The Suburb With No City | Killeen, TX

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In central Texas lies the city of Killeen, which from above, looks like a giant suburb with no town in the center. Why is that?
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Edited by Reid Cummins (unpaid intern)
Script by Ryan Green and @retro1029 on Twitter
Field footage gathered by Ryan Green, Kai Gray, Tyler Earl

[@CardinalNorth]

Thanks for watching! I think one thing I could've mentioned in this video was why there was demand for housing in Killeen in the first place, which was the huge military base there. But, as I describe in the video, the way they went about building the city out was unsustainable. If you like good taste and want to support a small creator who doesn't mark up their prices, check out my merch :) cardinalnorth.myspreadshop.com

[@KSslopestyle]

what a massive oversight lmao

[@micosstar]

factssssssss@@KSslopestyle

[@steveschultz300]

I would look for one more reason....the municipal board is populated with realtors and THEY don't want to do anything differently. Denser housing, I don't think that is the answer. I don't want to live in a packed environment. Narrow the roads? Wow, obviously "they" don't drive the streets they already have. Oh crap, he just compared the ideal with European communities; a direct attitude leading to those infamous "15 minute cities". That way "they" can control you.

[@GPGPapercraftTX]

Yes, forward thinking extends only to additional property tax income in Texas.

[@starventure]

7:43 WHY? Why show some grafitti infected street corner like that to promote a city?

[@Dr.C_Stag]

I use to live in this $hithole place. The reason it looks like this is to the extreme is because of the population that it contains. It’s a military town. Soldiers come and go and they just need a place to live for a few years. They don’t care about where they live or even the services the city has. The “neighborhoods” just look like on-base housing without the gate guard. This is important context you forgot to mention.

[@emmanuelmacute6921]

The military there was Fort "Hood." LOL

[@Dr.C_Stag]

@@emmanuelmacute6921 facts

[@CarrieBrownNet]

Amen brudda....I went to high school there and moved two days afterward. Killeen is the rectum of the Western World

[@theazurapristina]

​@@CarrieBrownNetI wholeheartedly disagree. There are far worse places. My education experience was amazing here and the natural landscape here is majestic

[@amac2612]

Exactly the same where i grew up in Townsville Australia, Australias largest military base and a city of 200.000 which is big for Australia and its just one big suburb.

[@StylistecS]

I grew up here. My mom still lives here. There is no amount of words I can say about how I hate that place. It's your typical run of the mill military town but if you don't have a car, your life will be extremely miserable. Absolute terrible neighborhoods with fourplexes. Stay far far away from those. Everything is centered on the highway. 0 percent of is walkable. 0 percent of is bikeable. There aren't any good positive words I can say about this cesspool. BTW, most of Central Texas is this way. Waco and Temple aren't much better if they are at all.

[@rturo22]

Killeen is a suburb of Fort Hood

[@chipperP]

Exactly!

[@eduardoaguilar7361]

Yeap. But how can he say there's no city when there's Rancier right there :D

[@JesusChrist-qs8sx]

Kileen is a 40 minute drive from the outskirts of the urbanized area around Austin. It's not a suburb without a city, but it's also just not a suburb. Its a city that's seen most of its growth post war, and so most of its land follows that growth pattern, but that doesn't make it a suburb. You see these same car dependent subdivisions in every city, small or large. That doesn't make those places "suburbs".

[@nndjkn9255]

You just described a suburb haha with your last paragraph. It doesn’t have a large city center, it’s just cookie cutter houses stretched out in every direction. It’s literally a suburb

[@leahfarmer5966]

@@nndjkn9255that development in Austin only happened in the last ten or so years. For decades the small towns in this area were considered to be outside of fort hood, but now they are thought of as part of the Austin metro area. The Austin metro sprawled out to them

[@NateClay]

0:56 It's next to Fort Hood, where all the Army guys and their families live. It's also near Temple, super hub for CTX crime because it's a shipping area.

[@uzin0s256]

Then it should look like a walking area. Thats just fucking sprawl.

[@michaelherring1944]

Seriously? I was born, raised, live, and work in Temple, which rightly has a reputation for being boring. But a super hub for CTX crime? Never heard that one, except about the Killeen/Fort Cavazos area.

[@EV4LS1DE10MAN]

Your lieng your ssa off about Temple being a high crime area😂

[@InterstellarKev]

Lmao bruh you lying on temple crime probably the most safest boring ass town I ever lived in

[@jonoghue]

Love seeing these types of videos quickly becoming more common. Maybe we can actually have some real change in the US.

[@texgreen1]

It’s a long way to go for the US, but I’m glad to see more people become interested in this problem!

[@andrerothweiler9191]

Well there is New York were I was as European. It felt great. Public transport all day around, no suburbs

[@jonoghue]

​@@andrerothweiler9191NYC is the exception, not the norm. Basically the best public transit in the country. It's also about the most expensive city in the world. (A one bedroom apartment is over $4,000 a month.) I'm from Syracuse, about 4 hours north by car (6 by train, and lucky to have that), and all we have for transit is buses that come every like 90 minutes. There's not even a transit route to the airport. We really have to own and drive our own cars.

