dependent suburbs suck
car Lyrics

We have lyrics for these tracks by car:

Can't Hold Us I can't put out your fire, I know it's too…
Car Let's assume we're driving Driving a big blue car Where in t…
Cry Music keeps making me cry And I can't explain it…
Drive Who's gonna tell you when It's too late? Who's gonna tell yo…
Heaven 좀 쉬어 갈게요 너무 오랫동안 걸어왔네요 잠시면 돼요 숨 돌릴 그만큼만 그저 가볍게…
Intro Ice Cold Like Michael My Price Goin' Up Bet You Might Hit…
LITTLE BY LITTLE 그런 눈빛들 속에 어떤 마음인지 내게 보여줄수록 더욱 궁금해지네 나는 무너져가네 yeah eh 난 솔직하려…
Man Can you see the line where the water ends? Throws…
Mr. and Mrs *Mr Loh singing* As I can see the ocean breaking The ocean…

Mr. and Mrs. *Mr Loh singing* As I can see the ocean breaking The ocean…
My First Punk Song It's 24 to nothing and I'm at the intersection Waiting for…
San Francisco I came by through your city I came back for some…
The Road Have you seen them, have you seen them in my…
wash I can't stop looking at you You're in the corner of…

선인장 일곱시부터 자면 좀 나아질 거야 불타는 맘이 달래 달라네 이른 아침에 꾸벅 생각이 덜하면 괜찮아질 걸…

The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos

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Most interesting comments from YouTube:

Alvin Yung

3y↑78

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!

Kevin Miller

3y↑145

@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.

SendNubes?

2y↑12

Hi there! I doubt you'll read this and that's fine but if you do I want to say that I appreciate your time, and thank you for motivating me to fix my life, get clean, and go to school for urban planning/design. After watching your content I firmly believe that if my city had been more friendly, I wouldn't have gotten into drugs. Now I'm not saying that my city is completely at fault. I know I need to work on my impulse control. But if my hometown had been more human friendly, i prolly wouldn't have been bored to the point of wanting to do drugs just to have something to do.

Seriously. Thank you.

I have a request, but I'm not sure of what it would entirely entail. I am really curious as to what you think is wrong with my town of Anoka Minnesota (I no longer live there so I'm safe yadayada) But in your opinion what's wrong with the city, what could be changed. In a lot of ways the town is really quite nice, but I know it's a mess. I wanna know whats wrong with it from the perspective of someone who knows what they are talking about, and have exposure to things I don't (Living in another country)

Thank you for your time, thank you for your content. And thank you for the life I'm living now that I'm getting healthy. My dad died on the 27th of July, besides that, you seriously are one of the biggest reasons I decided a change was necessary. God bless

Côme Thiburs

3y↑136

@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.

All comments from YouTube:

Not Just Bikes

1y↑39

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

Or visit: https://go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes

NAME NAME NAME

3y↑4.6K

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?

Not Just Bikes

3y↑1.3K

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

FeriTales

3y↑720

@Not Just Bikes The only thing larger than that turned out to be the greed of automotive conglomerates :)

GreenLarsen

3y↑504

@Not Just Bikes 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......

Tyrone Watermelon

3y↑7

@Not Just Bikes what took you soo long, jesus christ.

Riley O'Neill

3y↑264

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.

73 More Replies...

Naomi Robinson

2y↑616

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.

Will Van Moss

2y↑1.3K

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

2y↑124

It’s because the money says no

Squeedles _

2y↑174

Car companies would lobby against it sadly

João Lucas Santos Viegas

2y↑52

@Squeedles _ 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).

1 More Replies...

bezerra r

2y↑151

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

RPRIMICI

2y↑891

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).

Henrique

2y↑122

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.

Logan

2y↑31

@Henrique 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.

Ahmed Zaki Khan

2y↑59

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

Logan

2y↑3

@Ahmed Zaki Khan 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).

Ahmed Zaki Khan

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

7 More Replies...

Cebbi

2y↑721

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?

Lucas Fontainha

2y↑128

😂😂😂 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

Christopher Jurich

3y↑2.2K

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.

AssBlasster9000

3y↑55

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!

Manoel Leão

3y↑7

Which neighborhood do you live in, is it Springfield?

Ike Okereke

3y↑3

You still have time.

Christopher Jurich

3y↑13

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

Aidan Collins

3y↑10

@AssBlasster9000 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.

