design/planning, I realized how special of a place Riverdale is in Toronto and in the world. To somehow have that sleepy suburban feeling and sense of community but also the bustle and convenience of downtown living makes you realize what our suburbs could be if we thought more about the environment people want to live in

[@noelgenoway9360]

I lived in Riverdale for 9 yrs .............it was great. I loved the community of Riverdale! The streetcar lines, the small shops, the walkabilty of the 'hood'. The major and minor parks. The ability to get to downtown Toronto in 20 to 25 minutes by street car. Was a great place to live until I moved to Vancouver!!!!

[@DeLorean4]

I recall several years ago watching an interview with (I believe) the mayor of Montréal. He discussed how firetruck regulations were forcing new streets to be gigantic, and for some of the older streets with character to be re-designed to accommodate these behemoths. He complained that Canadian firetruck regulations mirror those of the US that keep pushing these vehicles to get bigger and bigger over time. He asked how it is that in North America, we apparently need semi-truck type vehicles to not burn to a crisp, but Europeans are able to survive just fine with much smaller vehicles. He asked why Canada has to follow US regulations, instead of European ones. Following European regulations for dense, older cities like Montréal would make way more sense than following US regulations. Maybe I'm misremembering some of this, but I believe that if I'm not crazy, this could make for an interesting video topic.

[@jasonreed7522]

I always found that firetrucks are the size of school busses, so why should that force streets to be wider? Especially seeing as in cities you should have hydrants everywhere so you don't need tankers to ferry water from a pond or river to a country home. (You still can have pump and ladder trucks but those can concievably be shrunk to pickup sizes if needed) As far as the lot and house sizes that were manded just WTF, i understand if you set a minimum separate of houses to prevent the spread of fire but mandating plots be and least a certain shape & size is 100% someone on a power trip. I could see something about don't make needlessly tiny plots bit that can be phrased as a plot must be 3ft wider than the main building and the main building must have the following list of basic amenities like a bathroom, electric service, kitchen, bedroom, ect so you don't have litteral sheds being sold. (Point is you can ensure actual normal houses and land plots without setting minimum sizes & dimensions)

[@elenachristian9860]

@@jasonreed7522 Not just a power trip--as someone in real estate, I can promise you that person has invested in the area. Heard of Dave Chapelle?

[@odess4sd4d]

@@jasonreed7522 I was told it was due to outriggers. Apparently fire trucks have legs that fold down to stabilize them when they are at a fire.

[@cetriyasArtnComicsChannel]

i wonder if its also for building materails.I'm really shocked by all the new buildings being made cheap. Even if the inteior is coated, eventually an all wood buidling in the middle of hot desert or florida will burn down pretty quick.

[@dbclass4075]

@@odess4sd4d Trucks that do get taller when deployed such as tillers, yes. The rest, not really.

[@antinumeric7218]

As someone who lives in Greater London (UK), I find it fascinating that things like a local cornershop / cafe is a thing to even be remarked upon.

[@canuzzi]

I think, in this case we Europeans are all like the Dutch, who are fascinated that things like a bike path is a thing to even be remarked upon.

[@mariadebake5483]

@@canuzzi Yes that's true! I am dutch and I was amazed when I discovered, by video's like these, that such things like biking and normal suburbs, were foreign concepts for many countries! Weird, for us it's just everyday life

[@Micg51]

It wouldn't be fascinating for someone in the NYC metro either, since that's commonplace.

[@bubba842]

I live in Alberta, Canada, and we have a ton of these neighbourhoods. One area that was only built about 15 years ago literally has no local commerce. It's a very big neighborhood and the closest shops are a gas station, a liquor store and a pizza place. But you have to walk through a Coulee and then walk over a very busy road. There is probably 10,000 people that live in the neighborhood. But this is not the worst case. We have another newer neighborhood that is right on the city limits, with farmland between it and the other communities of the city. You would have to walk about 3 miles just to get back to the suburbs of the city.

[@mariadebake5483]

@@bubba842 Oh seems terrible to me

[@Patso04]

i realized i never understood what real suburbia is. that looks pretty scary, i’m grateful for having a suburb that is close to some shops and has variety with houses and price ranges

[@theoddcanadian2440]

I grew up in the outer suburbia of Ottawa, ON. It didn’t start to be a problem for me until I started working and attending university. I could only land a job in the next town over, a 40 minute walk. My university was also a 30 minute drive, and transit in my town had two buses out and two buses in per day. Had to buy an old beater just to get around. Then when I finished school, I moved further downtown into the Glebe, a little piece of suburbia trapped downtown similar to Riverdale. While I still needed a car for work, I loved being able to walk 10-15 minutes to the grocery store, drug store, restaurants, etc. Could also avoid the hassle of driving downtown by just taking the more frequent transit (and at the time, e-scooters. Loved those!) Now I live out west in Northern BC and am back in car-dependent hell. Had to cave and get a loan for a car within 3 months. Transit is infrequent, and there is almost zero bike infrastructure. I’m making my way through your channel but you should look at Western Canada. All the issues with London/Toronto just ratcheted up to ten due to them getting very populated later than Ontario for the most part, meaning even downtown cores can be car-centric.

[@DrLaurelWeaver]

I'll never forget going to the US the first time and just surprised at how depressing the suburbs were. We had to drive just to get a cup of coffee or go the park. There was nothing to see, just houses and parking lots. Citizens don't realize how shafted they are getting. Real estate developers really taking Americans for a spin.

[@danpro4519]

The word you're looking for is "*regulators*" not "real estate developers." As pointed out in the video, it's literally illegal to build a nice suburb in many places. Even if someone slaps city planners in the face with a fish and shows them this video, it'd take years and years to undo the damage and they would be reluctant to change because they have constituencies who have banked on cities as they are (including many voters who don't know what they're missing in the first place).

[@DrLaurelWeaver]

@@danpro4519 absolutely man, you're right.

[@beth721]

@@danpro4519 You’re right of course that the regulators are responsible for these bad policies. Developers and automobile companies certainly played a part as well, using lobbyists and campaign contributions to get the policies in place that benefit them.

[@danpro4519]

@@beth721 I'm sure lobbying has played a role, especially at certain points in history; but it all really comes down to politics. The regulators are the gatekeepers, so the developers have no choice but to work around them and their rules. It's like playing a board game where one player gets to set up the map and essential rules: they get to decide who to grant favors to and how to shape the city in a foundational way. It's of course more convoluted than that, but that's the power dynamic.

[@sta1nless]

@@danpro4519 The thing is, in the United States, corruption is legal (aka. Lobbying). Every law and regulation is made for profit, not for the people. Current North American city design was molded by auto makers, oil companies and real state speculators, or "developers".

[@cliostronk2667]

My parents moved to a "Vinex wijk" when I was 16. I always thought that was a typical suburb comparable to US suburbs. Until I started watching videos like NJB. We were living very close to a small shopping center, bike paths everywhere, many parks and small playgrounds throughout the area and decent public transport nearby...

