The Problem With Shopping Malls 

The most worrisome part about America’s suburban experiment for me is the fact that it keeps everyone so disconnected and forces people into their own bubbles which in turn leads to more polarization. If the US ever falls, this would be one of the main factors leading to the downfall in my opinion.

Our local mall has always blown me away with its incompetence. Their rent is so high that half the floorplan is dead and their idea of attracting customers is remodeling the mall to add/ remove stupid crap every 10 years. How about just lower the damn rents so you can offer people a variety of interesting products at a reasonable price. I'm fired up because it has strung me along for 20 years with false hope that it'll be a fun place to spend a few hours.

I'm by no way European, I'm from South America. But I've travelled the world a tiny bit, and the place where I felt the biggest culture shock was the US. I thought having grown up with their T.V., movies, books, that it would feel like home, but what I found was this soulless gray place where I couldn't walk anywhere (and why would you travel somewhere when you can't even walk). Strangely, New York felt like the least crazy, most normal city of them all.

Whoever that guy is, his plans are almost exactly what we have here in the Philippines. Malls are surrounded by apartment buildings, there's usually medical facilities inside like dentists and clinics, and there's even attached transport terminals for people who commute. There aren't much trains here but the very few have stations directly near malls. Being near schools is almost just a coincidence since planners don't really like the idea of young students loitering around after class, even if that's something that's already happening. It's no stretch that they're mini-cities in an already densely populated city. Imo, the secret to that is the air conditioning. When the climate is hot or raining, malls are really convenient to be in.

I think there's two lessons to be learned from the shopping mall. The mid century rise of the suburbs was accompanied by a cultural shift where the idea of going outside without a car became an increasingly foreign concept. This shift required a reimagining of many traditionally pedestrian activities to allow people to undertake these activities from within a car. Restaurants gave way to drive in and then drive through establishments. High street movie palaces gave way to drive on theatres. Cities built parkways through and to their major parks to allow for "recreational driving", and so on. Shopping malls represent a similar attempt to vehicularise the traditionally pedestrian main street experience. What is so interesting is that shopping malls (compared to other attempts to vehicularise the main street) are mildly auto hostile. Whilst they are designed for people in cars to drive to, they then require you to walk. A lot. And yet, compared to strip malls, power centres and commercial stroads, shopping malls achieved arguably much higher levels of success.i think the lesson is that most people are much less sold on the car dependent lifestyle than is commonly supposed. Secondly, despite being mildly auto hostile, shopping malls didn't do anything to actually change people's lifestyle towards a more sustainable, pedestrian one. This is because shopping malls did nothing to actually challenge car dependancy in the suburbs and on the residential streets where people live. I think the lesson is that if you want to change people's lifestyle away from driving, you've got to start at home. Refitting residential suburbs to nudge people towards staying local, waking, or using sustainable transport is worth far more than even the greatest pedestrianised downtown.

I have argued for this sort of city for 50 years. It's just gotten worse ever year. I hope your work improves things.

I'm so with you. I have moved to FL and am resisting buying a car. I cannot stand them. Another reason for the police to intervene in your life. The registrations, the licenses, the car payment, the insurance, the gas and on and on and on it goes. New to your channel....but I love it. Thank you.

For a first video, the quality is insane. This advocacy for better human oriented design is what the US needs. I love how well edited and put together this is. Sometimes it can be boring to just hear someone talk with stock footage. I really hope you can put out more incredible content!

2:35 Ironic considering that keeping all the apartments and everything probably would've generated more profit than just the mall.

Love seeing another Urbanist starting a brand new channel! Great editing, great research, great video. Can't wait to see more!

Loved the video. As someone who was born in England, grew up in the US during the 90s but still visiting Europe a lot, it's one of the reasons why I made the decision to move back permanently. I love these cities (like London) where you don't need a car and everything is within walking distance. Need groceries? Walk there. Sure, you can't buy/carry as much groceries as you would with a car, but the fact that it's so close - you don't need to. Infact, it being close lets you get freshier ingredients on the reg. That combined with great mass transit which lets you step onto a train in one city and off in another city center, it makes things like "Let's go to Amsterstam for the weekend" Or Paris. Or Barcelona.

This is a great video! Helped me formulate some ideas for my senior thesis on Victor Gruen next semester! Definitely see some awesome potential for your channel and wanted to say I was here from the very very beginning! Just subbed!