17 More Replies...

Kolawole Olayiwola

2y↑604

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.

Kolawole Olayiwola

2y↑15

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

Kolawole Olayiwola

2y↑25

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

comment

2y↑4

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.

Ricardo J. Palacios A.

2y↑18

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

Rose

2y↑163

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.

Sam McIntyre

2y↑937

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

2y↑35

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.

Nefenze

2y↑33

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.

Richard Speir

2y↑11

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

2y↑22

@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_tron

2y↑3

@Richard Speir 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

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It'sMe

2y↑487

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

2y↑11

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.

It'sMe

2y↑18

@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

2y↑1

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

DiamondZombie

2y↑14

@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

2y↑7

@It'sMe 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.

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Marshal 86

2y↑73

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

Not Just Bikes

3y↑3.4K

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.

Kevin Miller

3y↑99

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

Alvin Yung

3y↑78

oldiron1223

3y↑11

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

Kevin Miller

3y↑145

Joe Donzi

3y↑2

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 !

152 More Replies...

TNMTB

2y↑186

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!

comment

2y↑1

Markus Seyfferth

2y↑200

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.

Jelly J

2y↑27

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.

Heinrich M

2y↑1

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

Parroti lol

2y↑2

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

Jelly J

2y↑7

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

CarmelloVision

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

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JarekTheGamingDragon

2y↑319

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.

Not Just Bikes

2y↑97

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!

WiiM8

2y↑13

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!

Oscar O'sullivan

2y↑1

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

Oscar O'sullivan

2y↑5

@Not Just Bikes 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.

madgirlmuahaha

2y↑2

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.

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Jeff Scott

2y↑41

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.

Charles Simerly

2y↑36

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.

Heather Shimamoto

2y↑1

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.

Vurrunna

2y↑1.4K

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.

FRANK DELAROSA

2y↑92

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.

JustSomeGuy

2y↑39

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.

Elena Christian

2y↑19

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 :(

Spencer Vance

2y↑22

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

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Aquatic Sausage

2y↑35

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.

Noel Genoway

2y↑11

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!!!!

Anders Long

2y↑219

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.

Teslo

2y↑32

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

2y↑36

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. Strong

2y↑25

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

2y↑24

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.

Naomi and Corvin

2y↑7

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

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Kommisar Chiptune

2y↑15

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.

Jordan McIntyre

2y↑8

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

The Industrial Revolution

3y↑9.8K

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.

The Industrial Revolution

3y↑63

@Allan true

kurisu7885

3y↑164

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.

DJ Kim

3y↑61

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

3y↑351

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.

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Samiha

2y↑17

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.

adam b

2y↑1

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.

Movie Games

2y↑325

They should build suburbs with autonomous railcars running through them.

Cullen Fitzgerald

2y↑135

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

Maxwell Hesher

2y↑9

@Cullen Fitzgerald 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

2y↑13

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

rick ross

2y↑17

Keep it simple. Let humans operate it

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SendNubes?

2y↑12

Nen Master5

"Nothing inherently Wrong with Suburbs!"
-Not Just Bikes being totally Wrong
and in need of watching Adam-Something.

CatboyNicky

2y↑4

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.

Liam McConlogue

2y↑32

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.

Fog runr

2y↑1

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 😄

Liam McConlogue

2y↑1

Nice! Great to see a local here!

Hafis Adegun

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

Wez

3y↑1.7K

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.

Gustavo Smith

2y↑95

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

H CP

2y↑69

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.

John Reeves

2y↑135

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.

Wez

2y↑10

@John Reeves 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

2y↑2

@John Reeves Pringles in a tube

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youraftermyrobotbee

2y↑11

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.

Miles Fann

2y↑4

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.

Andrew Mariano

2y↑18

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.

justice

2y↑9

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

husher5142

2y↑95

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

2y↑23

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.

Aimee-Lynn Donovan

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

2y↑6

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.

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andsens

3y↑2.8K

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.

a frickin american

3y↑297

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.

A YouTuber

3y↑74

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.

Colonel Sanders

3y↑137

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.

A YouTuber

3y↑79

@Colonel Sanders lots of small shops just rip off people, since lots won't google it if they're going there.

Always just shop around.

annoyedok321

3y↑25

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.

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Rvgerwen

2y↑37

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.

Volcano Earth

2y↑2

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.

