Another common issue I see in small/medium-sized north American cities is how few things there are to do for people under 21. It seems like the only form of 'nightlife' in many American cities is just a bunch of bars and nightclubs. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but I wish there were a bit more diverse options for people under 21, or those who don't drink. For example, many Asian cities have HUGE, elaborate shopping malls filled with tons of cool activities, all open pretty late, where people of all ages can come to hang out at most times of day. Just a thought.
This is what I noticed with shopping malls in my area. Year over year, there are less public-use spaces for people to occupy since the landlords for these malls want customers to go directly into shops, make their purchases, and get out. The goal is high customer throughput lead by a false assumption that throughput = more purchases. What these malls tend to misunderstand is that it's customer retention that keeps malls active. If your mall is empty, people will think it's dead and they won't come to the location. If your mall is uninviting to people and doesn't support social gatherings, then people won't stay and peruse some of the other shops, purchase food from the food court / scattered food vendors, or even use the vending machines you put up along the walls. Just recently, an outdoor mall I used to frequent actually tore up their performance stage to "allow for traffic flow to improve". By removing the circular stage with seats, traffic did improve, but it could also be attributed to people simply coming less often to that shopping mall; no one tends to hang around anymore in the center square, and the parking lot is now always half-full, never overcrowded like it used to be before the stage was removed. Truth be told, that mall feels a lot more cold without someone strumming their guitar or reciting their poem on stage. Traffic dies down only a few minutes after sundown, and the stores close earlier since the cost of staying open exceeds possible revenues. And yet, that mall keeps all its lights on in a dazzling, probably-expensive display at night, burning more money into non-operating hours. It's just insanity to see a Western mall regress over the course of my life, whereas one quick visit to any shopping mall in Saigon, Taipei, Seoul, or Tokyo will show dazzling arcades, restaurants with panoramic views of the city, and karaoke booths supplemented by open courts where people play Jianzi or just hang out on the benches. I don't feel intimidated to hang out with young adults across the Pacific, but I always anticipate bar fights and vomit in the USA. To double down on a "beer garden" only shows how old and out of touch the land owners are, but the damage has already been done. I mostly go traveling with my friends or eat out downtown, since there's no more utility in that mall than any other strip mall. (It's Bella Terra in California, by the way.)
@GlobalDataConspirator You need to realize there’s a difference between choosing to play when you have to study, versus playing when you have finished all the studying. Saying that people shouldn’t have these places because they should always be studying for school or working is literally saying that no one should have fun. There’s even been studies shown that having enjoyment in life to look forwards to can lead to more productivity than if you spend all day working
Banning chains from a downtown core is what Jersey City did back in 2015 where they created a zone that makes up most of Downtown where chains with 10 or more locations within 300 miles of Jersey City are banned. This was introduced by Mayor Fulop to promote and protect the character of Downtown neighborhoods and help mom-and-pop retailers thrive. Krispy Kreme in 2017 found a way around this by creating a "special" factory store that was branded differently from an ordinary Krispy Kreme. It opened right across from the Grove Street PATH (the rapid transit system that connects Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan with Jersey City, Harrison, Hoboken, and Newark) station, which checks off the transit requirement. Downtown, like the rest of Jersey City, has plenty of transit, to the point the majority of Jersey City residents prefer it over driving by far. The city is well connected via the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, and Downtown in particular has seven stations. Even tourists can use the light rail to get to the nearby Liberty State Park and its science center. The PATH also has a station within Downtown at Newport for the mall for shopping or to watch a movie at the only AMC theatre in Hudson County, and at Exchange Place for a quick trip to World Trade Center, to connect the financial centers of the harbor. While the chain store restrictions were repealed in 2019 (because the city didn't want to deal with lawsuits from chains anymore), the Downtown area is still very much an example of a downtown done right
within 300 miles of Jersey City? Does this ban span into neighoring and even more distant US states, Boston, New York (both New York City and Upstate New York, Maryland, Washington DC, etc?
Asia is the same as Europe in that regard. Whenever I visit the US, it bothers me how much time is used because of the reliance of a car: driving to a place, waiting in traffic, having to get gas, looking for parking, walking back to the parking lot, and using drive throughs (which my friends love). What bothers me most is that I ALWAYS have to get into a car just to do ANYTHING.
@@Shepardofman all these massive stretches of asphalt to park and drive cars on also generate much less tax revenue than infrastructure maintenance costs would require relative to land that, you know. Actually has something on it. It's a bottomless pit of debt usually held up by the bootstraps of some old and poorly maintained downtown area or government subsidies obtained under the premise of building even more road and parking because building a district where anything is convenient to get to is usually outright illegal in the US.
Everything in the US is made for maximum work efficiency and profitability, not enjoyment. The elites don't want people to casually enjoy themselves. They want us to work and spend, spend, spend. Design of the American cities and suburbs reflects that. It's a perfectly architected beehive for work bees to keep busy and produce.
I have been on vacation to most american cities, and I noticed that I would really spend most of my vacation in nature areas like national parks, beaches, hiking trails, ect. I found that when I am visiting a city I am not going for the things inside the city itself as every city is the same in that way, but I am only really visiting for the natural landscape. As a tourist transportation gets really expensive as a rental car or ubers are really my only options.
That's why Europe is such a nicer place to visit. Car dependency makes it hard to travel for not only tourist but also natives a like. Even places along the east coast that have train or bus stations, you're essentially dumped out onto a street corner with no where to go without a Uber or taxi.
I haven't been to America, but if I ever cross the Atlantic, I want to see the beautiful natural wonders of the continent, but the cities there don't appeal to me, except for NYC and possibly something like the Santa Monica Pier. And I'm usually someone who enjoys cities more than nature while on holiday. It's just that from everything I've seen, most American (and Canadian) cities are just endless suburban sprawl with declining, torn apart downtowns criss-crossed by urban highways and parking lots. There is probably something unique to find in every city, but it's gonna be something minor, for which a trip is not worth it.
@@namenamename390 I have been to America and there are some cities that have a nice central district, like New Orleans, Washington-Georgetown, Savannah, St Augustine, Annapolis. But I agree that most are lifeless entertainment centers that can only been reached by car. In most American cities, I miss a real central district, a downtown with a church at a square and crooked or meandering streets leading to the main square. Most American cities are stroads, avenues and streets, all in straight lines. That contributes to the lifelessness of their city centers.
@@RealConstructor notice how all the cities you named were founded long before the country even gained independence. They were built before the car and the nice downtowns are lucky to not have been bulldozed completely. Houston, today a perfect example of car centric development with single family homes and stroads galore, used to have a compact, walkable downtown which was destroyed to make room for the car. Same goes for LA and many other cities. It's nice that places like New Orleans could keep some of their old city centres.
Take it with a grain of salt. These kinds of anti-car websites always want everything to be exactly like Europe and always seem to have a dim view of America. In 2018 we had 35.8 million visitors here in San Diego, many of whom are Europeans. The ones I talk to always seem to be having a great time. So, apparently, people like coming here and we are doing something right. Every single person that I know that has left San Diego has left purely for cost-of-living reasons.
@@norwegianblue2017 yes, but it is very different, if you stay in US for couple of day as a tourist and it is different, when you live there, especially in the suburbs. And it's not only about cars, there are much more aspects due to which I am glad to be a European.
@@norwegianblue2017 that's because they are only available there for a short period and are seeing everything through rose tinted glasses. I moved to Canada in 2011, I thought the same as the tourists initially, but when I really started to live and work here it was very apparent how backwards many things were.
Alot of the problem here is the degredation of the public realm, alot of new urbanists talk about this like Andres Duany. In America since the end of ww2 and even more so under the Neo-Liberal age in the 80s, society and the public realm have become viewed with disdain as it does not make money, and is not supportive of big business.
Ding ding ding. I'm not saying infrastructure doesn't matter, but a lot of these urbanist channels critical of American infrastructure miss that in a lot of ways, the infrastructure is a reflection of cultural trends and preferences. Sure, there's a bit of chicken-and-egg situation with a feedback loop between both aspects, but simply put, Americans just by and large don't like shopping in person or hanging out with each other anymore. Everything's online. A huge portion of American society would rather just stay home and play video games, watch Netflix, shop on Amazon, etc. after work. I keep seeing other comments praising cities in other countries, but I think it's important to keep in mind that appearances can be misleading and this is not entirely a uniquely American problem. A perfect example is Japan. I sometimes see these urbanist channels praising entertainment districts in Japan, but what they leave out is that the population of density of Japanese cities is so much higher that they can have those bustling districts and still have an infamously huge population of recluses who stay inside and play video games all day, as well as people who just work and go home, never going out to enjoy their cities. Similar dynamics exist in much of Asia quite frankly. It's really only mostly Europe that is a reflection of the high-quality urban living that these channels aspire to, and a lot of that comes down to culture as much as infrastructure. Going out to a pub with friends or coworkers is just so much more ingrained in many of the cultures there, so it's no surprise that the infrastructure reflects that. In fact, this may surprise a lot of the urbanists, but there was a time not long ago, maybe from 1960s-2000s, that quality of life in America was largely judged by the size of shopping malls and overall square footage of retail space. By that metric, America dwarfed Europe and still continues to do so to this day. Visitors to America would often come just to enjoy the experience of shopping in the large assortment of fancy, big stores. This idea was copied in other countries as well, particularly Asian countries like China where malls were seen as a reflection of modernization and improvement of living standards. It's really only the rise of online shopping which caused the gradual decline of physical retail which is still ongoing, but there are still people who choose where to live and work based on proximity to shopping centers. What American cities really need is a cultural impetus for their revival. You would think music could be a motivating attraction, but sadly, live music is dying in a lot of places as online streaming and synthetic electronic music have contributed to significantly fragmented and divergent preferences. Lots of kids these days don't even understand the premise of watching someone play music live. Pokemon Go and other similar app-based AR games actually did have a noticeable impact on social gatherings in urban locations, at least in my region, but that was kind of a fad rather than a permanent cultural attraction, and there was also a noticeable tension between playing with others in public and improving one's stats or whatever by oneself through paid bonuses and such. I don't know what it'll end up being, but cities need something to draw people in again, and I don't necessarily think just copying European city design is going to do it because you still have to convince isolated, lonely Americans to get up off the couch.
