Why American Suburbs are so Creepy (liminal spaces) 

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It’s also the lack of trees in all of the images you depicted

Many of these places make me question "is it legal to walk there?".

I grew up in Los Angeles. My parents who are now both over 75 years old said to me that they used to ride streetcars all over Los Angeles, AS CHILDREN, in the early 1950s in the middle of central L.A., but they disappeared... seemingly all at once. I asked my mom, "well, what happened?" She said they were replaced with buses and more highways were built (destroying many vibrant neighborhoods in the process). I later come to find out that the General Motors company had a nationwide conspiracy to get more people into cars and to buy their vehicles, so they bought up streetcar systems all over the U.S. and replaced them with big, gas-guzzling buses. When the buses proved inefficient in your daily life, you needed to buy a car. The car became de-facto "required" as a means of convenience, plus it was aspirational to own one (along with a suburban home, the car was a sign of "making it and part of achieving the American Dream", riding the bus or taking public transit in many towns was then viewed as socially "undesirable" and "inconvenient" -- and in many cases even derelict). Of course, car ownership shot up. However, the U.S. government FINED General Motors and ruled what they did as a conspiracy. But by then it was already too late. Also General Motors was one of the main lobbies behind the Highway Act which built more and more roads throughout America for its vehicles and to drive sales, under the guise of "convenience," "efficiency" and "modernization". Thanks, General Motors. Oh yeah, the U.S. gov't also bailed out this company not too long ago.

i live in a small Texas town, and there are legit NO SIDEWALKS. if you walk anywhere, ppl will look at you from their cars and be like “why are they walking to _____?” because it’s so denormalized here. i used to live in the bay area, where walking anywhere was completely normal because there were actual sidewalks, smaller roads, and smaller parking lots. it’s actually wild how society functions in some places.

Agreed. I ride my bike to school everyday and it feels so boring tbh. It feels like a desolate wasteland, and also because I'm the ONLY ONE riding a bike. It definitely feels like I'm in a zombie movie or smth. It truly sucks, in no civilized society would you have to drive to a grocery store and not walk there. It seems that the country has been more about making money than putting health first. "Kids, be thankful for your freedom, now get in the car" (I stole this comment)

its wild when i see rows of homes and they dont even have sidewalks. like, those neighborhoods arent even designed for people.

North American suburbs are worse than most North Americans realize. I grew up in the US, and lived in both semi-rural, and suburban environments, but never realized just how horrible they were until after I moved to Germany then came back to visit the US after several years. Although the German town I live in has only about 40,000 inhabitants, I can still walk out of my home and within 10 minutes and have access to any amenity that I wish: shopping, restaurants, pubs, theaters, outdoor/indoor cafés, bakeries, supermarkets, doctors, train/bus station, etc... just about everything - and that is in this town alone. Most other towns of this size are similar. People are out and about all day and even at night during the warmer months of the year. If I want to visit that next, much larger, town over, I can bike or take a bus, or even drive my car, but I don't have to drive, and prefer not to as driving can be more inconvenient depending on the situation and available parking. Why drive somewhere if you know you might drink a beer? The US is TOTALLY different, and not in a good way. About a year ago I came back to the US to visit my brother who lives in a single home suburb in the Denver area. I was amazed by just the width of the road in front of his house. (Why had I never noticed that before?) It is more than twice the width of the road in front of my home in Germany, which was only built in 2014. One day when my brother was not at home, I figured I would go for a meal in the *closest* nearby restaurant for a hamburger and fries. I figured I may have a beer or two, so I decided to walk rather than drive, which turned out to be a mistake. The walk was nearly an hour in one direction, with a “stroad” and no other pedestrians along the way. On my way home, a nosy cop pulled over along the side of the road and asked me what I was doing walking along the road in the dark. Luckily, he left me alone, but not after admonishing me for not having a way to get home “safely”. It was surely my authentic, yet fake, German accent that got me out of that one. I was in the Denver area again about a month ago, but this time I stayed in a hotel. Looking out my hotel window toward the back of the hotel, all I could see was a huge wall with a highway flyover behind it, and when looking out the front of the hotel from the lobby all one could see was a HUGE parking lot with a strip mall way off in the distance. What does it take to come up with the idea of building a hotel among so much ungodly concrete? This experience was more soul-crushing than the visit to my brother last year. I can now understand why so many Americans unashamedly and casually admit to having “therapists”. I find this all very unfortunate and have decided that I will not be spending the time and money to bring my wife to visit my suburban family members anywhere in the US outside of New York City. Most American cities and towns are just too boring and ugly, and are essentially just huge parking lots. There are plenty of much nicer places to visit here in Europe. If I start feeling nostalgia for America, I can just drive for 20 minutes to Ikea and walk around the parking lot.

