Let's Shame the Awful Land Use of America's Ten Worst State Capitals

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It's amazing the different philosophies states demonstrate when choosing how and where to site their seats of government. Some have smaller footprints, with fewer offices co-located and less associated infrastructure; some take up large swaths of land, locating every possible state agency together in one place with enormous parking lots and stroads facilitating all the generated travel demand. Some are located in small cities, some in the largest city in the state, practically downtown. The upshot is, you see a LOT of different land use outcomes.
Today we're looking at the ten worst -- state capitals that have the most deleterious impacts on the cities they occupy. As always, this particular bottom ten list is a trojan horse for talking about all the good and bad impacts land use and transportation decisions have on the places we live -- this time, decisions being made directly by the governments of 50 states.
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- www.zillow.com/home-values/10...
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14 мар 2023

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Комментарии : 1,5 тыс.

@donavannj Год назад

In defense of capital building lawns: it creates a natural place to protest visibly in front of the capital building, but they don't serve much purpose outside of that.

@evan316 Год назад

I think that all capitals should have a small lawn for that reason, but alot overdo iy. Like for alot of these states a little courtyard would suffice

@ma11221 Год назад

Makes sense, but seems like a double edged sword: it also has the consequence of making protests separated (and therefore more ignorable) from other people going about their business in the city.

@tristanridley1601 Год назад

It's a very important purpose! But can scale with population. (By the time you fill some of these malls with protestors something is extraordinarily wrong.)

@zan917 Год назад

Ohio Capitol in Columbus has a nice square of grass surrounded by a decent city (if I remember correctly).

@GirtonOramsay Год назад

Great place to set up a tent too

@darkusaurelius2853 Год назад

"Blast radius of parking lots"...that made me laugh.

@leftbas65 Год назад

'Impact crater' was just as funny.

@shinnam Год назад

Even funnier when you know the ICBM missiles silos were in that area. It was estimated that it would only take 6 minutes to die in Jeff City if there were a nuclear strike.... guess that isn't funny.

@tl8211 Год назад

Hey, look on the bright side… oh, damn, I’m blind now.

@dwhonan Год назад

I got a good laugh out of that line, too.

@handlemonium Год назад

Hm.....I wonder if that will change as less and less suburbanites own cars and rely on ride-sharing services, rentals, public transit, and robotaxis?

@MrEmptyKay Год назад

I think it is important to remember that Sacramento used to be home of the second largest Chinatown in the United States, until it was torn down in order for California to build the Capitol Mall and surrounding administrative buildings that stretch out in front of the state Capitol to the Tower Bridge. They tore down a thriving community to build...a lawn.

@virajs.8864 Год назад

The state of California being horribly racist to East Asians what’s new

@CherryBlossomOhka Год назад

Holy shit

@fixpacifica Год назад

The California State Capital Grounds is pretty nice. The lawn that run downs the road to the west of capitol building is pretty weird, though. I wish they'd at least plant some trees on it.

@dustinalexander Год назад

Came here to say this also displaced as a sizable black population in the area as well.

@dustinalexander Год назад

@@fixpacifica They keep that area clear to hold events. I don't think it's a wise use of that space, but that's why they don't do anything else with it.

@wheeliebeast7679 Год назад

A friend of mine describing what's so messed up about his hometown of Springfield: "There are too many vacant lots, parking lots, and vacant parking lots."

@JuanWayTrips Год назад

I'd say Madison, Wisconsin should make an honorable mention list. I've been there twice for meetings (not in the state capital) and it's amazing how compact and walkable it is, and the capital building itself still stands out without taking up too much space. It probably also helps that it is a college town and on an isthmus.

@dreadhead5719 Год назад

I was bored and randomly rated all 50 capitals and I tied Annapolis with Madison I dont think I can choose whats better

@markhamann8030 Год назад

The square around the Capitol is also very active with farmers' markets, summer concerts, art fairs, etc. And it is the terminus of State Street which is just a fun place from morning to late at night.

@EngMadison Год назад

Also, WisDOT HQ isn't located anywhere near the capital. Double also, most transit routes use the square as a sort of transfer point.

@CityNerd Год назад

I agree, but I didn't wanna go long on honorable mentions because I may well come back and do a ten best video. (It's what the topic suggester wanted in the first place, after all!)

@evjq Год назад

Here I am in the comments just to make sure Madison gets the love it deserves ❤

@WoddCar Год назад

Gotta love when they add an equal amount of parking surface for grass around the capitol

@hexelcolorado6275 Год назад

Gotta give the bugs a place to park their cars.

@laurie7689 Год назад

When most of those capitols were built, they would've had acres of grass around them on all sides. Most of the cities built up around the capitols hemming them in. A lot of that acreage around the capitols ended up used for different govt. depts. until only a little was left. The same type of thing happened to the small hospital in the city that I live in. I've seen pictures of it spanning the years. Originally, it was also built essentially in the middle of nowhere with a lot of land around it and currently it has buildings on all sides and can't expand outwards if it wanted to. It had to turn a parking lot into a parking garage to accommodate the physicians, patients, and visitors. If the hospital needs to expand, it can only go upwards.

@CityNerd Год назад

Hey, the Stop the Steal people who come in from the hinterlands gotta park somewhere

@EricLeafericson Год назад

@@CityNerd Each patch of grass has its own House representative.

@brynnfreemyer110 Год назад

I lived in Austin for college 2018-2022 and coming from a DFW suburb it seemed like heaven on Earth. It has a lot more accessible green spaces (the trail around the river, greenbelt, zilker, pease park, shoal creek greenbelt etc.) The landscape is really interesting and unique because it’s very hilly/green and the surrounding hill country is home to the best state parks in Texas. There is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to public transit but the bus system works well enough and you can exist within the city without a car. Yes I-35 and Mopac are hellscapes. It is a cool place to live in terms of a great music, arts, and food scene but that’s just being squashed everyday with absurd costs of living.

@kitsuneneko2567 Год назад

Well, wait a year or two. That might resolve itself.

@jasminewilliams1673 Год назад

I’m pretty sure they want to bulldoze through it by putting a highway directly in the middle

@texaswunderkind Год назад

@@jasminewilliams1673 You're about 60 years too late with that comment. Interstate 35 goes right through the center of the city. You could have seen that for yourself if you had taken two seconds to look it up on Google Maps. But they are moving forward with a plan to update I-35 with tolled access lanes, and possibly even covering it through part of downtown.

@brandony8691 Год назад

Totally agree with everything you said, brynn

@doomsdayrabbit4398 Год назад

@@texaswunderkind Which will only make the traffic worse. They need to boost our public transit by an absurd amount. 183 needs a train line, not toll lanes!

@Westlander857 Год назад

As an Arizonan, it frustrates me so much to see our state capitol surrounded by so much asphalt. Think of all the things we could put there. What’s interesting is that it’s in stark contrast to the dense, transit-oriented development taking place in downtown Phoenix. Maybe the state government doesn’t want that same progress to extend to their neck of the woods.

@combusean Год назад

I'm pretty sure once the light rail is complete through there that area will be too valuable to stay as is.