Off topic. Feel free to crank up the volume a little the next time. I had to adjust my own volume so much that the next video almost gave a heart attack. On topic. In the video you give a example of a European capital city. However, even in this 30,000 pop town that i live has an entire center of townsquares and streets where cars cant reach. It really gives any place a whole different vibe. It feels more human and natural.
Ahaha yes. I love Llafranc. It has less inhabitants then the city you mentioned, making it quite small, but the beach area is class, with a nice pedestrianised section and lots of soul.
"However, even in this 30,000 pop town that i live has an entire center of townsquares and streets where cars cant reach. It really gives any place a whole different vibe. It feels more human and natural." Not for everybody. I prefer a big city that has both people and vehicles. San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, those are my places. Or in Europe, I would much prefer Paris or Rome vs some random village hundreds of miles (km) from the nearest major city. But people have different preferences. Those are mine. 🙂
@@neutrino78x We all got used to the kind of place that we grew up with. For me a city over 100.000 allready feels to big for me. It's the kind of vibe that we all kinda know each other (kind off). And i have no idea if this is true or not, but i also think that people in small cities and tkwns are more social. Much more often you see a person you know and have a 5 minute talk. While in big cities 99% percent of the people you see is a total stranger. Unless it's your own street/neighbourhood.
We don't even have any foreign chains here, and by the looks of American suburbia, we aren't missing out. Our downtown has beautiful monuments, electric trolleybuses, electric trams, the Pyongyang Metro with its gorgeous mosaics and chandeliers, local department stores, and different restaurants to have hot pot, naengmyeon, and karaoke.
Even kiddie arcades are missing. It's sad that we can't take the kids walking to the corner pizza place, ice cream parlor or kiddie game room or park, or the small neighborhood bar for adults, walking distance.
I don't see the United States changing how it's cities are laid out any time soon. Too many vested interests and the politicians have a complete lack of concern for the common good.
Australian cities which do suffer from some of the same suburban sprawl as the US (but not as badly) typically do entertainment districts quite well. The city I'm from, pretty much the entire CBD/Downtown area becomes an entertainment district at night, some pockets more than others but it's known for having literally hundreds of bars and restaurants tucked away down laneways pretty much everywhere. The most important thing that makes it work though is 16 suburban train lines that connect it with pretty much the entire metropolis, and run 24 hours on weekends, not to mention 22 out of the city's 24 tram routes that also run through the CBD/Downtown, making it really accessible without a car for anyone who wants to catch a theatre show, live band, go to a restaurant, nightclub or simply just find cool hidden bars to hang out at. I did find that was really lacking in the US. Even cities with great nightlife areas - like Austin, TX for example - I found that unless we were staying within the downtown area itself, you basically had to drive or taxi/uber to get there and back to enjoy it. There were exceptions of course, Chicago is well connected and we spent nights in different nightlife neighbourhoods that we accessed by train/metro, Boston as well to an extent, and obviously NYC is an exception to the American rule.
I don’t understand something about these channels. I agree with the premise in general, but for some reason, they always pretend NYC doesn’t exist. For example, this video compares Minneapolis with streets in London and Rome. NYC (Manhattan especially)! is more vibrant and chaotic and dense than London. I saw a video saying why US transit sucked and the screenshot compared Charlotte to Toronto. You need to stop pretending NYC doesn’t exist and realize we got 20 million people in the NYC area. I mean, instead of showing Minneapolis, why not show San Fransisco , DC, Philly, Chicago, New Orleans, Providence, Boston? Even parts of New Jersey, LA, Baltimore got better streets than the video showed. I definitely feel like the suburbs need to be revamped but let’s not pretend their isn’t options in the USA. NYC is huge. There’s endless options in that city alone.
Portland and Seattle also have large and pedestrian friendly urban centers that are well used. Hell, Atlanta Georgia has a large downtown and midtown that is indistinguishable from New York in a lot of ways. Savannah, GA is an example of an "entertainment district" that, while somewhat following the same modal as other smallish cities, actually follows through on maintaining a decent sized pedestrian friendly downtown and historic center. They don't have to zero in on NYC at all if we're just talking about downtown, but I do agree with the premise there are also boring towns here.
@@TheNobleFive Yes I agree. We all need to get rid of the stroads, stop single family zoning, and help a lot of these mid tier cities. But they’re are ALOT of options. See, I didn’t even mention Seattle and Portland and their are more options that we probably overlooked. And Savannah is a great small town walkable city with a bunch of parks.
the thing about London, there are plenty of areas that fulfil this role outside central London, i.e Angel, Camden, Hampstead, Clapham, Southwark, Stoke Newington, Shoreditch among many.
I live in Mexico, I sometimes fly to the US on vacation to see my family, and I’ve realised that having fun over there is very difficult, specially if you live in the suburbs. I just came back from a trip to Europe and man… what a difference. Over there you’ll find plenty of places to hang out just around the corner, you don’t even have to take the bus to find a good place to have drinks or snacks out in the street, and I was staying some good 40 min of walking distance from downtown. Even if you don’t want to spend any money there’s plenty of open spaces to just sit and relax while you enjoy the city. Cities in Mexico are usually just like this as well.
An extremely important point is the minor details no one admits exist in non-US cities. In France, for historical reasons, poor people were segregated, after WWII, into suburbs dominated by public housing projects--they still are--and France has a highly-centralized police force. One of these is an antiriot force armed along the lines of the army, the CRS. The CRS has 13,000 members and is repeatedly deployed throughout the year in putting down riots, and keeping riff-raff out of tourist areas across France. In US terms this would be the size of an American army division armed with motorcycles, armored cars, and light tanks. It would have about a hundred large cargo planes standing by, and would be on the move, constantly, as another national police force would start shoving--on a regular basis--poor people into distant new suburbs of twenty-story public housing prisons. Do note the media does not discuss this.
@@wulver810 Same for Walmart. These urbanist idiots blame it all on "corporate America", while failing to realize that every former mall-goer has asked himself the same question: "Why should I spend my entire afternoon bouncing from store to store, up and down the mall, when I can get everything I want to buy at [insert big box store here] and be done in an hour?"
Downtown LA, which was a ghost town after 5 pm when we first moved here - you could drive through it at 60 mph and just blast through the red lights! - is showing big signs of life. It really needs improvement, but it's alive. No more blasting through red lights, either.
The thing with the London one is that, if you leave by 2200, you can get back to Newcastle or Manchester, and if you leave by 2300 you can even get back to Leeds or York. The last to Swansea is 2248, the last to Bristol 2332. (These are for normal times.) If you look at a map of Britain you will notice that all of these are at least "medium distance", 100 to 300 miles.
Assuming the trains run on time, that is, British trains are atrocious. Literally yesterday I had a 2.5 hour delay because of a problem at portsmouth & southsea.
Visited Tucson before the pandemic. Hotel was just across the downtown freeway. The Friday ajd Saturday nights I was there, it was dead by 9pm. Because I was in a hotel and didn't have a car, the nearest food place was a Jack in the Box which refused to serve me because they only operate the drive thru post 10pm. I just starved lmao
I guess I don't understand that if you go to a city then why not stay somewhere close to transit or rent a car or at least one with a restaurant inside or close by? If you can't drive or don't want to drive you could take a cab or Uber/Lyft to get somewhere open later right - although a lot of restaurants in the US, especially on weeknights, aren't open later than 10pm/11pm.
@@jimzecca3961 "why not stay somewhere close to transit" did I not say I was literally downtown? I also did not get to choose where I stayed because it was a school field trip. The fact that I'd need to pay money to Uber somewhere with food when I am downtown is ridiculous, you're explaining the problem I am describing, not excusing it. And that restaurants wouldn't stay open late downtown on a weekend is also crazy. Tucson's downtown was pretty shameful as such. Dead and devoid of culture and entertainment.
Compared to that video from London which looked great and almost made me want to go and enjoy the nightlife by myself, that first photo from Minneapolis looked so crap and depressing, the second one wasn’t as bad but it’s certainly not good. I think I’m finally getting into that phase where I genuinely want to go out and enjoy the night I’m a big city so maybe I’ll catch the train up to London or Brighton one of these days and go and enjoy it.
The problem, in a nutshell, is this: cities are not built by dreamers with advanced degrees in "urban planning." They are built by local politicians and construction companies rubbing elbows who care not one whit about aesthetics but only about profit.
This is true outside North America as well, but it leads to vastly different outcomes. I believe it has a lot to do with the power of big business over politicians, rules and regulations.
Portland already figured this out. There's the huge downtown on the west bank of it's River, which is walking distance from the east side of the River. There's multiple cool districts like NE Alberta St, NE Killingsworth St, NE Fremont St, SE Hawthorne Blvd, the Hollywood District, N Mississippi Ave, and a bunch of others I probably don't know about
@@Kirbychu1 Those streets have 40 ft of road, parking on both sides, and speed limits of 20mph, in addition to frequent bus service and high bicycle usage. Not stroads
Your point at the end is key! Sure, we may have one place in the city for the NHL game, but entertainment in general should spread throughout and accessible.
3:05 in my city benches are just homeless camp spots, I can totally understand why a city council with rich assholes breathing down their necks wouldn't want benches or any type of seating that could be... appropriated by the less affluent. it makes them more visible to the c level executive driving down Broadway to his $500k/yr job.
There shouldn't have to be that many homeless people in the usa. If you can't give them all a home, at least give them shelters where they can safely live or sleep.
@@gert-janvanderlee5307 Wrong answer. We have TONS of quality homeless shelters in America that operate far below capacity SIMPLY BECAUSE OF BASIC RULES related to CIVILITY/MUTUAL RESPECT and illegal drugs.