As someone who lives in suburban Philadelphia I have to say, I cannot relate at all to this video. The town I live definitely has the cookie cutter home style as described in this video, but it does not at all feel “liminal” or “empty” here. The streets are lined with trees and sidewalks, and it is a very active community where I live. People are always walking around outside, walking dogs, riding bikes, etc. There are multiple community parks with biking trails and nature trails within walking distance of my house, as well. We also have state parks that are not too far of a drive away. I guess it’s because the town I live was built before all these zoning laws came into effect is why it feels much different than the places described in this video.

Having grown up in the USA, this video precisely describes how I felt about these places. Its like these places are not places at all like Not Just Bikes says. Being stuck at home feels like being stuck on a remote island surrounded by an inhospitable concrete wasteland. The only practical way to get around is to get in that metal box on wheels. Oh, and you must ask mommy and daddy to take you pretty much anywhere, but to where if everything is just copy-paste chain stores and restaurants.

Fact is, if the street is barely wider than two cars, you actually a) need to know how to drive, b) drive slowly and c) be undistracted. Three things many US-citizens seem to be allergic against. Edit: Because some people in the replies think I'm endorsing that, no, it's obviously pathetic.

How can people in USA continue to beleive they live in the most free place in the world.

Suburbs are clean and safe. I like that.

Holy shit… this explains why people from the suburbs always act like they’re fearful/vulnerable. Like a mouse in the middle of an open field where there is nowhere to run or hide to

Fun fact: even though American suburbs are so sprawl they are actually in total taking less space then parking lots in America - which BTW is another alarming statistics. In total there are 8 parking spaces for each car registered in America. In Europe on avarage there's 0.8 parking space for each car registered.

Now this is a genuinely great take on liminality, the restrictive construction laws that America has causing the isolative and alienating landscape that is the American Suburbs.

I grew up in the suburbs and there’s nature trails that intersect the suburb with parks and creeks and little wooded paths and I love it it’s peaceful

It's so depressing seeing America turn into Corporate America with all its blandness and "productive" aesthetics. Especially how creative everything was back then (I'm 33)

Man, the suburbs can be quite a miserable place for teenagers. Literally all of my close friends live outside of my neighborhood, so I rarely, if ever, get invited to the fun things they do. This past winter was really rough. I was planning to learn to snowboard this winter, and possibly go to a ski resort with my best friend, but the cost was too expensive. So while everyone else was having fun during the winter with their friends, I was basically stuck at home. This lead me to borderline addiction to a mobile video game called Clash Of Clans. On some weekends, I’d spend hours and hours raiding people’s villages and earning massive amounts of resources and trophies. I’ve gotten more passive about the game now, but man, was that game my lifeline. Living in the suburbs as a teenager with most fun places being either expensive, too far away, or lonely, is hard. 😔

Gen-z's have the weirdest phobias

Those suburbs are my worst nightmare. In the UK suburbs I am within a 5 minute walk of everything I could possibly need

My suburban neighborhood had an internal sidewalk and a community clubhouse and pool that kids can easily get to and use without being exposed to the risk of cars or needing adult supervision. Had it not been for that, I would have been much more miserable growing up.

Yes I'm so glad I grew up in the 70's and 80's where tons of kids on Bikes roamed all around, each house had kids playing outside.. families barbecuing outside, everyone minding their own business to an extent... There were never any HOA's...so everyone had their thing going. One yard had cars on it with people working on them, customizing them...the next had older people gardening... there were always kids everywhere. People back then values freedom and individuality over conformity. They also valued vigilance, and weren't always distracted by the hand held phone. There were block parties.. people went for walks in the afternoon and evening. Kids turned vacant lots into baseball diamonds, or BMX tracks... it was a very fun time. Now I'm completely shocked to hear that some parents get arrested for letting their kids play outside... what a disgusting world we live in!!!

