When I went away to college for the first time, I was amazed at how it operated just like a mini city within a city. Then I realized that this used to be the norm and that made me depressed.
That’s what I’m saying. I thought if our whole world was mord like college, that would be a much better world than we are living in now. We should talk about making the whole world more like college.
I'm convinced that a huge part of the reason Americans romanticize/ enjoy college so much is because for most of us, it's the only time we'll ever experience living in a walkable community.
@@PunjabiViewer842 It does suck when you're still young enough that your parents control what you can do still but old enough that you COULD do these things on your own if you were allowed. glad I'm in my 20s now.
You'll hate Australia too, but at least Australians are beginning to embrace density and those who don't move to rural areas...which is where they belong anyway.
It's so silly to say "I wouldn't want to live above a restaurant" because that's not the only option. I wouldn't want to live above a bar, but I would absolutely love to live above a cafe. Imagine waking up to the smell of fresh coffee and baked goods every morning. I wouldn't even change out of my pyjamas, I'd just roll out of bed, pop downstairs, and buy my morning coffee. I live in Montreal, but at one of the outer metro stops, and it's way less cute and walkable than, say, the Plateau. I really miss when I lived closer to shops and activities. There's nothing sweeter than stepping outside and hearing the sounds of playing children, the bustle of local shops, and the ringing of bicycle bells.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a relatively walkable suburb in San Diego county as a kid, Spring Valley. We has several little shopping centers off the main road through the part I lived in, so there were taco shops, family ownrd restaurants, convenience stores, etc nearby. Even the grocery store and K-Mart was a pretty quick walk.
I don't live anywhere near San Diego but the place I live is pretty similar (even if we haven't had a grocery store for more than a decade now). It's a lot of small, ma and pa sort of places but they're all in good walking distance. Hell, it's not in the exact city i live in but I remembered that there IS a grocery store in decent walking distance. only like a mile away or so.
Watch Not Just Bikes and CityNerd on how car and suburb centric design is far more expensive, in taxes and for individuals. That's why it's hypocritical for car and suburb people to complain about taxes.
It's because he does not interact with his viewers. I have left comments with questions or comments with no response. Most of the larger channels, at least in the beginning (when they were trying to grow), responded intermittently or energetically with their viewers, and also took criticism, where offered. I don't get that this videographer would be open to any other ideas. Don't get me wrong. I like his work. But that's one of the reasons that his "market share," so to speak, on RU-vid is so inconsistent.
@@chefEmersonWilliams Not chatting with comments on their videos doesn't mean yt-ers aren't open to different ideas. I see many yt-ers not comment on their videos much. It's hard to keep up with all the comments too. Not everyone likes to comment or risk arguments, misunderstanding, or bullying in the comments. Sometimes, other people answer comments too.
The funny thing is that a lot of north americans so opposed to "walkable" neighborhoods would enjoy walkable neighborhoods in other places and other countries. One of the few logical reasons is that they are forced to NOT bring their car there, so they have to walk. But, when they come home they forget how great it was to be IN those neighborhoods. Once they're back into driving their cars, they come back opposed to those places they enjoyed when they were forced to NOT drive. I guess this is why a lot of changes where driving is basically "discouraged" by reducing lanes, and such is strongly opposed is because they are locked into the mentality that they HAVE to use their car because they're paying for it. Well, they pay for and subsidize the cost of public transit, of public parks, of lots of public infrastructure... But I don't see them flocking to use THOSE things they for with their tax dollars. I hear them say "well if I can choose to not pay for them, I would". Well, if you can choose to drive a car, surely you can choose to NOT drive car, too... Right?
Wow, you got some weird ideas by generalizing so much. The reality is that people don't oppose walkable improvements as much as you think. What people oppose is taxation to pay for it 😂
If there's decent public transportation and walkable neighborhoods, driving a car every day of the week becomes unnecessary. Money spent on gas, maintenance and insurance can be spent elsewhere. It's just that people are too accustomed to driving, they don't see alternatives.
CityNerd has a video on the hypocrisy of car people liking to go to walkable places. The thing is that many of those car people can afford it, like to go on vacation. But some people are poor and need and want walkable places, but are denied.