The editing is definitely top notch. It's covering a lot of topics and summarising what other channels have posted in individual videos per topic, but that's not a bad thing.

I live in NYC and, even though there are a lot of things I hate about living here like the sky high rent, I still love the fact that you dont need a car if you live here. You can get anywhere within a 15 mile radius using public trans. On top of that, even if you dont want to use trains or buses, everything you need is also within walking distance. I still dont have my drivers license at 24 lol but im getting one soon.

Here in Brazil shopping malls are usually in very dense city centers, in places that are easily accessible by public transportation and walking. So for us shopping centers are very useful because they are basically a commercial street but in a single place and without noncommercial buildings in between like in the street, so they are still very much in use and not decaying here because they are useful. Usually their parking lots are mostly either underneath or above the mall itself, so it has parking spaces for those that want to drive but they are still very accessible by people walking that don't want to cross huge parking lots to get inside. Shopping malls are not the problem itself, the way they are built amd though about in the US is.

An example of GOOD mall design is Newport Centre mall, which is right in the middle of downtown Jersey City, NJ. The location is quite accessible thanks to dollar vans/shuttle buses (that go up to the GWB), the PATH (from Newport station; goes to Midtown and Lower Manhattan, and Newark), and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (which serves most of Hudson County). The mall opened in the 80s, and the area around it flourished and became more urban because of it. Unlike other malls in the US, Newport is THRIVING The problem with its design? Even in an urban environment surrounded by transit, it STILL has a parking garage. Newport is the most popular stop on the HBLR, and the majority of Jersey City doesn't own a car. So having a big garage is pointless, and it's better to use the land to expand the mall's number of stores, or perhaps for housing as well (since there's booming demand for housing in Jersey City).

In NJ I think the pandemic has accelerated the rebirth of small walkable towns. Many people no longer commute to NYC for work so there's been a bit of resurgence in coffee shops, restaurants and bike shops in the places I'm familiar with in the burbs. Now if only we could get some protected bike lanes to connect all these small towns 🤔

This channel comes swinging out of the gate with this banger. Looking forward to the future!

Some malls are being converted to apartments. I myself squatted in one of the deserted stores (Gilly Hicks) of a dying mall, along with a few other people who found other empty stores to occupy. I was able to pick the locks, get inside, change the locks, and move in. I’d use the bathrooms, and shower/bathe in the fountain nearby my spot (I’d wear a cheap one piece swimsuit while bathing). I had a mini freezer and mini fridge, microwave, and hot plate for my meals, and a folding cot. Unfortunately the local sheriff’s department forced us out. Later, the junkies, gangs, and drug dealers moved in and turned the mall into a war zone. It got to the point where the SWAT team had to sweep it in a raid, and eventually the building was demolished, the land fenced off. It still sits as a vacant, weed choked fenced lot today. TL/DR Some malls are being made into apartments. I myself along with a few others squatted in the stores of a dying mall, we made our own methods to inhabit them. Police kicked us out, we got replaced by addicts and gangs, police forced THEM out, mall building demolished and is still an empty lot.

places like Phoenix metro center are starting to create full mixed developments with housing and an elevated light rail station, so it's good to know the guys dream is finally coming true. the good thing about Phoenix is that it's possible to reduce car lanes.

The production value on this video is top tier, can''t wait for more!

One thing the hood has over the suburbs is the sense of community I guess. Ignoring the murder and gang beefs, there's always people outside doing stuff 😶

As a European swiss who moved to Ohio, I couldn't agree more with the points you made in this video. We desperately need to find a way to end or at least lessen car dependency in the usa.

Living in a city the past three years has really made me hate the way we design them in the US. When I lived in an apartment just down the road from the school I was attending, it wasn't so bad, cause I had sidewalks, a convenience store, food at the University and a couple restaraunts around, and a mall about a mile away all connected by sidewalks, but once I moved further out into the suburbs, I started to notice the problems. I like having the option to drive, but it sure would be nice if I had the option to walk, bike, or ride a train/bus to get to my destination as well. But I don't. If I want to go somewhere, I've gotta drive. I really hate how hard it is to convice people that cars and walkable areas can coexist, cause the answers have already existed for decades, we just ignore them. I'm glad to be moving back out to the country soon. At least then it'll make sense when it takes me 30 minutes to get to the grocery store, as it's in another town 30 miles away instead of 2 miles as the crow flies and thirth minutes of traffic