I grew up in a city, moved to rural area as an older teen, moved back to city, then moved up to the suburbs. I am now living near my parents in a cookie cutter neighborhood in what was rural 25 years ago. I love it. My grill is in the front and everyone has a dog. We are alive & well here.

As SCP-079 once stated "That was the day I learned there is no such thing as freedom - there are only bigger prisons".

Dude my dreams are full of creepy, empty suburban areas. They aren't quite nightmares but they aren't good dreams either. So glad I live in a community that has biking trails throughout town and a historic downtown with personality. Helps combat that liminal/hopeless feeling.

i clean some pools in alot of subdivisions and let me say. its insane how desolate some of these places are. theres subdivisions within subdivisions. no trees at all, some have gates that lock everything down after a certain time. these people make good money, and they choose to live in a arguably nice house. but barely any yard or freedom to do anything. some of these houses are literally just a house. enough room in the backyard for a pool. and then a fence that seperates the lots. and these people are paying like $2000-$4000 a month. just to be told you cant have flowers in your yard or paint your house a different color. fuck that

I came to America in March 2020. Didn’t have a driving license when I arrived, so had to walk through empty highways to my first job site for like 4.5 hours on my first day. Lockdown + no sidewalks + empty giant highways + ugly stroads. No bus or metro before 8 AM. I didn’t get my debit card until two weeks later. Didn’t have no friends who could help with taxi. It was the moment I realized this country is not designed for people. It’s designed to feed capitalism.

as someone living in asia (taiwan) i envy you guys so so so much to have a dedicated living area, low traffic flow outside residential houses, and wide walkable streets. come to taiwan and live, and you will cherish the suburbs in the US again

I recommend watching Vivarium which truly makes the suburbs look extra liminal

Every day we get a little closer to being like the Borg... I never liked suburbs like that. I grew up in rural U.S.A. in a house in the woods with just a few neighbors through the trees, way outside of town. My only source of socializing my family members, because we were too far away from everything to walk, and there weren't many good places to even go to. It really is mostly chains of gas stations and stores and fast food restaurants. It's horribly ugly and repetitive and unappealing and car centric. I grew up very lonely and isolated. People wonder why kids and teens are on phones and playing video games so much nowadays... just look around. So many of them live in copy and paste suburbs like these, and can't drive until they're 16, and even then fun things cost money they may not have. What else are they supposed to do? There is nothing to do outside. The only entertainment available is digital, and their phones are the only way to talk to their friends because they can't get to them in person. Phones aren't the cause, they're a symptom, of restrictive capitalism-driven bad urban design. Great video.

Driving through suburbs in Massachusetts feels like this. Endless neighborhoods, no open space, suffocating.

So if you have more space it is creepy? I don’t wanna be jammed with people everywhere. You have you own yard, you can play there. Kids can play, have an inflatable water slide, a swimming pool, … etc.

It's like the new Australian suburbs that are built like an unorganised soulless dystopian nightmare minus the parking and big enough roads. Where the mansions are for the rich people the roads are in much better conditions and the parks are very dreamy. Every immigrant I met always complains how empty the streets are and there is no community

Suburbanites make fun on city dwellers regarding how out-of-touch they are from nature. Yet they settled on wide open, sprawling settlements that consumed a lot of wild habitat. While dense and compact urban development (especially with green space as the pollution-absorbing third place), even for biggest and busiest cities - will definitely save nature and farmland.

1:04 She says it's quiet. As someone who's living in a large city with background noise from never ending reconstruction, drunken mob, and neighbors behind apartment walls, I would kill to live in such environment.

that realization at 1:52 was wild, its the lack of people in the streets that make it weird??

the suburbs feel like even if a slasher invades into your home and you scream help there will be no one to save you

I would like to know why in the United States it is illegal to have businesses within neighborhoods. I am from Argentina and literally the neighborhood stores are small but efficient compared to the large supermarkets. Because for example, I just need to buy a drink or buy something for dinner, I just walk 1 or 2 blocks and I'm already shopping. The total time is at most 10 minutes round trip walking.