@adamdahl3924 Год назад

Honestly I think there’s so much potential wasted around the entire valley due to the massive parking lots and countless strip malls. I know Glendale and much of Phoenix are very sparsely populated. Mesa to a lesser extent these days, but still not great. Downtown Mesa is okay, but fairly narrow. Downtown Chandler is a bit nicer to navigate on food (in my opinion). Downtown Gilbert has so much potential, I’d absolutely love a charming trolley down the center of it (partially to reduce traffic, partially to add to the atmosphere). Just generally try to shift multi-story parking from within the area to just outside, with frequent trolleys.

@garcjr Год назад

As we all know Phoenix has a giant homeless problem. We all know why. When people argue that we should bus the homeless across Phoenix and Tucson to the State Capitol; the thing is they're already there. All the state legislatures do is just turn on Adams st to get to the freeway so they can get out of there.

@oliviakendrick1389 Год назад

@@garcjr lately there are police trucks stationed on the street entrances blocking the homeless from walking onto Jefferson. I'm guessing they can't bear the thought of seeing them on their morning commute.

@CityNerd Год назад

Yeah, I was pretty snarky on PHX in this video, but I do like some of what I'm seeing downtown and in Tempe. I talked a but about Tempe in a recent video...suburbs, maybe?

@JonFairhurst Год назад

Happy to see that Sacramento gets positive recognition. I visited the capital as a child an as an adult visiting the governor’s staff. The whole place has a walkable, enjoyable vibe. It doesn’t feel sprawling or like a high rise canyon. It’s inviting for people on foot.

@patrickfitzgerald2861 Год назад

And they've turned hundreds of square miles all around it in to a sprawling, devastated wasteland.

@JonFairhurst Год назад

@@patrickfitzgerald2861 There are some nice areas in Sacramento, including Old Town, Sutter’s Fort, and a small, walkable downtown with transportation, restaurants, and pubs. But it quickly turns into stroad land.

@patrickfitzgerald2861 Год назад

@@JonFairhurst I'm a Sac State grad and retired state employee, and my best friend still lives in Arden-Arcade. I watched in shock as it grew from a big but laid back town in the late 80's, early 90's into the nightmare I consider it to be today, all in the space of less than a decade. Needless to say, I never go there any more, even though I have a lot of fond memories from my time living there. Sad.

@ashleyhamman Год назад

@@patrickfitzgerald2861 Having to go north of the American River or to South Sac brings me dread every time. Folsom and Rancho Cordova remain very car centric, but at least we have the Gold Line and an attempt has been made at bikability.

@alexroselle Год назад

I just wish the rest of our metro area (outside of downtown, the Capitol district, and the midtown “grid”) wasn’t a sprawling car-dependent mess!

@Eggmancan Год назад

The parking moats are unforgivable, but I will make a case for capitals being in the middle of cities and having lawns: the citizens need to have access to their representatives to protest/petition them. One thing we often see in authoritarian states is governments building their capitals far from the population center so they don't have to worry about protests/coups from the citizens.

@tl8211 Год назад

These capitals are mostly pretty damn far from their state’s population centers, and the manicured lawns aren’t great for protests: you can throw in a ton of people there without filling up the place or bothering anyone of importance. (In fact, most authoritarian states love having their capitals in small cities with large, low buildings surrounded by big plazas and lawns.

@brandonkovnat2259 10 месяцев назад

The core for most U.S. cities and especially capitals has been mostly office budings without housing or even nighttime entertainment uses. And then the surrounding residential became abandoned with suburbanization. So the reality has become that the capital is not typcially in a populated area.

@vylbird8014 9 месяцев назад

A few commenters have already pointed out the other purpose of those lawns regarding protests: It gives them a place to protest that is visible but not disruptive. The protesters can camp there and wave their signs, and get some news coverage, without blocking roads of obstructing business activity. It keeps the protests 'civil' and reduces their impact.

@BrennanZeigler Год назад

As someone who lives in Illinois, the Chicago area, I find it kind of ironic how Illinois has one of the least walkable capital cities in the United States, yet has one of the most walkable major cities in the United States. I mean, Chicago and Springfield are very different. I’m not kidding when I say Springfield is literally one giant parking lot with a couple of buildings here and there. Meanwhile, Madison, Wisconsin, in the state north of Illinois has literally one of the most walkable capital cities in the US

@lindaloe Год назад

AGREE WITH THAT!!

@sbdragoo4463 Год назад

I spent a substantial portion of my adult working life in Springfield, Illinois working for and with all levels of public sector departments. When I saw this topic, I just knew Springfield, IL would be on the list somewhere. What is sad is that this monstrosity of anti-development keeps overrunning existing small businesses in the area. This has led to the slow carcinogenic growth of state office buildings taking over high value downtown real estate and leading to a brownfield downtown. This area is an absolute desert of nothing but 9-5 offices and supporting businesses. Anyone who goes downtown on a weekend is going to be horribly disappointed. Thank you for pointing out to the world just how bad this place really is. Especially for somewhere claiming to be the "Home of Lincoln" (as in Abraham Lincoln) and having highlights of his restored home and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

@oliviakendrick1389 Год назад

I was raised near Quincy, IL and grew up going to Springfield with my grandparents often as they loved Lincoln. Sad to hear the way it's going. I remember a portion being somewhat walkable as a kid.

@CityNerd Год назад

I actually was really torn on the top three -- they felt like they could be in any order, honestly

@andrewvc1527 Год назад

Yeah, I'm from Springfield myself, and I knew without even starting the video that Springfield would be near the top of this list. Downtown has too many parking lots that aren't near what you want to go to, too many brutalist concrete government buildings, way too many one-way stroads to cross while walking, no housing, no grocery stores, no parks. If you stay near the old state capitol, its not too bad, but the modern state government complex is just depressing. The high school I went to is just a couple blocks away from that mess.

@xyz061220 Год назад

@@CityNerd At @ Syracuse, there was a discussion on the ugliest state capitol. Growing up in Sacramento, I said "Carson City" - high altitude desert (& you're 30 minutes from Lake Tahoe). The professor, from St. Joseph, MO, said "Springfield Illinois" (where I now live). Asked how a green mid-western town could be uglier than a high altitude desert town, the reply was "All the gravel parking lots!"

@amfm889 Год назад

Adding to the insult, the relocated Amtrak station will be even further away from the Capitol.

@brianalexeu Год назад

In the US, it's often pretty easy to find a state's government complex on the map. In Europe I find, it often becomes pretty hard, as government buildings tend to be scattered throughout the city and pretty well integrated into the urban fabric, not least because government agencies often just took over already existing and semi-representative-looking buildings.

@UserName-ts3sp Год назад

a lot of our cities were built around being the capital, especially in the midwest. many cities didn’t exist before becoming capitals, such as jefferson city on here

@brianalexeu Год назад

@@UserName-ts3sp That's for sure a factor. When many European capitals were build, the modern concept of a capital didn't even really exist.