@@walawala-fo7ds No, there are people who think what is not car centric, like walkable places, is ridiculous. It isn't just about taxes for them. Some of them force their car and suburb centric lifestyle on everyone. And won't let anyone have dense cities even if those car people won't live or visit there. Examples: They think cars and suburbs are the best. They stereotype dense cities are noisy, crime ridden, communism, and about government control. They want to keep the car and suburb centric culture and strict zoning in the name of "American culture". Many Americans like cars and big cars or think it's "manly or a status symbol". They think walkable 15 minute cities are not possible and think it's a conspiracy to trap people in their cities or in a 15 minute radius. They want free parking and wide roads for their cars. They fear change. Or think change will cause businesses to lose customers. Car industries lobby for car centric design. They have many other extreme, baseless, and ridiculous excuses. Watch Not Just Bikes and Oh the Urbanity and look at the comments that has people in oppression and their ridiculous reasons. You complaining about taxes was hypocritical because car and suburb centric design consume far more taxes. And is far more expensive on individuals. Watch Not Just Bikes on the cost of car and suburb centric design compared to dense urban design.
To separate apartments from noisy/dirty bars, restaurants and groceries, maybe you can have stores/restaurants/bars on the ground floor, offices on the second floor (e.g., insurance companies, realtors, dentists' offices), and apartments on the third floor on up.
Watch About Here on mixed zoning with homes and shops and look at the reasonable comments from urbanists. Idk why some people are extreme in not allowing shops and businesses near homes at all. Not even essentials like groceries. When we can talk about distancing noisy businesses, like bars, if they want. But allow the quiet shops. Also, allow people's diverse choices. People who want no walkable businesses near them at all don't have to live there. But the problem is I've seen many car and suburb centric people won't allow anyone to have dense walkable cities at all. Also, many car and suburb people and NIMBYs just coldly tell others to move, but won't do it themselves.
You don't really need an extra office layer or anything of sorts to separate apartments from shops/restaurants/other types of business because they aren't as dirty and noisy as many people (especially Americans unaccustomed to this kind of development patern) seem to imagine. I lived above local shop and also right next to a restaurant and a hotel and from my experience you don't even notice they are there. The only noticable next door bussiness I ever experienced was a club across the street (with loud music) but that's the kind of bussiness that you can only find in very specific areas of a city, so people moving there usually know what to expect and don't mind it 😂 The average level of noise and air pollution due to car traffic on a residential street is actually much more noticable than any kind of bussiness would be. So if you'd had a local shop with a big parking lot in front of it, it could be a concern (because of the cars, not the shop itself), but a bussiness targeting people on foot is a non issue. Which is why, where I live, having bussiness on the bottom floor or next to your home is seen as a good thing and actually desired (driving up prices). And not just shops and restaurants but honestly everything - doctor's offices, beauty salons, various kinds of other services, public buildings (libraries, community centers), even kindergartens.
feds forced us to live amongst the low trust or flee. We've surrendered our greatest cities, our centers of commerce and innovation to people who shouldn't even be here.
I feel like this is why younger people, especially those who grew up in countries like USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand find Countries in Europe and Asia more trendy and attractive...because they embrace density and the former do not.
I missed living on campus when I went to university. It was easier to walk than drive and fight for a parking spot. Areas with the most foot traffic were in the center of campus, like the Quad, Student Union, and the library. They were separated by a one-way street with three crosswalks (one at the end of each road and one in the middle). There was outdoor seating and ample space for events. The dorms were right next to major buildings. Some were near the gym, the library, or cafeteria. Most people picked a dorm closest to their major’s building or extracurricular activity; it let people with similar interests interact more. I came from a small town with barely any sidewalks and no crosswalks. If you weren’t driving, then it took 20 minutes to walk to and from the store. Tl;dr: Cityplanners should use universities as rough drafts for their projects.
You should definitely be a city planner (if you aren't already),, use these videos as your portfolio. You are able to explain the issues and the best way forward in a way anyone can understand
That first shot of American suburbs with a white Toyota Camry where it says Everywhere, USA is actually a shot of Canadian suburbs. Avatar Crescent and John Carrell Drive, Brampton, Ontario, Canada. 😅
There's some validity to what he says. Chain restaurants are popular and the mom and pop places are not as prominent as they are in cities. There is some variety at least where I live in terms of chain restaurants.
A local street lost some parking spaces in a redesign that made it one way and widened the pavements. One of the business owners who led the opposition to it later admitted he was totally wrong, after his business improved so much he outgrew the rather tiny shop and moved into a larger unit on the street.
The Rideau St McDonald’s was fucking next level man. Ottawa lost a lot with that closure. I’d actively avoid the place and instead go to Bank St when I lived there lol.