Where I live in the UK the nearby city (its only had city status for 2-3 months) but housing is a 5-10 minute walk away, I'm 4 miles away but that's only 20 minutes by bus and they are every 15 minutes to and from the city. The US is missing so many opportunities to have no vehicles in a city, it doesn't have to be wall to wall alcohol pubs/bars either, there are cinemas, parks, bowling, ice skating, badminton, swimming you get the idea, plenty for most people and mostly non alcohol related, areas with alcohol available aren't totally separated from sporting or parks for families either, it's getting the balance right while having enough public transport to different areas around the city for people to get back home just a few miles away, the low distance means fairs are inexpensive and journeys are in minutes, this keeps any tempers calm and the need for police to an absolute minimum, people are friendly because everything is close at hand and waiting is short, people talk to one another, catch their bus and are home within 20-30 minutes after a good night/day out, no one needed to drive unless they really wanted to, the police presence was minimal and people and traffic were kept apart because only buses are allowed in the centre of the city and only on certain roads, the other roads have been turned into pedestrian areas with seating (only emergency vehicles can use these areas when absolutely necessary, ambulance, fire and police), police when in the city are often on foot, this is less confrontational and they do tend to be there more to help if need be, giving directions and other general information details, they also tend to be in pairs and often without a baton and pepper spray, people are less likely to be confrontational with someone whom is unarmed and if someone did try to harm them other members of the public would pull those people away until the police were in control again or back up arrived which would be a minute at most.
" there are cinemas, parks, bowling, ice skating, badminton, swimming you get the idea" these don't make money, bub it is wall to wall bar chain number 1267, exactly like the one in every other city. right next to it is chain bar 532....
4:34 Wow!, that looks insanely depressive from a Dutch eye stand point, imagine rebuilding that block into a walk able and cycling friendly place with businesses and living altogether at a short walking and cycling distance.. What i notice now is that not only the US but also Canada are starting to realize that things can be done differently for a better quality of life living standards.. Not Just Bikes started to call this out from the very start about stroads and streets only dedicated to cars while cycling and walking is a
4:30 *"You prioritize making cities good places to live, not just having flashy districts that attract people from the far out suburbs."* Bingo. This right here exactly. Long comment incoming: The problem with so many American Entertainment Districts is that they are often extremely hollow and shallow, underutilized, one-stop-shop destinations for weekend partygoers, and that's it. It seemingly caters to just that one specific demographic of people, and nobody else. Therefore, these places are only ever active or even remotely lively during the weekends. Outside of that time period, these places are just lifeless. Literally nothing ever goes on there, and nobody ever goes there outside of the weekend, and that I feel like is a huge reason as to why so many "Entertainment Districts" especially here in the US fail, or at least, struggle financially.
Take where I live here in the Charlotte, NC region. We have a our own 'Entertainment District' called the EpiCentre, and it is facing the exact same problems I described previously. Why? Because as I said before, NOBODY goes there, even for lunch. A lot of corporate headquarters are located near the EpiCentre, and during peak lunch hours, the streets become absolutely flooded with people looking for a bite to eat, and they thankfully do this on foot. But the one thing that becomes glaringly obvious, this crowd goes everywhere, EXCEPT the EpiCentre. It also really doesn't help that the EpiCentre has developed this negative reputation of being a "douchebag's watering hole." Which imo, really feels deserved haha.
"The simple needs of automobiles are more easily understood and satisfied than the complex needs of cities, and a growing number of planners and designers have come to believe that if they can only solve the problems of traffic, they will thereby have solved the major problem of cities." -Jane Jacobs, 1961
What is obvious is if you drive, you cant drink; so the planning should OBVIOUSLY reflect that. Car-centric nightlife districts sounds ludicrously weird and a safety issue (drunks on the road!)
US is depressing as hell. The only people who find it entertaining are the people who never seen anything else so they can't compare it. It's just the truth.
Hey, this is a great topic to talk about! I feel like night life and entertainment is at the core young urbanism today. I used to work in a small city of 20k that had an incredible night life as you suggested. I plan on making a video about it in the future, but bars and restaurants are spread out over the entire area of the walkable old downtown. Most major roads went around the city in the 1940s and so we're left with small streets, few cars, and many bars (over 30). This is a great model for the big places and the small. Buffalo NY, has some good aspects and some bad. I have family there and we go out when I visit. Bars are clustered in many interesting areas, and it really does have a walkable downtown. That said, the district (Chippewa Street) has a busy road through it and everyone drives there.
Where I live in the UK, it's called a "new town" where they merged about 20 towns and or villages into a behemoth Town. Now once there was a main high street in every one of these places. Now they are slowly dying and some are already dead, because at the centre of this new town they built a pedestrianised area filled with, wait for it, chain restaurants and a big cinema. The problem being the independent restaurants outside of the central area don't get the footfall, independent or older cinemas have closed, the traffic has Increased in the centre and the surrounding suburbs are like ghost towns in the days and nights. At night there is nothing to do but drive to the centre and in the day there is nothing to do but drive to the centre or surrounding retail parks to shop. The local government consider it progress.
It is exactly that. But watch this comments section decry that out of some retarded notion of "sympathy". Nevermind the drugs, used needles, feces and other hazardous waste problems that vagrants bring with them, of course.
in central florida you can find some interesting places like universal citiwalk, disney spring, lake eola park, icon park, etc but it is not something common in other cities.
There are a few examples of nice cities in America with pockets of entertainment scattered throughout. Unfortunately the vast majority aren't, and even the nice cities are still very car-dependent.
Hey at 2:08 one of my favorite restaurants in that part of Minneapolis is on the left at that tall building past the truck, this is actually a decent mixed use area of the city.
In the early years of Brasília (capital of Brazil build from scratch in 1960) an American once said that the monumental axis avenue should be filled with bars and pubs instead of the wide spaces in the middle of the avenue. I wonder what examples he got in mind back then.
Since everybody hates San Francisco, I don't suppose it matters that its civic and entertainment center qualifies as very good, at least by the standards you set. The opera house, symphony hall, and multiple other theaters are surrounded by wide sidewalks lined with shops and restaurants, as well as outdoor dining,. It is well served by regional and local rail, BRT and local bus lines. There is also lots of housing in the area with more under construction. There is still way too much car traffic on three arterials that cut through it, and it is seedy around the edges, but it is a lot closer to what is on offer in Rome than Minneapolis.
@violamateo Yeah that's why cities should be building more affordable housing rather than the stupid single family detached stuff in the suburbs. If there were more mid-rise flats there'd be far less homeless people.
As much as you are right that many American cities need to improve their entertainment districts, not every district in the country is like this. It's also important to even bring up the places in the country that do it right. One example I will bring up is Lincoln and Wells street in Chicago. I took a walk up those streets one night and they were two of the most lively places I've seen in my life. Maybe other streets can learn from these.
Unfortunately, the increasing crime rate in city centers in recent years is starting to hurt city center entertainment districts. That crime rate was what really hurt New York City's Times Square until the 1990's.
@@Sacto1654 Times Sqaure nowadays has nypd with mp5's and rifles like on every corner and same goes for every major popular place in nyc. The only thing that hurts it now are the subways which imo does not have nearly enough police.
@@player764 More police does not equal more safety. You need to look at the actual causes of crime and fix those instead of throwing even more guns at it. In those areas in Europe he showed you'll barely see police at all
In hamburg we got a whole big area where the streets are like 1/4th of the space between buildings, and its all low-to-none traffic, with people sitting at restaurant tables inbetween the street, the buildings, and some trees. Its pretty great. So happy i live here and not in the depressing USA
Love your videos. Keep posting. We learn so much and they gives us the critical eye and the talking points when arguing for better cities. I agree, the typical American experience is pretty depressin. But don’t lose heart, I think there’s a groundswell of livable city consciousness probably spurred on by climate change concerns. Everyday I’m hearing of more cities pushing back on the primacy of cars in our cities. Covid probably altered conventional thinking also. Or maybe it’s just a bunch of us who have travelled overseas or are from other countries who know what’s missing and we’re pissed off enough to gripe about it. Whatever the reason, I believe changes are happening. Here in California we’re starting to see the stranglehold of single family zoning is finally being challenged. I tell everyone to step away from their cars and start walking. It’s a good first step for many people. Its almost revolutionary for some and maybe it is. Stay optimistic my friend and thanks for your hard work.
Another thing is to make public transport intuitive and easy to use. Fixed time tables and easy to understand rates which are cheap. Best example currently is Germany with its 9€ ticket. You can use it in all of Germany in every mean of public transport that is not long distance for 9€ per month. Great! They introduced it in June for three months to relief people from current inflation and guess what. What a success it is. Traffic jam times were cut to almost non existence and they need to run several additional trains and buses on many many routes that were underused before. Such a shame they don't want to continue it
They may decide to continue it if it has such a positive effect on the economy. A positive effect in the German economy will also benifit the whole EU economy, making other countries more able to invest in public transport, such as Spain with its HSR and new free tickets.
@@56independent well I'm all for it. I rarely use public transport but that gets even me in the underground on a saturday to go to the city center or visit family with public transport as I simply have the ticket already. Before a round trip or a day ticket for the city with my wife was 18€. Of course I took the car for 10km each direction. Now I use the public transport as it means having several cold beer . In the morning it's just impossible. There's just none viable option at 4am
In response your last remark, there are (or were) cities with multiple entertainment districts in many Asian countries. In Taiwan, for example, there are night markets, some bigger than others, but all of them are places where people gather. The sad thing is that some have become magnets, leaving the ones that are ignored to decay. in Japan, you can blame the decay on lack of connections to transit, but people largely place the blame on a lack of free parking. Contrary to what this sounds like, cars are prioritized over public transit in many Japanese cities, and there are few wide-open spaces and places where people can sit down outside, so many of the entertainment districts that have survived until present day are kind of lame, including the more popular ones.