@jasonreed7522 Год назад

A big contributor is probably in how a city grew, an old city (respectable city pre car, so boston counts even if its a baby by European standards) is likely to not have a major impact crater of the complex because its simply too expensive to tear down a large section of the city core to make a complex, especially one thats 50% grass or parkinglot, and instead existing buildings and whatever other available space is used for the purpose of government buildings. In contrast younger cities get planned around the car, and some have effectively 0 geographic constraints so they have infinite space to expand into so nothing is ever dense enough to stop the impact crater of the government administration's parkinglot expansion. (And its even worse for a city that is a planned capital, because then they litterally just found a field and started building with nothing in the way) Most things eventually circle back to being economics. (In a 1000year old European city its expensive to completely redevelop but lots of fancy historical buildings are ripe for moving into; a brand new city in the Great Plains with litterally nothing around for miles has no choice but to build from scratch and nothing stopping them from making a bunch of highways and parkinglots when they do)

@MattMcIrvin Год назад

@@jasonreed7522 Boston is about the closest thing the US has to an old city in the European sense. US states often have a state capital that was a planned development far away from the biggest population center, maybe to mollify rural people who didn't want the city folk running things. I think that anti-urban attitude is also what drives the pattern of development. In the case of Boston, I guess the state government has continuity with the old Massachusetts Bay Colony going back to the Boston Puritans, so it makes some sense that the capital would still be where it always was.

@quabbin0604 Год назад

@@MattMcIrvin They moved the capitol a few blocks to the new State House- in 1798. O W Holmes wrote, in 1858, “Boston state house is the hub of the solar system; you couldn’t pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation stretched out like a crowbar.” A useful orienting landmark for the antebellum Bostonian, at least.

@kennethridesabike Год назад

One off story, my brother in law forgot he had his camping pocket knife while we were visiting the state capitol building of Texas. He asked the security guy if it was ok that he had it or if they could hold it for him. The security guard with his body armor and AR-15 just laughed and said it’s fine. That was the most texas experience I’ve ever had

@InventorZahran Год назад

A security guard with an AR-15 is already the most Texas thing ever!

@tl8211 Год назад

He wasn’t even using it professionally, AR-15 and body armor is just a fashion choice.

@MrTwarner Год назад

As someone who grew up in Michigan, I was shocked to see that Lansing was only a dishonorable mention. I remember the area around the Capitol building as a blighted mix of parking lots and abandoned buildings. Maybe it’s gotten a bit better in the decade since I left. Edit: Actually, other states just do it WAY worse. Those top 3 are terrifyingly malignant.

@JaCrispy3060 Год назад

Same. And I'm at MSU now lol.

@jessicantina Год назад

It has NOT gotten much better...

@vanlepthien6768 Год назад

There used to be a lot of "adult entertainment" business near the capitol, which really had an impact on the area. No idea if it has been cleaned up.

@jessicantina Год назад

@@vanlepthien6768 yes, they built a baseball stadium there in the 90s and now it's mostly upscale apartments. The only thing left there is the Omar's titty bar.

@jessicantina Год назад

Capitol proper is still mostly parking lots but most of the blighted buildings have been torn down or renovated. All the one ways are being converted to two ways but its still unclear how downtown is going to be redeveloped in the face of state workers largely going hybrid/remote

@travisalbert276 Год назад

I saw the title and was like, "Oh boy! A video about Springfield, IL!"

@emmamyhre9296 Год назад

Former St. Paul and Des Moines Resident here: 1. Minnesota's Capitol is super strange because, as you said, it's boxed in by strips of highway and is very isolated. I've protested there, and it's almost impossible to get to, especially without a car. 2. Please give Des Moines more attention on this channel! Surprisingly walkable, inexpensive, stellar housing, food scene punches above its weight. 3. Annapolis, Maryland has a beautiful capitol, very ingrained in the city. Obviously because it was built before cars, but I hope it makes it into your future video about good state capitol campuses!

@tomfields3682 Год назад

The MN state capital used to have multiple bus lines with several stops right in front of building and in the capital grounds itself. Upwards of 20 buses stopped at them every hour. But the planners decided that buses didn't belong on the capital grounds so rerouted them all. When they built the light rail they laid the tracks behind the capital, off of the grounds. So much for the people's house.

@josephfisher426 Год назад

Annapolis is beautiful, but try to get there (or to many of the widely scattered agency offices) without a car and you have the same problems as many of these other cities. It's a complication of the strategy of locating a capital in a smallish centralized town.

@andrewvc1527 Год назад

"I've protested there, and it's almost impossible to get to, especially without a car." That almost sounds intentional; keep the dirty plebeian protesters away from the upper echelons of government, they don't have time to deal with the rabble. I realize that's a very cynical view, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be true when they designed that complex, even if only subconsciously. And it's a very bad thing for a center of political power to be physically isolated from the people, our representatives are already socioeconomically isolated from the people.

@fart5022 Год назад

there are 3 bus lines that run right next to the capital wdym?

@fart5022 Год назад

for saint paul btw

@user-jw7pp3vi9c Год назад

What I like about this video is that you deliver a fantastic amount of information and opinion without wasting your time with any charisma or likeability.

@nathaniel_fern4207 Год назад

Phoenix is pure dystopia. I was born there and currently trying to leave this hell hole

@TheLiamster Год назад

Single family zoning and minimum parking requirements should be reformed to encourage more mixed zoning especially around transit stations.

@austinhernandez2716 Год назад

That should be abolished altogether

@hackarma2072 Год назад

That's a daring thing to say in the comment section of CityNerd 😂

@CityNerd Год назад

* especially pretty much everywhere

@freddyfriend5462 Год назад

The US will turn into Mexico

@freddyfriend5462 Год назад

Mixed use areas always look like slums. This is why zoning was implemented.

@drewdederer8965 Год назад

Springfield is in no way a "nice Midwest City", it lives off tourism (all those Lincoln sites) and being the seat of government. State Capitols are generally centrally located, but Springpatch lacks for keynote industry or finance and never got the University presence needed to hold population. The sea of surface lots isn't a direct result of the Capital, rather as the downtown hollowed out, old buildings become surface lots to reduce the property tax load. The large lot to the west of the Capital covers it, the State Museum and the nearest office building pretty much adequately, the rest is the graves of buildings that stopped being useful and could find no re-developement. The OLD capital is further east and blends in quite well as a historic zone (Lincoln Law office is adjacent, home about 4 blocks away). But the supply of surface lot "missing teeth" is still there. The old capital and modern library have adequate parking underneath, and the Lincoln Museum proper (North of the old capital near the old station) has it's own small garage. Springfield is the argument against usage growing to match capacity. It has way more parking downtown than it could ever need (it's only slightly over-roaded, and served by Amtrack's only profitable line outside the Eastern corridor (a LOT of the government offices ARE in Chicago).

@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un Год назад

Louisiana wasn't mentioned but here's some information anyway about how it became the tallest capitol building: By the 1920s, the Old State Capitol (built in the 1850s) was starting to show its age and proving to be too small for the expanding state government. When Huey Long was elected, seized upon the idea of using a new capitol as a way to symbolize the end of the "political domination of Louisiana's traditional social and economic elite" in the state. He noticed Nebraska was constructing a new tall capitol building at the same time at 400 feet tall, and decided to copy the skyscraper concept instead and made sure the new capitol would be taller at 450 feet tall. Both of these were completed the same year in 1932.

@CityNerd Год назад

Yeah, Baton Rouge is a super interesting one. Not nearly as impressive as the Ryugyong Hotel, of course, AKA the world's finest skyscraper

@Lalo5812 Год назад

Louisiana’s state Capitol is awesome. I used to be a legislative aide to former state Senator and President pro tem Gerald Long, a great nephew of Huey. It’s a beautiful and ornate building, especially the interior.

