this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2025
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What's missing is walkability and "third-spaces." Seriously. We are building our cities wrong as a matter of policy and it is absolutely destroying us.
See also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHlpmxLTxpw
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/29/extreme-car-dependency-unhappiness-americans
https://medium.com/illumination/the-death-of-third-places-and-the-evolution-of-communities-5bbffc01c5e
https://designdash.com/2024/01/29/the-problem-with-car-centric-cities-for-community-public-health-and-more/
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/11/2/the-negative-consequences-of-car-dependency
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/03/05/all-the-ways-that-cars-harm-our-communities-well-almost-all
Europe took a long stroll in that direction too, but there are some major differences. First, most of their cities were established before cars. Second, they're making more of an active attempt (in some areas) to be walkable again.
In short, in America 75 years is a long time. In Europe, 75 miles (120km) is a long way.
That's true for America too, and isn't an excuse. American cities were not built for cars; they were demolished for cars!
For example, downtown Houston, TX in 1957:
vs downtown Houston, TX in 1978:
That's so absurd it almost doesn't seem real
(from my european perspective)