Why American Suburbs are so Creepy (liminal spaces)
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- Опубликовано: 19 май 2024
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Have you ever wondered why suburban neighborhoods and empty parking lots feel creepy and uncomfortable? Why does America look the same everywhere? Images of suburbs are often used as Liminal spaces which are in-between or transitional space between two places. They're designed exclusively for cars and not for people. As a result, everything becomes a thoroughfare rather than a destination. Everywhere becomes a place to drive through and not a place to drive to.
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➜ References & Further Reading:
Liminal Spaces:
• Liminal Spaces (Explor...
Incremental Growth:
www.strongtowns.org/journal/2...
Homeowner Associations (HOA's):
energynews.us/2021/02/11/home...
Sense of Place:
• Designing Urban Places...
Copy-and-Paste Towns:
www.andrewalexanderprice.com/...
Ontario losing farmland:
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...
Japanese Parking Policy:
www.adb.org/sites/default/fil...
➜ Timestamps:
0:00 Suburban horror
1:07 Suburbs are liminal spaces
2:55 Why suburbs look weird
4:43 Everywhere looks the same
6:03 Natural city development
7:39 These are policy choices
8:57 Sponsor - NordVPN
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Milkman Conspiracy in Psychonauts.
commie propaganda got in your head, it's over
commie
With NordVPN, I can pretend to be in Japan. Now I can tell people that I live in Japan!
First, can we scale the "creepy" metric by starting with the AI-generated animated image narrating this video? "Creepy" OFF the meter . . . (And why are its lips glistening wet?)
Combining a whole lotta' concepts that don't apply to the thesis, buttressed by pop-psychology and a lack of understanding that America was built as a "car culture" post-World War 2.
The can-do country. The better-living-through-chemistry country. New. Shiny. Convenient. Efficient. The whole point of the suburbs was to be away from the hustle, the bustle of the city, the urban areas, where the only sounds you heard on the weekend were your neighbors' lawnmowers and children playing. An oasis away from it all . . . That was the intent. A feature, not a bug. Yes, there is sprawl. But that is changing in many areas. (Not addressed.) This creepy animated narrator also doesn't make any distinction between/among older 'burbs and newer 'burbs, east coast v. west coast. Down with parking lots. Uh, okay . . . Now, we have to convince tens of millions of people to forgo the independence of their own mode of transportation, and trade them in for the noble "efficiency" of more rail (something of which I am in favor, actually.) And....this will be done overnight? Subsidized by the federal, state or local governance? As they say, "It's complicated." I found the example of Japanese "suburbs" precious. Truth be known, there are no genuine SUB-urban areas in Japan. It is a nation of 126-million people in an area the size of the State of Florida. Of course, they're going to be more "connected." They have no choice but to learn to create spaces with more crammed into it. The same can be written about much of Western Europe. They simply do not have the space. We do, in the United States. There are more issues I could counter. Suffice it with this video serving as yet another down-with America polemic, and all of the propaganda therein. Pretty tedious stuff. And, of course, there is never any room for improvement or optimism. Nope. Don't fit da narrative. More doom. More gloom. Aw, shucks . . . In short., not worth any serious consideration. (And I LOVED the jab, "Freedom, right?". Does this ghostly avatar wish to discuss 'conformist culture' in the United States as compared to Asia? Truly? We could be here for days . . . )
It’s also the lack of trees in all of the images you depicted
THIS!
exactly. plenty of hoods have trees and diverse plants and look fine
We have lots of trees in our suburban neighborhood.
factsssss
I live in a subdivision and they cut all the trees along the road because someone scratched their truck 😖 in Ireland there is a tidy towns competition and people take pride in trying to out do other towns by cleaning up, painting and planting flowers etc
Many of these places make me question "is it legal to walk there?".
i cant drive so i walk most places and it feels like im doing something wrong when im just trying to walk to my dentist appointment 😭
Yes, the police have stopped me a couple of times in these places because they found it suspicious that I was walking
commie propaganda got in your head, it's over
@@LolonMatinezin the suburbs?? Lots of people walk and bike ride in suburban neighbors because the streets are wide, there's little to no parking on the road so there's always people walking or jogging.
@@LolonMatinezin the suburbs? Where?
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.
That's really depressing!!
You are correct General Motors (Ford) did, as others in the car manufacturers, conspire to bring street cars to their end. They cited reasons such as labour costs, the inflexibility of the system to adapt to growing areas of the community, scheduling of services which provided the ideal excuse to replace them with buses instead of providing an integrated public transport system. The fact is when big business is involved and there is lame efforts by government's to "punish" their friends it is only tokenism and having to "appease the public" the reality is, money and profits, hidden agendas and personal interests which are always political (like winning the next election) will always have priority over any public consultation. The whole process is a sham, be seen to being to the right thing, even though the decision has already been made.
"general motors street car conspy." wiki...it deleted me the first time, let's see if this takes...anyway, experts say it wasnt due to gm and that it happened naturally.
@@nonamenoname661 "the inflexibility of the system to adapt to growing areas of the community" Well that makes sense. You've convinced me that it was the right thing to do.
@@joejones9520 trust us that big company’s lobbied against public transportation in favor of personal cars, it’s one of the most American things ever.
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
Good explanation
Pretty much. Plus they're all on xanax.