@neatwing2285 Год назад

Another Huey Long W

@richardparisi9747 Год назад

And eventually would be shot to death in the hallway near his office.

@leonb2637 11 месяцев назад

@@Lalo5812 It has an interesting art deco themed interior and exterior design. It has an observation level in the tower. The mark the spot where Huey Long was shot and have an exhibit about it. There is also an interesting neighborhood adjacent to it of 'shotgun' and duplex 'shotguns' and other style homes, mainly built in the later 1800's.

@thebuttermilkyway687 Год назад

Lol, I’m a girl. But what is gender, anyway? Thanks for featuring my suggested topic. I’m so happy, I’m watching the video a minute at a time to draw out the excitement. Cheers :)

@t_babe Год назад

Wake up babe, new City Nerd video just dropped

@TomDooner Год назад

Don't tell her she can just set her alarm for 10am on Wednesdays.

@denizwesley3227 Год назад

I’m glad you mentioned Raleigh, NC. The city truly has potential but it will take decades to dig itself out of the car-dependency issues it’s created for itself… over the past several decades. The planned BRT is not enough! Even Durham right next door is more walkable, and that’s the city with the bad rep for crime. I’ve always enjoyed Durham more than Raleigh. Either way, now I live in Europe & my city hall & other gov’t buildings-to include state gov’t buildings-are in the middle of a pedestrian zone. The nearest parking lot is a 10min walk away, sub-surface, and not exactly cheap. All this in a city that doesn’t even have great public transit.

@maximsarian1664 Год назад

I’ve lived in both Durham and Raleigh, and Raleigh is hopeless. Durham was clearly built with human proportions somewhat in mind, but Raleigh is 100% completely built for cars. And I mean even the densest part of downtown. Supersized buildings, supersized parking decks, supersized streets. What would be a 10 minute walk to the grocery store in Durham could easily be 45 minutes in Raleigh. Plus downtown Raleigh is kinda barren culture wise, a single block in Asheville is more fun and interesting than most of Raleigh lol

@CityNerd Год назад

I find all the North Carolina cities really interesting -- I'll have to visit soon!

@denizwesley3227 Год назад

@@CityNerd the Amtrak service between Raleigh & Charlotte is surprisingly good! I definitely recommend waiting for the Charlotte station rebuild to be complete before taking the train again though. It’s currently ongoing to my knowledge & the station will be perfectly located in Uptown and connected to the LRT when complete. Durham is a hidden gem. It’s small and doesn’t have MAJOR projects planned other than the CRT, but the city swore off any future highway expansion, other than maybe dedicated bus lanes. I respect that. Sometimes not doing something, is doing something. And Durham’s downtown is totally underrated & full of character. If you do visit, don’t leave without having been to the Sarah P. Duke Garden!

@davidborkovec3516 Год назад

@@maximsarian1664 Your comment is not well considered. I walk 3 minutes to grocery stores in Raleigh. Raleigh is great, outside of the government building sector.

@nmcheese Год назад

@@davidborkovec3516 I also live in one of the walkable areas of Raleigh - there are a few, and it's nice where it exists. CityNerd's prior video dishonorable mention of Raleigh about a lack of sidewalks, even inside 440 is valid though. Also to the other comments - the Raleigh-Charlotte train service is good, but only twice daily connections to the Northeast Corridor is decidedly behind the times. Also, LRT around the triangle would be nice but with the current regressive state government there will be no assistance, making it harder to fund.

@johnnysimes5082 Год назад

I give Austin points for putting a lot of government offices underground, underneath that long mall. The offices are cool too, much nice stone & marble. The alternative would have been to put a bunch of buildings above ground and then you lose all the green space.

@sebastienhardinger4149 Год назад

Building on your Chicago segment of this video, you should do a video about "cities most cursed by their state governments" (cough - Philadelphia, St Louis)

@ryanfraley7113 Год назад

There’s a reason lots of KC folks live in KCKS and not KCMO.

@JohnFromAccounting Год назад

Number 1 is Detroit for obvious reasons.

@neckenwiler Год назад

I drove (don't shoot me) through Sacramento a couple months ago, and while I was hunting for parking (again, don't shoot me; I live in Oakland and was driving to Tahoe), I looked to my right and, BOOM, there was the state capitol, meshed pretty seamlessly into the urban fabric. I was pleasantly surprised. Other parts of Sacramento pleasantly surprised me too. It's not great, and the summer daytime temps are killer, but definitely trying!

@MrEmptyKay Год назад

Don't you wish the Capitol Corridor would run up to Tahoe? It would be killer. I absolutely love loading my bike onto the train and visiting your neck of the woods to escape the heat in the summer.

@chromebomb Год назад

Midtown Sac is really cool actually. I like it a lot

@TohaBgood2 Год назад

@@MrEmptyKay That has been a dream for the longest time! There are even some rumblings about exploring this concept now. All they would need to do for that is to extend the Cap Corr to Truckee. There already are three big ski resorts that would be within Uberable and Shuttleable distance from the Truckee Amtrak station. Unfortunately, the freight railroads are completely intent on not allowing Amtrak anywhere near Donner pass. So this will take a while, if it ever happens. But the California Zephyr does offer daily service and at least some of the resorts have shuttles from Truckee. So some people actually do take the train for ski trips to Tahoe. It's actually faster than driving in winter Tahoe traffic.

@neckenwiler Год назад

@@MrEmptyKay 100% would love the CC to run to Tahoe. The Zephyr absolutely doesn't cut it.

@nicholauscummins8304 Год назад

One small nuance about St. Paul is that the interstate was built after the capital was there (obviously), but that cut off downtown St. Paul from the capital and all of the business that brings to the downtown economy

@jacobbernard1393 Год назад

I always find myself surprised when one of your video ends; not because it left anything important unsaid, but because I'm always left wanting more. Great work.

@BusDriverLife Год назад

Cool to see Sacramento, California mentioned in an overall positive light.

@stevecooper7883 Год назад

Living there, well, there's still a lot of room for improvement. Expanding the light rail to reach the airport would be a great start...

@BusDriverLife Год назад

@@stevecooper7883 I think they plan to extend the green line through Natomas and eventually to the airport. The question is when however! lol.

@daltonm6276 Год назад

Springfield need more shame. We are still tearing down historical building for surface lots... as if we don't have enough parking. D:

@eljefe8149 Год назад

Damn i hadn't heard about that. Just what we need. More surface parking 🙁

@xyz061220 Год назад

As an immigrant, it is painfully obvious unless Lincoln lived / worked there, Springfield will tear down anything, including a church, for surface parking to save someone 5 steps ... 🤥

@eljefe8149 Год назад

We do have groups that try to preserve old buildings. They've often been successful in doing so. There isn't much demand to start a business downtown though. People think there's no parking downtown and hate walking i guess 💁

@astraford6696 Год назад

I'm surprised Albany doesn't make the list. The Empire State Plaza and the highways through downtown leading to it were a multibillion-dollar vanity project that bulldozed minority neighborhoods, cut the high-density downtown area off from the residential parts of the city and the city's waterfront, and left much of Albany as a near-ghost town. The aesthetic I get from that plaza is "this is where a young adult dystopian movie government would host military parades".