Growing up in this car centeral America has been a struggle honestly, i wake up every day and i have to bike to work and go work at the local Walmart and cross a 4 layne highway with just a cross walk and no sidewalks I cant afford a car and life seems dull I hope im the future we get more walkable places
I actually hate these downtown restaurants that signup for ubereats deliver but have no street parking. They should be banned off the app. One time I got a 80 dollar parking ticket for picking up in a restaurant.
America is screwing up mixed use so bad lmaooo it's never a big area, it will be a tiny neighborhood with one restaurant and maybe a gym called "Jenny's Sweat Camp" with a parking lot next to it lol
Used to live urban. Really, I didn’t mind the density but it was the increase of violence, crime and vagrancy that made me want to leave. Lived in the burbs for a bit, and then went rural. We can grow some of our own food, enjoy cleaner air than in the city, and generally just live more humanly. That said, it took a lot of work and earnings to score some rural property that is still within driving range to various conveniences.
Change takes a while but it’s possible. The Netherlands took about 3 decades to become walkable. Japan started building trains in the 60s, China started its massive HSR network in the 2000s, Paris started to become more bikeable in the 2010s. It’s not going to happen overnight, we’ve only just started to realize that car dependency won’t work. Urbanist YT is only a few years old.
Now what if other people commented like: “how can I get my privacy? If I live close to another people, they can hear me fart. And with mixed use development, I can’t have my own back yard with my own privacy outdoors. How can I be outside alone without people seeing or hearing me outside?” How would you respond to that?
Nobody is saying everybody has to move into a dense city. But loosening zoning regulations would allow small stores and other businesses to open in the suburbs, making them a bit more like villages, rather than city neighbourhoods. Make sure people can also walk around the suburb without having to go around for miles. They're still going to be car dependent for longer trips to other destinations. But at least you'd no longer have to drive for thirty minutes to get a loaf of bread.
@@JesmondBeeBee well my question isn’t about mixing to dense city. I also refer to villages too because I saw a video from street craft RU-vid channel about making a suburban town into a village. And with his village proposal, only a few single family homes have their backyard, which is toward the back, while the rest of the single family homes are right next each other with a front walkway and a garage facing the back sharing one small road (no backyard). So that’s why I’m asking for those who want privacy outside.
@@luigianchondo7241 If someone is that keen on privacy then having neighbours maybe isn't for them and they should move out into the country. One of the issues with suburbs is that they drain the finances of the city, which is providing and maintaining roads, sewers, etc, to an area with a lower tax base than the dense, mixed use areas. So people and businesses in the city centre are subsiding those large back yards. But I'm a pragmatist. We have to start where we are and work with what we've got. The suburbs are there and it will take a long time for them to change. There are ways to make them better by degrees.
I really want to have my own cafe someday so I hope I can make a place in a mixed-use development when the day comes that I finally achieve that dream. But around where I live? I doubt it would happen.
I hope you can have your dream. Watch Not Just Bikes and About Here on mixed zoning with homes and shops. There are people fighting for dense walkable cities.
I would actually watch the Nth Level video about Urbanist RU-vid has a Huge Problem and then look for advocacy organizations in your area. Also sit in on open City Council meetings and voice your concerns if possible.
When I lived in Koreatown in Los Angeles, I got the benefit of living in the most dense neighborhood in the city. Though still highly imperfect with high speed, wide roads, my own black had many apartments and dozens of restaurants and other shops, including a dry cleaner, multiple corner stores, and other businesses. It was great to be able to walk out my building and not have to cross the street to get groceries or things I needed for my home, and do it at independent shops, not soulless chain businesses (though there were some of those as well). I had to move to west LA, where I miss having that more people friendly neighborhood. So bring on the mixed use developments!
In the United Kingdom there are area that are called high streets where there are a street of local shops but they are dying now cus of shopping centres that have easy connections to the motorway, Amazon and Covid 19
I really like your content about urban design, but i always feel like every single video has the same point and seems pretty repetitive. I would love to see the small exceptions like SF and a revival of their urban appeal. Or maybe take any city in particular as a case study and revamp it, showing how better urban design can completely change its appeal :))
Watch Oh the Urbanity and Not Just Bikes. They visit, compliment, and show examples of good dense urban design that is walkable, bikeable, has trains and buses, and is mixed zoning. Check out the Aesthetic City too.