[@dutchuncle2716]

Yeah, I thought Vinexwijken were like suburbia hell, but then I saw that shot of his cousin's balcony, and well that is hell. Vinexwijken are heaven in comparison.

[@2009heyhow]

When i Google 'venix wijken' (venix-neighborhoods) i get a whole variety of different pictures. from most ugly to very nice neighborhoods. I think those most ugly ones are pre-war, looking at the architecture. We had to rebuild the country with cheap and simple materials. The more recent the neighborhoods became are the better they look. Still however, they all look like lazy and boring copy-paste work by the city planners.

[@stefandebruijn2654]

@@2009heyhow There are no pre-war vinex-wijken, because they stem from the vinex nota from 1991. ("Vierde Nota Ruimtelijke Ordening Extra"; Fourth Memorandum on Extra Spacial Planning).

[@HikariTheGardevoir]

Ikr? Though I still think a lot of vinexwijken look rather soulless. Bright red bricks, green that still needs to grow... But at least you can still walk or bike to places

[@2009heyhow]

@@stefandebruijn2654 Yeah i mean, I'm just looking at the google images. So the search results are just not correct then.

[@NotEntirelyCalm]

Your videos are helping me realize everything that I hate about living in Scarborough right now. In the future when I move somewhere else, I would love to be in a mixed use neighborhood, or even just in the city, but it's all so unattainable because of prices. I don't want to be financially boxed into living in Pickering or something (not like that's cheap either tbh) where it's a suburban car-dependent hell far worse than my current area. It's frustrating to even think about sometimes lol.

[@adamb1229]

Our municipal election is this year. Look for candidates, or speak with them about what was said in this video. I live in Scarborough. It has a lot of potential. It sucks right now, but it could be great. Amsterdam use to suck. Now look at it.

[@milesfann33]

I've been to Guatemala 7 times. One thing that always amazed me about Guatemala is the fact that they have an extensive transportation system that reaches the countryside of Guatemala so you can get around everywhere. People who live outside the cities can still get anywhere without a car. During my visits, it was always so easy to get around. When I returned to the US, it was odd how I couldn't take a bus to a rural area in the US. Guatemala impressed me for sure.

[@brianboland2041]

I hate mowing the lawn too. North America's largest agricultural crop: Grass in yards.

[@gildone84]

And lawns use more pesticides/herbicides and fertilizer per acre than farms. Unless you're like me and don't bother.

[@CaeruleanWren]

Grass lawns are terrible in every way. They're more work than clover or yards with actual growth, they dry out because the grass is never allowed to grow, meaning they need a lot more water, and they offer almost nothing at all ecologically. Lawns do not contribute to nearly any ecosystems whatsoever. They're as useful as paving over the land with concrete.

[@Bezulba2]

@@CaeruleanWren The only thing going for them is that they actually absorb rain. Unlike concrete where it just runs off into a river and floods your neighbors basement.

[@bdchatfi]

And it causes a massive geese problem!

[@iron1349]

I can't eat it. Animals we eat don't eat it.

[@sor3999]

My friend lives an neighborhood with no sidewalks. There is definitely a portion of the American population that is highly suspicious of anyone that they don't even anyone walking through the neighborhood.

[@davidburgess3882]

especially if their skin color is brown or black.

[@joshr24]

@@davidburgess3882 literally stufu

[@davidburgess3882]

@@joshr24 you mean figuratively because I'm not actually speaking... LMFAO!!

[@DallinBackstrom]

that's so sad honestly

[@653j521]

sor3999 Maybe in his town but in mine some places have sidewalks and some do not due to price of putting one in, not racism. I don't know what kind of hole he lives in.

[@Movie_Games]

They should build suburbs with autonomous railcars running through them.

[@CPFitzgerald]

An easily operable public transportation system with minimized maintenance and operation costs? Don't be absurd

[@bl8388]

"They," will screw it up and cost us much of our tax money for a crappy autonomous rail system. Sounds like an interesting idea if it isn't planned by some unaccountable government official who never asks the locals about the plans.

[@maxwellhesher1790]

@@CPFitzgerald I’m pretty sure the minimized maintenance costs come from the absurd price of developing an efficient yet predictable rail system that AI can effectively manage. Not to mention the huge undertaking of just closing access to the roads you want to install them on.

[@sirdeakia]

@@maxwellhesher1790 and i'm pretty sure he's being ironic.

[@Sparticulous]

Keep it simple. Let humans operate it

[@jeffagoddard]

Great insight! I live in a quaint old Mississauga town near Lakeshore that was annexed when Mississauga grew. Demand to live hear is off the charts. My kids walked to school. All the stores you need are within 1 km. Rich people seek out a walking/biking community, but poor and middle class are stuck with car dependent suburbia.

[@vincenzodigrande2070]

That almost 100% silent outro, love it!🧘‍♂️

[@Cl0ckcl0ck]

The classic rule of cinema. Show, don't tell. (You can probably turn most streetcar suburb streets into that with minimal effort and in the same space with space left over for a sidewalk.) :)

[@shaungordon9737]

I know. It's very effective. Left me thinking for a bit.....

[@MX26_]

Holy crap man. This makes me so unbelievably sad. Riverdale looks like an amazing place to live; comfy, convenient, beautiful and lively, knowing that building this kind of neighborhood is literally *illegal* now is ridiculous! Finding your videos, as well as Adam something and the Armchair Urbanist, really made me realize how much i actually cared about this stuff, as well as backing up some thoughts i previously had but couldn't really put together in a cohesive manner. It also made me infinitely more angry about the US, and appreciate what we have over here in Croatia, even with it being fairly flawed :/.

[@dallas-dee]

I used to live there and it was great. Now, I moved about a 2 km away and find I drive a lot more.

[@janinewetzler5037]

I happily reside in Toronto, and travel through Riverdale a lot. It is phenomenal ! I live in North York, a suburb in the GTA. I am 5 min walking distance to a bus stop with 4 or 5 different routes. It is very car centric, built after WW2, in fact my neighbourhood is just south of the ole CNC bicycle factory in Town and part of a WW2 airplane factory plot of land, now small war time housing. Lots of people cycle around, and there are more and more scooter style electric bikes on the road. I like it and love travelling further downtown to the older neighbourhoods in TO.

[@stevenholtzen4525]

@@takentimes8903 That's fine! You get to have that opinion, and live in a place that you like. One of the main points in this video is that other people's preferences -- i.e., walkable suburbs with transit -- should also get to legally exist. And, an implied but not explicitly stated point is that we should rely (in part) on market forces to drive housing development: if Riverdale is prohibitively expensive *and* dense, maybe we should address that latent demand with a commensurate increase in supply.

[@K1ddkanuck]

It really is a great place to live. I used to live there. I'm in a south core condo now, immediately south of the heart of the finance district at the waterfront. Admittedly not as nice of a place to live in many ways. However, NJB's characterization of Riverdale as being unique in the city is misleading. There are plenty of mixed zone, streetcar suburb type neighbourhoods in Toronto- from High Park, to Queen West, to Parkdale, to the Annex, to King East, to the Beaches. Even some midtown parts of the city around Summerhill, St. Clair, Davisville and Eglinton have that same character. It's true though that those neighbourhoods can't get built in say, Richmond Hill or Vaughan.