@@nataliekhanyola5669LMOOO reading this while in Xanax
This makes me appreciate my area. Our suburbs have trees, gardens, trails, rivers, and small stores and businesses you can walk or bike to, depending on how far the street goes back. It's getting worse, but I'm in a good spot. I've walked along a wooded trail to physio, a local grocery, and pharmacy before. I feel like suburbs on the prairies would be horrible.
There's nothing wrong with the suburbs or the people who live there. This is a trope born out of envy.
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)
i feel the same way about certain suburbs. one thing that makes it much worse is if there aren't a lot of trees around. in order to make a neighborhood feel normal there has to be a lot of trees otherwise its like you're on another planet
In LA riding your bike to school can become a high speed chase at any moment... very exciting
Congrats your the main character, truly
commie propaganda got in your head it's over
Seems? Nobody gives a fuck about me or you anymore.
(To specify, not literally nobody but. 99% of infrastructure ignores normal citizens now.)
its wild when i see rows of homes and they dont even have sidewalks. like, those neighborhoods arent even designed for people.
Everything in America is designed for one company or another. Suburbs are designed for the car / oil / tire companies, which in turn helps the large box stores kill off their local competition. Look at almost any bit of design - even stuff that doesn't seem deliberate - and you can find some company that wanted it like that.
Even the ghetto has sidewalks in the US and only time I've seen no sidewalk is way out in the boonies with dirt driveways. Never even met an American who didn't have a sidewalk but sources online say only half of America has them. Half living in the city/suburbia and the other half living in the country so kinda makes sense. It'd be odd for some city people to not have them but not so odd if it's an older city that was used to horses. Ghetto by grandma's house got sidewalks and railroads and the slaughter houses. Much smaller sidewalks but area around there used to be fields and sorta recently that it's now city. 3:16 looked like a german name, then before that the asian place. They got less sidewalk than I've ever seen for a populated area.
@@jayeisenhardt1337 80% of Americans live in cities.
@@shrakathe 2nd largest city in the country is one massive suburb. The most populated state in the country is one giant suburb. It's not 1930. Most people do not live in "cities" but metro areas which are mostly giant suburbs rather core cities. Actually core city population of the US is probably less than 20%.
@@shrakawow!....the real big picture😢
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.
Fr I live in a small Texas town, and you are instantly classified as a crackhead if you are seen walking somewhere, bc there ain’t no sidewalks lol
Suburbs are clean and safe. I like that.
Yup. Say what they want, but I'll take bland, safe suburbs over cluttered, crackhead-infested, walkable, inner-city hoods.
There also creepy
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.
very much understandable.
The only option I guess is to move somewhere else.
I believe, there are anyway dozens of places in the US which rather remember you of European or at least more beautiful places.
I’d walk to a 711 near me 😂😂 I’d go out and train ⚽️ everyday 😂😂 I love the suburbs it’s the best. Losers like u stay behind while I get better
amen. love to drive but hate having to have to drive. suburbs tend to have no souls in part because they have no history and there is little or nothing to individualize them.
while there are solid places to live in usa....the primary reason i stayed in montreal quebec having also grownup in the usa is it is a city as a city should be. rare in north america.
i have had a car more often than not but its great not being absolutely dependent on it. here there is a time for driving but also a time for walking, subway, cycling etc.
@@diesunddasDE the issue is that places with better quality of life are likely more expensive compared to where one is currently living in, making it more difficult to save to reasonably afford a move.
there's many aspects that make it ridiculously difficult for many to even begin considering a move.
It’s better than living in the city with the lost and soul less
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.
Narrower streets will be safer for the people because it'll take shorter time to cross, and less exposure to sunlight while doing so.
Street and road are different words. The whole purpose of a street is as some kind of open air, outdoor public space for people to socialize while walking to certain place. It makes sense to ban any motor vehicles from our streets,
@@selflesssamaritan6417Narrow streets also make drivers focus more, subconsciously drive slower, etc. Narrow streets are just superior, look at The Netherlands for example. The problem with The USA comes down to its sheer size, they haven't had to adapt to optimal efficiency because there's so much space, whereas in places like The Netherlands, (a small nation) they were forced to use space optimally.
@@selflesssamaritan6417
Suburban streets will always be of mixed use. Should there be side streets with no cars? Sure, but drivers have to be able to drive in a peaceful fashion too.
And it's not just the street (as the asphalt) itself, it's also the front lawns with NOTHING on them - at very best a few cars are parked here and there. So you often have 40 meters of total emptiness, where it feels safe to drive as fast as your car can go. Pretty sure, most race tracks are narrower between solid obstacles…
For comparison a tiny residential street in Germany is 5 meters with a fence right next to it (no sidewalk, as traffic is limited to walking speed) and another 5 meter of front garden on each side and then come's the building.
How can people in USA continue to beleive they live in the most free place in the world.
I think ppl are waking up but corporations dont want them to
I’m American, and I don’t believe we are free, honestly we are far from it compared to how it was.
Most american suburbs don't look like this. People choose wherever they wanna live and these suburbs are usually cheap.
@@tonyye8680 cheap? Thats extremely false. Property taxes alone are a fortune.