Rvgerwen

2y↑5

@Volcano Earth A garage should not be the centerpiece of a house

Rvgerwen

@Bakari Morris 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.

qrafting

2y↑38

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.

Rayne Thackery

2y↑4

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.

Bruce Nadeau

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?

Michele Fancy

2y↑23

@Caldera11 Did you even watch the video

Kaleb Todd

2y↑13

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

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Lili Gaede

2y↑4

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

The Blue Raccoon

2y↑21

Cars and the lobbying by car manufacturers are why our rail lines are minimal and why everything forces car use. I wish the automotive industry could realize how badly it's ruining this planet. Greed leads to selective blindness though.

Sebastian Rosa

2y↑3

I love the look of Riverdale, it reminds me a lot of Queens. It has a lot of neighborhoods like that, with nice houses, and plenty of walkable amenities. There's also a few hell scape areas because of course, but even those are made with stopping areas so people can still walk across them. Sadly, like in Riverdale, housing prices are near impossible, so unless you fall into a small fortune, good luck getting a house.

Maxwell Vigil

3y↑793

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

Lucas K.

3y↑192

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

Pondering Raccoon

3y↑10

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

Mist0098

3y↑67

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

Rainbow Krampus

3y↑25

@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.

Antonio Costa

3y↑2

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

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Patso

2y↑12

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

Sam Korn

2y↑3

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.

Jeff Manseau

2y↑1

My town has done a fair job of converting the car-centric town into a more bike-friendly place; it's far from perfect but still a commendable effort considering how many folks (especially older) complain about it and it doesn't see a whole lot of use yet. I was one of the few early adopters and it has, to my surprise, really improved my life. Sadly winters here are really brutal and the town hasn't been able to secure funding to maintain the bike ways from November to April and the lanes get naturally shut down which is a huge bummer because I can literally observe my mental health declining throughout November as the bike lanes become unrideable and I have to take my car more, get less exercise and of course suffer through the ridiculous daylight saving time shift (which is whole other North American nightmare that should be decried and outlawed). Hopefully as time passes more and more people begin commuting by bike in the summer and realize if we demand winter maintenance we could actually ride year-round and break that myth as well but for now just getting people riding will be a good start.

Demigod Digital

2y↑3

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.

vacation time

2y↑3

Can you name more places like Riverdale. As someone downunder I can't exactly just visit Riverdale and it was new to me. I would like to explore similar places with streetview etc. These videos are extremely thought provoking.

Mark Hazeldine

3y↑1.8K

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!

Different number

3y↑63

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

Muddy Wisconsin

3y↑287

@Different number 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

Different number

3y↑19

@Muddy Wisconsin 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.

Traugott Müller

3y↑198

@Different number 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.

Different number

3y↑7

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

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Ben Bourdon

2y↑10

Watching your videos has made me realize why I prefer living where I do now, in a great “suburb” that used to have a streetcar line down the main road. You can walk/bike anywhere and the shops and residences are mixed together. I grew up right next to a stroad and I finally understand it all now, thank you.

bigslacker666

2y↑4

I've been saying for years that a return to walkable, self contained neighborhoods are the way to go IF you're unlucky enough to live in a dense urban environment. My old neighborhood is like this and now that it's gentrified (well after I lived there in the drug/gang infested days) it's nice in many ways. There are many places like this in US cities. Seattle and Portland are filled with them as an example. Hope you love your neighbors cause you'll see/hear them all the time. Smaller houses. Less off street parking and everyone still having multiple cars means on street parking is crammed and often random cars/people parked in front. High cost of housing leading to less families and more multi-roomate situations which of course means more cars in front of your house and so on. I know this might come off as negative but I want to state again even with the downsides I prefer it to carburbia. Would never live there myself though, I'll stick to my ski resort town. ;)

TheOddCanadian

2y↑8

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.

Rhodium Thunderbird

2y↑3

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.

Jeff Goddard

2y↑6

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.

apm gold

3y↑819

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.

seasons greetings

3y↑79

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

Good Goyim

3y↑18

@Gareth Baus actually, we arent living in early US law.

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nairbvel

2y↑3

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. :-(

Eneco

What the hell is a head shop

vexorian

2y↑3

So I have always suspected that first worlders were stupid and this confirms it. Because you are literally describing my neighborhood. I live in La Paz in Bolivia and everything about htis is completely normal. The only difference is that instead of that many houses, we have small apartment buildings. Basically houses but with 3 floors so there are 3 families instead of just one. All next to the cable car station, lots of small stores all around and a big grocery store that doesn't need a parking lot. ><

Wowwhatanerd

2y↑2

i wish there was a way to make this more feasible in the united states. i feel like my town is being overdeveloped and underdeveloped at the same time- this would be so much better!!!