[@GayvonFartin]

if you think thats nice come live in the Beaches neighborhood

[@demigoddigital114]

A good example of this in the US I'd say is the Garden District in New Orleans. Sure, the roads suck and there's tree roots growing through the sidewalks, but it's basically how Riverdale is described here and I loved my time there when I visited.

[@anderslong8468]

Hey, so for the last few years I've been getting more invested in creating better walkable, livable neighborhoods in America. A lot of my friends are in a similar place as me, where they don't want to live in sprawling suburbia (and honestly can't afford to). I know your videos highlight a lot of the problems in America, but do you have any ideas (policies, things that we can do on the grass-roots level) on how to get these neighborhoods built? I really want to make a better, more walkable, more welcoming America for people to live in.

[@teslo8020]

1. voting in anyone from the two major parties won't work, they get tons of money from car manufacturers. 2. I've tried explaining this stuff to people I know, and nobody cares except for the few who are cool. Americans are complacent today. So IDK, if you find out anything that works please do it lol. Have a great day!

[@Magpie_Media]

Pavements(Side walks) might be a good place to start. So many suburbs are built without pavements to walk on. A pavement would give them an option to at least walk somewhere. Making it safer for pedestrians to walk by giving them a zebra crossing, or something similar, would go a long way. Cheap, too. Just a bit of paint and a sign. . I'd say a small store within each of the suburbs would be next. Wouldn't even need to be a Store, Could be a Library, A park, or a café. Just giving people a place to walk to, Rather than drive. Enable walking, Improve safety of doing so, and give a reason to walk. That's all I can suggest :3

[@b.strong9347]

Return to small towns. Many are desperate for growth and investment. Many were once organically designed to be just what is being mentioned here. The problem is having jobs to support these places. The small farms are history. Mom and Pop stores are almost extinct due to the cost of everything and box stores being able to out-buy them. Factories and manufacturers closed mills and broke the towns. Don’t build new neighborhoods. Return to these towns that are desperate for regrowth and rebuild those economies. How? Good question.

[@sophfro]

I second working with small towns. I mentor a kid in a small farming town in California and it is crazy how relatively walkable everything is because there is so much mixed use development. Lots of apartment complexes next to small townhouses and some single family homes mixed in. The schools are within easy walking distance as are many of the stores, library, and a large park. Line it up with good public transport and bike trails and it would be truly an awesome place to live from a walk-ability standard. Plus the populations are small so you could easily work with leadership and community without (probably) dealing with the same pushback you might get in a bigger city or town with more NIMBYism.

[@kagitsune]

​@@sophfro That's so surprising, I would think that a rural town would be impossible to get anywhere without a car.

[@NotJustBikes]

Yes! Riverdale was a suburb. It's hard to imagine it today, because it's been consumed by its city, but this is the way suburbs were designed 100 years ago. Public transit was built first and incremental mixed-use development followed. It's very hard to find examples of these suburbs that are still suburbs, because they've been illegal to build for so long. We've become so used to the idea of a "suburb" being a large car-dominated landscape built all at once (to a final state) that we've forgotten what it's like to build suburbs that don't suck.

[@Ilikefire2793]

WE NEED MORE STREETCAR SUBURBIA . ITS THE REAL SUBURBAN UTOPIA . NOT THAT FAKE SUBURB S**T.

[@AlvinYungGW]

Riverdale was a totally separate "village" before it was annexed/amalgamated/absorbed by a growing Toronto as the Don River served as a virtual wall physically separating the land and land use. It is extremely difficult to cross a river by horse drawn carriage and the streets were just unpaved dirt roads. Once the Prince Edward viaduct was built, the city's eastward expansion was no longer impeded by the natural boundary. Ever wonder why Main Street and the Main Street TTC Station is where it is when it's not Toronto's "main" street (ie Yonge Street)? Main Street used to be main street of the former town/village/hamlet (too lazy to look it up right now) with Riverdale being a West end suburb with manufacturing pushed to the city limits the same way it is now. The history of the former industrial area that is found around Carlaw and Dundas, now "South Riverdale" aka Leslieville, can still be seen in the built environment as this was home to the Colgate factory as well as Wrigley's Gum along with many garment manufacturers and printing presses There were two railway lines with their tracks crossing here to support the movement of raw materials into, and finished goods out of the area. One of those lines is still in use but the other has been decommissioned but is still partially intact and visible in lots that have yet to be redeveloped with rusty rails on wood beam ties resting in a bed of gravel or imprinted into odd building lots and angular buildings of new flatiron condo buildings and curved outer walls maximize the floorspace following the path and line of the former right of way. Place names speak of the past with Colgate Ave being a new street that runs through the former Colgate land, and the condos converted from the former factory buildings retain parts of their old building facades giving us the Wrigley Lofts, The Garment Lofts, and Printers Row to name just three. This is also why the stretch of Dundas St E between Jones St and Dagmar Ave (just east of Pape Ave) has only back fences and garage doors facing the street and why the street itself is not straight like Queen to the south or Gerrard to the north as you would expect from a city planning perspective . Dundas St was stitched together from many shorter roads. This particular section had the existing residential street extended to Pape and widened by demolishing the houses and garages on both sides of the street. The cross section from North to South would have been: Dagmar Avenue - house/garage - ** lane - garage/house - avenue - house/garage - lane** garage/house - Coady Ave. Everything between the two sets of double asterisks became Dundas St with only garage doors and fences rather than numbered houses as expected. I realize this is already super long but the rezoning from industrial to mixed use residential/commercial speaks to the point that we choose to create the rules to create the city we have: Regulations and Codes and Standards like usage zoning and sidewalk set backs can be changed IF we CHOOSE to change them. These "restrictions " that "prevent"/create suburban sprawl can be removed . You could build New Riverdale in the Vaughn Mills parking lot if zoning changes and regulations made that possible AS LONG as someone stepped up to lobby for and more importantly PAY FOR/invest for that to happen. It's possible to apply for zoning exemption on a case by case basis for you to open a sidewalk cafe in the ground floor of your McMansion IFF your neighbours do not object to cause of increased traffic, increased noise, etc if approved cause no one would walk to your cafe, they'd have to drive the "long way" ti the out of the way cafe... your cafe wouldn't generate any business and ultimately fail cause you can't compete with all the Timmies and Starbucks and McCafes.... That holds true in Riverdale now where many of the mom and pop shops no longer operate thanks to gentrification and now with COVID those that did survive might not make it through this pandemic, not with online ordering and home delivery no longer an expensive luxury but now the "new norm" and just the way things are. You can't build it because of existing regulations is only part of the story. Like everything in our capitalist economic system it comes down to money. You can build it if you change the regulations (which takes momey) to then build and maintain it (more money). There is no supply for something that has no demand. Buying a cookie cutter house in the suburbs cost way more than downtown but the PRICES don't reflect the real cost of suburban living. if you consider all the costs including commute time, car ownership and maintenance, as well as quality of life intangibles like access to entertainment, healthcare services, education, as well as cultural diversity and amenities we'd likely all live in the center of everything, so in Toronto say at Yonge and Bloor. but there's not enough supply and so the demand has priced us out... and why urban renewal and density intensification have become policy (so Cityplace/Liberty Villge or Eglinton Ave corridor in Toronto) are used to balance all the socio-economic factors that give rise to all the things that make up quality of life. One last thing. at 12:55 the building you show in Riverdale is a bit misleading as it does absolutely comply with the One Front Door on a house. You show a building with two semi-detached houses hence two front doors . Also the regulation is taken out of context as it pertains to the creation of a new "second suite" in an existing one unit building. The suite must be entirely separate so how is this possible? A door on the back wall or side wall of the building can be the front door of the second suite with the door on the front face being the front door of the primary/main unit. Or the building front door opens into a shared foyer with separate entrances to the separate units. There are plenty of newly built examples where the front street facing wall of a building has more than one door as in the case of a duplex (2 units in 1 building) or a triplex (3 in 1) But single family dwellings ie 1 unit that occupies the entire unit, in reality would never have two front doors, a double door sure, but what would be the point of having two separate doors? it offers no practical difference other than the visual aesthetic and hence the character of the streetscape exactly as you state but not necessarily with the sarcasm intended by your delivery.. As a true Riverdalian, having lived here all my life for all of my 46 years in the same house except for my first year where my family lived in a different house on the same street across from the other, as well as being an alumnus of Riverdale Collegiate, I want to thank you for highlighting my hood and sharing all the best bits and singing its praises for everyone in the world to know! and sorry for the extreme word count!... verbosity fuelled by passion and pride! Thanks again!