I remember my first time staying in a suburb. I found it really strange, and it was empty. It wasn’t a typical suburb, because it was in the middle of a field. We had to drive a few miles to get to the city. It was ridiculous. My neighborhood I actually live in is the same way, minus the field. Walkability is impossible on a time crunch. It never creeped me out, it was just weird not seeing people moving or walking. And it’s a ridiculous distance from cities.

When I was in the inner city sure you had to deal with the crime and poverty but the sense of community in the inner city was something that could NOT be ignored. The amount of neighbors who knew each other and had each others backs with block parties, side shows, many neighborhood events it was crazy. I live in the suburbs now and I miss that sense of community

I live in Fresno California and this had ALWAYS been an issue growing up. The suburbs are dead quiet which can be nice at night when youre trying to sleep but in the middle of the day it felt like i was the only human in a dystopia. No one wanted to go out because even going to the nearest grocery store was a 10 minute drive through winding neighborhoods and copy-paste houses. It was practically completely unwalkable and left me a complete homebody. When I travelled I noticed how walkable everywhere else was. In my hometown you almost NEVER see people walking around.

You- you mean Americans can play Backrooms just by going out the door?

This is actually very TRUE!!! I was sent to silicon valley for a training and I'm from Philippines, it felt so scary walking on the empty sidewalk. And on very wide parking lot it seems that if someone kidnap or attack you, no one would notice. Also houses don't have fences, its very uncomfortable to sleep near the window knowing someone could be there.

I was raised in Las Vegas. The neighborhood I grew up in my childhood was newly developed but there was no HOA to worry about. We had a neighbor next door that painted their new house teal and a few houses down there was another one that eventually painted theirs navy blue. Every house looked different. But as I grew up and looked at the new developments, the more things started to feel more copy and paste. I currently live in Northern Utah and this is even more true. On top of living in the "Mormon Bubble" and feeling these awkward feelings, the neighborhoods are truly cut and paste. Well manicured lawns, every other house has a Tesla, a large truck or SUV. And then when you take the highway to another city it's either more of these developments or vast farmland. And even the farmland itself feels awkward in some way.

speaking on behalf of south korea, I think that walkable cities only work there because they have the foundation of a good public transportation system + the country is small, so housing is typically built upwards. It would be difficult to implement a similar format into a country such as the U.S. given its size and its lack of reliable public transport

As someone born and raised in the suburbs words can’t describe how tired I am of them.

I love your videos, they're always so well done. Also, love that outfit!

Whenever I see suburban development houses it just feels weird driving through the neighborhood. 90% of the houses look the same, they’re all that ugly tan color, and most of the time there’s no trees around which means you have no privacy in your backyard, and then there’s those HOAs with strict rules. It just feels like I’m driving through a prison yard. I’ll happily keep living in my 1960s house with trees all around, privacy, no HOA, the houses on my street all look different and have different styles and vibrant colors, and best of all I don’t feel imprisoned in my own house.

I always thought I was directionally challenged, but now I know it’s because everything looks the same!!

My neighborhood has been lived in for a about 40 years. 15 minute walk to a downtown area with beautiful streets, lots of stores and restaurants. My street always has kids playing on it. Its also so safe the kids leave their bikes and lawnmowers out and none have ever beeen stolen.

Developers in the UK are building these types of spaces all over the country. The new build apartments used to feel that way, and still do but not as much as the new build housing estates. I used to tell my friends I felt they felt empty and souless, but now I know the term is liminal. It's a concept that speaks to the bit that makes us all human, with the ability to recognise when things arent quite right.

Oni love video essays about stuff like liminal spaces! This is really good!

Middle class punk rock bands from California be like: I had difficult childhood growing up in the hood The “hood” they grew up in:

My current neighborhood was built in the 80s and I love it! Every house is built differently, the lawns all have the homeowners unique decorations, trees and foliage all over the place, people walking and super friendly; HOWEVER it also has a street that connects it to a suburban neighborhood that was just recently built. That neighborhood is like what was described here. Eerily empty and devoid of people, no trees, cookie cutter houses, no character or uniqueness because it's an HOA; Its like a night and day difference. The fact that the HOA neighborhood is more expensive to live in, despite having no character or charm blows me away.

Great info. Thank you!

I personally love most these things that you and a lot of the commenters are saying. I love the peace and quiet.

Are you familiar with the author James Howard Kunstler? He wrote two books about suburbanization called "The Geography of Nowhere" and "Home from Nowhere."