7th CAV Trooper

2y↑28

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

2y↑4

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.

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Deixart

2y↑14

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.

Bruce Nadeau

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

Leandro G

2y↑3

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

Pos3id0n

3y↑147

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

fishfriend

2y↑1

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

doorman

2y↑2

@fishfriend “shockingly”

nickscomputerfix

2y↑20

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.

DesertStateInEu

"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.

Ante

@DesertStateInEu 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.

DesertStateInEu

@Ante 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.

Arkangel88Mr

2y↑2

Soul crushing indeed. Just moved with my two sons to back to the US. I am glad they got to grow up overseas, where they could walk to a train station, walk to school, or walk to go shopping, without much of a care regarding safety.

Pisapie

2y↑11

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!

Alessandro Constantini

2y↑2

This one really hits home; currently renting just a 2 minute walk away from withrow park for what is considered a steal in a beautiful apartment, but I keep seeing homes selling for a minimum 1.5 to 1.7 million(and even seen some as high as 3 mil). This looks like the only place in Ontario where I would like to own an apartment or home, but with the skyrocketing costs and being a millenial, it's impossible.

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!

MX26

3y↑464

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 Music

2y↑3

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

janine wetzler

2y↑4

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.

Steven Holtzen

2y↑13

@Takentime S 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

2y↑1

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.

Gayvon Fartin

if you think thats nice come live in the Beaches neighborhood

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Carlyne at DTQT Studio

2y↑3

Great content! just discovered this channel as one of my recent Youtube 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!

Vinnie

2y↑4

hi there, interesting video, I just wanted to point out, Riverdale in Toronto is pretty much downtown man, Young avenue divides Toronto and it isn't far at all from Riverdale neighborhood area, you may can qualify as suburbs in the west side of the city Missisauga, and east Scarbourg, in the north any place above finch or Steeles avenue.

Portalfan12345

2y↑1

This might sound odd, but I think the inability to build anything other than homes in suburban areas was intentionally planned to curb small businesses. I haven't really looked into it too deeply, but I feel these practices can only really help businesses that already have an established brand.

Chad

2y↑2

I used to live in a car-dependent suburb growing up in California, but I recently moved to downtown Long Beach (uptown Long Beach is the traditional car-dependent suburbs) which is like a streetcar suburb. I love it.

It’s mixed used planning with townhomes, apartments, single family homes, and stores all next to each other. Then there are high rises along the coast. It’s not perfect. It’s still LA county so there’s a lot of cars driving, but, it’s a breath of fresh air from the majority of California. There’s street cars, buses, parks, beaches, and other places close enough for people to walk or cycle to.

Hahka-01

2y↑2

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.

playlets

3y↑2.1K

nothing says freedom quite like "minimum building size"

Côme Thiburs

3y↑136

Cecilia Cole

3y↑267

Nothing says freedom like ‘illegal to grow food in place of a lawn in your front yard’. A past suburb I lived in.

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

3y↑109

@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

Phantom

3y↑121

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

ianism

3y↑50

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.)

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MusicfromMarrs

2y↑1

Many of a number of old streetcar suburbs that weee geographically close to cities were annexed into cities. I live in such a neighborhood. The streetcar used to run in front of my house; later, this became a bus route. While the nearest bus route is now 2 blocks south, my neighborhood is still walkable and bikeable, and there are plenty of shops and restaurants within a mile. The nearest middle school is blocks away, with the local high school 1 1/2 miles away. It’s pretty good to live here.

Lap TV

2y↑2

Some styles of suburbia are good and some are bad. Some people seem to only highlight kind of shitty, poorly planned, cookie-cutter suburbs though rather than really nice ones which actually excel in everything suburbs are desired for. I like that a distinction between between suburbia and the car-centric style was made but there are suburbs that don’t have the negative aspects of these suburbs while still being fairly car focused.

Jiffy Jef

2y↑5

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_Blue

2y↑2

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

Brian Casey

2y↑5

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.

Angie Kabukuru

2y↑1

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!

Amphibax

3y↑264

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

Simon Raahauge

3y↑80

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

Toomas Kotkas

3y↑36

"Capitalism".