You should have honestly shown a good walkable city like Portland Maine. 1890’s style walkable areas. Can you at least show real examples of good American cities because they absolutely exist. Look up most of the streets in Portland Maine, especially the couple city squares. Full of life, especially in the summer when it’s not cold and people want to just get cozy inside
Louisville has a good entertainment district. A prioritized pedestrian path, and a large roof to cover rain. While it only has bus stops around it, it does have multiple though,
I don't even live in Minnesota, but I could tell immediately that you badly misrepresented the two areas of Minneapolis that you showed. The first area at 5th and Washington is not only within several blocks of the major rail transit intermodal hub at Target Field, served by two light rail lines, buses, AND commuter rail, but it's also a VERY mixed-use area, including the nearby redeveloped freight yards with a mix of commercial and residential uses, bikeways, and a riverfront park. The second area at 7th and Hennepin is very much downtown, surrounded by hotels, even closer to rail transit, and only a block from the famed pedestrian and transit-only Nicollet Mall. You selected the worst photos you could find of a 170-year-old city that's actually ahead of the curve in America and compared it to the best photos you could find of cities that were founded over 1,900 years and 1,600 years ago, respectively. There are plenty of horrible urban hellscapes in the USA to legitimately criticize. You didn't have to intentionally misrepresent Minneapolis, of all places. You make me sad. SHAME on you! Shame! Shame! Shame!
I lived in the twin cities for two years; 1999-2001 --- I remember in St. Paul around grand ave. there was some scene at the time, with bars, cafe and eat options ... I'm now since 2003 living in Spain's NW --- I still have fond memories of my time in MN
I stayed right around the corner from Campo de Fiore a few years ago. They usually had a large foods market they set up in that square and it was great!
San Diego has "pockets of entertainment" all over the city and the county. Little Italy, Gaslamp, Hillcrest, 30th Street, all the various beach communities like Mission Beach, La Jolla, Ocean Beach. We have a light rail system, but it is generally a car-centric town.
Peter, you need to take a look at the city of Melbourne Australia, being a non European city it is probably closest to a North American style city with everything you have been saying a city should be, there are numerous entertainment areas in the downtown area, check out one of the Melbourne day/nightlife walks videos, the city is full of restaurants, secret bars and a great transport system in and out of the city, Melbourne was voted the most liveable city seven years in a row.
And talk about the suburbs neighbor hoods. I've seen a video of why neighborhoods make you less likely to want to walk outside because of open space etc. I don't know if it was from you.
Ahh the irony of an 'Entertainment district' being called that but its the last place I want to go to spend too much money to not have a good time....But profits trumps sanity every time.
Comparing the Minnesota examples to a touristy section of Rome doesn't seem correct. All those folks in shorts in the picture in Rome are tourists. That is not the locals enjoying the evening. It would have been better to show an example of locals out for the evening in some place that the tourists don't outnumber them. Otherwise you just look like another American complaining about why his local town doesn't let him live like he does as a tourist in Europe.
I mean Rome is a super touristy city in general. I just chose it because I studied there and I know it pretty well. Places like Campo de Fiori actually was where some native Italians hung out (they took me there) but also more so places like Trastevere or areas in Prati. The purpose was to show the contrast between a good and a bad area. A city like Minneapolis will never be super touristy, but that doesn't change the fact it is badly designed, and vice versa.
@@adanactnomew7085 That's true. But Rome is a capital city with 2.8 million people and 2500 years of history. A sister city of Minneapolis is Uppsala Sweden. Similar populations and if you image search Uppsala downtown, you will see some areas that are very nice and walkable and prove the point a little better I think.
I grew up in Minneapolis. Washington Avenue was an industrial area until it was recently redeveloped. It's unsurprising that so much land must be devoted to off street parking. Hennepin Avenue, the historical entertainment district of Minneapolis, was improved immensely for pedestrians when the street was made one way, and part of the road was dedicated to buses. In addition, there is light rail on 5th St. Weather, though, is another major factor. Although Minneapolis is not under snow all year round, the nights are often too cool to invite one to stand outside. As a result, you tend to park, have fun, and leave for home, not walk someplace else. I live in south California now, and the nights are often invitingly warm, unlike the Twin Cities.
As an American who lives in the South, I can't imagine enjoying drinks in one of the Minneapolis/St. Paul entertainment districts... and then having to get in my car and drive on snowy & icy roads to get home!
I agree with everything except the bit about cops making a place feel safe. Here in NY it's a downer whenever I see NYPD cops posted up. To me they look and feel more like loose cannons, hammers that think everyone around them is a nail. Not a safe feeling at all.
There are cops all over downtown Atlanta. Personally I don't feel negative about them being there at all, especially because I saw a fair amount of them casually interacting with people instead of commiting too hard to the "posted up" imagine you're referencing. That aspect helps a lot and we need more of that.
I don't mind the streets in America are old. What make them look bad are the garbage, gang tags/graffiti everywhere. The pandemic has revealed the true American civilization to the world.
one of Jakarta's popular night entertainment hub is Senopati (often memed into Senoparty) close to the CBD. It is a 3-lane one way stroad lined with middle to high class restaurants and bars (and the first Tacobell), Every weekend lots of cars are parked on the street and sidewalk. There is also 2 pharmacies, one of which is an unfortunate victim of drunk driving twice. Transit wise, there are 2 bus routes and 2 elevated BRT stations that serve the edges of this road but they're far away from the restaurant street.
It's also possibly a problem of cities that are designed vs those that just evolved organically. The designers seem to really struggle with the concept of making places liveable. I live in a town in England that was "designed" in the 1960s. It even had a traffic-free main piazza in the centre of town, where some designer no doubt imagined it would be lined with cafes and bars. Instead it filled with shoe shops, jewelers, chemists etc, and was completely dead after 5.30. In the 90s they realised it was terrible and decided to redesign, knocking down half of the town centre, which reponed about 5 years ago. Unfortunately it was designed to be 'high-rent' meaning every single establishment there is part of a chain, other than one old pub which survived the rebuild. It's vastly better than it was, but still feels like a shopping complex, rather than a true town centre.
Yeah. My city was organic, I guess. It just sort of happened and so it has no real design to it. First, there was the railroad that owned land on both sides of the tracks. Then, the railroad sold off some of its land. Some dude bought some of that land back in the early 1950's and built a mill. A mill needed workers to operate it, so some housing units were built (and owned by the milling company) and they also built a company store, too. Other industries and businesses also bought land from the railroad and the place started really growing. The area was walkable at first until a tornado came through about a decade later and destroyed the mill and a bunch of the walkable neighborhoods. The mill closed down and the people who stayed bought their homes from the company and eventually formed a town with a townhall and small jail all built within the same building. Eventually, the town grew over 10,000 people and was designated a city by the State. There was a small church that wanted to build a larger building, so it sold the old church to the city to become the courthouse. Today, my city has about 33,000 people in it. Just within this decade, we finally built a new city hall and are in the process of building a new jail house. Everything is scattered about because of the way our city grew as it was never intended to be a city in the first place. It doesn't have a real downtown. Just a few old buildings left that didn't get destroyed in the tornado. That is the evolution of a small city in semi-rural USA.
My city developed somewat strangely for an American city before WW2. Being an old riverboat/canal city from the 1820s, it stayed very very dense for a long time and didn't really grow outwards from the river until after the Civil War. I'm a huge local history nerd and have studied the expansion of my city over time. I've found that very little of the nineteenth century developments were planned in large swaths. Basically, people would buy a smal piece of land and the city would add some more streets. This ended up forming a wonky grid that just kind of worked. There are also two Victorian once-suburbs; one on a stupidly steep hill with very triangular blocks and sreets all over the place, and another with long sweeping brick streets in a densly wooded area. Once subruban sprawl hit my city though, all new developments became very generic, unfortunately.
I don't think the problem is cars but it can contribute to that. We need more places of interest and people living in these pockets with amenities so they don't need to drive everywhere. Less chains would be nice but in the lands of capitalism its harder and harder for smaller shops and boutiques to compete with mega corps who own a lot of places we eat at. Housing/office costs is destroying my city's downtown district as it is now a deadzone with many vacant businesses. Not fun at all to go there anymore. Another thing is the states doesn't have the same history that Europe has where many landmarks go back thousands of years and have proven the test of time. Cutlure is also different and can be attributed as well to thousands of years of history.
Hmmm...damned if you do, damned if you don't: LA has scores of vibrant "strips" of walkable, nightlife areas ( WeHo- Santa Monica & Sunset, Abbott Kinney, 3rd Street), yet visitors to LA always seem to bitch that there's no single focus.
Uber and Lyft is a game changer. In my city cabs are very unreliable and they extort you at night when they know you are desperate. Uber and Lyft changed all of that.
Don't forget Nicollet Mall in Downtown Minneapolis. This is probably the closest we have to a car free street. It is a bus/bike only area. This is a start, and Minneapolis could convert way more streets to the Nicollet Malls, but obviously we should go all the way and ban any motorized vehicles.
I live in a quiet downtown residential area of one of the cities shown in this video. The least thing we want around is "entertainment" (yes, nimbyism at it's worst...). We see what happens to the "entertainment areas" just a kilometer or two away, and no, just plain no. Even if the addicts give up their pills, even if the bike gangs suddenly install mufflers, no way. The very idea of having large masses of people leaving their home areas and congregating in some designated "entertainment ghettos" is flawed. On the contrary, the city should strive to make each and every neighborhood attractive. This is probably impossible in North American suburbia, but elsewhere it's the way to go.
@@johndong7524 Great advice, son, but wrong. There's nothing like the US suburbs in my country, it's either an urban flat or a chalet in the mountains. And living in the mountains all year round isn't for grandpas...
@@jmi5969 If that's the case then you already have some sort of a gathering place in the down town area of your city or town. You just don't live near it. I'm from a fairly big city in Eastern Europe and we have entertainment pretty much everywhere. Even in the suburbs. But the main gathering place for shopping, dining, and entertainment is downtown and the surrounding areas where we also have a boardwalk on the river shore and two big parks. And yes, we do have apartment blocks in those areas as well. Some of them are located along the main city street, which is quite busy with both car and foot traffic, so I assume it gets pretty loud for people living there. At the same time owning a residence in downtown is considered prestigious and desireble in our country, while suburbs are more relegated to the working class. Property values are higher the closer to downtown you get.