Fr, literally every thing you “own” is rented. And you can’t even outsmart that statement by for example taking a rock in your backyard claiming it’s yours and hiding it, nah if they really wanna take it from you, they WILL take it from you. It’s not yours. Nothing is.. except your own body and mind.
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.
It’s all about the money in USA, we have been sold out to corporations by lobbyists and politicians, our new motto is- USA a nation of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.
Excellent analysis@Himmel.
Your first mistake was living in a suburb in the West
Have you been to some of the smaller, old-fashioned US rural towns? The difference from the suburbs is unbelievable with some of them, a lot of stuff is much better connected and they clearly designed stuff with more people in mind (sidewalks, mixed zoning areas, etc.).
America was not made for pedestrians AT ALL
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.
And yet I still struggle to find parking sometimes lol. If the car is my only means of getting around then you're going to need parking spaces.
If you want to get rid of parking then have reasonable, practical solutions that can be used by people all over the suburban sprawl and not be limited to certain areas.
@@baronvonjo1929 2 things:
-Get rid of needless zoning laws so the layouts of suburbs can improve in future
-Public transportation (bike lanes could also be used to for example get to bus stops)
Why is this a fun fact, why isn’t it just a fact?
@@baronvonjo1929 Re-reading your message in a way you even said it yourself: "If the car is my only means of getting around then you're going to need parking spaces."
So less than one…? That sounds woefully below what it should be. We have so many parking spaces because basically everyone here is prosperous enough to be able to afford a vehicle… in part, because our government isn’t taxing 50%+ of our income. Europe isn’t a good place to live. Any of it.
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)
"Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, were politically engaged populations, legions - everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:
bread and circuses."
Demand drives decisions. "Corporate America" makes what people demand. There is no diabolical agenda. Except for tech companies.
Reagan' BS, he was a complete idiot!
Haha half the houses he filmed are in Canada
Go to europe and suffer to find a arking spot. This video is dumb af and i grew up in Europe
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.
Yes, there are many great suburbs in America, some very beautiful with trees, and different sorts of architecture, and the majority of Americans live in suburbs, more than rural areas and urban areas combined. and they include many of America's most creative and interesting people, of different ethnicities and occupations.
There are also many different sorts of suburbs with different economic classes, ethnic groups, population density, etc. and many of them are not as bland as that youtube seems to believe they are. There is actually in some ways more diversity in some of the suburbs than in some cities or country areas.
This youtube has a very limited and ignorant view of the diversity of suburbs.
Prejudice against the suburbs is as dumb as ethnic prejudice, or other unnecessary prejudices.
The OP is pushing an agenda. He's an in-your-face World Economics Forum agent. He rails against one-family houses, cars, "Everythinbg being spread out" and basically laments people being independent. He's basically promoting the so-called 15-minute city.
@@johna.5150 This channel is blatantly pushing an agenda. He's an in-your-face World Economics Forum agent. He rails against one-family houses, cars, "Everything being spread out" and basically laments people being independent. He's basically promoting the so-called 15-minute city, where you will "own nothing and be happy".
Lots of comments (not all of them) complain about suburbs yet don’t even live in one. I live in one and honestly, it’s peaceful. People who live in suburbs WANT to live in suburbs; depending on your location it can get expensive so there’s no reason to live in a suburb if you don’t want to. There’s nothing “liminal” or “eerie” about them. I’m a kid who walks around in a suburb day and night and the most liminal thing I’ve seen was a deer.
I am glad to see this comment. As someone who grew up in a third world country surrounded by ugly brutalistic post soviet buildings that made my city look like concrete grey hell (plus dirty grey air lol) american suburbs always seemed like such a lovely place to live in. Sometimes I look at such videos and think that this people really are complaining about a non-issue when there are so many other things about USA they could be complaining about instead 🙄
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.
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.
😔
A boring, isolating place where you cannot access places that entertain you accessible by foot for a short time.
Suburbs also ruined childhood by making them reliant for parents to drive them if they want to go somewhere interesting. A perfect place for strict, manipulative parents.
@@selflesssamaritan6417 the environment practically encourages abusive parents... because when it comes to transportation, they are you lifeline until you are 16.
@@selflesssamaritan6417nawhh ur trippin 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ they just want you to grow up in a safe environment
I ended up biking places I wanted to go as a teen, despite my mother being against it because she thought it was too unsafe. Ended up biking 5.5 miles one way to go play Magic the Gathering a few times a week.
That still is only feasible if you're within like 5-7 miles of where you want to go, though. 10-12 miles if you have an electric bike. That's a decent range, though.
@@kingvonfrom63rd000 These parents err deeply on the side of caution while doing so, and believe a child just going to school fulfills all their needs for socialization and development of independence.
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.
I'm sure that your parents paid for that privilege, too, of using the clubhouse and pool.
@@laurie7689 came included with the HOA fee
We had a community swimming pool when I lived in Houston, too. I seem to recall we kids in my family basically lived there during summer break. It was a godsend on hot days.
@@ziqi92 An HOA is not the type of subdivision that I'm ever willing to live in. Those of us that don't live in them, don't have access to clubhouses and community pools, etc. We wouldn't be willing to pay for those amenities either as a community. We'd prefer to have our own individual pools in our own individual yards.