@AverytheCubanAmerican Год назад

Out of the capitals mentioned in this, I've only been to Trenton, and I wholeheartedly agree. While it has the advantage of being on the Northeast Corridor and served by SEPTA, Amtrak, and NJ Transit trains, as well as NJ Transit's River Line, it can't make up for the rest of the place. Trenton's waterfront has potential and yet, it's eaten up by a highway, and that's besides the Trenton Freeway that rips right through the middle of Trenton. Albany does a good job with making the capitol grounds walkable thanks to underground parking, but the Empire State Plaza, Albany's excuse of a skyline is just....why? They really saw what Brasília did with their government buildings and were like "Wow, this is the greatest capital ever designed, let's copy it!" It displaced thousands during construction! And that's not mentioning the fact Albany's waterfront has Interstate 787 as well as parking garages and lots next to said highway. Also, there's another set of government buildings by SUNY and it's completely surrounded by a ring road and parking lots.

@jennifertarin4707 2 месяца назад

Albany's skyline is just ugh when driving in from 87 south. There is nothing exciting about it except the Egg which frankly isn't exciting at all. The waterfront has so much potential as does the area around the greyhound station (which in the 30 years I've been traveling in and out of it, the only thing that has changed is the TV sets on the benches were removed) also has huge potential, especially given its proximity to the Hudson

@hagencarter8834 Год назад

St Paul destroyed a good bit of their urban fabric even before the construction of i94 cutting through downtown, when they wiped out a large neighborhood to accommodate the large lawn and sprawl of the capitol seen today. Previously, the capitol complex took up much less space and was integrated into a dense neighborhood, but that was all destroyed with City Beautiful concepts.

@cheesepuffs62 Год назад

I would love a bottom ten DOT list, but also top ten! I give my own state DOT a lot of shit because I see a lot of the positive change around happening at the city level in spite of the the streets owned by the state DOT. Who's doing it right out there?

@wvubjd Год назад

This is sort of blue dot in red sea issue. Most DOTs are broken into geographic districts. Those in areas around urban areas are more attentive to multimodal issues, while the rural are car-centric. If you want to break by states, look at more progressive states (Pacific NW, New England) and areas where they are retrofitting 90s development (North Carolina, Virginia). As an engineer in a state 'caught in the middle' those are the states we borrow from if our design manuals don't cover what we're looking for.

@alpacarama21 Год назад

Calling it now. TxDOT #1 worst DOT. I have interacted with them through work. Texas does Texas things, and the DOT is no exception.

@Fidel_cashflo Год назад

Caltrans is by far #1, they have a big pool of multimodal funding available and actually take climate initiatives fairly seriously. MassDot is really good at bike infrastructure Florida DOT is at the bottom, they take joy in murdering people

@Fidel_cashflo Год назад

@@alpacarama21 while TxDot is horrible, I can’t help but respect how efficiently they build. Sure what they build is an atrocity but boy do they know how to take on massive projects and scale up complex infrastructure.

@ryanfraley7113 Год назад

MoDOT alone could take up a bunch of spots on the worst list. Complete idiocy on a massive scale. - Spend most of their money on stroads and unneeded four lane roads that no one uses. - Completely ignore rural and urban areas. - Bridges there are all rotting down yet MoDOT usually refuses to do anything about any of it. Not to mention that is one of the states without compulsory drivers Ed so driving there is taking your life into your hands.

@fatrobin72 Год назад

As a brit, I see nothing wrong with government buildings in the centers of cities... It makes getting to them by train and bus a lot easier. Surrounding said buildings with an ocean of car parks... That however makes this look not like a city centre but instead an edge of town business park which suffers from good motorway access and no transit access...

@ifithrewmyguitaroutt Год назад

As an Atlanta resident, I hold my breath every time I see a worst-something top 10. Just happy to not be included in this one!

@shivtim Год назад

We made several of the best top 10 lists! Mostly thanks to MARTA directly connecting to the airport.

@thetrainhopper8992 Год назад

Arizona is just desert Florida.

@evanegley8696 Год назад

I used to work at the Arizona DOT, and was rooting for it as #1 here the whole video. I was in a portable office, my manager was in a space behind the maintenance building, the cafeteria was in a separate building, and I had meetings in at least two other buildings with colleagues in the same division. Even back then as a fresh-out-of-college grad I recognized the absurdity.

@julietardos5044 Год назад

The Capitol building in Sacramento is indeed beautiful. You can even rent out the lawns for your wedding. If you're in the area, I highly recommend making time to go on the tour.

@djkollar1 Год назад

For a second there, I thought Springfield IL was going to somehow get overlooked. Silly me....

@MattMcIrvin Год назад

Nice to see the brief mention of Boston as a state capital that isn't really like this (for all its faults). Instead of a Capitol Mall, we just have the State House next to Boston Common, a general-purpose park that the public actually use. The government buildings mostly blend into the landscape of Beacon Hill, and the most malign bit of government development is probably City Hall Plaza which is not the state's fault at all.

@Subosi Год назад

I've actually been to the state capitol in Austin, and it has good vibes. The green area was quite heavily used. There was a lot of activity around there, it's more like a lovely park with government buildings you can visit.

@rchiggins2930 Год назад

Fun fact: Springfield, IL is getting rid of the rail line that runs just East of the capitol building and instead of repurposing it for, say, a tram line (something that residents of the city want and that the city once had) the city estimated a few years ago they'll spend upwards of $76 million to tear up the track and put in another bike path that is disconnected from the rest of the bike trails in the city. Also the city council just voted 6-3 to uphold a deal where they give a company $600K to assist them in demolishing two downtown buildings so they can put in a parking lot. Residents are not happy about it.

@kb_100 Год назад

In the flyover it looked like the city was already 80% parking lot. How could they possibly need more?

@__-fu5se Год назад

@@kb_100 If a city isn't anything but an absolute exclusion zone of asphalt covered, solar irradiating, perfectly flat, gray infinite bleakness with the occasional interruption of a chain-link fence or highway overpass, then it's not something SUV driving suburbanites can feel proud about.

@rchiggins2930 Год назад

@@kb_100 I think they just want parking for the two historic buildings down the road that they rehabbed a few years ago.

@kb_100 Год назад

@@rchiggins2930 makes sense. Drivers can't be asked to park at the massive parking lot 2 blocks away. What are they supposed to do, walk?!

@daver40 Год назад

That city somehow always seems to outdo itself.

@Marchant2 Год назад

I cannot get that line "paved paradise, put up a parking lot" out of my head now.

@ross4 Год назад

About the California Capitol in Sacramento: a lot of those "office buildings" near the capitol building are actually parking garages. Like, 10-story parking garages. I live next to one of them, and it's twice as tall as my downtown apartment building, all parking.

@sIosha Год назад

I see emphasizing green space around a capitol campus as nothing but a good thing. While a bad example may being set for parking, cities should always strive for more green space. Advocating solely for density is just short sighted, in my opinion.

@tonywalters7298 Год назад

No one wants concrete jungles that are forever in shadow. Plus vegetation helps with the heat island effect.

@tonywalters7298 Год назад

@@OakIslandPictures what would serve as a replacement for lawns? For example what other low level grasses could be used that are more efficient?