As a European, I can tell you that such dense building is not ideal either. There's simply not enough air to breathe. There's concrete and brick everywhere you look. In contrast, you may have green lawns, but in my view, at least it's something more green to look at and you have more air and sun. Not to mention that I love the idea living away from my noisy neighbors. Living surrounded by cement is not making me any more social. I just want to go more often outside of my city and breathe a fresh air, connect with the nature. We also have malls, but our cities are so old that they don't allow for much infrastructure changes for a greener life and pedestrian only streets. What may look good on paper and pictures, these pedestrian only streets are a nightmare for the living people there because of the loud music from bars, shops etc. And people in most European cities still use their cars to go to their malls despite the dense building.

Lived in Europe for a few years, having lived in Atlanta all my life. I love my country but fuck me I miss trains. I miss just not having a car and still being able to travel basically anywhere on foot no problem. My parents live 3 hours away and I'd love to just be able to hop on a train and go visit. I remember I came back to the US and saw that I-75 had this elevated structure being built alongside it on the Northside, I remember thinking "Shit, are they finally building a rail system?" but no it's a god damn toll road...

If the USA would want to be a car free pedestrian friendly society, it would probably take atleast 1 and 1 quarter century considering how much larger the US is than the Netherlands, and how much more people they have.

I really like this video. Vienna's Mariahilferstraße, Austria's busiest shopping street, is a good example of how transitioning from cars to humans is both possible and profitable. Including Vienna at the beginning and end of the video would also help to tie the video together.

Imagine needing a car to go to the supermarket and not walking for less than 5 minutes to buy a plunger... I imagine it :(

It's impossible for you to not have heard of NotJustBikes.

Editing on par with channels with 5M+ subscribers. Great production.

Great video. I was surprised to see that your account has only 54 subscribers, I think you deserve many more. However, the topic is very depressing.

I personally LOVE being kept physically far apart from others. Not everyone wants to be crammed together. But I totally agree: people should have the choice.

It is ironic how "the land of the free" is the opposite of free in some aspects

You go to shopping malls today, and there's almost nothing but tech stores selling cell phones and cell phone cases. Hardly and variety, and if you're looking for something specific, it's either out of stock, out of date, or sold online only. Remember when stores were packed with merchandise? Now it's like they only have the bare minimum.

Problem is I don't think modern walkable centers would be any better. One thing you are forgetting is that the walkable areas have old buildings that were actually constructed with love and care unlike todays buildings that are just built to be the cheapest thing possible to meet all the government regulations. Would a walkable town with a bunch of crappy 5 over 1s be any better than a mall? I don't think so and the reason I don't think so is because I have been to many of these crappy new trendy places in many cities. The absolute worst was Charlotte NC, that city is is just completely souless and is filled with modern apartment blocks and 5 over 1s with crappy chain stores

In Hong Kong, we have apartments on top of the mall and sometimes a public transport station under it. This design is common here due to the lack of land but it solves the problem in this video.

You don't even need a big urban city. Small towns with a main street and a market square can be very rural but still urban enough to be car free. The diameter of a small town should not exceed 1 Mile. That way even if you live on the outskirts in some single family home it would still be less than half a Mile (5-10 Minutes walk) to get to the more urban center with shops and apartment buildings. Add to that a train station to connect to other small towns in the region going all the way to the next big city and you have the perfect alternative to suburbia. One big urban city with no sprawl and in the surrounding countryside you have small towns, farming villages, farmland and forests. That is sustainable in every sense of the word. It's good for the environment, it's good for peoples mental health, it's sustainable financially and economically as well.

One single video? Only a hundred subscribers? What the heck, watching the video I didn't expect that at all, it's so well done. Subscribed.

was surprised when i found out this was the first and only video on your channel so far, pretty good shit

This might be the best introductory video on this topic for its length that I have seen. incredible job!

The mall concept is based upon real city streets, the problem is when the the mall is not connected with its community, for example in my area, many malls are near a cemetery, and not near actual housing.

With the rise of online shopping, malls have struggled and shuttered. Now they're reinventing themselves to be more appealing to everyone, whether it be to include indoor water parks and theme parks like the American Dream Meadowlands or a housing development. But Cheesecake Factory is the peak of American malls. Its decor screams "Let's further treat ourselves and eat here before shopping some more". Sure they're weird with their dictionary-sized menus, but that's what makes them stand out. The first restaurant opened in 1978 in Beverly Hills, and the rest is history. I hope to open just a street of Cheesecake Factories but they're all different designs with statues of me.