And how much is your HOA though? Our friend’s HOA just went from $700 to $1200 a year and that will just keep going up and there is nothing anyone can do about it. In some expensive areas, it’s hundreds of dollars a month 😬 I love my neighborhood. Even though we don’t have a sidewalk, people are very respectful. We drive slow since we have people constantly going for a walk with their dogs and children visiting their friends in the neighborhood and we don’t have HOA. Property tax is only $750 a year. We talk to our neighbors, share vegetables, and tools or whatever we need for fixing something in our house.
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.
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
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 live in SE Europe (and previously NL) but grew up in the burbs. I'm so glad to hear that there are places that aren't so damn depressing and isolating. (In North America)
You don’t like it than leave simple as that. But since you don’t have a car and have to walk Asia would be perfect place for you leave.
you are free to go to china and live there.
@@medina__anidemWoah, what’s with the defensiveness? Lmao
Walking is good @@medina__anidem
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!!!
In the 70's and 80's there were no cell phones and no YT.
Excuseme, but what is a HOA?
I'm 55, it used to be like that in my old hood, now it's like a ghost town. Kids play in front of the monitor these days.
And adults are too divided or too busy.
thank youuuuuu.
THIS is the America NONE of these channels talk about.
All they talk about are other countries and how America needs to be that way instead of saying things like it should go BACK to how it USED to be. Some of the statements they make i always shake my head because i too remember back in the 80's and 90's how it used to be just like they complain about now. And there were cars during all of these periods so the problem is NOT cars. Its other things that have been going on.
@@r.guerreiro140 'Home Owners Association' I believe.
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
Gen-z's have the weirdest phobias
Luckily gen-z's will never be able to afford living in these places, so they won't have to worry about getting scared by some buildings
Gen-z people also don't want places like these because they wanna be closer to things.
I recommend watching Vivarium which truly makes the suburbs look extra liminal
Creepy ass setting
But here was in the video. Here was pictures from that Movie.
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
Some cultures are more reserved than others. Japanese cities are very walkable, and yet a huge percent of them don't even leave their room if they don't have to. Meanwhile, Americans may have boring suburbs, but also they have many social events in family for Christmas and other holydays.
@@josephang9927 At least those Japanese people have walkability if they want it. It's harder to change the city design. Introverts and extroverts can live in walkable places.
Immigrants ARE the main problem why there's no sense of community.
Comes from an immigrant btw. But I am honest about it.
Immigrants in Australia complaining?? Tell them they could always go back
@@user-gu9yq5sj7c I get your concern, blaming suburbs or countryside for cities being too expensive, specially for people who would benefit the most with walkability, is kind of a stretch.
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.
because it's closed in like he said , would you sleep in a parking lot or want to be in the center of a football field with the croud staring at you? and having your own yard is supposed to serve you more space....
Density is just trendy right now with the socialist types. This guys video is just parroting other opinions he’s heard on YT. There’s no hot takes here. Funny how it’s Usually people who’ve never had to live in a true city , and have no concept of just how stressful it can be that demonize the suburbs.
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.
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
Aren’t you glad you can choose to not live there? And they can live there if they want?
"Freedom" and many people like that, just looking by 0 protests against that. It's amazes me that someone lives on such a plain street at pretty hot places like most of US, no trees, nothing to catch eye on etc. no wonder no one is oustide because there is nothing to do + hot af because there is no shadows
@@moriyamakyon1067 Would it be hot af in the winter in Denver? Or Minneapolis? And it’s “shade”, not “shadows”.
People in America have thousands of options on styles of living and different weather types, and it’s fucking awesome. If you don’t like it, don’t live there, instead of acting all superior and condescending. It’s very Euro-trash.
@@katydid2877The problem is most of the residential property is zoned that way and there are plenty of people who literally have nowhere to live because of it.
@@KaitouKaiju People could live in inner cities if they weren’t filled with crime and murder and filth that the leaders of those cities don’t seem to mind happening. Maybe if they hadn’t ruined the city, people wouldn’t be wandering out into the suburbs looking for another place to ruin. America is a huge country. There are many more affordable places to live than LA or Chicago or NYC.
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.
well said
Funny you blame capitalism for the government zoning you bitch about.
Also. Hey when I was kid in the old days. Go outside and play in the dirt or climb a tree or go for hike. What you talking about digital is only source of entertainment??? That digital phone probably costs a lot more than real life hobbies. Maybe start a garden. Ride bikes. Get creative. Instead of bitching someone else’s fault for your boredom
Very well said. I used to think that I would always want to live in a larger city. (I was born and raised in a suburb of Chicago in the 70's and 80's) Now I live in a small Bosnian town. I'm used to much less strict zoning laws.. I can walk to the store and run errands easily on foot. (Unless I need to buy something larger, I don't need a car)
My backyard is a HUGE pasture with trees on it. I feel very fortunate.
I'm also lucky because I don't need to travel far to get a big city experience. I can get a very cheap flight to London, for example.
Also because of the pandemic and remote work (I build websites and automations for small businesses) I can work from anywhere.
Getting back to your point.. I would now definitely choose to live in a rural area in the US, without HOA's. I've lived in places where you can grow food on your own property and where people don't have a weird aversion to hanging laundry to dry in the sun.