[@jenn976]

They left out one HUGE fact - that the biggest employer in Killeen is the US Army Post on its western city border. The US Army’s presence has been a huge factor in the city’s history and planning for decades.

[@choatican]

I own property near downtown Killeen. The city was originally built next to the largest military base in the US (that has shrunk to about 30k today). Those soldiers used to live off base but from 1985-2000 the military built thousands of new housing units for all the soldiers.... so it destroyed the Killeen real estate market. It's basically become a city in the middle of Texas where poor people, convicts released from prison, and people with criminal records/no credit are able to find cheap housing.Its a short drive to Austin, Temple, Waco, and south Dallas.

[@kaymillerfromTX]

I’m surprised to hear Killeen is making changes. A big reason for it being the way it is with sprawl is it being a military town. Over 43,000 work on base of for defense contractors where the next biggest employer is the school district with 6800. There was never any diversified economy for a downtown to grow.

[@user-wq2cx1sp3l]

Killeen is not a suburb, its a small or medium sized town, the reason Killeen is even relevant is because Fort Hood is next door.

[@nndjkn9255]

It’s a suburb. It doesn’t really have a concentrated town center. It’s cookie cutter houses for miles. It’s a suburb

[@user-wq2cx1sp3l]

@@nndjkn9255 If Fort Hood had left, would you still consider Killeen a suburb, and if so, what city is it a suburb of? From my memory, you have Temple, Belton, etc, all of which are small or medium-sized towns, also you can't say Austin because Austin over an hour away.

[@dariusbrock2351]

I live not far from Killeen. Even though Killeen is more than twice the size the city of Temple, Tx which is about 18 miles away, functions more like a city than Killeen.

[@robert2695]

I live in Killeen and the murder rate here is crazy. Killeen caters to those with $$ They have removed all the grocery stores on the older side of town. It's actually really sad and the wages here are total bs.

[@ant.8635]

I lived in Killeen for years. It's basically your average military town. 99% of people there are military affiliated and has access to base and everything it comes with. Round rock is like 20 minutes away, Austin is like 40, harker heights and cove is like 5-10 away (give or take 5-15 minutes, really depends who's driving) then there's temple that's also very close.It's really not as secluded as you're making it seem lol but I'll agree you definitely need a car I actually enjoyed living there.

[@txmeats]

In 1991 there was a mass shooting at a Luby's. A guy drove his truck through a window and just started shooting people. It's actually one of the deadliest in the country.

[@ronnymateov]

You have to keep in mind demand. Most people in the suburban neighborhoods actually want land and do not want to live in a densely populated area. If the demand is there then cities would focus more on condensing their population rather than spreading. I personally don’t want to live in a densely populated area. Been there done that. Lived in NYC all my life. I would like more space and would not mind driving to where I need to go to pick up grocieries.

[@ToyotaCamrySEv]

honestly super excited that killeen recognized the problem and is making an effort to become more sustainable. I bet in the future everyone still making the mistake of sprawl will wake up soon.

[@robert2695]

They've known and aren't going to do a thing lol

[@ToyotaCamrySEv]

@@robert2695 the people in gov now will age out n i can’t see young impressionable decision makers being more loyal to tradition or whatever than to a more efficient way of making money. After a while sustainability is gonna start looking really good to them.

[@starventure]

Ah, but what is the alternative to sprawl....?

[@jaystrickland4151]

The city that Killeen is a suburb for is Fort Hood. Between the military members, government employees, retirees ( of the former two) and contractors Fort Hood is often the center of economic activity. It creates an issue where those without base access are at a disadvantage. Note recently renamed Fort Cavazos recently.

[@kngjoea3743]

Killeen has become so much better since the 1990s. The North side is still troublesome with no grocery stores and outdated retail. You get what you pay for I suppose. At least people can still afford a home in Killeen and afford to go out to eat once in a while. The Southside of Killeen is actually quite nice, most people are friendly, businesses do well, new schools, several colleges, not far from Austin, Waco, or Dallas. Killeen has lakes, hiking trails, water parks, shopping, and the police are not generally asses anymore and try to help people. Killeen also has several hospitals, many clinics and dental offices and is quite interracial and most people get along quite well. I think a lot of people like to bad mouth Killeen because they are generally miserable people but the Killeen area holds many opprotunities, as many people that live there have made a good life for themselves and their families. There definitely are much worse places to live. Sure, Killeen had some work to do but what area doesnt?

[@camadams9149]

The thought of getting stuck living in one of these places makes my skin crawl. There is precisely ZERO to do & even the most basic activities like getting food is a 15 minute care ride

[@uzin0s256]

exactly.

[@chenanigans]

Lol

[@MrDisgruntledGamer1]

Most cities in the U.S have these places but i feel like in Texas it doesnt matter where you live, it will be a MINIMUM of 30 minutes to go ANYWHERE. I hate this state so much because of how suffocating the sprawls are. So much of the same to see with such dull scenery, and the traffic gets worse every year.