To be fair, you are comparing ice ridden mid western cities to Mediterranean climate Rome. St Paul and Minneapolis are less than 50F for like half the year. And it's the colder months that more people want to go out the bar. People are busy BBQing and having parties during the summer.
It’s not important for me bro… It would have been better if the US had taken care of its own internal problems instead of imposing strategy on the whole world! In my opinion.
One good example of a so called entertainment district is located in Glendale Arizona called Westgate. Well everything is all chained not unique places. Yes there’s a mall, football and hockey stadium but everything is all chained, chipotle, Johnny rockets, AMC, Starbucks etc. I like Roosevelt street in downtown phx at least it’s the only place in Arizona with unique bars and restaurants that’s a real entertainment district and visit it often due to also a lot of cool street art.
I would like to see some comparisons with Mexico´s important urban areas, such as Querétaro, Mexico City, or Guadalajara(entertainment districts, corporate and financial districts, downtown)
It's strange: As a kid i always fantasised about going to the US, because these cities seemed so awesome and those suburbs so nice with big roads, huge green lawns, nice big houses. At least, in the movies it seemed attractive. And now watching video's like this, i'm so thankful i live in the Netherlands. These American cities seem awful to live in. Not trying to offend anyone. We here in the Netherlands were going the car oriented way first too, but then changed to bike/walk oriented. So i believe things can change, but people and mostly: people in power need to want to change.
Unfortunately... fountains, green spaces, and aesthetically pleasing fountains don't satisfy the profit motive. Public safety and quality of life in urban districts, as well as rural communities, simply gets in the way of satisfying investors. Much like every aspect of 'Merica, the Corpos own it, and utilize it to their financial advantage.
I've been saying forever, but downtown Minneapolis is ugly af. It's not a nice place to hang out, it just feels lifeless, even when lots of people are there.
the nightlife area in my city is essentially a pedestrian mall on weekends and 4-5 nights a week and it takes like 10 minutes to drive through a stretch of road under a mile. it’s really strange to me that they haven’t blocked off the area to through traffic as literally thousands of people are walking the sidewalks and crossing the road
A really well planned out city would be laid out in a way which meant car ownership would be unnecessary for most people, even families. It's amazing how being carless can improve your sense of well-being financially, mentally, physically and emotionally. You need to experience it to know what I mean.
City: Look at our teeming downtown entertainment scene with its many live music venues! Developer: I KNOW! It's so perfectly trendy that the whole place should be made into condos!
Because people sometimes need to communicate physically. When the city has a centre and place to go, people can make new friends and get new experiences and learn new things and generally feel a deep wholesomness which is not achievable using a computer. Entertainment districts just provide a place for people to come together to do things together.
Another common issue I see in small/medium-sized north American cities is how few things there are to do for people under 21. It seems like the only form of 'nightlife' in many American cities is just a bunch of bars and nightclubs. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but I wish there were a bit more diverse options for people under 21, or those who don't drink. For example, many Asian cities have HUGE, elaborate shopping malls filled with tons of cool activities, all open pretty late, where people of all ages can come to hang out at most times of day. Just a thought.
Even when you are an adult, the city is so fucking boring.
This is what I noticed with shopping malls in my area. Year over year, there are less public-use spaces for people to occupy since the landlords for these malls want customers to go directly into shops, make their purchases, and get out. The goal is high customer throughput lead by a false assumption that throughput = more purchases.
What these malls tend to misunderstand is that it's customer retention that keeps malls active. If your mall is empty, people will think it's dead and they won't come to the location. If your mall is uninviting to people and doesn't support social gatherings, then people won't stay and peruse some of the other shops, purchase food from the food court / scattered food vendors, or even use the vending machines you put up along the walls. Just recently, an outdoor mall I used to frequent actually tore up their performance stage to "allow for traffic flow to improve". By removing the circular stage with seats, traffic did improve, but it could also be attributed to people simply coming less often to that shopping mall; no one tends to hang around anymore in the center square, and the parking lot is now always half-full, never overcrowded like it used to be before the stage was removed.
Truth be told, that mall feels a lot more cold without someone strumming their guitar or reciting their poem on stage. Traffic dies down only a few minutes after sundown, and the stores close earlier since the cost of staying open exceeds possible revenues. And yet, that mall keeps all its lights on in a dazzling, probably-expensive display at night, burning more money into non-operating hours. It's just insanity to see a Western mall regress over the course of my life, whereas one quick visit to any shopping mall in Saigon, Taipei, Seoul, or Tokyo will show dazzling arcades, restaurants with panoramic views of the city, and karaoke booths supplemented by open courts where people play Jianzi or just hang out on the benches. I don't feel intimidated to hang out with young adults across the Pacific, but I always anticipate bar fights and vomit in the USA.
To double down on a "beer garden" only shows how old and out of touch the land owners are, but the damage has already been done. I mostly go traveling with my friends or eat out downtown, since there's no more utility in that mall than any other strip mall.
(It's Bella Terra in California, by the way.)
@GlobalDataConspirator Everyone needs downtime bro
@GlobalDataConspirator the same could be said of those over 21. Especially past 25
@GlobalDataConspirator You need to realize there’s a difference between choosing to play when you have to study, versus playing when you have finished all the studying. Saying that people shouldn’t have these places because they should always be studying for school or working is literally saying that no one should have fun. There’s even been studies shown that having enjoyment in life to look forwards to can lead to more productivity than if you spend all day working
Banning chains from a downtown core is what Jersey City did back in 2015 where they created a zone that makes up most of Downtown where chains with 10 or more locations within 300 miles of Jersey City are banned. This was introduced by Mayor Fulop to promote and protect the character of Downtown neighborhoods and help mom-and-pop retailers thrive. Krispy Kreme in 2017 found a way around this by creating a "special" factory store that was branded differently from an ordinary Krispy Kreme.
It opened right across from the Grove Street PATH (the rapid transit system that connects Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan with Jersey City, Harrison, Hoboken, and Newark) station, which checks off the transit requirement. Downtown, like the rest of Jersey City, has plenty of transit, to the point the majority of Jersey City residents prefer it over driving by far. The city is well connected via the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, and Downtown in particular has seven stations. Even tourists can use the light rail to get to the nearby Liberty State Park and its science center. The PATH also has a station within Downtown at Newport for the mall for shopping or to watch a movie at the only AMC theatre in Hudson County, and at Exchange Place for a quick trip to World Trade Center, to connect the financial centers of the harbor. While the chain store restrictions were repealed in 2019 (because the city didn't want to deal with lawsuits from chains anymore), the Downtown area is still very much an example of a downtown done right
within 300 miles of Jersey City? Does this ban span into neighoring and even more distant US states, Boston, New York (both New York City and Upstate New York, Maryland, Washington DC, etc?
Asia is the same as Europe in that regard.
Whenever I visit the US, it bothers me how much time is used because of the reliance of a car: driving to a place, waiting in traffic, having to get gas, looking for parking, walking back to the parking lot, and using drive throughs (which my friends love).
What bothers me most is that I ALWAYS have to get into a car just to do ANYTHING.
Most Latin American cities have some points in common with European Cities as well. Even more modern cities are not as car dependent as US cities.
The US is the best country in the world. Get over it.
Terrible isn't it?
@@Shepardofman all these massive stretches of asphalt to park and drive cars on also generate much less tax revenue than infrastructure maintenance costs would require relative to land that, you know. Actually has something on it.
It's a bottomless pit of debt usually held up by the bootstraps of some old and poorly maintained downtown area or government subsidies obtained under the premise of building even more road and parking because building a district where anything is convenient to get to is usually outright illegal in the US.
They don’t even have good car STONKS to show for it
American cities in general just make me sad
This
Welcome to the disgusting worship of the automobile combined with too much land space to mentally grasp upon.
Everything in the US is made for maximum work efficiency and profitability, not enjoyment. The elites don't want people to casually enjoy themselves. They want us to work and spend, spend, spend. Design of the American cities and suburbs reflects that. It's a perfectly architected beehive for work bees to keep busy and produce.
@@juuiko Nothing wrong with cities as long as its not car centric
Living in cities is much better
I have been on vacation to most american cities, and I noticed that I would really spend most of my vacation in nature areas like national parks, beaches, hiking trails, ect. I found that when I am visiting a city I am not going for the things inside the city itself as every city is the same in that way, but I am only really visiting for the natural landscape. As a tourist transportation gets really expensive as a rental car or ubers are really my only options.
I notice the same thing. Unless the city has a highly developed culture, like NYC, you usually visit places in the US to see the natural landscapes.
That's why Europe is such a nicer place to visit. Car dependency makes it hard to travel for not only tourist but also natives a like. Even places along the east coast that have train or bus stations, you're essentially dumped out onto a street corner with no where to go without a Uber or taxi.
I haven't been to America, but if I ever cross the Atlantic, I want to see the beautiful natural wonders of the continent, but the cities there don't appeal to me, except for NYC and possibly something like the Santa Monica Pier. And I'm usually someone who enjoys cities more than nature while on holiday. It's just that from everything I've seen, most American (and Canadian) cities are just endless suburban sprawl with declining, torn apart downtowns criss-crossed by urban highways and parking lots. There is probably something unique to find in every city, but it's gonna be something minor, for which a trip is not worth it.
@@namenamename390 I have been to America and there are some cities that have a nice central district, like New Orleans, Washington-Georgetown, Savannah, St Augustine, Annapolis. But I agree that most are lifeless entertainment centers that can only been reached by car. In most American cities, I miss a real central district, a downtown with a church at a square and crooked or meandering streets leading to the main square. Most American cities are stroads, avenues and streets, all in straight lines. That contributes to the lifelessness of their city centers.
@@RealConstructor notice how all the cities you named were founded long before the country even gained independence. They were built before the car and the nice downtowns are lucky to not have been bulldozed completely.
Houston, today a perfect example of car centric development with single family homes and stroads galore, used to have a compact, walkable downtown which was destroyed to make room for the car. Same goes for LA and many other cities.
It's nice that places like New Orleans could keep some of their old city centres.