Americans think that we have less freedom in Europe.. but you do have organizations that operated pretty much like a mafia.. HOA's,. that severely restrict basic freedoms, autonomy, and quality of life.
But if I ever moved back to the US.. I might avoid areas very prone to tornadoes.. :)
The first "Wrinkle in Time" movie 2003, nailed it.
@@auntiegravity7713Nobody belive that in U.S has any freedom.
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.
Driving through suburbs in Massachusetts feels like this. Endless neighborhoods, no open space, suffocating.
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
Apartment housing is just as dystopian and liminal. You have tens of people living on top of you and under you. Your apartment is tiny, but costs a fortune to even live there. To even get outside or to your apartment you have to either climb or descend how many flights of stairs, or use an elevator. Apartment living and suburbia are both comparable to hell for me. It seems so claustrophobic and dehumanising and I’m not even a claustrophobic person.
I appreciate that you pointed out the size difference between the nations. All too often people make one-to-one comparisons between countries, cities, etc. without considering scale-whether it be that of geographical size, population density, demographics, or any other important distinction.
There is reliable and cheap public transport in NYC and Chicago and many other big cities... it is just full of criminals and junkies.
@@kaiparker1756 I live in Apartment housing in small town in Poland.Its really good,its close to visit friends,shops,church,park.
We don't travel the country on a daily basis or even leave our area. This is a terrible excuse for not having good cities.
the suburbs feel like even if a slasher invades into your home and you scream help there will be no one to save you
You can get mugged on the side of the three lane road in America and literally everyone will drive right past you like its not even happening.
@@MrTrevortxeartxe And record it on their phone.
Lots of people in suburbs can defend themselves, and it just increases the farther away from crime filled cities you get. You don’t want to mess around in a small town.
ironic because that literally happens in american cities
@@bibby3027 City life is wild. Cat fight, dude walks up and shoots one of the women.
everyone stops looking and turns to NPC that had their aggro set to zero, oblivion music stops
they just calmly walk around to do whatever they were gonna do before
monkey "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"
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.
America is the new BABYLON.. purely artificial from it's soul outwards. In any other country you would have made so many friends (casual and potentially long-term) from the few days you had arrived. And that's the people you would have met in the streets showing you directions you were trying to find.
As SCP-079 once stated "That was the day I learned there is no such thing as freedom - there are only bigger prisons".
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.
In cities you typically have parks or pitches to use, hopefully in a walkable timeframe or via good public transit Infrastructure whilst in American suburbs you might be surrounded by nature but that nature is completely inaccessible, cities are just better.
what exactly is "nature" about a 3 inch lawn with no other plants allowed?
@@kailahmann1823 "Nature is when boring grass manicured with various harmful pesticides." /s
@@Betweoxwitegan In the suburbs, most of the "parks" are privately-owned yards where the respective privileged homeowner always try to threaten young folks who accidentally "trespass" there - due to lack of third places.
@@selflesssamaritan6417 I'm not surprised, tbh a good business would literally just be creating a privatised coffee/garden business in every wealthy American suburb, like the coffee shops they have in Asia, where there's a garden out back which you get access to if you buy something or pay specifically for garden entrance, you could also create a subscription based membership card. If you think about it this one business would be the only hang out spot in the whole community effectively. I'm not sure if this is even possible with the zoning laws in The US though.
Middle class punk rock bands from California be like: I had difficult childhood growing up in the hood
The “hood” they grew up in:
Most of those bands are from the Mid West but okay
@@GordonSlamsay Doesn’t change my point.
I rather live in hood that overpopulated Asia
LOL
What
Those suburbs are my worst nightmare. In the UK suburbs I am within a 5 minute walk of everything I could possibly need
Many American suburbs are like that. In the US, you can find anything to support your pre-conceived idea, whether its pro-city, suburb or small town. The suburb where I grew up had a 4-lane road at the end of our street, but it had traffic signals and a landscaped median so was safe and attractive. Every neighborhood I ever lived in (7) was walkable and had good transit; it's a matter of choice. Even the Levittowns, which are used as an example by suburb-haters, were well-designed; the one in PA has no 4-way intersections, elementary schools in walking distance without leaving the development, sidewalks, stores close by, highways convenient but not obtrusive, train station to Philly & Trenton.
@@benzzc3626 But most American suburbs are like the ones in this video. There will be less of this on the East coast.
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.
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.
It's good to see that there is hope..
You- you mean Americans can play Backrooms just by going out the door?
These Suburbs can be found in every developed country outside of Europe and Japan. Australia, Canada and USA.
If they are rich enough to have cars and cities were build when cars existed, then cities are built this way.
@@josephang9927 "Every developed country outside US/Europe" (lists three countries)
@@josephang9927 So... every developed country aka 3 countries? Really? And the rest of developed countries doesn't matter?
"If they are rich enough to have cars and cities were build when cars existed, then cities are built this way." Man, seems like suburbs just kill thinking of anything outside of them.
@@Coffeepanda294 yes, developed countries are the minority. Surprise.
@@ImieNazwiskoOK I don't know if he even knows of other developed countries. Also love the 'but their cities were built for the car' myth.
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.
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 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.
A little horible thing..
Commiefornication liberals: Waah car bad. Waah private property bad. Waah suburbs bad.