Watch Not Just Bikes and Oh the Urbanity. They show good changes towards dense cities with walk ability, bike paths separated from cars, trains, buses, and mixed zoning. There are people fighting for this.
The only good example I've seen in America of a good walkable suburb is oddly enough Fargo, ND (NOT West Fargo, that's a nightmare). You have a small yet robust downtown, a good collection of cheap apartments and single home housing just a couple blocks off from the business district (Broadway Avenue). A lot of places would benefit if they were more like Fargo.
I do love all this data, but it's gonna take the collapse of the auto industry for most Americans to really appreciate it. The business where I work is surrounded by small local restaurants and my coworkers have literally said "why would I walk anywhere when I can drive" even if its literally less than a block away lmao
It’s not so simple. The truth is that neither party really has much of an interest in small businesses. Both parties are just funded by different megacorps.
I really enjoy your perspective and research. It would be interesting to learn about how a highly zoned midsized city could transition. I am thinking of most towns in the US with around 50,000 people in their greater Metropolitan area. This size city is almost always highly zoned, conducive only to driving cars, and very little public transit. Often all the big box stores surround the city or are on a major stroad.
I feel this. When I had barely any subscribers I had more consistent views than I could ever imagine. Now I have more subscribers than ever and less views than 14 years ago, lmao.
The small town I live in Spain,leave the apartment building. Below is a bank,small super mkt,optic center, pizza place drug store, bar, pharmacy ,bakery. exMichigan in Spain 🇪🇸🇪🇺👍
Here in my town of 40 thousand, all small business owe their existence to suburbs. And they are thriving thanks to suburban money pouring in to keep them a float. What killed small businesses the next town over was the massive chain stores. but those are declining thanks to online shopping. Urbanites help a bit too as they come visit to escape the crime and homelessness that is typical of urban cores. Grocery stores and other necessities are also fleeing cities as organized theft and lack of enforcement pushes even big chains to the brink. However the urbanite influx is mostly weekends while Small businesses need a more constant inflow of clients, and that's what suburban households provide. It really is interesting to see city dwellers have to leave the city to do basic things like buy groceries due to the other policies they supported having eviscerated the very amenities they depend on. movements like legalizing open use, defund law enforcement, and strike down camping bans have seriously backfired for urbanites.
'Small businesses owe their existence to suburbs" Isn't this just because there's no other source of income other than the people that live in nearby suburbs? There's no reason to think they wouldn't perform even better if zoning was different. Suburbs are incredibly costly and suck up money from more profitable areas. Massive chain stores typically thrive from suburbs in a way smaller businesses can't.
@@Ash_Wen-li Nice of you omitting "in my town" There's also no reason to claim like this video does, that the only way to have a small business is in a city. 😜 or that Walmart is all we got (we actually don't have one). Small businesses are supported by communities and suburban communities can support them just fine.
There are plenty of small business out of urban centers that disprove everything on this video. And Walmart is in fact not the one stop shop you're making it out to be. If anything, the public transit dependent crowd frequents Walmart disproportionately more as its customer base tends to be in the lower income range. That's why everything is behind locks now. Towns all over America have struggled with the destruction of main street due to mass retail. But that's not the suburbs causing it but rather corporate America and consumerism. However, there is definitely a revitalizing of main streets in suburban towns as well as lifestyle centers trying to recreate thay small town if none exists. so the situation is more complex than just suburbs bad and certainly the thesis of suburbia lacking small businesses because you can't open a corner store in a cul-de-sac is absurd and easily disproven.
I appreciate the message, however I would hope that you advocate significantly more for people who care about these issues to get involved in their local governments. If people watch these videos, agree with what's said, then do nothing until the federal election, the amount of change we'll see will be much lower than we need. Specifically in Canada and US, where these problems are the most prevalent. Great video otherwise!
People should be more involved in their local politics than federal even. Most people don't even know that the US Federal Congress elections are every 2 years, not just every 4 like the Presidential. I'm working on building new walkable towns and having our own new official local governments.