[@oldiron1223]

Just how the hell do you get home with two weeks worth of groceries without a car?

[@Ilikefire2793]

@@oldiron1223 Do you need three weeks worth of groceries done in one shopping trip? Especially when you have corner groceries stores on most blocks and nearby restaurants to eat at? As in its at the corner of your street. See you're stuck in that car based living mindset where everything is too far yet "close" enough to seem normal. So the concept of going on multiple shopping trips expecialy for groceries is a foreign concept . Like if the store is on the corner block do you really need a car? And for vehicle choices you could use a front basket on a bike like many European countries such as Italy France or the Netherlands do. If a basket doesn't work you could try one of those bike trailers. Or you could use a motorcycle with those storage boxes on the side or even microcar. (Essentialy a golf cart sized vehicle that unlike a golf cart is enclosed so you could use it in the rain.) Heck you don't even need a license to drive one of those. Or you could order groceries delivery like everyone is doing now thanks to covid. But you could still just drive . Those streets do have the space to allow driving but it will feel like driving thru a Costco parking lot on a Saturday except you will be driving on a "suburban" Street. So don't expect a free spot to park always being available. But hey apparently its more important to design transportation around just cars even tho its bad for businesses bad for residents and Expecialy bad for drivers.

[@joedonzi9552]

Cannabis Testing Facility "Legalized THC enhanced Marijuana will be the next Pandamic and it is aimed directly at our youth" China laughs at the (too stoned to care) West !

[@uzerq3023]

Seeing all this just feels me with rage. It is so upsetting to see this continuous degradation of street design that I am mad at regulators of the country that I don't even live in.

[@SerErryk]

Americans want you Europeans to stop telling us Americans what's best for us. It's rude, pretentious and irrelevant what you people think. We fought a war to NOT be like you.

[@maxwade3451]

@@SerErryk He's not telling you what to do he is saying he feels sorry that you have to live in these terribly designed suburbs and cities.

[@rinhato8453]

@@SerErryk You fought a war with the whole of Europe? That's news to me.

[@jonm3131]

@@SerErryk Shut up

[@jujublue4426]

@@SerErryk Calm down, we just think it's sad people who don't have a driver license or money to own a car can't move freely in your country.

[@briancasey4917]

I live in a small town about 2000 people. Mostly single family homes with a few low-rise apartment complexes. We can walk, bike, drive and some even have golf carts to get around with little restrictions to just about anywhere in town. There are also nearby lakes we can bike to on country roads. My lot is just under an acre on the edge of town and before I retired I owned a semi truck that I could park right next to my home. We have a couple of medium grocery stores and restaurants, all accessible in walking distance. It is because of all this variety of accessibility that we moved here 30 plus years ago. Also the housing is very affordable and good schools.

[@husher5142]

I actually hate alleys. Much prefer front garages/pads. But I do agree that when subs are built there should be corner stores and small commercial for bakeries/market/butcher walkable and ideally all three together. Planned transit and connections to light rail as part of the designs not an after though.

[@shadowtheimpure]

Developers don't want public transit, because they worry it will bring people of lower economic status who can't afford cars. In the USA, using public transit is mostly viewed as a failing and not a virtue. The only exceptions are the cities with developed metro systems, but they are the exception and not the rule.

[@emp0rizzle]

@@shadowtheimpure who wants the crime that the plebs will bring?

[@aimee-lynndonovan6077]

There is suburb transit in New Jersey. Or at least used to be. Haven’t lived there in almost 40 years.

[@husher5142]

@@shadowtheimpure it is true that stations do increase crime, but that doesnt mean you dont have collector routes

[@rkalle66]

Let me have my cake and eat it too. No bakery/butcher will run a business in a suburb, where only garages are up front and only 10 homes are within walkable reach. You need a minimal density of population to run a small business without car parking lots. Look at the parking area of a big store. There the parking area itsself is restricted to be in walkable reach to the store entrance.

[@jones1351]

I remember living in Berlin. I was stationed there from 3 years before - 3 years after the Wall came down. The mid-rise apartments ( I lived in one and loved it), the walkable streets, bicycle paths, nearby shops, expansive clean public transportation, etc. I also remember the sense of dread and tightening in my shoulders as the plane, returning me to The States for the last time, touched down. The things you illuminate in your series are part of the reason for that low, low feeling. Most Americans have no idea 'how the other half lives'. Exceptional... yeah, right.

[@lucasb409]

Actually, the irony is that american do travel abroad to Europe and romanticise it. Yet they go back home and do the complete opposite. All in the name of freedom? Lol

[@jasperlim8909]

As a Torontorian, even if you don't know about walkability, you love RIverdale because you find yourself visiting and revisiting the neighborhood again and again in the weekends because it just has a nice neighborhood vibe like Trinity Bellwoods.

[@clementyau7192]

Yea but Riverdale isn't viable for most Torontonians to live in. $1mil for an apartment, $2mil plus for a town house.

[@nickscomputerfix]

A very well done documentary video, on a topic that really should be talked about in the news media. Great job. Keep up the good work.