The more I watch this type of videos, the more I am glad that I live in Europe
Take it with a grain of salt. These kinds of anti-car websites always want everything to be exactly like Europe and always seem to have a dim view of America. In 2018 we had 35.8 million visitors here in San Diego, many of whom are Europeans. The ones I talk to always seem to be having a great time. So, apparently, people like coming here and we are doing something right. Every single person that I know that has left San Diego has left purely for cost-of-living reasons.
@@norwegianblue2017 yes, but it is very different, if you stay in US for couple of day as a tourist and it is different, when you live there, especially in the suburbs. And it's not only about cars, there are much more aspects due to which I am glad to be a European.
@@norwegianblue2017 I found the guy with a box over their head
Yes, but at least we have satellite radio!
@@norwegianblue2017 that's because they are only available there for a short period and are seeing everything through rose tinted glasses.
I moved to Canada in 2011, I thought the same as the tourists initially, but when I really started to live and work here it was very apparent how backwards many things were.
Alot of the problem here is the degredation of the public realm, alot of new urbanists talk about this like Andres Duany. In America since the end of ww2 and even more so under the Neo-Liberal age in the 80s, society and the public realm have become viewed with disdain as it does not make money, and is not supportive of big business.
Big Business has too much influence in US politics, voters have too little influence in US politics.
Neo-liberal age in the 80’s?? Lol, Regan was President the entire decade numbnuts & was highly popular. Blame something else.
damn you thacher-reaganism!
You can’t eat that.
Ding ding ding.
I'm not saying infrastructure doesn't matter, but a lot of these urbanist channels critical of American infrastructure miss that in a lot of ways, the infrastructure is a reflection of cultural trends and preferences. Sure, there's a bit of chicken-and-egg situation with a feedback loop between both aspects, but simply put, Americans just by and large don't like shopping in person or hanging out with each other anymore. Everything's online. A huge portion of American society would rather just stay home and play video games, watch Netflix, shop on Amazon, etc. after work. I keep seeing other comments praising cities in other countries, but I think it's important to keep in mind that appearances can be misleading and this is not entirely a uniquely American problem. A perfect example is Japan. I sometimes see these urbanist channels praising entertainment districts in Japan, but what they leave out is that the population of density of Japanese cities is so much higher that they can have those bustling districts and still have an infamously huge population of recluses who stay inside and play video games all day, as well as people who just work and go home, never going out to enjoy their cities. Similar dynamics exist in much of Asia quite frankly.
It's really only mostly Europe that is a reflection of the high-quality urban living that these channels aspire to, and a lot of that comes down to culture as much as infrastructure. Going out to a pub with friends or coworkers is just so much more ingrained in many of the cultures there, so it's no surprise that the infrastructure reflects that. In fact, this may surprise a lot of the urbanists, but there was a time not long ago, maybe from 1960s-2000s, that quality of life in America was largely judged by the size of shopping malls and overall square footage of retail space. By that metric, America dwarfed Europe and still continues to do so to this day. Visitors to America would often come just to enjoy the experience of shopping in the large assortment of fancy, big stores. This idea was copied in other countries as well, particularly Asian countries like China where malls were seen as a reflection of modernization and improvement of living standards. It's really only the rise of online shopping which caused the gradual decline of physical retail which is still ongoing, but there are still people who choose where to live and work based on proximity to shopping centers.
What American cities really need is a cultural impetus for their revival. You would think music could be a motivating attraction, but sadly, live music is dying in a lot of places as online streaming and synthetic electronic music have contributed to significantly fragmented and divergent preferences. Lots of kids these days don't even understand the premise of watching someone play music live. Pokemon Go and other similar app-based AR games actually did have a noticeable impact on social gatherings in urban locations, at least in my region, but that was kind of a fad rather than a permanent cultural attraction, and there was also a noticeable tension between playing with others in public and improving one's stats or whatever by oneself through paid bonuses and such. I don't know what it'll end up being, but cities need something to draw people in again, and I don't necessarily think just copying European city design is going to do it because you still have to convince isolated, lonely Americans to get up off the couch.
Off topic. Feel free to crank up the volume a little the next time. I had to adjust my own volume so much that the next video almost gave a heart attack.
On topic. In the video you give a example of a European capital city. However, even in this 30,000 pop town that i live has an entire center of townsquares and streets where cars cant reach. It really gives any place a whole different vibe. It feels more human and natural.
Ahaha yes. I love Llafranc. It has less inhabitants then the city you mentioned, making it quite small, but the beach area is class, with a nice pedestrianised section and lots of soul.
"However, even in this 30,000 pop town that i live has an entire center of townsquares and streets where cars cant reach. It really gives any place a whole different vibe. It feels more human and natural."
Not for everybody. I prefer a big city that has both people and vehicles. San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, those are my places.
Or in Europe, I would much prefer Paris or Rome vs some random village hundreds of miles (km) from the nearest major city. But people have different preferences. Those are mine. 🙂
@@neutrino78x We all got used to the kind of place that we grew up with. For me a city over 100.000 allready feels to big for me. It's the kind of vibe that we all kinda know each other (kind off). And i have no idea if this is true or not, but i also think that people in small cities and tkwns are more social. Much more often you see a person you know and have a 5 minute talk. While in big cities 99% percent of the people you see is a total stranger. Unless it's your own street/neighbourhood.
We don't even have any foreign chains here, and by the looks of American suburbia, we aren't missing out. Our downtown has beautiful monuments, electric trolleybuses, electric trams, the Pyongyang Metro with its gorgeous mosaics and chandeliers, local department stores, and different restaurants to have hot pot, naengmyeon, and karaoke.
All jokes aside Pyongyang is quite a good city, reminds me of Beijing before everyone started driving,
It’s even furnished by a wonderful hotel which has been under construction for the past 35 years and still hasn’t been finished.
and nukes!
Kim I've been seeing you more often
@@watografic7554 America too has nukes, and it's the only coumtry that used it agains the others.
Even kiddie arcades are missing. It's sad that we can't take the kids walking to the corner pizza place, ice cream parlor or kiddie game room or park, or the small neighborhood bar for adults, walking distance.
always wanted to live in the usa, im from the netherlands, but after seeing more and more of your videos, im doubting my decisions
I don't see the United States changing how it's cities are laid out any time soon. Too many vested interests and the politicians have a complete lack of concern for the common good.
Add to that that Americans don’t see a problem with how things are in the first place. They’ve never been outside of the cave.
Australian cities which do suffer from some of the same suburban sprawl as the US (but not as badly) typically do entertainment districts quite well. The city I'm from, pretty much the entire CBD/Downtown area becomes an entertainment district at night, some pockets more than others but it's known for having literally hundreds of bars and restaurants tucked away down laneways pretty much everywhere. The most important thing that makes it work though is 16 suburban train lines that connect it with pretty much the entire metropolis, and run 24 hours on weekends, not to mention 22 out of the city's 24 tram routes that also run through the CBD/Downtown, making it really accessible without a car for anyone who wants to catch a theatre show, live band, go to a restaurant, nightclub or simply just find cool hidden bars to hang out at.
I did find that was really lacking in the US. Even cities with great nightlife areas - like Austin, TX for example - I found that unless we were staying within the downtown area itself, you basically had to drive or taxi/uber to get there and back to enjoy it.
There were exceptions of course, Chicago is well connected and we spent nights in different nightlife neighbourhoods that we accessed by train/metro, Boston as well to an extent, and obviously NYC is an exception to the American rule.
I don’t understand something about these channels. I agree with the premise in general, but for some reason, they always pretend NYC doesn’t exist. For example, this video compares Minneapolis with streets in London and Rome. NYC (Manhattan especially)! is more vibrant and chaotic and dense than London. I saw a video saying why US transit sucked and the screenshot compared Charlotte to Toronto.
You need to stop pretending NYC doesn’t exist and realize we got 20 million people in the NYC area.
I mean, instead of showing Minneapolis, why not show San Fransisco , DC, Philly, Chicago, New Orleans, Providence, Boston? Even parts of New Jersey, LA, Baltimore got better streets than the video showed. I definitely feel like the suburbs need to be revamped but let’s not pretend their isn’t options in the USA.
NYC is huge. There’s endless options in that city alone.
Portland and Seattle also have large and pedestrian friendly urban centers that are well used. Hell, Atlanta Georgia has a large downtown and midtown that is indistinguishable from New York in a lot of ways.
Savannah, GA is an example of an "entertainment district" that, while somewhat following the same modal as other smallish cities, actually follows through on maintaining a decent sized pedestrian friendly downtown and historic center.
They don't have to zero in on NYC at all if we're just talking about downtown, but I do agree with the premise there are also boring towns here.
@@TheNobleFive Yes I agree. We all need to get rid of the stroads, stop single family zoning, and help a lot of these mid tier cities. But they’re are ALOT of options. See, I didn’t even mention Seattle and Portland and their are more options that we probably overlooked.
And Savannah is a great small town walkable city with a bunch of parks.
the thing about London, there are plenty of areas that fulfil this role outside central London, i.e Angel, Camden, Hampstead, Clapham, Southwark, Stoke Newington, Shoreditch among many.
I live in Mexico, I sometimes fly to the US on vacation to see my family, and I’ve realised that having fun over there is very difficult, specially if you live in the suburbs. I just came back from a trip to Europe and man… what a difference. Over there you’ll find plenty of places to hang out just around the corner, you don’t even have to take the bus to find a good place to have drinks or snacks out in the street, and I was staying some good 40 min of walking distance from downtown. Even if you don’t want to spend any money there’s plenty of open spaces to just sit and relax while you enjoy the city. Cities in Mexico are usually just like this as well.
rate villahermosa 1-10 plz
Not Tijuana. Very little open spaces there
An extremely important point is the minor details no one admits exist in non-US cities.
In France, for historical reasons, poor people were segregated, after WWII, into suburbs dominated by public housing projects--they still are--and France has a highly-centralized police force.
One of these is an antiriot force armed along the lines of the army, the CRS.
