A Brief History of U.S. City Planning 

At least it would've been mostly, if less autocentric cities sprung about.

I always wonder what the Constitution would have looked like if it was written in 1889 instead. I like to think things like a right to safe housing would have been included. And maybe the Constitution would have at least mentioned cities, or even explicitly given them some powers. Who knows, though.

To be fair, the largest city in 1790 was New York with 33,000 people, and that was considered a large metropolis by the standards of the time. No one could have predicted how big cities would soon become given the technology of the time, not to mention how populous America would become.

@@abuelita4094 Look at european cities though, they grew far less than american cities even with the coming of cars. I'm thinking that would be nice material for another episode.

Our top 5 mega-cities should be separate states in the union. They would get fairer representation in Congress, especially the Senate. The Senate perpetuates a rural bias. Maybe the Senate should be abolished altogether and its seats added to the House.

Lol literal Acts, i didn’t catch that until i read this comment

#seamonsterlove

They're not random, they coincide with wars... I think

What was the one in the top left in 1954? Korean War?

What’s the orange sea creature featured on the west coast called?

@@AmberRen The Trump fish

Agreed, Cahokia is one of the most fascinating societies Ive read about!

MC M unfortunately there’s not much left there if you go and visit. 😔 check out the history of Mexico City for another fascinating story, though!

The English didn't found new york though.

@@j4296 Yeah, I was hoping New Amsterdam would get a look in. Still a good vid though.

Indeed, more like that would be great!

I get into this a little bit in my next video on bike infrastructure.

@@CityBeautiful Excellent, looking forward to it.

Considering how history plays such a massive part in why US cities are horrendously abhorrent for almost everyone vs most European cities being great for almost everyone (speaking primarily of accessibility and mobility), it'd require either a incredibly long, in-depth video with a complicated emphasis on the hundreds of years, and even around a thousand or so years of time the people of Europe have had to build up and plan out their cityscapes. Either that, or one could go as basic and simple as possible and create a insanely short video lacking any real details other than the obvious - the US has only really had around 250 years, while Europe has had between 600-1600 years to build up their towns and cities. Here is something I will say myself on the subject however that should be up your alley so to speak, seeing as it is a very major difference between the US and Europe: When the US went on their massive rapid expansion and mass-construction spree of freeways everywhere (the interstate system), they got inspired to do so by Germany's Autobahn. However, Dwight Eisenhower (the one who commissioned their construction in mass after seeing the Autobahns in person and president at the time) felt the need to make them run through the heart and core of each city and towns urban center. Europe has never done this, nor has Russia. They knew the inherent issues and major problems that would happen if they did so. The US did. And as a result, the US has suffered so much congestion, traffic problems and other issues from it. It was why Dwight had never seen any of the autobahns doing that. Instead, much like other freeway systems in Europe, they've always acted more as a border/buffer zone between the big, central, urban city/cities, and the outer suburban towns and cities on the outskirts of the big, urban cities. This way, there is no real interruptions or problems with the road networks as a result. Moscow is arguably the best example of why with bigger cities, a "ring" system is by far the most intelligent, efficient and effective use of a freeway system in and around a massive city and it's smaller suburban counterparts. It also a circular flow of traffic at high speeds to quickly jump from one side of a city and metro area, to another with ease and a almost natural flow. From the outer rings of the system, there is then what I refer to as "arteries" - freeways that then continue in a normal, straight format, attaching/connecting other towns, areas, parks and cities with each other. But these always sit on one side of these smaller cities and towns throughout Europe and Russia. The cities and towns just cease at the edge of the freeway. They act as if it is a barrier to further city development, and so they instead most often build away from it, also spreading along one side of it.

They can't learn from each other. US cities are designed for comfort,individual space and distance from the commerce regions, it follows a similar housing plan to Native Americans..meanwhile the Euroepan planning is designed for family-communal(tighter housing), and commerce(nearby ammentiies and mom and pop shops). I guess the only cities to follow a European style would be California since it started off as Mexican and Spanish missions towns. Even today LA(except outskirts)and San Francisco feel more Spanish and Mexican than American(eastern) in terms of Urban development.