[@camadams9149]

@@MrDisgruntledGamer1 I actually moved to Austin 4 years ago & specifically chose austin because of the walk-ability. Im a chemical engineer too... so choosing this over Houston cost me A LOT of money. That being said, money is useless if the place you are living is inhospitable to life

[@MrDisgruntledGamer1]

@@camadams9149 i feel personally attacked 😂i live in Houston and yea, i hate it for the same reasons you do. Forget walkability this place has turned into literal madmax the last few years. Be inside a big car or be killed. Houston is one of those cities that did everything wrong transportation wise.

[@AltayHunter]

1:14 Considering how deadly they are, the typo "mortor" (i.e. mortar) vehicles feels appropriate.

[@UTDJuanse]

love that drawing at the end!!! and the phrase with it, i felt that,,, I always when im gonna visit some new city in the US always tell people to just walk on the downtonws and forget about the Tourist'' sections because DRIVING to the places for the picture is not my thing.

[@orangemanbad]

A relative of mine moved there from california. They were paying $3400 on tiny house rent in cal and bought a big house in Killeen.

[@bonesandbells]

Killeen has the more unique challenge of being next to the largest military base in the free world as they call it. If you're near the original city center, you'll likely be woken up at night by artillery and few private entities will invest. The older nearby towns of Belton and Temple are seeing more revitalization in their historic downtown areas, but Killeen has struggled to do any revitalization even with the largest population between Austin and Dallas. Though, people still move in for Fort Cavazos or the cheap housing where homes can be found for under $250k with property taxes 40-50% lower than the Austin area. Revenue is great, but it seems to just go to tax incentive deals for the large companies that should be paying the taxes. Multifamily is generally garbage in Texas with mostly rentals with poor noise isolation between units and often in huge complexes with no stores or anything nearby. One apartment complex was also even trying to put a curfew on its residents.

[@FSM_niki_1989]

The 1970's development in north TX that I live in is in really high demand now because the neighborhood is somewhat walkable compared to the newer developments and my un renovated house is now worth 3x what I bought it for.

[@aegisofhonor]

Killeen does have a "city" it's called Fort Hood or whatever they recently renamed it as (if that renaming is official yet or not).

[@schneesdog]

Thank you for talking about this issue! Killeen has been my hometown for a great while but I never really noticed the issues with it until I lived in South Korea for about 2 years and was subsequently orange pilled as well The main issue with Killeen lies with how its economy is solely based on Fort Cavazos, and most of the residents from here are military residents (myself included). Alongside that, crime has been a huge issue here for quite some time, with the crime rate being nearly higher than the national average. Now, Killeen has realized this issue and for the past 3 years they've been working to make the area much more walkable, although if I'll be honest, I think a really good area to start would be Stan Schleuter; that area is right outside of Fort Cavazos, and also encompasses CTC as well so it would gain increased traction from soldiers and community college students (it's also nearby Shoemaker High School, so high school students too if KISD was better funded) I think in about a decade or so, Killeen will actually become slightly better due to how its trying to revitalize its city, and considering there's a factory being built somewhere right outside Killeen, that would also bring more jobs that are outside of the military. I really am excited, as I'm only in high school right now, but I'm quite optimistic about the future of Killeen especially since the improvement in infrastructure would also bring down the crime rate by a ton. ^ they just built a new set of apartments too called Station 42 on the north side of Killeen (basically the old side where downtown is at) and I think that's a really good start to revitalizing Killeen's economy

[@MiiaProd]

good video, very informative

[@lindaniedo1216]

Killeen is built around Fort Hood. To accommodate the military population they need more housing,etc. Since they can't really enlarge the base, they need to expand around the base.

[@jamesnathansyndergaard5414]

Addicted to the sprawl

[@raleighbevill5272]

Killeen is a military town not some inexplicable suburb in the middle of nowhere. Try telling the boys at ft cavazos they should walk to work.

[@CardinalNorth]

Your right, it would be hard since the city is car centric. That’s exactly the problem I’m trying to communicate.

[@larsedik]

I was born in Temple in 1950, when it had a thriving downtown, which lasted through the 1960s as well. During that period, soldiers from Ft Hood would go to Temple to shop and to patronize mostly Black prostitutes on 8th Street, which was a dangerous street to drive on after dark, if you did not keep your car doors locked. Killeen never had a substantial downtown (unlike Temple), and so I do not know what they can revitalize there. Temple has much more potential, and I hope it will take advantage of that. I lived in San Francisco in the 1970s and early 80s and never had a car there, and neither did almost all of my friends there. It is a very walkable city and has great public transportation.