The CRS has 13,000 members and is repeatedly deployed throughout the year in putting down riots, and keeping riff-raff out of tourist areas across France.
In US terms this would be the size of an American army division armed with motorcycles, armored cars, and light tanks.
It would have about a hundred large cargo planes standing by, and would be on the move, constantly, as another national police force would start shoving--on a regular basis--poor people into distant new suburbs of twenty-story public housing prisons.
Do note the media does not discuss this.
This is why indoor malls were so popular, but then people got lazy and we lost those too.
Sure, it’s ‘the peoples’ fault, not big business. The people control it all (wtf) grow up!
@@lewstone5430 If it wasn't for us, Amazon wouldn't be so large, young fella.
@@lewstone5430 yes.
@@lewstone5430 Supply and demand mawfackers.
@@wulver810 Same for Walmart. These urbanist idiots blame it all on "corporate America", while failing to realize that every former mall-goer has asked himself the same question: "Why should I spend my entire afternoon bouncing from store to store, up and down the mall, when I can get everything I want to buy at [insert big box store here] and be done in an hour?"
Downtown LA, which was a ghost town after 5 pm when we first moved here - you could drive through it at 60 mph and just blast through the red lights! - is showing big signs of life. It really needs improvement, but it's alive. No more blasting through red lights, either.
The thing with the London one is that, if you leave by 2200, you can get back to Newcastle or Manchester, and if you leave by 2300 you can even get back to Leeds or York. The last to Swansea is 2248, the last to Bristol 2332. (These are for normal times.)
If you look at a map of Britain you will notice that all of these are at least "medium distance", 100 to 300 miles.
I’ve taken the Swansea one many times
Assuming the trains run on time, that is, British trains are atrocious. Literally yesterday I had a 2.5 hour delay because of a problem at portsmouth & southsea.
@@moth5799Services from London usually originate in London, so there is less opportunity for delays. But yes, they are often crap.
@@igotes Yeah they're slightly better coming from london, but going waterloo to andover still always has problems for me.
@@moth5799 Generally in my experience they are OK. Of course faults can always happen and will cause long delays when they do.
Hang on....you're comparing outdoor dining/walking spaces in Rome to Minneapolis? Are you at all familiar with the climate in those locations?
Visited Tucson before the pandemic. Hotel was just across the downtown freeway. The Friday ajd Saturday nights I was there, it was dead by 9pm. Because I was in a hotel and didn't have a car, the nearest food place was a Jack in the Box which refused to serve me because they only operate the drive thru post 10pm. I just starved lmao
Always a mistake to visit the USA.
Tucson sucks
I guess I don't understand that if you go to a city then why not stay somewhere close to transit or rent a car or at least one with a restaurant inside or close by? If you can't drive or don't want to drive you could take a cab or Uber/Lyft to get somewhere open later right - although a lot of restaurants in the US, especially on weeknights, aren't open later than 10pm/11pm.
@@jimzecca3961 "why not stay somewhere close to transit" did I not say I was literally downtown? I also did not get to choose where I stayed because it was a school field trip. The fact that I'd need to pay money to Uber somewhere with food when I am downtown is ridiculous, you're explaining the problem I am describing, not excusing it. And that restaurants wouldn't stay open late downtown on a weekend is also crazy. Tucson's downtown was pretty shameful as such. Dead and devoid of culture and entertainment.
Visited a main tourist area in St. Louis. Pretty much empty and depressing.
Compared to that video from London which looked great and almost made me want to go and enjoy the nightlife by myself, that first photo from Minneapolis looked so crap and depressing, the second one wasn’t as bad but it’s certainly not good. I think I’m finally getting into that phase where I genuinely want to go out and enjoy the night I’m a big city so maybe I’ll catch the train up to London or Brighton one of these days and go and enjoy it.
The problem, in a nutshell, is this: cities are not built by dreamers with advanced degrees in "urban planning." They are built by local politicians and construction companies rubbing elbows who care not one whit about aesthetics but only about profit.
There's no inherent conflict between aesthetics and profits, certainly not in the long term.
This is true outside North America as well, but it leads to vastly different outcomes.
I believe it has a lot to do with the power of big business over politicians, rules and regulations.
@@omegamale7880 Exactly--profiteering rolls over everything
Portland already figured this out. There's the huge downtown on the west bank of it's River, which is walking distance from the east side of the River. There's multiple cool districts like NE Alberta St, NE Killingsworth St, NE Fremont St, SE Hawthorne Blvd, the Hollywood District, N Mississippi Ave, and a bunch of others I probably don't know about
Portland light rail is great, but grade separation is needed in Downtown.
Roads cut through all of those though? But yeah its nice there are a lot of options.
@@Kirbychu1 Those streets have 40 ft of road, parking on both sides, and speed limits of 20mph, in addition to frequent bus service and high bicycle usage. Not stroads
@@frafraplanner9277 Sure it's not awful but still feels like an odd compromise. Certainly a far cry from Campo de' Fiori shown here.
Too bad Portand has turned into a complete dumpster fire. Went there in 2015 and have no desire to ever return.
Your point at the end is key! Sure, we may have one place in the city for the NHL game, but entertainment in general should spread throughout and accessible.
3:05 in my city benches are just homeless camp spots, I can totally understand why a city council with rich assholes breathing down their necks wouldn't want benches or any type of seating that could be... appropriated by the less affluent. it makes them more visible to the c level executive driving down Broadway to his $500k/yr job.
Damn homeless people being homeless. Can't they just disappear?
@@klobiforpresident2254 america the only country with homeless
@@gillsejusbates6938 no
There shouldn't have to be that many homeless people in the usa. If you can't give them all a home, at least give them shelters where they can safely live or sleep.
@@gert-janvanderlee5307 Wrong answer. We have TONS of quality homeless shelters in America that operate far below capacity SIMPLY BECAUSE OF BASIC RULES related to CIVILITY/MUTUAL RESPECT and illegal drugs.
Where I live in the UK the nearby city (its only had city status for 2-3 months) but housing is a 5-10 minute walk away, I'm 4 miles away but that's only 20 minutes by bus and they are every 15 minutes to and from the city.
The US is missing so many opportunities to have no vehicles in a city, it doesn't have to be wall to wall alcohol pubs/bars either, there are cinemas, parks, bowling, ice skating, badminton, swimming you get the idea, plenty for most people and mostly non alcohol related, areas with alcohol available aren't totally separated from sporting or parks for families either, it's getting the balance right while having enough public transport to different areas around the city for people to get back home just a few miles away, the low distance means fairs are inexpensive and journeys are in minutes, this keeps any tempers calm and the need for police to an absolute minimum, people are friendly because everything is close at hand and waiting is short, people talk to one another, catch their bus and are home within 20-30 minutes after a good night/day out, no one needed to drive unless they really wanted to, the police presence was minimal and people and traffic were kept apart because only buses are allowed in the centre of the city and only on certain roads, the other roads have been turned into pedestrian areas with seating (only emergency vehicles can use these areas when absolutely necessary, ambulance, fire and police), police when in the city are often on foot, this is less confrontational and they do tend to be there more to help if need be, giving directions and other general information details, they also tend to be in pairs and often without a baton and pepper spray, people are less likely to be confrontational with someone whom is unarmed and if someone did try to harm them other members of the public would pull those people away until the police were in control again or back up arrived which would be a minute at most.
" there are cinemas, parks, bowling, ice skating, badminton, swimming you get the idea"
these don't make money, bub
it is wall to wall bar chain number 1267, exactly like the one in every other city. right next to it is chain bar 532....
4:34 Wow!, that looks insanely depressive from a Dutch eye stand point, imagine rebuilding that block into a walk able and cycling friendly place with businesses and living altogether at a short walking and cycling distance..
What i notice now is that not only the US but also Canada are starting to realize that things can be done differently for a better quality of life living standards..
Not Just Bikes started to call this out from the very start about stroads and streets only dedicated to cars while cycling and walking is a
4:30 *"You prioritize making cities good places to live, not just having flashy districts that attract people from the far out suburbs."*
Bingo. This right here exactly. Long comment incoming:
The problem with so many American Entertainment Districts is that they are often extremely hollow and shallow, underutilized, one-stop-shop destinations for weekend partygoers, and that's it.
It seemingly caters to just that one specific demographic of people, and nobody else. Therefore, these places are only ever active or even remotely lively during the weekends. Outside of that time period, these places are just lifeless. Literally nothing ever goes on there, and nobody ever goes there outside of the weekend, and that I feel like is a huge reason as to why so many "Entertainment Districts" especially here in the US fail, or at least, struggle financially.
Take where I live here in the Charlotte, NC region. We have a our own 'Entertainment District' called the EpiCentre, and it is facing the exact same problems I described previously. Why? Because as I said before, NOBODY goes there, even for lunch. A lot of corporate headquarters are located near the EpiCentre, and during peak lunch hours, the streets become absolutely flooded with people looking for a bite to eat, and they thankfully do this on foot. But the one thing that becomes glaringly obvious, this crowd goes everywhere, EXCEPT the EpiCentre. It also really doesn't help that the EpiCentre has developed this negative reputation of being a "douchebag's watering hole." Which imo, really feels deserved haha.
"The simple needs of automobiles are more easily understood and satisfied than the complex needs of cities, and a growing number of planners and designers have come to believe that if they can only solve the problems of traffic, they will thereby have solved the major problem of cities." -Jane Jacobs, 1961
What is obvious is if you drive, you cant drink; so the planning should OBVIOUSLY reflect that. Car-centric nightlife districts sounds ludicrously weird and a safety issue (drunks on the road!)
My main question to americans is,
How do you guys go to bars? everyone here cycles or takes public transport.
But you can't drink and drive right?
US is depressing as hell. The only people who find it entertaining are the people who never seen anything else so they can't compare it. It's just the truth.
Been binging your channel. Very well made good content. Cheers from a Minnesotan!
Thank you for your video! :)
America needs better city planners
Hey, this is a great topic to talk about! I feel like night life and entertainment is at the core young urbanism today.