Rafał Sobczyk

3y↑17

@Toomas Kotkas 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.

Brandon P

3y↑8

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

James McGill

3y↑22

@Brandon P >people in US prefer cookie cutter houses

Lol

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Sarah Kathleen

The Riverdale neighbourhood is so beautiful! I love older neighbourhoods for their character and walkability/bikeability. I am terrified to even drive in newer suburban area. People drive too fast. I'm excited for your video on front lawns.

Michael

2y↑1

I understand the idea of not having a car dependent suburb but when you live in places like nevada and arizona where the average is 110 degrees in the summer that air conditioned car feels really nice and that backyard pool is almost necessary and when your work is 10 miles away it doesn't really matter if your suburb is car dependent or not I think you can make it to where its both where you can walk where you want to or drive its a balance

Young Nomad

2y↑3

I grew up in a real suburb, we had a "downtown" in walking distance from my home. I could walk to school, shops, playgrounds. My parents could walk to a pub or restaurant. So I'm not sure why Australia was mentioned. Melbourne's south east suburbs are very much real suburbs where people have everything they need in their suburb accessible without a car.

AsuraDandy

Its pretty surreal, it wasn't until I got to high school that I started growing up in car dependent suburbs and noticed how different and how hard it was to get to places without a car. Before that, I lived in military bases cause my dad was a Sargeant in the military and they are exactly what you dictate. Stores in between homes, everything is pretty walkable. I always remembered walking with my brothers to the local Shopette (I believe thats what they were called, they were pretty much like corner stores on military bases but bigger) to get stuff, or walk to the library to play games on their computers cause we didn't own a computer at the time, so we went there to play Runescape. All through my life living on military base, I could walk there or ride my bike there, so it was pretty polarizing when we finally moved to a home outside a military base and suddenly we're so away from any corner store or major grocery store. The nearest gas station was across a friggin freeway that led outside the city, we moved to a pretty newly developed suburban area.

Pretty much, life on military bases was pretty great, cause like you said in this video, it was not car dependent at all, stores were located close enough to each group of houses that you could just walk there or ride a bike there.

Sykee

2y↑1

I grew up in an inner city suburb in edinburgh, I lived in a ground floor tenement flat. The communal garden was immense and my primary school and my high school were a two minute walk. There was so many boutique and essential shops that were below flats and there are two massive parks in the same area. It was such a great place to grow up in, I would go to school by myself by the time I was 10 and I was able to go to all my extracurriculars by myself since it was dotted around the area. I am 22 now and still don't know how to drive because I have always lived in places that were walkable/ had great public transport

Ryan Scott

2y↑1

I live in Edinburgh now too. Grew up trapped car-dependent suburban New Zealand, which is almost identical to the North American footage in the video. Spent my childhood without any real independence. Back there you're not viewed as an adult if you don't have a driver's licence and out of principle, the more pressured I was, the more determined I was to escape. Best decision I've made.

DeLorean4

2y↑458

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.

Jason Reed

2y↑24

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)

Elena Christian

2y↑9

@Jason Reed 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

2y↑2

@Jason Reed 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.

cetriya's Art n Comics Channel

2y↑1

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.

DB Class 407

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

mshumai

2y↑2

Love being in a suburb-like neighborhood in the middle of a city that has plenty of greenbelts and walking routes. It's away from major streets and has less traffic/foot traffic from folks not living in the neighborhood. A majority of my neighbors are seniors and retirees, but partially because they are all the original homeowners. That's how much they all love this neighborhood, and having recently moved as easily the youngest couple on my block, we love this place too.

Not everyone is looking for the same amenities, conveniences, and criteria when it comes to homes and neighborhoods. We're glad to have our insulated, quiet and low traffic 'suburb' that is just far away enough from stores, pubs, and commerce that we are not bothered, but also close enough that one could walk or bike (or a short drive) for any of those things. No one-way, narrow streets for us though. We stay away from dense areas like that. We've lived in a variety of places and haven't felt this at peace with 'home' anywhere else.

Heather Shimamoto

I agree about the narrow streets! Can't stand them, don't want dense areas like that. Even if they're not actually as dense as they look, they still feel that way just b/c everything looks like there's barely any space between anything.