LoL. I'm watching this from my suburban farmer's market and not a Walmart. it really is fascinating to see what urbanites think life outside a city is like. please keep it up as it is top comedy lol
You're the one who is ignorant. There are some people stuck in places with extreme zoning. Look at the comments here and on channels like Not Just Bikes or About Here. One comment on Not Just Bikes said she was a teen girl with a poor, blind single mom. She said she was stuck in the suburbs. She said walking and biking isn't safe. She said buses and bike paths were lacking. She said she couldn't afford Ubers or a car. She said she didn't have anyone to teach her to drive. She said she couldn't get a job to improve her poverty even if she wanted to. People make these videos for a reason. Because they experience similar things like that girl stuck in the suburbs too. Many people making these videos do not live in dense walkable cities and are stuck in suburbs. Many people can't afford to move or live in expensive walkable cities. The city design and zoning is so bad and strict in some places that people like Not Just Bikes moved to a different country because of it. There are comments on Not Just Bikes saying they want to move out of places like America. Then many of the few walkable cities in America are gentrified, unaffordable, or people still clutter it with cars. Btw, those walkable cities being expensive shows they are in demand. Watch Jedu on New York being gentrified. Watch videos on protests in overtourism causing gentrification and pricing locals out.
Some Americans set up shops at their homes during the c0vid lockdowns cause that caused people to become impoverished or lose their business. So all they could afford were businesses at home. But then their home businesses were cracked down on by heartless and illogical cops, politicians, or people lacking compassion or understanding that people had to open a business at home. Watch About Here on places with strict zoning who don't allow mixed zoning with homes and shops. Watch Not Just Bikes trying to walk in some places and the sidewalk just randomly ends. Watch Flurfdesign on how drivers wouldn't even let kids cross the street to school. The bus driver had to block those drivers. Look at the comments of oppression and NIMBYs on urbanist videos wanting to not allow anyone to have dense walkable cities. Watch Oh the Urbanity on NIMBYs and the anti bike lanes meeting. Many Americans and American news reports and titles are biased against pedestrians and non-drivers in accidents. Or just call it a tragedy instead of a call to build a safer city and road design for non-drivers. Not Just Bikes talked about drivers giving cyclists punishment passes where they graze cyclists or blow smoke on them to harass them.
Suburban farmers market - NICE! A market where everyone was able to walk or take transit to I'm sure. I'm happy that your suburb has that identity, but let's not pretend NA suburbs prop up small businesses like urban areas can. Sprawl of suburban housing = breeding ground for large chain stores. Walmart and costco isn't capitalism done right. It is a symptom of how we decided to build our cities to isolate ourselves as much as possible. Most people critiquing north american development have already lived in suburbs, just like myself. They know the locations well, and they know the huge flaws. You gaslighting isn't really an argument in your favor. Maybe a cheap dopamine hit for you, but no substance. Maybe as an experiment check out how suburbs in the Netherlands or Japan look like. THAT is what sustainable suburbia is. Very different then the monstrosity we see in NA.
you're the exception. There's a farmer's market near my suburb but its only open a few hours on Saturday only and I have to drive 30minutes to get to it. For most people I live near most of their groceries comes from the walmart just across the street (An 8 lane highway) from my single family home neighborhood.
This guy blames everyone and everything for monstrosity of highways and suburbs but the only thing that designs it and pays for it through coerced taxation which is government and then he says government can fix something that government created. With this type of circular talking , this guy will become a prime minister of Canada or something alike.
The point is that unless you live out in the boonies, you shouldn't have to walk or drive five miles for the nearest soda. I was raised in a pretty rural setting in my hometown, and even there we had convenience stores within walking distance.
It’s funny how you use Houston Texas as an example of bad urbanism but it’s one of the fastest growing cities in the US because people like living here! You may disagree on what should be done but don’t thumb your nose down at the places you don’t like.. You RU-vid urbanists come off as condescending ignorant assholes who complain without having the whole story.. case in point the videos you used from Houston’s downtown .. you know why there’s not a lot of people downtown on the streets during the day? Because there’s a whole underground tunnel system most workers use to get around downtown because of the heat.. Another thing people actually like living in suburbs! They’re cheaper and provide better value than living in older neighborhoods.. and most us sunbelt cities are new so they do cater to the industries that are there.. Houston is the oil and gas capital of the world so no one is cycling to a refinery.. there has to be balance but you guys never speak on it or how advocate (or understand) your own cause .. just cry and complain.. while living in the suburbs…
Stop doom and glooming about suburbs. I love living in my bedroom community enclave in Orange County. Wouldn’t trade my suburban heaven for the godforsaken city.
6:46 Oh man, that dead Walmart/strip mall near Kipling station. I see it when I occasionally pass through on the airport bus. It's such a visible demonstration of the effects of sprawl and auto oriented development.