Great video! Please make more urban planning videos Also as someone who spent his honeymoon in Amsterdam earlier this year, that place is magical! 👌🏾

Basically every town, city high street center in the UK and Europe. It’s not a new idea as such because that’s how our towns and cities have always been, I’m guessing Gruen was homesick and wanted to bring a bit of his old home to his new home.

The golden age of malls was the 80s/90s. Most malls had a store that catered to everyone in the family. Whether it be clothing and jewelry stores for mom and teenagers, electronics stores and Sears for dad, or KB toys and arcades for the kids, or the food courts and movie theaters for the whole family. Nowadays, it seems like there are more dead malls than thriving ones. Sadly, most of the thriving malls where I live only cater to women these days. The only thing they have for me are leather massage chairs so I can wait for my wife to finish shopping. It's sad, bc in the 90s, I considered myself a mallrat.

You can't really stop the car unions from lobbying tho

Profits over people... Always the trend in America

Sadly this can't happen in America, as the country runs on profit. People's quality of life doesn't generate a profit so this won't happen.

Great video. I don't live in the US but I can empathize with it a bit. I live in the second largest city in Mexico. The city was never planned for the growth experienced in the last 25 years and now chaos reigns in the streets. A battle of the car centric make wider roads where possible vs add bike lanes is non stop all over town. Bikes are good but not if you have to go 10km to go to work every day...

The first time I went to a shopping mall like this, both my parents and I were practically jumping up and down with excitement at the "return to civilisation" feeling we had. For context, we had just moved from Hong Kong to a car-centric hellhole where - as we described it - "either deserted or only has cars". Thanks to your video I understand why. It was sad that we were *this* excited at a shopping mall because it was the only place that reminded us of our life back in Hong Kong.

This is interesting. If I recall correctly, Walt Disney wanted something similar in his parks and was planning it when he died. Legend has it that after his death the planned community was scrapped.

So 'Mericans butchered a good and sensible idea. Ok.

"Expletive, expletive, expletive, disgusting...I hate it!" As a former pastor who focused on community building and as a current architecture student, this statement summarizes my feelings to so many suburban forms, at so many levels!

I can’t believe this is your first/only video it’s so good and I can’t wait to see more ❤

I have probably been looking at the Not Just Bikes channel too much to recognise the shots you integrated.

I grew up near Portland Oregon & my childhood home was about a 20 minute walk to the nearest bust stop that required going over a big hill. In my early 20's, I'd start taking the bus to get around, even though the walk was such a hassle & when I moved out, I chose an apartment off of the MAX line, sadly having to go for an affordable one meant that there wasn't much else within a close walking distance, even walking to the nearby Subway restaurant took like 15 minutes. There was a Fred Meyer close to the apartment complex but it was about a half hour walk through neighborhoods & another apartment complex to get there. It's such a pain, even somewhere with decent public transportation takes a while to get from place to place without a car. Part of it is waiting at crosswalks & being mindful of the roads. I never learned how to drive & I'm in my early 30's now, when I was a teenager, other than being in a car accident that caused me to be unable to look at the car in front of me for years, I just flat out didn't want to learn how to drive because I was trying to figure out how I can do better for the environment, I looked into efficient cars but they were too expensive & whatnot so I decided since we have trimet, I'd just use that. Well, Portland got too dangerous to be around, my extended family are in their 70's, & I couldn't afford rent. My parents decided to move closer to family to spend time with them while they're still around & I needed somewhere more affordable to live so I followed. Sadly, their public transportation system is well, it's not Portland lol. I'm locked at home almost all the time, I can walk to some nearby restaurants & a little farther away is a Walmart, theater, GameStop, & more restaurants so I have places to walk to but it takes a while to get there. I wish things were more walking friendly. I'm considering spending this summer learning how to drive because I'm sick of being stuck at home. I'd rather be in a community where you don't need cars but that just doesn't exist where I live & I'm sort of tied to here until my extended family are gone because I grew up away from them, I want to spend time with them before they're gone.

Sad think is, that I see such regress also in Europe. This "walkable towns" are basically only in town centres, but suburbs are becoming the same as in America.