[@curlsbygrace]

Columbus GA is a military town which used to have a downtown filled with clubs and bars maybe a few banks and furniture stores. Over the last 20 years they have revitalized it and now there are apartments, breweries, bookstores portions of the university to include dorms and now grocery. They do have the benefit of having a river as a backdrop, but maybe this concept of placing higher education facilities in the “downtown” area could help create a draw, but from last weeks visit there is a lot of work to be done if there is to be a true Killeen downtown. I personally did not feel safe in the broad day light.

[@eddyeroyal6024]

Yes, but FT Hood, Texas is the military base that is there for people to work and Killeen was one of the towns outside the gate for soldiers and families, I should know I was there many times as a solider.

[@apreese16]

you should do a video on Lehigh Acres Florida, it's very similar to Killeen TX

[@Novusod]

The most sprawl centric city on earth is Cape Coral Florida. It has 194,000 population and essentially no down town. The nearby Lehigh arces which is a suburb of a suburb is even worse. It has 135,000 population at a semi rural density.

[@TheVanuPhantom]

Hearing the SimCity soundtrack 🥰🥰🥰

[@rmst1783]

😂 it’s my home town. Moved out fast as I could.

[@saxquiz]

It's a nice idea, but there are certain things people were fleeing from in the cities. You have to fix that first before people will be willing to live in cities again.

[@cupriferouscatalyst3708]

"Certain things"...

[@nishiljaiswal2216]

People are already willing to live in the cities, look at the mass gentrification of city centers and the inner ring suburbs. Newer generations don't like sprawl.

[@TheNobleFive]

Bedroom suburbs can still have quaint downtowns and main streets without being a big city. Look at Fredericksburg Virginia or a lot of the older, smaller towns in the northeast. Some small towns (actual small towns, not like the place in this video) in Georgia like Harlem have gorgeous main streets with smaller businesses and places to walk to. Even if you got spooked by cities on TV you have to admit this is just neglect.

[@maybachtruck6008]

Finally someone makes a video about us

[@dansburns]

Killeen exists because of Fort Hood. It seems like you left that very big point out to push a point of view.

[@cat_luver16]

Ayyy Pensacola mentioned, such a nice downtown

[@reneehill761]

We need a metro train station!🚉

[@folumb]

It's not a suburb of no where. It's a suburb of a giant military base. Everyone from central and south central Texas knows that

[@gregorysouthworth783]

The good news here is that if a community like Killeen can address the sprawl issue by making its infrastructure more productive, then just about anyplace in the first world should be able to do so. Texas as a whole is a mega monster for this type of development all around the state. Maybe we should all be watching Killeen! Who knew?

[@eduardoaguilar7361]

You don't understand how everything around Fort Hood exists BECAUSE of Fort Hood, huh?

[@Fgtr4Life]

I'm not a city planner or anything close to that, but I'm almost offended looking at that zoom out at 0:56. I've read through a handful of comments, but it still astounds me that a city this dysfunctional *looking* can even exist.

[@newalbacore8352]

also its strange seeing every one complain bc my mom always gushes about how she misses it cause everyone was so friendly and tbh i was too young when i lived there to remember

[@SpicyTake]

He didn't say anything about the people. Just the city planning.

[@newalbacore8352]

@@SpicyTake I looked at the comments and ppl said it sucked that’s what I meant

[@curlsbygrace]

Columbus GA is a military town which used to have a downtown filled with clubs and bars maybe a few banks and furniture stores. Over the last 20 years they have revitalized it and now there are apartments, breweries, bookstores portions of the university to include dorms and now grocery. They do have the benefit of having a river as a backdrop, but maybe this concept of placing higher education facilities in the “downtown” area could help create a draw, but from last weeks visit there is a lot of work to be done if there is to be a true Killeen downtown. I personally did not feel safe in the broad day light.

[@ronaldmiears4554]

I liked killeen seems like a good place they have public transportation well at least they did clean little city

[@_brushie]

Leander is building a new downtown and moving it's government offices to a new location right next to the commuter train (CapMetro) that goes into Downtown Austin. Look up Leander Northline, it's still being built as of this comment, but a lot of the buildings are already up. I believe the interior spaces and road work around it needs to still be finished up. It's a surprise piece of urban density that came out of nowhere. Cedar Park just South of Leander and North of Austin is also making their own density location call "Bell District", though it is also next to that same train line I mentioned, Cedar Park isn't partnered with CapMetro, which I've been harassing them to do since their own studies have shown about 60-70% of Cedar Park residents would like to travel by train. Most of them probably working in offices in Austin proper.

[@mildsheep]

This is why making car-dependent city is wrong

[@BrodyMulligan]

Bravo on this video!

[@Sacto1654]

I don't think this was what the Levitt Brothers had in mind when they built Levittown, NY just after World War II. At least Levittown had an actual town center and reasonable access to the Long Island Rail Road for commuting back into central New York City.

[@Kludgzenjammer]

A suburb assessment with a good ending? Took me by surprise honestly, but thinking about it more, this video would have been a quick one if all there was to it was just that "downtown is gone"

[@jan6258]

Basically every city I build in the new Simcity

[@nippolitica]

Because Killeen has a military base and a college! Anyone who has lived in Texas will know that.