Thommy2n

My childhood neighborhood of Shorewood was a decently walkable place growing up, a main street with fairly reliable buses going down it with suburbs fanning out. A few years ago they built a fairly nice new 2 story grocery store... but with a 3 STORY TALL PARKING GARAGE CONNECTED TO IT just as big and tall as the store! Whenever I visit now if I walk to the store, I make sure to get to the grocery side of the street a block or two early, because there are so many cars zooming in and out you constantly worry if it's worth trying the crosswalk in front of the store (even with the flashing light yield for pedestrian signs).

lilahhloo

I live in a GOOD suburb because before World War 2 it was centered around different street car lines and stations, we still call the main shopping districts “Junctions” and while the streetcar has been torn up just like you said in the video, it is much more walkable and has much better public transportation than classic suburbs today

SammyJay

2y↑2

I went to middle school in Riverdale, it's a great place and honestly it's a prime example of what makes toronto great to live in. Love the vid

Lidia Gutierrez

2y↑1

Thank for these eye opening videos, it is amazing how corporate greed has destroyed the American Dream.

A R

3y↑1.3K

Conspiracy: the laws on zoning are highly influenced by car lobbyists

Dustin M

3y↑218

Honestly that is potentially a lot more likely than you'd hope, knowing the car makers during the last century

Kinuhbud

3y↑12

Where's Nader when we need him?

Mikey

3y↑256

I don’t even think that’s a conspiracy theory, like it’s quite literally been proven to be true

Juan Guarin

3y↑39

Oh for sure. Here in my country, trains or subways have not even been constructed (and some have even been destructed). I wonder why.

A R

3y↑5

@Juan Guarin which country do you come from?

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MissMegaLoathe

I went from living in a city (house, but everything was within walking distance but not super safe as a kid) to a suburb in a small town (safe, but the only shop within walking distance was a gas station) to a city suburb (walking distance to stores but also not safe). Recently went to visit Bend, OR... which even though it has stroads, had a lot of spots that were norw intermingled like in this video. I... loved it. Instantly. Everything in walking distance, lots of biker/pedestrian safe walkways, homes near schools near shops... but I couldn't put my finger on it til just now as to why. I ache for this.

Drew Naylor

2y↑7

Wow, this actually makes a lot of sense! I never knew what suburbs even were, only that they weren't really as busy as a big city, so it's nice to learn about both car-dependent suburbs and better, walkable and hopefully wheelchair-accessible ones! I still don't like the idea of other people being so close, but being able to just grab something from a store a few blocks down without having to get into a car sounds nice.

Katrin M

2y↑3

Ah yes, America (and Canada) the land of the free.
Here in my neighborhood I have everything one could ever need within 10 min walking distance (except for uni that is 15 min total of walking and metro ride). It is densely populated but has lots of small parks, tree lined roads and playgrounds. I even grow some food in the inner courtyard.
Our biggest political discussions are about whether or not to also allow cars on the bike streets.

amiinsofly

I grew up in one of these areas of the city Many of these type of neighbourhoods were developed across Toronto and some parts of the GTA from existing 18th/19th century towns and were absorbed by Toronto in the 20th century using streetcar and inter city radial lines in my opinion city planning wasn’t that bad in actual Toronto proper these type of areas in the city and GTA are still plentiful but not affordable anymore so people get pushed to the ugly car dependent parts of the GTA

Michael Epp

2y↑3

Ahhhh, watching your videos is like getting a free brain massage. I turned in my architect's stamp last year after 30 years in the profession because I fundamentally disagreed with just about everything we were involved in doing. I paint houses now. It was when "Planning" became a profession that we really started to go wrong, in my opinion. Here in Canada, suburban sprawl has more than doubled since Jane Jacobs wrote her original critiques. Everyone clucked in agreement and then carried on with business as usual. Truly, as James Kunstler says, these car-centric hellholes are places 'not worth caring about'.

crtx

3y↑552

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.

Isaac Hayman

3y↑111

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

Ryan Scott

3y↑98

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

crtx

3y↑36

@Ryan Scott yes, and it is really sad.

Jaro J

3y↑7

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

Cesy Neighistaut

3y↑102

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

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Spurious Effect

When my Mom was a girl in West Virginia, you could catch a train out in the countryside where she lived all the way to town, and then take a trolly through the suburbs. That's how she traveled to work every day. Everyone was so upset when they paved over the old brick streets and trolly rails. You can still see them sticking out of the asphalt in some places. The death of the trolly was the death of downtown. Not enough parking.