209 Here. Nees/ Woodward
As someone born and raised in the suburbs words can’t describe how tired I am of them.
You're young. You'll get older and find them desirable again after living in the city for a few decades. These places exist in a free market because there is demand. There isn't a government centrally planning where they want people to live. This video is propaganda trying to convince you that population density is good.
Move to the nearest big city then!! Experience the poverty, crime and homelessness first hand. Experience waiting 45 minutes for a cop after you've called 911. Live in a closed in soviet style housing unit. It's a great way to grow up in America.
@@tommybotts much better to stay away from reality and your fellow men in difficulty...
@@tommybottssmall towns and rural communities all over America. I’m in Kansas, not in a big city and not in a suburb.
You said it perfectly, though
that realization at 1:52 was wild, its the lack of people in the streets that make it weird??
These feelings are in you head. If you feel creeped out by a suburban neighborhood, you are the one with the problem.
you have to be missing all of your brain cells, it’s your brain saying that it’s uncomfortable in environments that don’t feel human
anyone with critical thinking skills would realize this
This.
I never thought I’d see some weird kid on RUclips telling us suburbs are ‘weird, liminal spaces’.
I’m starting to think these kids watch too many movies.
@@Gigmatic777 american suburbs are terrible lmao, shit places tbh
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.
In the U.S. supermarket chains had the money to undercut the small neighborhood stores and eventually put them out of business. Most of those buildings are still there, but are vacant. When designing new suburbs they got rid of the zoning that allowed for those small neighborhood stores, because supermarkets already won.
Zoning laws are supposed to prevent incompatible land uses such as having a nightclub next to a beautiful suburban neighborhood which would lower those people's property values and disturb their peace. We don't have many small shops here unless it's in certain huge cities such as New York or LA. Most shops are regulated to require many parking spots per square foot of store space so this is another reason. It's not safe to have kids walking home from school next to a huge parking lot. There's like hundreds of reasons that the cities considered zoning laws to add to beauty, safety and organization. We don't have that European or Argentine lifestyle.
In most neighborhoods where I currently live, there are gas stations and small convience item shops nearer to the homes then the big stores. As well as restarants.
Yes as another person said we usually will have a gas station/ convenience store in the Neighborhood but honestly it's not right inside the neighborhood. You would still have to walk quite a bit. Several of my friends live in communities where there is honestly nothing which can be walked to in a reasonable time frame.
Xenophobia and the oil/car industry.
And, more recently, an insular population ignorant about alternatives. A lot of Americans seem to think their way is the only possible way to build suburbs.
Are you familiar with the author James Howard Kunstler? He wrote two books about suburbanization called "The Geography of Nowhere" and "Home from Nowhere."
This made me think of Kunstler too!
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.
nailed it. everything is just a drink through. never feels like theres a place to stop. just a place that feels empty and sad.
a drink through? or do you mean drive through?
If you click on the three vertical buttons on the right side of your comment, it gives you the option of editing your comment.
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.
It sounds like we have similar neighborhood. The houses on my street were built in the late 1970s. Majority of us are on a half acre with some large trees but no sidewalks. A lot of my neighbors have lived here for 20+ years and they look out for each other. My neighbor puts my trash can back in the driveway close to our garage if we’re out of town after trash day. Also, gives me fruits and vegetables in the summer time. I love it and it’s rare to find a neighborhood now where there’s an actual community feeling where you look out for one another.
@@lovingsunshine3515 This channel is blatantly pushing an agenda. He's an in-your-face World Economics Forum agent. He rails against one-family houses, cars, "Everything being spread out" and basically laments people being independent. He's basically promoting the so-called 15-minute city, where you will "own nothing and be happy".
I live in an old 1950s neighborhood in Florida. My house is beautiful, with giant picture windows and trees throughout the yard. I love living here. I am thankful for it every day!
I always thought I was directionally challenged, but now I know it’s because everything looks the same!!
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'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!
I love how cars have made it so the design of the neighborhoods are implanted into our brains.
I find overuse of the word creepy to be excessively creepy.
It’s every Gen Zed s default setting!
Right? I don’t think any of these neighborhoods look creepy… boring sure but creepy is a stretch
I'd describe them as less creepy and more uninviting.
No the video uploader is a whiny leftwing millenial. The entire video is this: Leftwing Millenial: Waah private property bad. Waah cars bad.
Flurfdesign: having only Single family zoning is a problem.
You: That’s communism and nothing should change the status quo because everything is great for everyone so shut the fuck up about it
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....
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.
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.
I bet you are a liberal........................
Isn’t it awesome you are free to not live there?
Agree. I live in Donna, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. What I've notice is the same apartment complexes literally everywhere. We used to have our own style because the majority of us here are of Mexican Americans. Literally same city same stores. The unique taqueria shops, tortilla shops are small and few to find.
An ordinary suburb freaks you out? I guess you're the type that finds almost everything scary.
My suburb is far from flat. My entire small city is built into the hills. The suburbs here are built on the hillsides and the hilltops. No matter which way you look, you can't see most of the housing because they follow the terrain. I agree that suburbs in flat areas, particularly without trees, look strange, but most of the suburbs East of the Mississippi River have more character.
Where I live we don’t really have huge suburbs like that so when I saw those photos I legit got scared
Las Vegas is a giant suburb.