@catherinewagner8260 Год назад

“This week I’m just going on vibes” Yes

@nzinaz 11 месяцев назад

This cranky old Phoenix resident thanks you for expressing so well my frustrations with this place. The aerial shots of endless "blast radius" parking lots really make an impression. I've seen how thoughtful urban planning can work and I love this place, but it is a mess. 😂

@2layers Год назад

This is what I needed today. A break from educational podcasts. The dry humour is great

@EvocativeKitsune Год назад

Every week, this man becomes even drier and more sardonic. It's glorious

@MightandMagic88 Год назад

This is the first video I've seen from this channel and I literally laughed out loud multiple times. Well done!

@mikeetee Год назад

I'm living for your shady comments about these capital cities! Thanks for the great vid!

@fluuufffffy1514 Год назад

I just love your unabashed judgement of these armpit land use areas! Your sarcasm brings me joy

@pacificostudios Год назад

I've worked in the Minnesota state capitol area a lot. It is a lot more walkable than you realize, partly because the office buildings are tall -- The Transportation Building is 9 stories, at least -- and most buildings are connected by tunnels so one can avoid the cold during winters. The Sears parking lot is important for state office workers, because Sears used to, probably still does, rent their lot for parking. The area has a LRT line connecting downtown St. Paul with Minneapolis, and also the busiest bus line in the city runs along the curved street n front of the Capitol, Constitution Avenue. Finally, the area is a popular place for city activities including events during the St. Paul Winter Carnival and Taste of Minnesota. Many times I've attended concerts or watched fireworks at the State Capitol. None of that shows up on Google Earth, especially the tunnels or the festivals, although you could have looked at the important transit connections. But this is one of the liveliest areas in the Twin Cities. Also, before the area was redeveloped, the Capitol was surrounded by dilapidated wooden buildings. It was almost a slum before the 1950s. That's one reason I-94/35E were pushed through the area.

@Seanathan191 Год назад

I was glad to see the shout out for Sacramento getting things right. I work as a transportation consultant in the area and have put a lot of time into planning projects and impact assessments in the downtown core. I take pride in what the City has been able to accomplish and my small part in it.

@stevecooper7883 Год назад

When will Sacramento finally get the light rail to reach the airport? Salt Lake City has it, and they are not even as big as Sacramento!

@MrThatGuy97 Год назад

@@stevecooper7883 I agree that it should definitely be built, but to be fair Sac's airport is much farther from the city center and you have to cross the American River to get to it. Salt Lake City's airport by comparison is pretty close to downtown.

@Seanathan191 Год назад

@@stevecooper7883 It is actually on the books as a plan, the issue is funding. If I recall correctly, the economics for operating costs for the green line extension make sense up to the old arena site, but north of there the ridership wouldn't justify ongoing O&M. The City is currently working with SacRT towards the next big cost item of getting it over the river which should hopefully get built in the next 10 years if they can find funding.

@AGas1521 Год назад

As a resident of Oklahoma City, I'm honestly surprised Oklahoma's wasn't number one. The infrastructure is horrendous and takes up tons of potentially useful land on the east side of town. The worst part is how proud the state is that it has the only working oil well on capitol grounds.

@garyholt8315 Год назад

surprised there is not a gas station on the grounds too lol !

@sctpoch Год назад

While as a whole the city is hardly a paragon of enlightened urbanism, this is one thing I think Columbus, Ohio does right. The statehouse takes up a single block right in the middle of downtown. It's surrounded by high-rise office buildings, condo towers, theaters, and a few hotels and restaurants - the other government buildings are within walking distance but not really right next door (for instance, the state supreme court is two blocks away on Front Street). It's situated on the southeast corner of High Street and Broad Street, which is the center of the street grid and the main transfer nexus of the city bus network. The lawn is nicely sized but not enormous, and on a nice day is a very pleasant spot to eat lunch or people-watch. The biggest knock against the area is that there's not a whole lot going on once you go more than three blocks or so east of High Street or west of the Scioto River, but that's basically the case everywhere in the city and not limited to downtown. On the other hand, I've been to Madison and have to agree with the other commenters; that theirs has to be the gold standard as to how to integrate a capitol building into the public space.

@Karl.Zimmerman Год назад

I'm shocked Albany wasn't on the list. Not that I think it's the absolute worst - and the damage is pretty constrained in regards to surface parking - but Empire State Plaza easily took out the highest-quality urban fabric, eliminating a large portion of Downtown and blocks and blocks of irreplaceable rowhouses and brownstones. It's like a giant moat separating downtown from Center Square

@deanchapman1824 Год назад

I agree. I absolutely hate the Empire State Plaza. The modern highways too. But Albany has some pretty cool architecture otherwise.

@Jacobwritescopy Год назад

To the state's credit, the Texas lege has approved a facility master plan and in the past two years (it just opened) has redeveloped Congress Ave. between UT and the capitol to be more pedestrian-friendly. They built a MASSIVE underground parking garage for the state employees and there is a hope that will encourage redevelopment of some of the garages surrounding the capitol complex. It is generally demoralizing to live in a state this hostile to humans but there is a weird palpable feeling of opportunity that persists here. With transit expansion and the bike network expansion, there are genuinely some good things going on and we have a pretty interesting new City Council that got elected compared to the last one on land use so there's that too.

@spiriten Год назад

Glad to see this video! I've been campaigning for something like this in your comments for a bit.

@sournotessx Год назад

Wow! I am an Austinite and I went into this video thinking our capital was pretty good, but you really came down on Austin hard! I will admit I have always spent my time on the south side of the capital complex, which I think interfaces pretty well with Congress. It creates a grand end cap to the entire avenue, and in my mind is a very nice park space. I used to work right on Congress and would walk through the capital grounds all the time. I never really thought about why I haven't spent much time on the north side of the capital, which you've made me realize is all parking. As for why I like to live here I will admit that it's getting harder and harder to make the case as the cost of living goes up so much. It has good access to green space and water with the river, hike and bike trail, green belt, barton springs, etc. There's great live music, night life, and food scene. The weather is amazing during the fall and spring and I don't mind the heat of the summer. My bubble in central Austin is pretty small, but there's so much to do and it's really easy to get around on bike/scooter/bus - although this isn't accessible to everyone due to rising cost of living. I work in tech and over all have really enjoyed the tech scene/startup culture here. Although covid has changed this a bit my network here is invaluable. And despite what the haters say, the slacker culture is still alive here; I love the mix of southern/texas/hippie culture. I'm kind of sad you shit on Austin so hard because it has a lot of parking garages and I35. Yeah - it's Texas - but it's also a great place to live. and you probably need to find a better breakfast taco spot

@bhopcsgo7172 Год назад

If you live on the north side, or are coming from UT, and want to walk to downtown or the river, the area around the capitol feels pretty oppressive.

@10-AMPM-01 Год назад

I live in Springfield... His commentary seems correct. Downtown barely had retail. There are empty offices all around. There's an "abandoned" high rise hotel... It's like a neglected second home for Chicago business owners / politicians. Worse actually, it's like a third office for Chicago business /political elites. You know, that office that gets the old furniture from your main office...

@jakestar121 Год назад

Man this list really makes me appreciate Queens Park, the Ontario provincial parliament building in Toronto. The building itself and the area around it is really nice!