[@DesertStateNevada]

"should be talked about in the news media" lmao No. Not even close. His entire channel is about him being butthurt about cars. Especially in this video. Theres always a few narcissistic lunatics that think the world would be better it was built according to their personal views. Theres a good reason cars rule the US - because cars are by far the most convenient and most luxurious form of travel. No sharing the same space with strangers that you wouldn't want anywhere near you otherwise, no sitting on dirty mass transit, no submitting to somebody else's schedule. And if cars weren't artificially kept down here in the EU, most people would drive their own cars too. This guy needs to move to the EU, get an average job, and lets see how fast he'll be running back to the US where you can afford a car easily.

[@anteveic327]

@@DesertStateNevada He is against car dependancy, not cars per se. And cars aren't convenient for community - the more they are used, the bigger roads and parkings have to be, so costs of maintaining infrastructure get bigger to. There is also the problem of pollution.

[@DesertStateNevada]

@@anteveic327 Hes against cars, look at his other videos. Parking garages can be built, and so can highways. This creates more jobs in infrastructure. Most of the pollution comes from industry in cities, not cars. This isn't the 1960s.

[@jiffy-jef]

I remember being driven to school every day. My actions had no effect on whether I was on time or late. It was my parents' driving that decided that.

[@alex_blue5802]

You'd be the one punished if you were late though...

[@mr_mykal]

I remember when I was a kid, I used to live close enough to walk to my elementary schools there were houses right out front of it! It felt like a mistake in our car dependent hell otherwise. It had a park next to it and some of my favorite memories include walking to school with my parents, grandma and brother and playing in the park. I wish more of America looked like that...

[@dustmybroom288]

I live in Surrey Canada and what you described is considered the normal

[@TheoriginalBMT]

Just moved to a town like you described. It's glorious

[@joltjolt5060]

YES

[@joltjolt5060]

@@dustmybroom288 it sounds wonderful but cold!

[@cristie1678]

my suburb seems to be a mix of what he considered hell and paradise. like there are schools and shops walking distance away, though it’s still a bit far. but it’s still easy to get to shops as since there’s sidewalks and bike paths leading everywhere.

[@bjonkofficial]

Can we just take a second to appreciate that every episode of NJB I've seen is fully subtitled with perfect grammar?

[@NotJustBikes]

Every since KZbin let me upload my scripts as subtitles, I can do that. The previous ones were auto-generated. Though you will find all the places where I didn't perfectly stick to my script when recording. :)

[@shaungordon9737]

@@NotJustBikes If you want to reach a bigger audience, you should add translations/subtitles to other languages. It can be machine translated from your English subs.

[@sittinonthegodamcornerdoindope]

@@safe-keeper1042 that shows the ones who go above and beyond are rare and cognizant of this, ultra professional

[@KennethYimHomes]

12:48 “aesthetic”

[@sittinonthegodamcornerdoindope]

@@KennethYimHomes 😂😂

[@hahka-0168]

I've been binging your videos the past two days, and even though as someone who doesn't like cycling - I do love walking and having easy access to resources. You and others like you make so many valid points, and I find myself on the same page as y'all.

[@rhodiumthunderbird]

Oh wow, I'm from Melbourne Australia, and these sort of suburbs are where I have lived, and the sort of areas most of my family has lived in, for pretty much my entire life. Ironically, this is the sort of thing I pictured whenever I heard you rail against suburbs, and honestly I got a little bit defensive going "oh come on, suburbs aren't that bad" when the topic came up in most of your videos. I honestly didn't realise these were a rarity in North America.

[@daktsuwoflcat9710]

I currently live in Central America, honestly I’ve never lived in any other place, but I have visited family in the US. The culture shock the first time we visited this kind of suburbs was astonishing. The lack of locally own convenience stores was the thing that hit the hardest. Here, where I live, are some little stores that sell the essentials. Some are big enough that you can walk in and see what things are on the shelves. Others are small in a way that you only show up in front of a glass window and ask what you need and they’ll sell it to you. (Actually this was something that help my family a lot during the pandemic since we wanted to avoid doing trips to big supermarkets). But when I visited family in the US, we couldn’t do anything unless we planned a car trip to the store in advance. I remember in particular that I just wanted to make hotdogs for lunch since we weren’t that hungry. When I asked my cousins where could we buy the things we needed, she said it was to much of a hassle to go to the store just for some buns and sausages. I was perplexed, why couldn’t we just walk there? Everything here is just walking distance from home, and there is more that just convenience stores. Butchers, “Chinos” (convenience stores that are usually run by Asians and tend to sell a wide variety of things) Junk food places, (locally owned), even every level of education from kindergarten to university. Being used to that, and then practically living in a car while visiting the US was so frustrating. In the video it’s mention that this is a continental problem in America, but I feel it’s something more related to US and Canada culture wise. Here owing more than 1 car it’s just bragging about having the money to afford more, and are usually only used for long trips, or going to work since most companies facilities are really far away. Maybe I rambled a bit, but seeing that this places where designed and built basically by law is astonishing.

[@jevitigre]

I live in the Dominican Republic and here is exactly as you said it!

[@CampingforCool41]

Yeah it really does suck here. Despite growing up with stroads and suburbs like this I’ve always thought it was an ugly hellscape. It’s a 15 minute drive to the nearest place to get any groceries.

[@AssBlasster]

As an American, I had the opposite cultural shock upon visiting a local convenience store in the French-side of Geneva. I expected the usual beer-convenience store with no natural food only to realize that they actually stocked fruits, vegs, eggs, and such...all within a 4 minute walk of my airbnb. Blew my mind at the time but a very welcomed thing on my trip.

[@gyozanomics]

@/k/onnoisseur that is the stupidest shit anyone has ever said

[@alecvip7562]

I hate it where I live. The closest convinence store is 1.5 miles away, and there is no sidewalk for most of the walk, if you decide to walk. It's absurd that I have to take my car EVERYWHERE.

[@jackeroo_sundown]

I didn't know how interesting city planning was until I played Cities: Skylines. Started to find channels like this to improve my cities, now Im completely infatuated with this subject and I don't know what to do with this sudden interest lol

[@jackeroo_sundown]

@@bsimulator yeah, Cities Skylines is amazing. You can choose different styles, and European is one if them, plus there are a ton of mods that help make the game better. Check out City Planner Plays and see his mod list, he has some essentials and even made modlists on the steam workshop

[@lonestarr1490]

You guys maybe want to check out the channel of Strictoaster. He used to build really detailed and beautiful cities. There are many other channels like his, but I think Strictoaster a good place to start and then let the algorithm lead you around. He has a series where he designed a European city as well, it's called Nydal.

[@jackeroo_sundown]

@@lonestarr1490 thanks, I'll subscribe now!

[@RicardoCristofRemmertFontes]

Lobby your local politicians for more liveable cities.