I hate cars with all my heart

NIMBYs hate this video

It's nice to admire Amsterdam. But do keep in mind that most of the cityscape shown in this video is at least one hundred years old. More recent neighborhoods are far less walkable and more car centric than the older ones. So even though the sprawl in Amsterdam may be less extreme than in the US, building walkable and attractive urban environments in a world where cars exist has proven to be difficult.

I know what I’m asking is not possible but I would love to combine the European way of walking everywhere and American way of having a big house, that’s secluded enough you can have your own life. I live in Europe and I absolutely enjoy being able to just walk out of my house, walk 3 minutes and be in the open and just walk around. But what I like abt America is their big houses (we don’t have these here, everything is pretty cramped), with their own backyard and it’s basically a whole world of its own, and you don’t have to worry abt annoying your neighbor. You can even not socialize with your family if you’d like, and as someone who needs alone time to recharge their batteries that’s great. I am a university student, so I don’t work, but I do commute to uni. If we exclude uni and my commute there, I spend easily 5 of the 7 days in my house. I would love to have an American suburban house. Sadly, what makes the walkability of my city possible is also what prohibits the existence of such houses.

Brand new mixed use mini communities are already popping up across america. But, a lot of people also just choose to stay in the suburbs with their houses, yards and cars as well. There is no one size fits all when it comes to peoples living preferences.

Great video. How about, making one on the drive-in theaters? Why doesn't the large state of Texas, with all it's wide-open flat lands, build a high-speed train linking all it's large cities? 🤔

Good video man keep up the good work!

You said he included housing and other necessities to his project, but they didn't build it. It's not his fault they didn't implement it.

You knocked it out of the park with this first video, man. Nice choice with the Sims music too. Liked and subscribed, I look forward to seeing this channel grow!

I would day Toyoko is a good example for what a city should look like. Meteo Toyoko has several sub cities within it. These sub cities have there own identity and layout. But are all connected via the best plubic transit system in the world. You can get almost anywhere in Japan via train.

Great video, you definitely had experience with it before :)

Good thing there are walkable cities where I live.

This channel is going places that’s for sure! :) Subscribed

excellent video! You explained the concept of car dependency perfectly. I think more people need to realize how car infrastructure is killing us and our cities. The editing is also stunning.

Only problem with your theory here is that Tokyo has exactly what you specified, and it doesn't seem like it's that much helpful than the alternative

I hope to never own a car again. It's one reason I moved away from the US. For now, I live in Istanbul, Turkey. There must be a dozen bakeries within a two minute's walk from my apartment. Cafés and markets are everywhere. Plus, the transit system is excellent. Owning a car here would be a hindrance.

i love finding a new good urban planning channel

I think I have a better understanding of why I was so excited to go the Mall as a teen, I don't think it was the I was gung ho on materialism, I think it was I was excited to have random encounters & people watch. Great video! Bonus points for including 2 shots of the mixed use development we have in RVA!

As an American that also hates cars, and just got back from two months in Europe, ITS PARADISE. I thought my expectations for walkable places were unrealistic, but literally EVERYWHERE I went, IT WAS PARADISE. Even the least walkable places on the entire continent (middle-of-nowhere in the countryside Austria) had better transit than the best places in the USA

First video? God, you're informative and hilarious!! i enjoyed what you made and hope to see more from you!!! subbed and see you down the line!

random clips of amstardam are the only therapy to cure the trauma of seeing a split second of suburbia

It is good that you point out the necessity of the car in Gruen’s original vision of the shopping mall. Also, when comparing the climates of Vienna, the Netherlands and Minneapolis (in whose suburbs Southdale was built), you see a much less hospitable cold-weather climate. People there drive to where they want to go rather than walk in part because it’s brutally cold. It’s interesting to see some of the uses of repurposed shopping malls: schools, museums, medical centers, offices, gyms, apartments. Everything that was excluded from the start. If everything had been put together to start, who knows what might have happened.

The issue isn't with shopping malls per se, but rather American's over-dependence on cars. Take a look at shopping malls in Asia which are usually attached to public transportation and even to residential spaces.

in my country shopping malls dont have a lot of car parking space,because the malls are in the middle of the city,you can go to mall by walking or bus,or tram,or of course,car,people have money for cars,dont forget that

The problem I see is the sprawl of US car parking zones. Car parks of this expanse would never fly in my country and would need to be stacked up in multi story buildings. The land gained from doing this can be extremely valuable and be used for pedestrians.