@loganwashere24 Год назад

Those phoenix legislators probably get their brains baked by the urban heat island effect right outside the office honestly. Gotdang 130 degree asphalt

@ocularpatdown 11 месяцев назад

"The Texas state legislature is a malevolent force..." Truer words have seldom been spoken.

@lanespyksma8402 Год назад

If you're looking to wash your retinas of these atrocities, there are some good ones north of the 49th parallel (sort of): Victoria, Toronto, and Quebec all have solid provincial capital setups, complete with decent or better transit access.

@patrickmcneill150 Год назад

Agreed. Halifax and Charlottetown both also are very good. Honestly with Halifax it is frankly difficult to find Province House even when you are trying to find it.

@joshhylden Год назад

I concur - especially re Victoria.

@garyholt8315 Год назад

Victoria could use better Harbour connection by means of street closures.

@rebauer2000 Год назад

Boy! What a happy upbeat video!

@jonathanlanglois2742 Год назад

Geez, the two Capitals that I know, Ottawa and Québec are really dense when compared to that.

@scottn7cy Год назад

You and I don't see eye to eye on most things but your work is awesome and your videos are well thought out. I really get a lot out of how you share your perspective.

@alexconrad2904 Год назад

Speaking more on Phoenix, the sprawl there is absolutely the worst in the country, and to a point that I don't understand the city at all. Who would want to move to a place where it's unlivable for half the year due to heat, then drive an hour and a half through traffic-filled highways to get food that's worse than in neighboring New Mexico? I honestly don't see any upsides to the town beside the winter weather.

@combusean Год назад

The heat is dry and not at all "unlivable" compared to winter weather cities. It's a massive backoffice for Northern California so there's decent jobs and it won't have a perpetual housing crisis compared to California because it's very pro-growth. The triangle made by downtowns Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale is reasonably decent--i lived in downtown Phoenix before it boomed and the suburbs and sprawl didn't concern me really and I ate plenty well...not sure what you're talking about driving for an hour and a half because you clearly did it wrong when you were there. I am definitely a cold weather person so I had to move but it has way more going on than say San Jose or most of OC or a lot of other areas its size, especially with a recently well-financed public transportation system.

@ficus3929 Год назад

It won’t have a massive housing crisis because the demand isn’t that high. CA has made many policy mistakes, sure. But a lot of other places skate by with bad policy because it’s just not that desirable to live there.

@willrobinson4976 Год назад

Enjoyed the video.

@centurion1945 Год назад

Feel like Albany NY needs at least a dishonorable mention1. Nelson Rockefeller built the 98 acre Empire Plaza in the '60s to house large parts of the state government on a giangantic stone plinth, separating it from a lot of the city and disrupting the street network. Even worse, they tore down 1,200 buildings to make the plaza and displaced thousands of residents.

@stevenreichertart Год назад

I love your dig at Texas “where the government is actively hostile toward you.”

@reubendensmore4648 Год назад

I am from Springfield Illinois, and I already had the sinking sensation that we'd be on this list, I didn't know it would be that bad. Then again , I did grow up in a lifestyle not different from the average child in a car dependent suburb. During my teenage years I used to walk and bike by the capital building numerous times for both school and leisure and I can confirm that parking is rather excessive here. This was before I was orange-pilled. And the thing is, the area is connected fairly well with sidewalks, in a grid layout, so it has a lot of potential to become a great mid-size city. This is heightened with the many historic sites there, and of course, everything Lincoln. My brother says that we don't need to do anything the urbanist channels suggest because of our size and proximity to the countryside, preferring that we add more lanes, with no regards to induced demand, but I disagree. We can do much better than this. There are Strong Towns murals in the downtown that I have taken pictures of. If there is one thing going for the town right now, it's that there is a major railway improvement project going on that will make Amtrak routes better suited for High-Speed rail. I do however wish the original rail were to be repurposed into a tram line with transit-oriented development, and I'd say they should either change their mind from their current plan, or make the best with what they can out of making it into a bike trail. Someday I would like to share this video with the Illinois Times or a similar local group to help spread awareness. Anybody else from the Springfield area reading this is welcome to do the same. As much as this video hit me CityNerd, I will still stay subscribed, because these videos are important. Thanks for your input, and I'll see you in the next video.

@mikebarlow214 Год назад

As a fellow resident of Springfield, IL, I truthfully am surprised we weren't ranked as the worst on this list. If it wasn't for the weather Phoenix deals with during their summers (and having to through acres of blast furnace heat to get to their Capitol Campus), we would...and SHOULD...be the worst offender of the bunch. We (as Springfield residents) deserve better than the reputation of being the resort city for Chicago politicians (and Chicago politics). Add to that the laissez faire approach our past and current Springfield government have been implementing during my 50+ years here (and I'm sure much longer than that), allowing prominent buildings in the downtown area NOT tied to Lincoln to lay vacant and rot to condemnation. If there is anything promising in the near future for our capitol city, it is that an election is coming up in the next couple of weeks! Send a message with your vote that requires fresh voices at City Hall! The message that we need to save and preserve what we can of our city's identity while we still have one to save!

@mosaicowlstudios Год назад

I'm from near OKC. Everytime I make a wrong turn and end up on the State Capital grounds I literally shout out my frustration...because of the ridiculous on- and off-ramps that make zero sense

@kingstonsean Год назад

@CityNerd Topic suggestion: convention centers. Orlando, Singapore Expo, Amsterdam RAI, Atlanta (World Congress Center and Cobb Galeria), Mississauga International Centre are all sprawling buildings/complexes with huge surface parking lots and/or parking garages. Others, like Montreal (Place Bonaventure and even Place de Congres) and Phoenix are more compact. London ExCel is large, but at least it's on the DLR line.

@bentleyv1233 Год назад

I recently moved from Connecticut to Phoenix, and I’m already thinking about going back to CT 😂 that should tell you what you need to know.

@daniel-wood Год назад

Should I make the case for Austin, or for Texas? I live in Austin because it's not a blasted, exurban hellscape like Houston (Metro Houston is 1.25 times larger than Wales; when I visit my family in Southwest Houston, hitting the edge of Houston means i still have a third of my trip left on a good day), El Paso (even less dense, somehow), or Dallas, and it has better job opportunities in my field than San Antonio. I can get around on my eBike just fine, and public transportation is at least moving in the right direction. I live in Texas rather than somewhere else because I believe that it can be made better. I was raised here; it's my home, and I want it to become a better place. And if all the people who care about smart urban design, functioning government, civil liberties, etc, leave the state for the same handful of coastal cities, the only people who remain are the assholes and those who have no other option. C.f. Mississippi or Florida.

@geirmyrvagnes8718 Год назад

So Austin is great... compared to the option of living in any other city in Texas? I have only visited once as a tourist many years ago, but it was definitely in the top 1 of places in Texas i visited. I had fun, at least. 😁

@daniel-wood Год назад

@@geirmyrvagnes8718 Definitely better than Houston and Dallas, arguably better than San Antonio depending on what you're looking for and what you care about.

@tristanridley1601 Год назад

I had to double-check your figure. Seriously, wtf? Bigger than a country... My brain can't process that much sprawl, so I tend to assume they're being 'generous' with including everything remotely nearby.