I love how cars have made it so the design of the neighborhoods are implanted into our brains.

My favorite spaces with a powerful vibe are store and display windows at night with lights in them. Like an oasis of humanity in a (flickering) neon time capsule @3 a.m. for only you. And with the night (Unknown) pressing in. I am always drawn like a moth. I do find empty spaces previously filled with people to have a "weight" and a feeling of expectation in them, but I really enjoy being in those liminal spaces.

Man, thanks so much for the work you're doing. I agree with you 100% and would love to see future videos about solutions to this. Have you heard about some of these "mixed use" communities springing up within suburbs? There's one in Cedar Park, TX called the Bell District where they are building a "downtown" with 3rd spaces like a library, park, and some restaurants, etc. all within walking distance to a few neighborhoods.

I didn't grow up in a suburb so I have always found them super creepy. It's wrong and alien and flat and empty and inhuman. And now I made my skin crawl by thinking about it too hard.

He should make a video about asian suburbs. Who agrees?

nailed it. everything is just a drink through. never feels like theres a place to stop. just a place that feels empty and sad.

I've always said I hate the suburbs without knowing quite why. Thanks for your clear and insightful analysis. American suburbs are SO depressing. I've always felt that I want to live either right downtown where I can step out of my building onto a sidewalk with people walking by. Or live in the countryside where there is land and nature and a sense of life doing its various cycles!

Where I live we don’t really have huge suburbs like that so when I saw those photos I legit got scared

It's not just that it's empty and feels strange that nobody is there, the proportions and details are wrong. There are so many European streets that looks absolutely beautiful even when they're empty.

I live in the suburbs in an amazing, diverse community that has lots of trees, sidewalks were people are always walking, a nature trail, wide streets, community pool and playground, we even have a school in the neighborhood and eventually will have a childcare center. It’s so safe and quiet. It’s a dream compared to where I came from.

I doordash with my bf sometimes and some of the new suburbs.... it didnt have a SINGLE CAR IN SIGHT. ANYWHERE. No garden hoses tucked away, no porch items or yard decor... just mild 'landscaping' and maybe a doormat or wreathy decor thing on the door, tastefully. It was so creepy...... we turned the corner and we were in a normal neighborhood again, with cars parked in the driveways and streets, some kind of yard/porch decoration and signs that someone lived there....

This just made me understand why I find subdivisions so creepy

Whenever the topic of the USA comes up in conversation I always have to mention how hideous I find my country to be. It slips out without fail every single time. "Extremely unsettling consumerist cultures" is such a good way to describe the aesthetics of the states. I've always looked at other countries architecture and building placements with awe, but also despair bc America is literally going to turn into the Idiocracy movie IRL, it's been in effect since that movie released lmao.

Your setup looks so nice 👍🏼

and when you do see someone walking, especially on those stroads, it feels weird. "why are you walking there, aren't you uncomfortable ?"

I find overuse of the word creepy to be excessively creepy.

As someone who’s lived in the hood their entire life and is currently living in the projects - yet also just got accepted into nursing school for this fall, trying to get myself through school so I can make it to a decent suburban neighborhood one day.. this is just insane to me seeing thing’s from the other side and how it isn’t ideal in the suburbs either. Still, the quietness would be better than constant fighting and gunshots lmaoo

I grew up and still live in some of the older, more walkable suburbs outside Chicago. Many of them either feel like neighborhoods of the city with their own government, or smaller towns with an almost rural feel. They often have a lot to offer, multiple public transportation options that are adequate at worst, are easy to get around in on your bike or on foot, and will often feel like a true sense of community. Whenever I have to go into what I call "true suburbia", it's astonishing how much more sterile and miserable it feels. I can wrap my head around living in a small town or the middle of nowhere, but I cannot fathom actually wanting to live in an HOA-controlled suburban cul-de-sac.

We have quite the opposite problem in Italy. Towns and cities get congested because of the way streets and roads are structured, but at the same time you see a lot of people walking around

It's not a suburbia/urbanites difference. The uniformity comes from the same builders using the same plans. I live in a suburbia with many different custom builds and it is full of soul.

And suburban people act strangely... Like the spaces they occupy, I've found them to be "not-real" replacing meaningful conversation with fake, surface conversation... They are very different compared to urbanites..