[@CardinalNorth]

That’s the reason for the demand of housing there, yes, but in this video I focus in on the way they went about building housing in Killeen, which is unsustainable, as I describe in the video.

[@nippolitica]

@@CardinalNorth yes, I watched the entire video. I was just saying that because of Fort Hood (and to a lesser extent, the college), that is essentially the "city" for Killeen. Killeen can be a suburban bedroom community for its major employers. Base housing kinda sucks, and housing allowance goes a long way.

[@russelllukenbill]

It's not a military base, it's an Illuminati oil company mercenary-for-hire base.

[@Drewjtx]

This is where I’m from!!

[@GPGPapercraftTX]

I am popping off early. Only seen ‘bout 2 minutes so far. But... 1. Leander “used to be a city” the subdivisions swallowed its prior personality. 2. Killeen was never and never will be anything but Base Housing for one of the biggest darn military reserves in the nation. Killeen needs no city. The base completely fills that function. The base cafeteria stretches east from 195 most of the way to the hill. Restaurants on both the north and south of “I-14”. Chili’s Applebee’s, You get the idea. Lampassas to the west and Temple to the east are still real places.

[@poisedperson6475]

Surprised this video isn't about Cape Coral, FL.

[@uzin0s256]

I used to live in Leander and youre right. It has thousands yet it feels like a small town due to how sprawling it is. Thank god i live in SF now.

[@gotaylor]

I’m soon to be an x resident of Leander.

[@uzin0s256]

@@gotaylor Soon? I became one 2 years ago.

[@fuhjk502]

Do you mean thank God president Xi visited SF so that the city would clean up the the shit on the street, the drug needles, the decaying zombies walking around shitting everywhere and the homeless camps? Or do you mean thank God you live in a city that is leading the way in commercial real estate crash that will take down the entire US economy?

[@yahlikejazz]

bro got that simcity music talking about suburbs

[@RBuckminsterFuller]

So basically cities need to stop subsidizing suburbs.

[@kaymillerfromTX]

In this case the city is the suburb. So they’re subsidizing their own city staying horribly spread out.

[@leselle8363]

you should have done Port Saint Lucie or Palm Coast. Or even Cape Coral lol

[@micosstar]

youtube recommend guess for intro: 500 people (: - mico

[@mcsomeone2681]

The channel strong towns always talk about strong towns and weak towns (usually suburbs) I'm surprised they don't draw the connection more often that the weak town can't exist without the strong town, they act as urban leaches

[@linuxman7777]

Don't call it Road Deaths. Call it Stroad Deaths. That's more like it

[@CesarClouds]

Been there twice.

[@SaffyLabby]

Live in your community, not drive around it. That's a keeper.

[@sandybeachsean6880]

For your info based on the charts for Global Carbon Dioxide and most motor vehicle deaths did you take into the account of how large the US is (bigger than Europe) and also how many people live in the country (3rd most in the world). A more accurate comparison would be Us vs India or China.

[@21stcenturymetal31]

I grew up in killeen in the 70s and 80's and its stuffed to the gills with suburbs. However I haven't lived there since the late 80s, I couldnt live there now. Just to stuffed with people.

[@The__Nation]

My hometown I’m from here lol

[@user-ii2vi5hw3d]

With our new mayor and her administration Killeen is on the road to recovery!

[@IMORTLKEN]

LOL city skylines is real life

[@robertfoltz3260]

Killeen is my hometown haha

[@F4URGranted]

Its great to see Texas cities realizing the mistakes they've made. I think it's more likely due that theyll change, because the overall cost to build is lower plus less nimbys exist, itll be the opposite of development over here in the sf bay area here and actually get built

[@johntex105]

Texas is not Amsterdam. You do not want to walk and bike in 110 degree weather with 90% humidity. Amsterdam is a great city, but you can't recreatate it in Texas.

[@Trohnald]

Many, many studies have shown that weather is not the most important factor determining bikability. Infrastructure and urban design are far, far more important. you say no one wants to walk or bike in 100° weather and i agree, Growing up in austin i didnt want to do anything but get to my car and blast the AC. Imagine if every street was lined with trees to provide shade. tree cover usually reduce ambient temps by 10-15° making it much more pleasant to walk. Singapore, Madrid, and Hong kong all get just as hot and humid as texas, often more, and yet are all thriving walkable cities. Trust me when i tell you that we can be just as great as any other city in the world if we wanted to. But we prioritize highways and suburbs so our cities go broke paying for so much infrastructure

[@DavisRyan12]

Yeah when all the “cities” in Texas consist mostly of seas of asphalt parking lots and highways, that actually makes it a lot hotter because it absorbs all that heat. So keep dumping big giant quantities of asphalt everywhere and it’s just gonna keep getting hotter. But at least there’s plenty of room for the lifted ram 2500’s that don’t actually do any work to drive freely around all these oversized subdivisions! I’m sure dumping all that smog will help cool down Texas a lot over time!