@saturdaybetter-ek4yp Год назад

Sorry to say but this is not an exaggeration. It’s insane but Texas is not a sane place unfortunately.

@danieldelgado2066 Год назад

City nerd doesn't go too deep with this but I do it for a living...Austin has some of the least diverse neighborhoods when compared to Dallas, Houston, El Paso, or San Antonio. This is especially true on measures of SES and Race. When it does accomplish diversity it is heavily skewed by racial diversity but tends to still be predominantly white. Compare this with all other cities of comparable or larger size and u get a picture of ATX as white and upper class that should terrify even those with minor concerns of the shape of urban spaces. BTW I'm from SATX, lived in ATX for grad school, and currently live in SATX.

@aidankeenan5479 Год назад

I think the cherry on top for the the Oklahoma state capitol is the oil derrick in the capitol lawn that was actively drilling for oil until 1986 and still has the Phillips 66 logo on it

@rchilde1 Год назад

The logo is tacky but Oklahoma can't/shouldn't hide what it is, just the same as Colorado has a gold plated roof for it's dome (nobody's calling CO tacky).

@Ciidog Год назад

Hello and welcome to the next episode of “what will my background look like” Kidding, great video sir!

@martinlisk9913 Год назад

The coolest thing about Sacramento was when the Tour of California had two stages that finished at the state capital, shutting down the area to cars for two days, it was AMAZING for a former bike nerd like me

@gabrielgarcia7554 Год назад

While I think Sacramento is amazing I think another honorable mention should be Santa Fe. The building literally has no sprawling campus or surface parking, it is a small building that is super easy to walk to and open to the public, they even have an indoor art museum! It’s also built like a Kiva which is really cool instead of the same Capitol Hill copy and paste we see.

@OttomaticM Год назад

I work in Downtown Des Moines and something you missed is that for most of the east village the height of buildings has been limited to not obscure views of the capital building.

@johnbrantingham3255 Год назад

Hi, As a disabled person who is married to a disabled person, I would love to see a discussion of the best cities for disabled people to live. If you do this though, please speak to disabled people. People who are not disabled have a hard time understanding the issues. For example, people who are not a part of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community often don't have a good sense of how difficult reading is. Written text is based on sound; if you have never heard, reading English is like reading code that has no relevance to your life so it's not clear that "through" and "thru" have any relation to each other. People with seeing eye dogs often have great difficulty getting Uber drivers to pick them up, etc. Anyway, I'd love to see an informed discussion of the cities that put the fewest road blocks up for disabled people. Thank you for your fantastic videos!

@HarryLovesRuth Год назад

As a Tennessean who spent three hours on the phone talking to state senators this morning, the built environment is the least of our problems. We're going to try to refusing federal education money. Neat.

@jasonreed7522 Год назад

Refusing federal education money, wow, just take their money and spend less yourself if you want to claim to be fiscally responsible. (Or just spend what you would have had to spend on education on whatever pet project you want, like a another lane on the inner belt way because it will totally solve traffic this time) I'm from NY and while i complain about the state government's agressive taxation and overbearing regulations, atleast they provide some nice services like good public schools, well maintained state highways, and fantastic parks. (Most lakes have some sort of boat launch, most parks have a clean bathroom, and 1/5 of the state is the Adirondack State Park which is an entire mountain range set aside as a state park/nature preserve except for historical reasons you can own private property and live in it so long as you obey some strict regulations. Its protected by the state constitution and is super old, this is because NYC got pissed at the sediment damaging their harbor from deforestation, so they preserved the entire thing in the 1800s for economic reasons and now its a state park with entire towns and counties within it, but no Walmarts)

@metagoat Год назад

Appreciate the shade on Missouri DOT 😂

@timonelson6499 Год назад

Austinite here: you make valid points. But the food (if you know where to get it) really is amazing, and for the two weeks surrounding SXSW we have the most amazing spring in the country. Plus live music and constant weirdos at the university makes it a fun town. Oh, and the nice neighborhoods directly around downtown are REALLY nice.

@JohnFromAccounting Год назад

If you have enough money, move to an Australian city if you like good food. I have no faith that Texas could beat even our smallest cities.

@slickvik4508 4 месяца назад

@@JohnFromAccounting australia lol? if anyone wanted to leave the country for food they would go to europe not fucking australia. hell we could just move to mexico city and find better food than anything in australia

@jaceallred Год назад

Not surprised to see any mention for why Phoenix is so bad besides the size of parking lots and political dumbness. But for anyone else who is looking for more nuanced context as to why this area and the rest of Phoenix rely on parking lots has to do with the composition of the ground. Phoenix's ground is extremely hard to excavate it's pretty much a hard clay/bedrock only meters below the surface. One evidence of this is the lack of basements across Phoenix - you would think that in a sunny, desert area you might rely on the ground for passive cooling, but it's so expensive for home builders to do so that it is rare and only occurs in some areas where it is geologically more easy to do. Why does the ground matter? To build parking structures, you need deep, strong foundations. This is also another reason why Phoenix is so sprawling in terms of low-density homes, and why not a lot of high-density is built as the city continues to grow.

@QuintonjChambers Год назад

Yay Phoenix!!! We topped another list!

@snorkelwackjr Год назад

So glad to see your channel growing! I recall joining what felt like only a few months ago and you only had 20k subscribers. It makes me excited to see how popular the modern urbanism movement is becoming :D

@inspectahdick2406 Год назад

One thing I miss about Spain is laundry machines being a kitchen appliance.

@GoGreen1977 Год назад

Not me. Give me a separate washer/dryer area, closet, room, please!

@b_uppy Год назад

It sucks that YT takes a cut of the cash people are sending to a vlogger.

@renecaminada5867 Год назад

It's amaze me over and over again. How horrible bad cities in the USA are designed. 4-5 parking garages around a state capital building? Parking lots all over... HORROR. The designers had all brain damage when they sit behind the drawing board. And those highways all over... sigh. Poor people.

@combusean Год назад

I'm pretty sure the history is closely tied with urban renewal. Center cities in the US were terrible places to live after WW2 up until somewhat recently.

@furripupau Год назад

Honestly, Austin's capitol is not so bad. It's fairly compact, there are lots of sidewalks that cut across the land so it's much less of an impediment to pedestrian traffic than it is to cars, and unlike most of the examples in this video, it's not ringed by a wasteland of single level parking lots. The one truly crazy thing about it, which I was surprised was not mentioned, was their used to be a law that none of the buildings in Austin could be taller than the capitol building.

@benschwabe2504 Год назад

I'm shocked New York's State office complex (the Harriman campus) didn't make this list. Not the Empire State Plaza in downtown, which is a monument to architects hatred of humanity, nor the old capital building which is fine. Most of the state employees are actually working in a set of low rise offices completely surrounded by surface parking which is in turn surrounded by a double loop of mulitlane roads (one clockwise, one counterclockwise) that you have to use to access the offices. If you aren't approaching from a couple places, the only pedestrian access to the campus is to dart across six lanes of traffic, ford two big drainage ditches, and climb over some guard rails. My mom worked there for decades, it's hell.

@willhazen9507 Год назад

Deep sigh of relief after Indianapolis avoided the list. The state government is finally getting around to redeveloping a massive block large surface lot for the State Archives, which is currently located on the edge of the city.