Kenopsia. That is the exact atmosphere that hit immediately in my city of about 5-6 million in March 2020, when the first strict lockdown began. It was bizarre & unlike any experience I’d had in 40 years living & working in the same place. Metropolitan trains still ran to the schedule down the tracks right near my house, except they were empty. Police cars circled our once friendly neighbourhood, trying to catch people who were out in public.

Im from the Chicagoland suburbs (lower - middle class), ive only ever seen neighborhoods with that "creepy, perfect neighborhood, all the houses look the same" vibe, in the movies/ just once in person, when we drove almost to Wisconsin to deliver a hot tub

Supermarkets just started opening 24 hours in my city and I went to one to purchase something at 2 am Walking into a completely empty store and I mean completely empty, no security guard at the door, no cashiers, no cleaning personnel, nobody filling the shelves, nobody shopping was every as fuck. I could have grabbed anything and walked out

Where I live, we have suburbs that were built in the early 2000s (and a new suburb build last year) and the differences are CRAZY. The new suburb looks exactly like the ones shown in the video (large samey houses, small properites, liminal as hell) and is connected to one built in the 2000s (small but unique houses, bigger properties, much more pleasing visually). The roads in the older neighborhood are worse for wear, there's a big pothole near the entrance :(( It's unfortunate that they decided to connect the two neighborhoods but not invest any money to fix up the road a little

I found it weird flying over the USA. I don't find suburbs are that bad in the parts of Canada I've been to. We have sidewalks, bus stops, corner stores and cafes, and a trail to make it easy to walk or bike to the nearest shopping district. But a lot of the sameness has gone into the newer streets, and it's so bad. Cheaply made just to take advantage of the housing market and new stores. I'm fortunate that I'm in an older part, built by my great grandfather, and still has his garden plot where I grow fresh veggies. I can walk to my physiotherapist, pharmacy, and a local grocer, as well as some food places. My house is a very unique design that I've made fit my needs. I just wish more people realized why these older suburban streets worked, instead of just a hill full of copy-paste duplexes and townhouses that stretches so far up the hill that you can't easily walk to the places nearby.

i always wanna live in that kind of area when i was a child, looks so empty an quiet which is so good for me who didn't like crowd and noisy places

Don't forget the ever-present No Loitering! sign.

This is why Rush Subdivisions is one of the best songs of all time.

Videos like this really make me appreciate living in the suburbs of Denmark

I'm sure a "15 minute city" is sooo much better.

Please. Nothing’s more creepy than Kensington in Philly.

I’m so glad that I live in a small city that’s very constricted by land. Even though I live on one of the the east most part of the city, I can still hang out with my friends from the west most neighbourhoods because of decent bike paths and a downtown smack dab in the middle of the city.

I grew up in a suburb. When I was in my early 20’s. When I gone outside to go to this one store it felt liked a ghost town. Adults working and even children at school. For the longest time it was the only suburb and in the early 90’s to early 2000’s lots of homes went up near the suburb that grew up in.

Suburbs are not creepy. Unless you exist online and never been around them. I’d take a suburban neighborhood any day over an inner city.

An empty school at night always gets me...

Great vid!

I actually prefer the peace and lack of people in suburbs. It feels like a dream for someone like me

My older sister's family used to live in the suburbs. When I used to visit her, I would be playing ball outside with my nephews.The neighbors didn't like that and told my sister about it.Since then when I visited her we weren't allowed to play outside.

We are forced to have preservatives put into our foods because the supermarkets are miles away, going shopping every day makes little sense. We shop maybe once on the weekend and get everything we need. Food like bread and cheese has to last awhile since you don't make frequent trips to the store. Thus food get filled with preservatives. If you live in Paris, you pick up bread and cheese every day as you walk past the bakery on your street while coming home. No need to put a bunch chemical in it to keep it from spoiling for 2 weeks.

The human/car scale is the most annoying, it's bad for everyone because buildings look like straight concrete and ugly square. and if you are a human, not a car, you can't even look at the signs without leaning your head to the point where all you can see is the universe at night

I think to some degree it's also because towns / cities were often been built using vernacular materials. Nowadays, however, it's more than likely than not that materials to be used in construction are shipped from far and wide