[@therealspeedwagon1451]

You can always plant trees you know. Maybe have smaller roads and more options for busses and light rail. Trees not only provide ample shade but also shield against noise better than walls. They also soak up carbon dioxide as well. You can absolutely create Amsterdam anywhere you want to.

[@MedBTV]

You are ill informed my friend. Fort Cavazos (Fort Hood) is the city. Fort Cavazos is the largest military post in the world (347 square miles) There are approximately 37,000 troops, and their families, that live on that fort and the surrounding areas. Fort Cavazos is the largest employer is the state of Texas. Texas is the second largest state in the country. Kileen has the distinction of having the best economy in the state of Texas and is the most patriotic city in the state. Killen has a very large military retiree community. That's where the sprawling suburbs come from. After devoting the majority of their lives to the military, they want to have enough of a space to relax and call home. Healthcare is a booming industry here as well. Your video is the perfect example of yellow journalism. You've probably never set foot in the state.

[@CardinalNorth]

If you actually took a second to read my pinned comment you would see that I focused not on the fact that there was demand because of the base but more on the actual way the city went about developing for this demand. Also, I live an hour away from Killeen. Lived in Texas all my life. I made this video merely for fun, wasn’t trying to have this be a published study or anything.

[@ghostdonut1576]

lol I have set foot in the state and it’s an unwalkable hellhole

[@BA-pz3lo]

uhh no thank you. i love my cars im gonna keep driving 🖕

[@simondahl5437]

How mature you are… You behave like a child, really pathetic.

[@newalbacore8352]

i grew up here until i was like 6 lol

[@mikerock8177]

As long as there's none of those shitty HOAs I'm good with it

[@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284]

(Ft Hood's jaw muscle quivers) "What. Am I just a joke to you?"

[@BUGBYTE_]

Killeen also has a big budget deficit because of the disproportionate amount of military retirees that stay here. (Ask me im one of them) the city with this big of a population doesn't have the revenue that a similar size city somewhere else...the city tries to play long ball and subsidize businesses to come here. Problem is those businesses only hire very few locals. The city loses to Temple on this because of location. Temple is positioned directly on the I35 corridor. Killeen is 20 minutes off of that. Temple city planners did a great job of setting itself up for success by having a easily accessible industrial district. Killeen tried but its another 10 minutes off of 190 surrounded by residential area that limits its potential. Time and location is money. Killeen has more problems than this. The north side of town is now a food desert due to crime. The grocery stores that were there were having staffing and theft problems due to the crime. The city didn't address it so the businesses did not what to invest anymore to keep them open. Now with Austin having its tech and general growth boom housing prices are getting even higher there and people are looking for cheaper places to live. Thats where Killeen sreps in. Homes are generally cheaper and only 45minutes to an hour away from Austin Metro (proper). Over the years Fort Cavazos/Hood has cut back on active duty based here because of general cuts and less people getting in. All in all Killeen has became a suburb of Austin.

[@fuhjk502]

I would love to pick your brain a little bit if you have the time. You seem like you know Texas pretty well. We're in Oreogn and it's jury become too expensive and the liberals are destroying the cities. We are looking at Killeen for the low cost of living. Do you know of better locations in Texas with cheap housing and employment potential?

[@MG-_-1471]

I love the videos :)

[@NicholasANappiNick]

Can someone tell me why the houses in Texas are on top of each other 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡🥶

[@InterstellarKev]

I live in temple a small town 25 min or so away from killeen and yeah its a lot of food and malls (which are big) places and nothing but sprawls of housing. Also oddly enough killeen is cheap af! You can get a 2 bedroom duplex for like $650 even in 2020. The streets suck there though and you HAVE TO HAVE A CAR if you dont your fucked.good news is you can work in austin and live in killeen remotely as i work remotley so you can save money on rent and live comfortably (as long as you are in a good spot). If your looking to save some money and want to work remotely Killeen or temple would be hreat but if you dont want to rely on a car yeah its not great at all. It sucks temple way better though in that regaurd but not by much.

[@billmullis544]

No killeen is not i lived here all my life since 1973 all kiilleen has done is cater to fort hood thats it. Amd try to make out like there growing busines wise and they haven't just build more house is all i should know i built them and built the cabinets for them oh and put a street tax in but dont fix any streets. And to be honest the people that make up the city council some or all are not from killeen like me so. And its sad that none want to do anything about getting big business here and they have not even tryed to get a grocery store back down town for the people that live on the north side of town also.

[@thebroalex8767]

This video is gonna blow up! Good work

[@SpartanChief2277]

You WILL walk

[@IamJacobstanley]

great video

[@spacecommhafhiki]

Hell

[@AndreA-dl5po]

I was curious so I watched a video of someone do a driving tour of the downtown. The video including circling back and seeing the ENTIRE downtown is ..... three minutes long. And it looks 1/3-1/2 abandoned. There's virtually NOTHING to draw out of towners or even locals really. However the urban form can certainly be built on and densified. It at least kinda sorta has a skeleton of a potentially viable downtown.