TheCriminalViolin that is really interesting. Search for ‘London’s unfinished motorways’ by Jay Foreman, I think you’ll enjoy that

Great "visionaries" inherited lots of tax dollars and grand intentions.... which ended up being a total failure in many areas.

Thanks Peter!

do you know any more like this?

Especially being that European cities were built along ancient roads and settlements. In America we just bulldoze over everything because we like square shaped cities.

Square shaped cities with straight avenues and quarters have been invented by the Spanish military engineers at the time they begun colonising America and built villages from scratch. If you visit Guatemala (and probably other Latin American countries) you'll find mountainous towns with straight streets going up and down over hills and rocks, sometime even so steep that a car can't climb them, but following the architect's square design. In European towns, we followed the slope of the mountains with zigzag streets, and just widened and modernised the path of ancient natural trails.

@@BangFarang1 Actually the greeks started that way earlier and the romans adopted it aswell. The ancient greeks built their cities in a grid pattern, only slighly adapted to the topography. The romans took it further and had a typical lay out for their frontier cities with a cardum and decumanum, with public buildings and the forum in the center in a certain lay out. They only changed the pattern if the topography made it impossible. Rome was the exeption in the roman empire, not the rule. ;)

Yes, the netherlands please

@@johanwittens7712 What about Cairo? That's probably the most oldest city in the world.

Abandoned TN History i feel the same

How is white flight an injustice?

@@dudelove8662 Did you not just see his whole redlining part?

Yes it's not like the history of slavery isn't constantly shoved down our throats...

In fact it was supported and sometimes required by the federal government. The Color of Law is a great book on this subject.

Given the state of African American communities now, it's not clear how "shameful" those redlining practices were. After redlining was abolished, the black middle class all but disappeared, and with it the family structure necessary to an effective upbringing. Segregation wasn't all good, but it was hardly shameful. At least in segregated communities, we had black shopkeepers, barbers, governments, and education systems. Since integration, income, out of wedlock births, and wealth have all worsened in relation to the rest of America.

Yep, its still a problem today, even where I live in the Bay Area, which is considered one of the more progressive places in the country. There are clear areas for white people, others for rich asian/indian tech workers, and poorer people/minorities. I feel it's more of a class issue these days because the rich asian people segregate the poorer ones out of their communities and refuse to build housing for poorer asians the same way white people do the same for poorer people/minorities. Gentrification is a serious issue and im afraid it looks like rich nimbys arent going to give a shit until their janitors and taco bell employees and such get priced out of the area and they have to do the dirty work themselves.

@@karenwang313 It's almost as though people want to live and socialize with others that are like themselves. This seems like the natural order of things, however offensive it may be to the religion of multiculturalism.

@@kungfoochicken08 Yeah but thats not the American ideal, America was suppose to be a multicultural country where your neighbors are of all races and religions. This is especially harmful when before the late 1900s white people owned 99% of the wealth in the country. Its still like that today but not as bad. When white people own 99% of the wealth and want segragation, this is the end result. Black people living in poverty even in 2019, thats how far the effects have gone, so no, segregation was a terrible idea, i dont care if you like black people more and white people like white people more, thats fucked up.

The Hague is almost too well planned. Comercial zones, industrial zones, residential zones and historic quarter, all segregated yet neatly integrated by a great transportation system. But it doesn't seem organic to me... But maybe it's just me, I've lived all my live in a city without much planning, that grew as needed and everything is mixed, not great..