[@UNSCPILOT]

Become a city planner, *fix this broken world*

[@nairbvel]

While I was growing up, my grandparents lived in the suburbs of Queens (a borough of New York). It was all detached houses of 1920s-1940s vintage on streets lined with trees and a sidewalk on both sides. There was a large road 2 blocks from their house (3-1/2 blocks from where we lived, although we moved when I was very young); that road was lined with commercial properties (banks, pizza joints, clothing stores, bakeries, supermarkets, general merchandise shops, etc. etc. etc.). Everything we needed on a daily basis was never more than an easy 4-5 block walk (I'm not talking about the infamous "city blocks" of Manhattan), including parks, community centers, and so on. My father was posted overseas for a few years, and when we returned Stateside we moved to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. For the 1st year, I had to ride a bus to school (a new junior high opened within walking distance the next year) but there was an elementary school located at each end of the neighborhood. The closest stores were a half-hour walk away along a busy road that didn't even have sidewalks for the first 2-3 years we lived in the area -- but aside from a bank, a medium-size supermarket, a record shop, a head shop(!), and a movie theater, everything was a variation on convenience store, fast food, or restaurant. If we needed anything else, a car was absolutely required. My folks getting to & from work? A car was absolutely required. Getting to the nearest shopping mall? A car was absolutely required. High school? Bus and/or car pool. Large parks, community centers, other movies... ANYTHING else... a car was absolutely required. Oh, and to this day only about 20% of the neighborhood has sidewalks. :-(

[@eneco3965]

What the hell is a head shop

[@deixart2806]

One thing I noticed you didn't talk about, about the modern car-dependable concept, after every problem you pointed there's still the fact that it's not hard to find parts that doesn't even have sidewalks, making them even more hostile to pedestrians (you can see an example at 12:08) Loved the video. thanks for making such important content.

[@brucenadeau2172]

sidewalks are not paid for by taxes but the owner of the property so are you going to buy the sidewalk for the property owner

[@leandrog2785]

@@brucenadeau2172 Sidewalks are infrastructure for public use, it's insane for it not to be paid for by the government.

[@rightclick5]

Wow as someone who lives in Riverdale you made me feel how much I should appreciate this neighbourhood Thank You so much!

[@johnscanlan9335]

I grew up in Riverdale, NEW YORK and I too am very proud of my neighborhood too!

[@delighteddino9363]

@@johnscanlan9335 I grew up in a non car dependent community in Alaska, in one of its suburbs, you do unfortunately need a car to get to Anchorage proper but within the town there’s everything most people need

[@Amphibax]

As someone living in Germany I always wonder what the hell were thinking in the US when planing stuff like that

[@SimonRaahauge1973]

It is to sell more cars, more appliances, and more fuel.

[@toomaskotkas4467]

"Capitalism".

[@electricant55]

@@toomaskotkas4467 yeah, everything the government does wrong is capitalism's fault. That's why East Germany was such a wonderful place to live and everyone from the West was trying to get there.

[@InternetWarriorQwer]

It's cultural and demand based. People in the US prefer single family homes in cookie cutter neighborhoods. What this KZbinr is suggesting is America change to European culture which will never happen.

[@whatasickjoke]

@@InternetWarriorQwer >people in US prefer cookie cutter houses Lol

[@CarlyneDTQTonPod]

Great content! just discovered this channel as one of my recent KZbin algorithms for my interest in architecture and growth economics. I love the usage of the graphs charts:) my brain sparked when I saw that graph chart (at timestamp 9:21 the Toronto real estate board) showing that obvious stall in the housing market between 2008 - 2010. Then that huge jolt in the housing market between 2014 - 2016 Yikes!

[@7th_CAV_Trooper]

driving your kids to school hinders their development.. wow, that makes sense. from first grade I walked 1 mile to school. this was normal. our crossing guards were kids in 4th grade. almost everyone walked and our school was nestled in the neighborhood which was built in the early 1900s. didn't think about how unusual this is today until watching the video.

[@caldera11]

Most suburban towns have buses come pick children up, and kids interact with other kids on the bus. It's not that much different than walking to school. It yields the same social development. Minus perhaps the having to figure out the directions on their own.

[@7th_CAV_Trooper]

@@caldera11 we only have busses to force integration in the south and if you think riding a government bus provides the same social interaction and instills independence then you're a moron.

[@michaelkerley746]

I immediately went and looked at Riverdale homes before you mentioned the average price. I just want to buy a home where I can walk to the grocery store.

[@sm3675]

Toronto is extremely expensive for no reason. I moved to the city beside Toronto (Mississauga) for cheaper home prices, but I wouldn't afford anything in the Greater Toronto Area if I was to buy a new home in this modern age. High foreign investors, high immigration, and an overall will for Canadians to spend huge sums on property has made is expensive to live.

[@Yuvraj.]

@@sm3675 We need to build more.

[@mjstecyk]

Ya that'd be nice, I rent in a west-end Toronto neighbourhood that's similar to Riverdale and homes shot past the $1 mil mark in the past couple years. Even the car-dependent suburbs in Canada are insanely expensive these days. There is opportunity to rent in nice places in Toronto but owning is out of the question for a lot of first-time home buyers.

[@acleverusername4866]

I live on the other side of Toronto, in a place called Parkdale. It's not nearly as rich as Riverdale, but a similar streetcar suburb. All of Toronto is crazy expensive, but since I haven't owned a car in years, I can just afford to rent here. It all depends on what you're after here. 2 or 3 cars, huge house, massive yard. Hellscape Vaughan. Bike and Transit pass, small townhouse or apartment, no car, no yard and walk everywhere; Parkdale. I bet the average cost of living is similar for both scenarios..( Forget Riverdale, only rich people live there).

[@michaelkerley746]

I've lived my whole life in North Carolina and it seems like home prices are gonna shoot through the roof in the city I was hoping to buy a home in within a year. Sure would be nice to develop the city with public transit at the center rather than the personal automobile.

[@WhisperedEternity]

I was shocked the first time I heard there's places in America you literally can't walk. I have never owned a car and I'm 30 and own a house in the UK!

[@lars1588]

It's very real, alright. I live in a suburb myself. It's rather depressing-looking, but thankfully my city isn't too large (~80,000 people), so I can still bike places if I risk my life a little and deal with huge roads.

[@jonransdell]

It's not just that there's places you can't walk. It's the norm in most places here.

[@653j521]

@@jonransdell Where are you literally unable to walk, besides gated communities and interstates?

[@AnthonyEllis_Au]

Walking was associated with poverty before the obesity epidemic.

[@TessaAvonlea]

​@@tartrazine5 The dependence of Americans on clothes dryers is another weird thing. You all seem to have forgotten that clothes can dry in the air.

[@angiekabukuru2557]

I have learned a lot from this channel and City need about why I respond so highly to my neighborhoods high wall ability. Though it’s obvious I never had the vocabulary or concepts to articulate it even to myself. I love learning about it keep it up!