[@acidi]

Wow

[@j.ballsdeep420]

Lmfao, good luck convincing these types of people. 100% *_guaranteed_* failure: I wouldn't even waste my time. Nice video, though

[@CardinalNorth]

We can at least try. It will take aggressive leadership. It’s not impossible. But very, very hard. That attitude won’t get you anywhere, though. If every urban planner had your attitude, the US will continue to suck urban planning wise.

[@jordanjohnson9866]

Nah. Not No City. Not “No City.” /

[@colbyjaque7759]

Why is the answer to these "How to make (place) better?" videos is always to narrow the roads and make things as dense as possible? People need breathing space, not to be cramped together.

[@robinwyckoff3406]

That is a nice story but some things have to be taken into consideration which are not mentioned here. Comparing Europe to the US, wrong idea. Look at the size of those countries compared to Texas. We have more land and less people. Look how old their cities are and road were designed smaller back then. In Europe they build up, not out. Showed a European town at the end, they buildings are built up (more then one story), there are street-car track (that cost money and would not be cost effective here), they have a bus system, that costs money, (look at the bus system that runs from Cove to Temple, not cost effective). Look at the taxes in Europe, they are higher then the US. Don't have the cities and towns, (I call it Land Grab) they do it for more tax money but in the long run it cost more then what is taken in.

[@MrDisgruntledGamer1]

IF your argument is "they have more costly infrastructure therefor ours is better because its simpler and cheaper" then you are dead wrong on literally all your points. Your first and last point, building up and higher taxes, The higher taxes dont come close to the revenue a plot of land that has built up makes. In Europe buildings usually have a store on the first floor generating money, then you have tenants in the other floors generating more money. Usually the store owners also live there so as a side bonus you already got less traffic too. Then you compare it to whole homes that only contain one family, a lawn and a backyard that half of Americans just let go to waste because they dont do anything with it, and now that plot of land is literally just a money sink and generating one families worth of money, a family usually being just 2 people actually generating money (because kids dont make much). Then theres your second point of public transportation being the most costly. Imagine creating highways that are perpetually adding more lanes each decade and never getting rid of the traffic problem, having to maintain the absolute metric shit ton of miles of roads that we have, the amount of money wasted on the astronomical number of accidents that happen on said roads, and on the grand scale of things the absolute gigantic amount of money lost both by people and companies on commute times alone. Our whole country is built as inefficiently as possible and its catching up to us in the form of aging infrastructure that isnt getting fixed and worsening traffic.

[@robinwyckoff3406]

Not sure where you lived in Europe but the center of town or surrounding nearby apartment buildings, may have a store on the first floor but in the outer parts of the city, most do not. I lived in Europe for more than 12 years. Compare Germany to Texas, they have a higher population then Texas, they have more roads then Texas, their taxes are higher than Texas, Their income is less then Texas and this coming from someone that has lived around the world, so yes I'm speaking from first hand knowledge. Don't forget that they have to maintain the road in Europe too, which is more expensive than in the US.

[@michah321]

Most suburban towns are their own town, totally separate from a city. They have separate commercial areas within the town that support those towns. Americans aren't giving up the suburbs, so get over it.

[@TheNobleFive]

A new generation is slowly changing how we approach housing and cities, and they're not exclusively left leaning. I'm in the Navy and can't tell you how many otherwise right leaning young adults have said they wish they didn't HAVE to take a car to work and sit in traffic for hours a week when I bring up trains and transportation. Not that they don't like cars or don't want them, but they want alternatives and envy the train networks when we vacation to Europe or, hell, even Boston. Hope you're ready for a bit of change.😂

[@TheNobleFive]

Beyond that, even suburbs can have quaint main streets with things to do like Fredericksburg VA or even Pensacola.

[@michah321]

@@TheNobleFive that's an entirely different point. My point is the cities don't subsidize the suburbs which is this huge propaganda going around. And the people you speak of aren't saying they don't want suburbs, they want trains that go to nearby cities which is fine. That's a whole different thing then wanting to mix commercial property with residential property, rezone everything for mixed use, multi units dwellings etc.

[@michah321]

@@TheNobleFive all suburbs have commercial areas that support the town

[@laurie7689]