I visited The Hague when I studied in Amsterdam. The Hague is wonderful. Having lived in the Netherlands for a little bit, I wondered why the hell my city (Chicago) did not have trams. The city is built on a grid, perfect for trams...then I dug into it a bit more. This video even has a picture of Chicago with trams over 100 years ago. We had bunch of them and they were great. But the car industry in the U.S boomed like crazy and it was economical to have a car in the U.S more so than anywhere else in the world. Because of that, a lot of the public transportation infrastructure in the U.S was kind of dismantled in a way. At least in my city that is. My city has one of the best transportation systems in the U.S and even then it isn’t that great. We have subways, metros, longer commuter trains, buses, bike sharing etc....but a lot of the rails were built over a hundred years ago and have not really been upgraded. That’s why we have to light our tails on fire in the winter so that they can continue working.

i have a crush on the netherlands with their farming and land reclamation...dont even mention their cities

Oooh, so that was an earthquake! Thanks! I thought it was just a thingy to highlight SF 😅

Thanks!

That's a very narrow and shallow view of the topic. Suburbs date back at least as far as Roman times, where they were generally quite close to the city's walls and gates. Even in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, streetcar suburbs were located close to central business districts. Sprawling suburban and exurban development patterns began to emerge in the 1920s when privately owned automobiles became affordable. Wealth flight became a broader middle class phenomenon after World War II, as rates of violent crime increased in urban neighborhoods.

@@colormedubious4747 I agree, I think the real issue is there’s no distinction in the word between street car suburbs, European suburbs, and American car centric suburbs without using several other words. Suburbs by themselves aren’t bad, but sprawling rural density car centric suburbs are pretty awful.

Wonder why

@@pottingsoil Crappy politicians (50+ years of Democrats) and opium crisis... and overall horrible ethics from it's citizens

@@MarloSoBalJr Don't forget suburbanization too. Few US cities have weathered the effects of sub urbanization well. New York City and San Francisco are probably the two old US cities that best progressed past the effects of suburbanization.

@watergod 83 to be fair, as a non-American. I notice both Republican and Democrats doing it equally, all the time. It’s really annoying but also quite sad seeing you guys always at each other’s throats.

Patriotis 😬 I hope so because houston is getting more and more populated 😤😤

Faizan A we southerners don’t care about large cities

what about the northwest? they need to bright at least once

Yep, thanks to the invention of the Air Conditioner, the popularity of low density sprawl, and the rise of car-ownership and the creation of the interstate helped fueled growth in the southwest

Don't forget Sweden!

Their are some similarities that surprised me for example british cities are very suburban

@@mrbrainbob5320 That's subjective - it depends where you draw the boundary between city and suburb. There's currently a debate as to whether Greater London needs to be extended again to take in some places that are very much London suburbs, but weren't so much 60 years ago.

@@lipkinasl you didnt understand what I said. I meant that british cities are very suburban as in cities are dominated by 1, 2 and sometimes even 3 story residential homes.

Jeeto Its because of cheap housing. (Along with other reasons)

San Francisco has a very limited land area. It is both a city and a county, so it cannot expand.

Gold rush and manifest destiny also agriculture. Los Angeles County was the #1 producer of agriculture in the world essentially what they central valley is today. The agriculture in LA and the Bay area is why the areas developed the way they did.

A church in my neighborhood is Infront of a Sex shop and a police station not to mention a middle school 1000 feet away.... Dallas is fucking amazing

Yep, I want to do one someday. Their history is much more affected by rebuilding after the world wars, for example. The history of Paris itself (and London) could be an entire video.

@@CityBeautiful what about Vancouver BC, just north of where you are? It's an easier trip and city is different enough from the US in terms of urban planning and public transit.

Y'know, it's called RU-vid not WeOnlyLetAmericansUploadVideosTube for a reason.

@@CityBeautiful *HAUSSMANNNNNN* *YEAH!*

How about China.. ?? China loves learning about America and Europe..how about we Learn from the Asian countries. I mean you guys do have the biggest economy and America holds a lot of your immigrants. It would be nice to know where our immigrants are coming from. see why they are leaving their countries for America and Europe.

I grew up in Door County. I actually lived in Appleton for a couple of years as an adult, too.

The people of the future will always find something to criticize with the past. There is much to criticize about contemporary planning, but much of it is determined by capital and real estate interests. Role of planners in leading development has diminished in the second half of the 20th century.