[@KhmerH20]

i've filled with regrets watching your videos. i've regret not taking the time to reflect upon myself of what kind of living environment that makes me happy. just like many others, i was sold into the american dream of owning a house but i did not think it through. where i live is also dominated by car as mean to get anywhere. i've spent too much resources to move out now....but one day, when the time is right and when i think more thoroughly about where i want to live, i'd imagine it's a place similar to how you describe it. thank you and God bless!

[@JeredtheShy]

These videos are just getting depressing now because I'm never going to be wealthy enough (Toronto is $$$$$) or internationally mobile enough to live in any of these nice places, nor is there much I can do as an individual to force any local changes in the near future, so all I get to do is glimpse brighter lives and sigh.

[@muhwyndham]

Come to my country then! We're third world country which is kinda the Mishmash of car dependent society but most of the population lives in close proximity in a bunch of populace pocket, no strict zoning, and wide roads only exist as bypass highway instead of the standard in suburbs. Our living cost is cheap, though with the usual drawbacks of 3rd world country. But because we're tropical, were mostly green country with a lot of forest and trees 🌴🌴🌴. I've been in several countries but still the best place to live is my home country, which is Indonesia btw.

[@CannaCJ]

@@muhwyndham Our country makes it difficult and expensive to leave. They can't let us have that freedom because we'd use it to create exoduses, which would force the federal government to change if they wanted us to stay. If the lower classes don't stay, the rulers have no one to exploit and must themselves labor. This scares them because they are so effete that they've become incapable of sustaining themselves by their own efforts. And so they keep us from leaving. Welcome to the USA, where the freedom is an illusion and the poor pay to sustain the system that keeps them poor.

[@henriquemelchiorgomes8750]

@@CannaCJ No, it's fucking easy to move being from usa, most countries accept us citizens easier than the refugees

[@Outpost67]

Same

[@xxwookey]

Change is possible, and is happening in some US cities. Get involved with groups that are trying to change things, like Strong Towns. People do have power if they use it.

[@kaieversfield1025]

I would love to see a video on the pointlessness of lawns. I'm studying to be an Urban landscape designer, and once you start learning everything that's wrong with lawns you realize how frustrating it is that every single house has one

[@DebatingWombat]

I find the obsession with front lawn even weirder. Unless your front lawn/yard allows for a sort of “sit on your porch and watch the world pass by” lifestyle or is well sheltered from the street, I consider the front lawn far less practical than the backyard where you are probably exposed to less traffic and noise and can thus relax more in peace and out of public scrutiny. Lawns certainly have their place - and not only in the old “immaculate lawn as status symbol” weirdness of the 1950s. I remember playing football (sorry, soccer, for the yanks) on both the lawn of my parents and on those of my friends’. Ditto for other outdoors games that require less space than an actual field, but some open, green area, e.g. croquet. However, I always found the American 1950s style front lawn to be particularly weird and non functional, being generally unsuited for sports/games, far too unsheltered for relaxation and also an odd stylised monoculture of grass with, at most, a small flowerbed or decorative tree. It has always seemed a strange sort of “horticultural objet d’art”, rather than either a functional garden or a place of relaxation. In that sense, I guess it reminds me most of the strictly controlled and rigorously pruned baroque gardens with their formalised and mathematical symmetry.

[@Blaqjaqshellaq]

What if they turned front lawns into gardens? (Remember all the Victory Gardens in the World Wars?)

[@AntonioCostaRealEstate]

Lawns aren’t that bad. The negative on American lawns is the use of weed killing chemicals , some of them carcinogenic. Once you are past that unpleasantness , there is the functional aspect of lawns ( backyards ) .... Some folks will use the space to grow food as in a patch garden. Some folks will want space for their dogs to roam. Some folks will throw a swimming pool or a above ground tub for the kids. Some will use so their toddlers have a playpen. Some will rather use for sunbathing Some will work in their golfing short game Most will use for weekend BBQs. Some will kill stress on their gardening prowess. Daddies will play a game of catch with their kids America ain’t Europe.

[@taoliu3949]

@@AntonioCostaRealEstate There's a difference between allowing for front lawns vs forcing everyone to have one. And there's also a reason why they're going away as well, they're an inefficient use of space where land is expensive.

[@kaieversfield1025]

@@aabb55777 One thing I plan to do in the future is helping people redesign their lawns to be more conscious of the environment. One thing you can of course do is replace it with a garden full of native plants or Xeriscaping plants to cut down on the water you use and attract pollinators. Another option is to replace your lawn with a blend of grass, micro clover, and other small trailing flowers. These blends may be a bit more expensive than a pure grass blend, but you end up saving money by not having to water them as often. and another point is that having a blend of plants that also flower helps to build more biodiversity and attract pollinators. I could write an essay on reasons to replace lawns with other things, but this is a youtube comment section and I want to get college credit for my work

[@sc687k]

In the UK, and specifically in London, we have a very distinctive and characteristic suburb style that was developed around railway lines. In fact, a lot of the development was done by the railway companies - see Metroland. They can be slightly dull architecturally, but they have a lot going for them. And it's notable that a lot of the community (shops, pubs etc) is still next to the train station. I'm not sure this was deliberate, but it's certainly a very good thing.

[@eepynicky]

I visited riverdale a couple of weeks ago to see a concert at the danforth music hall, it was such a cozy feeling area to be in, it felt like a small city but without nearly as many cars. It just felt comfortable to be in. Toronto has extensive public transit that makes it easy to get around, even to other towns thanks to the go bus. Wish there were more areas like riverdale where I'm from.

[@enbyennui]

in my city in the UK, almost all of our suburbs have their own small high streets, train and bus links to the city centre, public green spaces and almost exclusively narrow 1-lane (each way) streets. they're perfectly pleasant and easy to walk around

[@NotJustBikes]

Yes there are lots of nice suburbs in the UK.

[@enbyennui]

@@NotJustBikes watching your channel is a wild experience tbh, every new North American zoning law you introduce seems crazier than the last

[@michielvoetberg4634]

Something I see a lot in UK suburbs in the stupid amount on on-street parking. Do you have that as well? It would make me mad if we would have it here in the NL

[@Exospray]

@@michielvoetberg4634 its pretty common. A lot of the major cities's suburbia was done before car ownership really look off in the 1960's. Even when designs changed to include garages and drives you usually only had space for one car generally so any visitor would have to park on the street. New developments are better at it though.

[@MrAronymous]

UK roads are better than American ones but still a bit shit. Like they're still stuck in the 1960s with lanes that are often too wide in town. I'm serious. I'm aware that there are narrow country roads and tiny 19th terraced housing streets too, but they don't make up the majority. And pedestrian and cycling infrastructure that is an afterthought at best and actively hostile at the worst. The UK has very similar building patterns (and even architecture) as the Netherlands, with the same street widths, they just chose to not to make the same investments we have made since the 1980s when it comes to road layouts and traffic systems. In the Netherlands the number of local high streets that are also through-roads are a minority, while in the UK it's reversed. They're loud, smelly, stinky unpleasant places to be. No wonder many of them are not thriving. If you compare average neighbourhoods it's striking to see that the garden-obsessed English will happily live in treeless streets so they can park their car, rather than collectively plan for some distant parking lots. Neighbourhood streets that are made entirely out of asphalt and don't have a single shrub look dystopian to me. Also the amount of tragic suburbs that are tacked onto a random car-only road just outside of town without proper ped/bike connections to nearby services is too damn high.