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.
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.
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..
I hate the whole paranoid mindset of middle class suburbanites and gated community residents demonizing cities and mass transit as breeding ground for crime. They might be those "patriotic" folks who brag on how we should not live in fear according to The Bible.
That's the long term impact of low-density sprawling land use do against human psychology. Such neighbourhood designed to alienate social interaction, but their own families.
I hate the paranoid mindset of privileged upper middle class suburbanites and gated community dwellers who constantly demonize big cities and mass transit as breeding ground of crime. These are the same people who complain younger people spend their time too much on the Internet, yet they believe such news about the city blindly based on they watch on TV.
These are also the same folks who told us not to live in fear according to the Bible.
I hate the paranoid mindset of privileged upper middle class suburbanites and gated community dwellers who constantly demonize big cities and mass transit as breeding ground of crime. These are the same people who complain younger people spend their time too much on the Internet, yet they believe such news about the city blindly based on they watch on TV.
These are also the same folks who told us not to live in fear according to the Bible.
when you have literally nothing to work with when building a personality, you end up somewhere along the spectrum of “normal” to absolutely insane
"Suburban people bad, urban people good"
He should make a video about asian suburbs. Who agrees?
as an asian myself i completely agree!
@@pianistguy thanks for agreeing with me and I hope that flurf sees this coment
As an Asian myself I think American suburbs = Backrooms but Tokyo = vaporwave, and Vietnam’s suburbs would be like a Roblox lobby (they’re wild)
The so-called suburbs in Southeast Asia are divided into two types: A cluster of sprawling same-looking small houses subsidized by the government for lower-income people. Second one are those suburbs for richer folks. The worst thing about it is some kind of a HOA-esque rule that prohibits running small business in one's house. Albeit smaller land use, I still consider them bad because they still facilitate private automobile ownership and use to access all the amenities in the city, despite government campaign to encourage transit use. All of them mostly do not have direct access to mass transit.
If the respective government use their 100% of brain capacity, they should've just build affordable apartments in the city instead of suburban homes. Vertical housing is also a great way to house all the poor people impacted from demolition of their filthy, unsanitary urban slums.
Ugh yes I wanted to live in Shenmue
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.
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.
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
Fixing the roads for a suburb costs more than the suburb provides in property taxes. Older suburbs will always look poorly maintained unless seriously subsidized by other areas.
@@tristanridley1601 NO OTHER CITY PAYS FOR ANOTHER CITY, what the hell are you talking about? Name a SINGLE instance!! You can't!! Suburbs are NOT paid for by property taxes, they are paid for by the commercial part of the suburban town and those businesses pay income taxes etc. And Costco makes a lot of money, a lot more than some seedy corner store. That's not a subsidy!! That's the DESIGN. People wanted the commercial and residential separate. I just can't stand this regurgitated 'strong towns" nonsense that doesn't even make sense in the US.
It takes time for houses to differentiate and get their identity, if there is no HOA.
@@josephang9927 exactly, HOAs are terrible, but they're the only thing keeping these urbanists from ruining the suburbs. It's an impossible situation. I wish they'd just lead us the hell alone. We're freaking happy, they don't want us to be, they want to say we aren't but we are. They never stop. And I think behind them are wealthy people who want our meager homes to make millions forcing everyone into rent slavery.
Yeah, really what he's talking about are corporate-owned tract homes.
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.
True. The way too wide roads makes everything look... uncanny. The oversized cars make it even worse, they just make everything seem so hostile.
Exactly because they are built for pedestrians streets in America are built for cars people are an afterthought
Liberals: Waah car bad. Waah private property bad. Waah suburbs bad.
@@lastswordfighter Dunno about the others but I’m not a liberal.
You a liberal aka a godless communist.
As a introvert this is heaven for me 😂.. when i first visited the US back in 07.. i love the open spaces and not a single person for miles. I live in the Philippines and it is congested af here..
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.
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.
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
There is nothing wrong with living in a nice neighborhood. People will find anything to complain about. Most the people talking down on suburbs most likely can't even afford a house. So you keep doing you and do what makes you happy. People will always have something negative to say.
Get a RV trailer like me at 60 years old!🤗
Well said bless you and your family, you will do it I know you are a good person and deserve it.
Quiet neighborhoods don’t have to be built like these suburbs
I live in a neighborhood in a small town that's been around for a couple hundred years and grew organically over time. No weird copy/paste subdivisions. There's options
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
When I lived in Orlando, Fl there was a local news story about an HOA suing homeowners who installed a clothesline in their back yard, and actually used it to dry clothes! They figured living in “the Sunshine State” they preferred to benefit from the sunshine by using less electricity. The HOA felt that the sight of clothes drying on a line would destroy what suburban Americans live for - property values - so they demanded the line come down. The couple dug in their heels…I don’t remember how it ended. I moved back to NYC pretty soon after. I’ll live almost anywhere in Europe (I’ve lived in Austria, France, and Italy) but in the US I’ll only live in NYC.
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.
The suburbs were designed to facilitate consumerism. Being far away from the cities without mass transit access force people to buy a personal automobile and waste his/her monthly income on it, large houses so people will buy stuff they do not need in their lives to fill it, swaths of lawn so people will waste money on buying polluting lawn mowers and harmful chemicals (pesticide and synthetic fertilizer).
