- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26223998
Housing Rule
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The European mind can’t comprehend.
About ten years ago I met a group of American exchange students at some high school event. The city (in Europe obviously) had* the most incompetent, mismanaged, underdeveloped, dysfunctional public transit system I had ever seen… and the Americans had nothing but praise and adoration for it. I couldn’t understand why, until I stumbled across Not Just Bikes and learned how fucking dire the situation is over there. The transit system is still the same, maybe worse, but this new perspective gave me a measure of appreciation. We’re not quite as fucked.
However, most tourists only experience the public transport in relatively central areas of the city, going mostly towards the centre, and mostly outside rush hours, so they do experience it at it’s best.
The European mind can’t comprehend.
We got lawns from France and England.
A classic English garden is quite different from an American lawn. An English garden has flowers and bushes and ornaments. It is very well maintained though, that is true, too maintianed maybe. The grass part is also pure grass with no room for “weeds”. But the English make it look “orderly and autistic” while the Americans just make it look “sterile”, no life, no inspiration, no spirit, no joy, no color, no vegetables, nothing.
In the same way you got deep dish pizza from italy
If you wanted to. American seems like they’re required to have a lawn or else they’ll get sued by HOA or something.
My HOA requires a “percentage of green space” which most people have interpreted as lawn. Primarily because it is cheaper (and less effort) to just slap down some Kentucky blue grass and a sprinkler system than it is to plant native plants.
If you violate HOA rules, they can put a lein on your property (fine you) and, in extreme cases, you can be evicted.
Why do HOAs have this power? Property values.
So down at the bottom, what’s the reason for the homogeneity and isolation of suburbia?
Laziness and greed.
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Yes. Yes. We played video games or read books or had to have our parents drive us to a park or walked the whole way (no sidewalks) there.
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Because our officials are incompetent. Yes. Yes.
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See above on lobbying from oil and car companies.
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Because the word “commie” is scary to Americans from decades of indoctrination and the “nuclear family” having their own home is the biggest lie in the “American Dream.”
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Because of zoning laws. Refer to the above about incompetent officials. Yep, it is simply not possible and legal.
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Americans care way more about appearances than actually having things be useful. What can I say, we’re fucking coddled.
Hope this helps. It’s valid to still be baffled at such.
incompetent
No, malicious. Racist in fact.
Suburbs were intentionally designed to be hostile to families without a car. This created a financial barrier to living in the suburbs, organically weeding out “undesirable” (aka non-white) families. Yes this also meant that many white families also couldn’t afford to move to the suburbs, but that was a downside the rich white racists were willing to accept if it meant keeping most non-white families out.
You’re absolutely right but I’m also gonna go out on a limb and say malicious/racist and incompetent are not mutually exclusive from one another.
They are not but this incompetence angle ignores a more likely scenario: corruption
But people in us sleep better when we say:
don’t atribute malice when incompetence will do
Yeah sure but this big money and when there is money, there is corruption
This the hill I will die on.
Add in redlining and you’ve got yourself a good ol’ American suburb!
- Americans care way more about appearances than actually having things be useful. What can I say, we’re fucking coddled.
But that is the strange part to me: its appearance is awful. A big garden full of plants is much nicer looking than only grass.
But HOAs mandate then
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This isn’t even fuck cars material, its a big, overarching fuck US zoning and bureaucracy.
overarching fuck US zoning and bureaucracy.
Because focusing on cars is looking it pedon up perspective… But it just one tool used yo oppress us
The entire economy right down how our houses are build are designed to oppress us
From a foreigner perspective they don’t under why would accept it with a riot
I mean, yes and no
It started out that better off people get conveniently located nice houses with a yard. That became “the American dream”, and so when the middle class was suddenly strengthened it was very in demand… So they kept building them, further and further out, until distance became insane
A lot of them were originally planned communities, so it wasn’t too insane. You might’ve had a walk to get out of the neighborhood, but nothing like it is today.
The car centic infrastructure came in later - the sprawl kept growing, people had to travel further, and so they keep making faster roads with more lanes. Which are the opposite of walkable
Add in the death of mom and pop shops… You can’t have a warehouse in every neighborhood. Corporations want to go big, a Walmart replaces 100 other shops. And add in the parking requirements, which are like full fire code maximums minus employee count (which is basically arbitrary nonsense) , and your land requirements become insane
This wasn’t designed like hoa’s and redlining, this was organic, like cancer. They played hand in hand, but this was a natural development…a very bad one, but one that emerged indirectly
spoiler
(Shh… you’ve discovered the secret: !fuckcars is actually about zoning!)
Decent points, nonetheless.
As someone who grew up in the city and moved to the suburbs for a brief period of time in my teenage years, I had similar questions. While it was arguably the highlight of my life, walking to and from school was a nightmare because we were all the way in the back. While it was a nice place to live in, the logistics were hard to ignore.
As someone who lives in the suburbs in the Midwest as an adult who can’t drive - yes it’s a fucking nightmare. I lived in NYC and just lived near subway stations, best time of my life. SoCal is a close second, I lived in a city that was walkable/bikeable to anything - including the ocean. To say the suburbs were a shock is about as equal as my depression is to it still today. I’m an artist so fortunately I at least have that to do at home, the depression means it’s working right?
I’ve seen my neihborhood slowly shifting in the few years I’ve been here.
I got everyone on my small street to start gardening and they got other blocks to start, we all share our extra crops for the most part. No one is very good quite yet aside from a few houses who’ve been doing it for years and have been trying to help us non green thumbers.
There’s a plumber 2 streets over who’s lived there for a decade, I used him for a job and now he’s the go to guys for most of my direct neighbors.
I make my own oat milk so I buy oats in bulk. A few people in the neighborhood buy a bunch from me for much cheaper than the grocery store and some have even started making their own oatmilk with me.
Anytime someone needs tech support they come over to me first, I used to see a geek squad van in the niehborhood weekly since there a lot of elderly. I hate doing it, but my god those tech support companies are slimy.
I’ve done a couple carpentry projects in the neighborhood and helped fix quite a few fences.
I feel like I moved here and said “why don’t we help eachother out?” And it was a revolutionary idea that no one had thought about before.
When I was in the city it’s just what you did. People survived with eachother but out here in a weird mix between the sticks/suburbs it seems like most people don’t even know their neighbors names.
Is it difficult to make the oat milk? I drink a lot of it and have been thinking about trying to make it at home to save money, but I wouldn’t know where to start.
It is very easy. You soak your oat overnight, throw away the water add some fresh one, blend it and strain it. That is the same for pretty much any vegetable milk.
I read that all with a Slovakian accent and it made me happy. I will likely bust out with that accent next time I want to rant about how stupid suburbia is.
Ôc stopin douz pípľ from džast päkin ap end lívin? Auŕ bratia of Bratislava vud uelkam dem uit oupn ármz. Ánlez dejr Hangäryjen ór Džipsy ór dérz tú mäny of dem.
Clearly this person has not have had much access to that premium american kool aid
That shit will wipe all that wrong think out quickly
Aw, someone jelly.