[@490o]

Riverdale looks so damn cozy. I wish there were more places like that.

[@FeltonHM]

there's actually many neighbourhoods like it in toronto. this video makes it seem kind of like it's the only one in the city. a good portion of the neighbourhoods downtown are like this.

[@seemabains4812]

I live here and it's great. :) Halloween is really fun for the kids.

[@lynncai587]

there's also many neighborhoods in the US that look just like riverdale as well.

[@stanhry]

I know a few place that has everything like Riverdale, but they are far from being that nice. High taxes, high crime, closed businesses, and crumbling infrastructure. The increasing property values means higher taxes, which is using to maintain infrastructure. Which increases property values which will cause development growth. Develop will bring the big roads, malls, and mags stores.

[@Xachremos]

Montreal my guy. I still have to drive to work though. I can easily just walk to stores and such though. And I’m a stones throw from the metro. Parking is a bitch tho, and I hate it since I have no choice but to take my car to work. Buying a motorcycle next year so at least 9 months of the year will be less of a headache.

[@qrafting]

It's so interesting to learn about how legislation that may've been designed to prevent a problem is creating a cycle of depressing same-ness and that it's illegal to break out of. I do want to insert a thought on "walkability," how does this concept translate into the disabled community? For example, people with mobility aids such as walkers, wheelchairs, motorized scooters, etc. may have different standards of destination-reach-ability than those who are walking. It's just something that came to mind watching this.

[@raynethackery1]

Yes, I always wonder about the accessibility of these types of areas. Not to say that the issue can't be accounted for, but it never seems to be discussed.

[@brucenadeau2172]

city pass code so that poeple did have to breath pollution from factorys

[@caldera11]

newsflash: there are people like you living in most of those samey houses. They want a nice house to live in too. Why the hell do you look at it as depressing for people to have freedom and privacy just because every house looks like a house? The alternative is living in a podlike apartment in a giant building, which looks even more miserable, or hearing people fucking around behind the wall in a townhouse constantly. How is that less depressing than living in your own house?

[@michelefancy8110]

@@caldera11 Did you even watch the video

[@dogdad1997]

I know having sidewalks that are wide and well maintained enough to roll on can be really good for wheelchair users! Especially if they can't drive or afford a car. And there are other disabilities, like blindness or epilepsy(correct me if I'm wrong here) that make driving unsafe or impossible, but you can still walk yourself to the store. It's easier for some disabled people to be independent in walkable areas. Obviously, this isn't true for everyone though and there's never a one-size-fits-all solution for these things

[@rbene01]

Your videos are fascinating. I love how thoroughly thought out and concise you are about what you say. Reducing car dependency would GREATLY decrease our environmental impact and I never even thought to look at the entire infrastructure of cities until running across your videos. "Eco-friendly" is a huge passion of mine and I love that people like you are putting info like this out there to help educate people like me. Keep up the great work!

[@aliciadonadio2597]

I'm German and I'm actually shocked by learning about American/Canadian housing policies. I actually don't think that most German cities are built in a car-independent, human-friendly way, but America is a whole other dystopia.

[@DrAElemayo]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 Did you watch the video? More than half of the hellscapes shown are in Canada. As a Canadian, I can tell you 99.9% of the country is like this. Other than Riverdale, and a (very) few other neighbourhoods, Canada is exactly like America in this regard.

[@shinumi85]

There's a whole neighbourhood in Hamburg where you can't enter with a car, the largest wheeled vehicle that can enter is a wheelbarrow, when I was visiting I actually saw a group of USA citicens asking "so... if they don't have cars, how do they come and go from work, the grocery store, etc?" ... The neighbourhood has tiny lanes where people bike or walk, it's like 5 mins from the train station and 10 mins from the ferry, my sister wanted to move there but the property prices were skyhigh.

[@olivierg.9479]

The example from Orlando's suburbs looks like hell. Who even wants to live there?

[@echoplots8058]

I don't know which state/Bundesland you live in, but I can tell you Bavaria is one of the most car-dependent built places in Germany. It's very rural, but bus and rail connections are few and far between and are even gradually torn down. You don't get anywhere without a car in the countryside. After watching the video on stroads I realized that they also do this in my town. There's a big road that goes straight across the city and fulfils most criteria: straight road, narrow sidewalks, lots of intersections, high speeds and home exits that go right onto the road. And they're still building this way. The new bypass road has no bike lanes, although it would have been technically possible. I could go on, you hit my drift. Then again, here we consider it a nuisance, in the US it's normality.

[@lm3341]

@@echoplots8058 countryside's are a whole different topic. it's the countryside, of course it's rural. needing your car makes sense because there are fewer than average people living in small villages that are further away from each other

[@AlphabetSoupABC]

Front yards bigger than the back yard are one of my biggest pet peaves, along with houses with more bathrooms than bedrooms!

[@AntonioCostaRealEstate]

Two bathrooms for a five person household will do. And a wash room or restroom. Bigger backyards can be found on older neighborhoods on the upper Midwest and Northeast. Sometimes at the expense of the car driveway.

[@shaungordon9737]

I know. I don't get it either. Why do you want the space with no privacy to be the biggest part?! If they moved the houses closer to the street, they could double the size of their backyards

[@UhOhUmm]

Front yards were a status symbol back in the old days, because they're useless. For some reason Americans made them a requirement.

[@showcaseSampa]

@@UhOhUmmNot quite a symbol, and rather an useful piece of real estate. For as long as your suburbanite dwellers don't keep on dumping carcinogenic herbicides, yards have quiet a useful purpose. Old school folk, and young ones, tend to use to grow their vegetables. Actually, during the Pandemic, a lot of people may start to value that little space. Heck, my mother used to grow stuff on our backyard. Strawberries, Peaches, Pears, Green Lettuce. Even the rabbits made a round there every now and then. Pesticide and fertilizer free ( we used compost for vegertable and fruits leftover ). Watch Nicolle Jolly and see her videos on "How does it grow". Since the pandhemic, she has not travelled at all, and her expansive backyard in the burbs became her sole focus on her videos. Tending a garden might not be for everyone, but you can bet your bottom dollar it does a lot of people good to have them. Backyard plot is a luxury worth having, if you can make good use of it. As for pristine lawn mowed lawns and gardens, well, that is what Americans do. Wasteful, but again, this is my opinion. Everyone is entitled to do what one pleases with their free time.

[@UhOhUmm]

@@showcaseSampa usually people in communities don't allow others to grow gardens on their front yard, because it ruins the look of perfect lawns

[@liligaede1398]

I'd love to hear you address more rural areas in relation to public transit and car dependence, since I haven't seen it in any of your videos so far. I've always hated the suburbs and driving and your videos have really showed me why that is