The suburbs were designed to facilitate consumerism.
> Being far away from job or school without mass transit access force people to buy a personal automobile and waste his/her monthly income on it,
> Large houses so people will buy stuff they do not need in their lives to fill it
> Swaths of lawn so people will waste money on buying polluting lawn mowers and harmful chemicals (pesticide and synthetic fertilizer).
So you're one of those Americans for Europe pick me s ... 🙄🙄
@@michah7214 They are the worse. I hate the most those who move to Europe but get all benefits of American citizens and then they shit on America, even when many Europeans are struggling with even heating their small apartments.
@@selflesssamaritan6417 Also, if you watch Not Just Bikes on box stores and food waste, the car centric design tends to make it that there's mostly just big corporate stores and Americans buying in bulk. Which is more consumerism and waste of food and money.
They're also incentivized to buy in bulk cause driving far to one area is a chore and cost so much gas. Versus being able to walk and casually drop by close quaint and diverse small businesses.
This just made me understand why I find subdivisions so creepy
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
and when you do see someone walking, especially on those stroads, it feels weird. "why are you walking there, aren't you uncomfortable ?"
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
so?
So you live in a high trust area. Is that something to complain about?
@@TheLandon8806 Sure doesn’t sound like NYC.
Sounds like you went at a good time, buy your things and leave, why are surprised that nobody is at the store at 2am😂
Any store workers or security working at the store would be chilling somewhere or sleeping because of how slow the store is.
@@katydid2877 I didn’t bring up NYC
Don't forget the ever-present No Loitering! sign.
LOL! You're so right.
No littering or loitering this is Not CHINA, INDIA , PAKISTAN AND Bangladesh. We have hygiene and quiet
@@medina__anidem Yeah but still there is a better way to do it.
@@medina__anidemLMAO so angry defending. Yeah you come to the right place hope you enjoy
The No trespassing signs are worse
Growing up, I lived in Germany and then moved to a well planned walkable suburb outside of NYC. My grandparents, however, live in suburbia in Ohio. I was shocked when I went there for the first time and there was a lack of… really anything for a pedestrian to do at all.
I personally love most these things that you and a lot of the commenters are saying. I love the peace and quiet.
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.
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.
oof paris lol
I live in Europe and I do shopping once a week. In fact, most people I know have similar habits. Personally I prefer the American way, Europe is sometimes too claustrophobic for me. Houses are built so tight that you can hear your neighbours snoring at night. I would much rather live in the American suburbs.
@@ahogQ then why not just move to a rural area?
@rexx9496 I live in England now and the rural areas don't have roads designed for cars. They are way too narrow with curves and very limited visibility. I find driving in large cities less stressful than driving the countryside.
@@ahogQmost country roads, at least in the eastern half of the U.S., aren’t wide arterials. They’re going to be just as winding and narrow. Especially around the mountainous areas
Very interesting, I had to go into a mall last year around the holidays, & it was so creepy. Everything all white tiling, elevator music, & barely any people. In a mall before the holidays! I thought I was just feeling sad nostalgia over how different malls were in the 80s & 90s, & I'm sure that was part of it, but maybe it was also what you're saying as well.
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.
are you sure
Yeah, if you are onlee passing through or driving through in your car.
While listening to music with your sunglasses on and half timer. Keeping your eye on your phone for text messages. Yeah, I'm sure it's not creepy.
That doesn't really give you the best perspective, I.
Dea of idea of whether something is actually creepy.
This is why Rush Subdivisions is one of the best songs of all time.
"Conform or be cast out." Rush was always ahead of its time. Also blame neighbourhood groups that form even in area where HOAs are not present. Even in a high-crime city like LA, the camera situation contributes to gossip, suspicion and general "hills have eyes." Then it forces you to adopt the same attitude. If you don't become part of the group discussion or attend community meetings, you are the one being talked about! :) The desire for California real estate allows people to weaponize these cameras on you as well. Greed makes people do strange things to others.
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
Liberal: Waaah car bad. Waaah private property bad. Waaah suburbs bad.
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
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
An empty school at night always gets me...
Totally agree! Exactly what I was thinking.
👍👏👏👏
i remeber when i first moved to the US. sidewalks were not well organized or hard to find and not many ppl were walking. as a person from walkable city, i was so depressed
In the 20th century growing up there were at least kids playing outside and riding bikes to friend’s places and going on adventures. Now, if you go outside, it’s basically empty and vast land of emptiness. In fact it feels very weird walking around since it’s so far from everything and basically no one is outside walking.
another stellar piece, copy paste housing
It's more repetitive than Soviet-style apartments.
Remove HOA and houses get their own identity. There are great historical suburbs in USA.
@@josephang9927 Yes, especially the streetcar suburbs which are more compact and human-scaled.
@@selflesssamaritan6417 As much as they suck the large empty walls can be turned into nice paintings
@@selflesssamaritan6417Yes some suburbs can be amazing. Just not copy paste prefab wood houses.
Please. Nothing’s more creepy than Kensington in Philly.
This Kenopsia thing reminded me of a video I saw recently in which the guy visited several multiplayer games that are now empty. He commented on the design of the places, but there was a lot of his comments about how he was feeling being there too.