I want my home to be separate from the homes of other people. I don't want to share walls. I want land space and I want to own it. So, I will always choose suburban sprawl. I will never choose apartments or condos, etc. Most of the people who buy homes in the suburbs also want separate walls and land space. Walk around suburbs and you'll find that a lot of the people living in them are dog owners. Dogs need yard space. I live in a cul-de-sac of 6 homes. Currently, 2 of us have dogs (furthermore, I have multiple dogs). In times past, 4 of us had dogs. Walking my dog down the street in my suburb, the majority of the homes have dogs. The USA is the nation with the highest percentage of dog ownership in the World. There are approximately 68-76 million pet dogs in the USA, depending on which sources you look at. Brazil is in 2nd place followed by China. About 38.4% of the US population are dog owners. According to Forbes, between 2016 and 2022, the percentage of US households with dogs increased by 6.1%. A Forbes survey said when talking about "top lifestyle sacrifices made by dog owners" that: "13.96% moved from an apartment to a house so their dog would have a yard." Dogs don't belong in apartments, especially the larger breeds which I have. In 2018, the percentage of the US population living in single family homes was around 67%. Although there are dogs that live in apartments, if we were to analyze the percentage of dog owners together with the percentage of single family housing, then over half of the owners of single family homes would be dog owners. Obviously, that is not the case, but it would be interesting to know how many actual single family homeowners are also dog owners. As a dog owner of multiple dogs, I choose the lifestyle that best suits ALL of my family members, which includes my adopted furry children, aka my dogs. That lifestyle is the low-density suburbs. City planners plan for the human residents, but often leave out their extended furry family members; and a dog park just doesn't cut it.

[@blifx]

the point of this video is that if you do want all that you should be paying more in taxes for maintenance of sewer/road/amenities since every extra 1/4 acre of yard you have stretches all those pipes and asphalt further.

[@laurie7689]

@@blifx We already do pay more. It comes in the form of general inconvenience, vehicle maintenance, house maintenance, insurance premiums, dog vet bills, poor internet service, lack of available doctors, hospital closures, traffic congestion, etc. However, we're willing to put up with it all. [For reference, to describe my city: It is a small, semi-rural city of 33,000 people living in suburbs that serves as a satellite city to a mid-sized city 25-30 miles away where most of the people commute to work via the interstate.] The pipes that go to my house were laid 35 years ago. They're still the same pipes. I'm sure by now that they have mostly, if not completely, been paid for. The asphalt that goes to my house, is the same, too. Once every few years, a pothole will be filled. That's it. The roads in the subdivisions don't get repaved. They are the same roads that I walked on 35 years ago when I first moved here. The library is the same library. The fire station is the same fire station. I believe that we did get a new truck. Other fire stations have been built in that time to serve other subdivisions in the city. The only major change that has occurred in my subdivision is the phone system. They strung fiber optic. Wow. The longer suburbs are around, the longer the people in them have been paying taxes to pay for the amenities, such as sewer and road. Even the roads that lead to my suburb rarely get maintained but once in a blue moon. I recall them being repaved once in the 35 years that I lived here. Small cities like the one that I live in change very slowly which gives an ample amount of time for the infrastructure to be paid for. We don't make big changes. We make little improvements over the course of time. When they build new subdivisions, they just add on to the old pipes that already exist. They just pave additional roads from the old ones that already exist. The old and the new subdivisions pay for it all over time. We're not into putting a lot of money into infrastructure. We still have plenty of dirt roads and gravel roads in my small city. The people who live on them didn't want to pay the taxes for the roads to be paved, so the city left them unpaved. Some homes in areas of the city don't have garbage pick up because people don't want to pay the fee. They burn their garbage instead. Our city allows it. My city is slowly growing. That is how it should be. Of course, it means that there isn't going to be enough housing for everyone who wants to live here and they'll have to look elsewhere. That's not our problem though.

[@donaldboyer8182]

Nobody is talking about forcing anyone to change their lifestyle. They want to encourage change. I agree not everyone wants to live in a poorly designed city.

[@laurie7689]

@@donaldboyer8182 Most cities aren't designed, they occur naturally. My city built up naturally over time (since the 1930's when it started out as a company town) and people bought property and built buildings without restrictions so the layout is rather strange, however the geography of the area placed natural restrictions on building here. It is a valley ridged by hills. So, larger buildings tended to be placed in the flatter areas, such as the valley and smaller buildings, such as homes tended to be placed in the hills. This was done whether the builder was an individual with a singular plot of land or larger developers owning larger plots of land and building suburbs or businesses. The valley contains almost every business while the hills contain individual homes, trailer parks, suburbs, apartments, etc. My city became a city in the 1950's. It is small. It is considered to be a suburban city in the metro area of a larger mid-sized city. We have zoning restrictions now on where and what people can build, but that wasn't how we started out. Furthermore, we still have to take into account the geography of the land here. We don't want problems like what California has with housing sliding down hillsides. There is only so much space to build when your city is a valley with hills.

[@joestewart5406]

He literally even the the urban or suburban cities have the same lack of budget. You just gona ignore that huh?

[@hellwardenwot5148]

Sounds like the 15 minute city concept has infected Killeen. Nobody is going to be biking/walking outside for 15 minutes when the temperature is over 100. The traffic in Killeen is terrible and they're talking about narrowing roads, what a horrible idea. Also the home builders run this town, and they're still building homes non-stop because there is still demand for it.

[@connieschied9188]

Killeen has every single amenity anybody would need or want. Every department store, specialty store, restaurant, big box, grocery store one could need about 10 minutes from homes. Wide roads and great medical 20 minutes away. Airport. I dont care about downtown.