You know you've got a poor design and a problem when the parking lot is 3 times as big as the damn destination it engulfs. What a waste of land space. Build up not around.

A couple of thoughts: I love this video and the research done behind it is amazing. It reminds me a lot of a Johnny Harris video. I find it quite sad that cars and parking lots always somehow get shoehorned into every development. It’s like every walkable development always has to find a way to please the car-lover. I love the addition of a new Urbanist channel, but it’s going to take a lot more than a large online community to really change things. There are many people out there who are used to our autocentric society who will probably never stumble across any of the videos on YT. We need to do a lot more to raise awareness of this. However, I applaud the strides that we’ve taken as a society. Lifestyle centers, mixed-use communities, the expansion of transit in North America, the addition of bike lanes in many cities, the resurgence of downtowns in small towns and major cities and the addition of intercity rail in Florida, Texas and California are evidence that there is a growing appetite for a car-less lifestyle in America and projects like these would have been inconceivable 20 or 30 years ago (at least before RU-vid became popular). Anyway, I’m rambling off topic. Great video and I can’t wait for the topics that you’ll discuss next. Hopefully we’ll see you on Nebula in the future!

Sad, my future grandchildren will never know what a mall was.

I is ironic that suburban shopping malls are dying in the USA because people now go to "big box stores" where the parking of equivalent size is dedicated to a single store. (and Amazon has bought some failed malls to convert them into fulfilment centres). So instead of drincving and parking in malls to visit multiple stores, you now drive/park for each individual (big box) store you need to visit.

Part of it also is they chose to follow a little bit of what had been before after the destruction of World War 2. And what was before was a lot of unplanned communities. So maybe take the planning out of it and let individuals decide on their own.

certain american towns brag about having the one walkable road with a few shops, greenery and a fountain to the point that it becomes one of the main attractions and i find that so cute and depressing at the same time. They'll even go so far as call it "the cultural district" or smth like that...

I‘m calling it: „Expletive“ is going to be the next expletive.

Incredible quality for your first video!! Wow!!

Great video! Unfortunately shopping malls are still popular outside the United States. In many places around the world, if your city/town gets a mall then it means your Community is doing well.

You need more subscribers man, this stuff is too good

new urbanist channel just dropped

In the Toronto region there is a push for Gruen's vision. On paper, Scarborough Centre ticks most of the boxes and serves as a prototype for what he was aiming for. It is a mall with excess parking in the back. However, there are also residential towers, offices, and public services located on the premises and it is all centred around a rapid transit and bus station. However, note the keywords "prototype" and "on paper." The mortal sin is that the area still feels highly disconnected from the surrounding areas. To the north past the parking lot is a multilane expressway, that is a write off. To the south is cul-de-sac residential with limited access to the complex. The west is dedicated to heavy industrial and low rent office use, which while car-centric in its nature could have benefited from better pedestrian and transit connections. The east is probably the best, as there are office towers which are connected by elevated walkways and the same rapid transit line to get across the wide arterial. Still, the wide spaces surrounding these towers with this separation of transport makes it feel more like Le Corbusier's Radiant City than a truly urban place.

I live in a mixed use neighborhood in Sacramento California. We have all kinds of business within walking distance. And yes you are right about this being an older neighborhood. My house for instance was built in 1912.

I was really surprised when I saw you had under 2000 subscribers, these videos are so high quality and interesting, anyone reading this should watch another youtuber called ''Not just bikes'' who also does urban planning and anti-suburbanite videos. Great work mate, keep it up!

I hated the mall when I was kid because it felt so sterile with all the concrete and artificial lighting. I still hate them. Much prefer something like in europe outdoor dense small shops.

I used to live in Canada. I grew up in the mall culture of the 80s and 90s. Back then, as a teen, the mall was close by, in walkable distance and as a teen, I was fortunate to grow up in a neighbourhood close to these amenities. I lived in suburbia but a connected one. However, after living in more car-centric towns and cities where public transportation is abysmal, and car payments mounting, I found I had to get out. I much prefer Eastern Germany where many cities are connected by light rail and within the cities, trams and buses are accessible. Sometimes I miss driving but I like getting out to walk around and know, in order to go grocery shopping, I don't need to sit ten minutes in the car to arrive at a parking lot and a destination. Fantastic video. Follow your dream and get out of N. America. There's always a way.

Imagine the regret Victor had when he died, only fueling the use of this crappy infrastructure when he was trying to put it out.