I used to work in a small city of 20k that had an incredible night life as you suggested. I plan on making a video about it in the future, but bars and restaurants are spread out over the entire area of the walkable old downtown. Most major roads went around the city in the 1940s and so we're left with small streets, few cars, and many bars (over 30). This is a great model for the big places and the small.
Buffalo NY, has some good aspects and some bad. I have family there and we go out when I visit. Bars are clustered in many interesting areas, and it really does have a walkable downtown. That said, the district (Chippewa Street) has a busy road through it and everyone drives there.
3:05, not even a fucking tree! What the hell.
Where I live in the UK, it's called a "new town" where they merged about 20 towns and or villages into a behemoth Town. Now once there was a main high street in every one of these places. Now they are slowly dying and some are already dead, because at the centre of this new town they built a pedestrianised area filled with, wait for it, chain restaurants and a big cinema. The problem being the independent restaurants outside of the central area don't get the footfall, independent or older cinemas have closed, the traffic has Increased in the centre and the surrounding suburbs are like ghost towns in the days and nights. At night there is nothing to do but drive to the centre and in the day there is nothing to do but drive to the centre or surrounding retail parks to shop. The local government consider it progress.
Milton Keynes??
The lack of public seating is I’m assuming partly due to not wanting homeless to sleep/camp out in the area
It is exactly that. But watch this comments section decry that out of some retarded notion of "sympathy". Nevermind the drugs, used needles, feces and other hazardous waste problems that vagrants bring with them, of course.
in central florida you can find some interesting places like universal citiwalk, disney spring, lake eola park, icon park, etc but it is not something common in other cities.
The American examples didnt seem to be a place where I would choose to hang out and have fun
only thing id hang there is myself
Not being allowed to drink beer in public takes away 75% of the fun.
I lived in Wisconsin and we didn't see any reason to go to Minneapolis except for a major sports game. Milwaukee & Chicago had better options.
@@teotik8071 That's what makes Savannah GA nice
Cleveland's is pretty decent. It's right next to a walkable college campus and right on the biggest bus line in the city.
Yo! The opening shot is from my beautiful Moscow! Thank you!❤
Stone Street in Fidi in NYC is a good example of to strive for since its closed off to cars.
There are a few examples of nice cities in America with pockets of entertainment scattered throughout. Unfortunately the vast majority aren't, and even the nice cities are still very car-dependent.
Hey at 2:08 one of my favorite restaurants in that part of Minneapolis is on the left at that tall building past the truck, this is actually a decent mixed use area of the city.
In the early years of Brasília (capital of Brazil build from scratch in 1960) an American once said that the monumental axis avenue should be filled with bars and pubs instead of the wide spaces in the middle of the avenue. I wonder what examples he got in mind back then.
Madison’s State Street (which only allows vehicular access to buses, municipal, and local delivery vehicles) is a great American exception
Since everybody hates San Francisco, I don't suppose it matters that its civic and entertainment center qualifies as very good, at least by the standards you set. The opera house, symphony hall, and multiple other theaters are surrounded by wide sidewalks lined with shops and restaurants, as well as outdoor dining,. It is well served by regional and local rail, BRT and local bus lines. There is also lots of housing in the area with more under construction. There is still way too much car traffic on three arterials that cut through it, and it is seedy around the edges, but it is a lot closer to what is on offer in Rome than Minneapolis.
San Francisco has great transit, but California's "$950 theft law" scares tourists off the city.
@@vincentng2392 .
Why?
@violamateo Yeah that's why cities should be building more affordable housing rather than the stupid single family detached stuff in the suburbs. If there were more mid-rise flats there'd be far less homeless people.
A good example of the way that even nice places can be ruined by politicians and their dogmas
As much as you are right that many American cities need to improve their entertainment districts, not every district in the country is like this. It's also important to even bring up the places in the country that do it right. One example I will bring up is Lincoln and Wells street in Chicago. I took a walk up those streets one night and they were two of the most lively places I've seen in my life. Maybe other streets can learn from these.
Unfortunately, the increasing crime rate in city centers in recent years is starting to hurt city center entertainment districts. That crime rate was what really hurt New York City's Times Square until the 1990's.
@@Sacto1654 Times Sqaure nowadays has nypd with mp5's and rifles like on every corner and same goes for every major popular place in nyc. The only thing that hurts it now are the subways which imo does not have nearly enough police.
@@player764 You really shouldn't need rifles for just keeping an eye on the nightlife, just sayin'.
@@player764 More police does not equal more safety. You need to look at the actual causes of crime and fix those instead of throwing even more guns at it. In those areas in Europe he showed you'll barely see police at all
@@DonDadda45 considering the fact the government doesn't give a flying fuck... a couple of cops chilling on the corner with a long gun is fine
In hamburg we got a whole big area where the streets are like 1/4th of the space between buildings, and its all low-to-none traffic, with people sitting at restaurant tables inbetween the street, the buildings, and some trees.
Its pretty great.
So happy i live here and not in the depressing USA
Yeah, it's just sooooooo depressing here, dude. Gawd, do you clowns ever try to get that these channels produce an insanely biased take on this stuff?
Love your videos. Keep posting. We learn so much and they gives us the critical eye and the talking points when arguing for better cities.
I agree, the typical American experience is pretty depressin. But don’t lose heart, I think there’s a groundswell of livable city consciousness probably spurred on by climate change concerns. Everyday I’m hearing of more cities pushing back on the primacy of cars in our cities. Covid probably altered conventional thinking also. Or maybe it’s just a bunch of us who have travelled overseas or are from other countries who know what’s missing and we’re pissed off enough to gripe about it. Whatever the reason, I believe changes are happening. Here in California we’re starting to see the stranglehold of single family zoning is finally being challenged.
I tell everyone to step away from their cars and start walking. It’s a good first step for many people. Its almost revolutionary for some and maybe it is.
Stay optimistic my friend and thanks for your hard work.
Another thing is to make public transport intuitive and easy to use. Fixed time tables and easy to understand rates which are cheap.
Best example currently is Germany with its 9€ ticket. You can use it in all of Germany in every mean of public transport that is not long distance for 9€ per month. Great!
They introduced it in June for three months to relief people from current inflation and guess what. What a success it is. Traffic jam times were cut to almost non existence and they need to run several additional trains and buses on many many routes that were underused before. Such a shame they don't want to continue it
They may decide to continue it if it has such a positive effect on the economy. A positive effect in the German economy will also benifit the whole EU economy, making other countries more able to invest in public transport, such as Spain with its HSR and new free tickets.
@@56independent well I'm all for it. I rarely use public transport but that gets even me in the underground on a saturday to go to the city center or visit family with public transport as I simply have the ticket already. Before a round trip or a day ticket for the city with my wife was 18€. Of course I took the car for 10km each direction. Now I use the public transport as it means having several cold beer . In the morning it's just impossible. There's just none viable option at 4am
In response your last remark, there are (or were) cities with multiple entertainment districts in many Asian countries. In Taiwan, for example, there are night markets, some bigger than others, but all of them are places where people gather. The sad thing is that some have become magnets, leaving the ones that are ignored to decay. in Japan, you can blame the decay on lack of connections to transit, but people largely place the blame on a lack of free parking. Contrary to what this sounds like, cars are prioritized over public transit in many Japanese cities, and there are few wide-open spaces and places where people can sit down outside, so many of the entertainment districts that have survived until present day are kind of lame, including the more popular ones.
You should have honestly shown a good walkable city like Portland Maine. 1890’s style walkable areas. Can you at least show real examples of good American cities because they absolutely exist. Look up most of the streets in Portland Maine, especially the couple city squares. Full of life, especially in the summer when it’s not cold and people want to just get cozy inside
Louisville has a good entertainment district. A prioritized pedestrian path, and a large roof to cover rain.
While it only has bus stops around it, it does have multiple though,
I don't even live in Minnesota, but I could tell immediately that you badly misrepresented the two areas of Minneapolis that you showed. The first area at 5th and Washington is not only within several blocks of the major rail transit intermodal hub at Target Field, served by two light rail lines, buses, AND commuter rail, but it's also a VERY mixed-use area, including the nearby redeveloped freight yards with a mix of commercial and residential uses, bikeways, and a riverfront park. The second area at 7th and Hennepin is very much downtown, surrounded by hotels, even closer to rail transit, and only a block from the famed pedestrian and transit-only Nicollet Mall. You selected the worst photos you could find of a 170-year-old city that's actually ahead of the curve in America and compared it to the best photos you could find of cities that were founded over 1,900 years and 1,600 years ago, respectively. There are plenty of horrible urban hellscapes in the USA to legitimately criticize. You didn't have to intentionally misrepresent Minneapolis, of all places. You make me sad. SHAME on you! Shame! Shame! Shame!
Well, showing the good areas wouldn't support his narrative.
My thoughts exactly, as someone that used to live there.
I lived in the twin cities for two years; 1999-2001 --- I remember in St. Paul around grand ave. there was some scene at the time, with bars, cafe and eat options ... I'm now since 2003 living in Spain's NW --- I still have fond memories of my time in MN
I stayed right around the corner from Campo de Fiore a few years ago. They usually had a large foods market they set up in that square and it was great!
San Diego has "pockets of entertainment" all over the city and the county. Little Italy, Gaslamp, Hillcrest, 30th Street, all the various beach communities like Mission Beach, La Jolla, Ocean Beach. We have a light rail system, but it is generally a car-centric town.
Peter, you need to take a look at the city of Melbourne Australia, being a non European city it is probably closest to a North American style city with everything you have been saying a city should be, there are numerous entertainment areas in the downtown area, check out one of the Melbourne day/nightlife walks videos, the city is full of restaurants, secret bars and a great transport system in and out of the city, Melbourne was voted the most liveable city seven years in a row.
@Xavier Behavier I do not know where you got that information from 😂 what a load of crap, no walking on egg shells here thanks.
And talk about the suburbs neighbor hoods. I've seen a video of why neighborhoods make you less likely to want to walk outside because of open space etc. I don't know if it was from you.
Ahh the irony of an 'Entertainment district' being called that but its the last place I want to go to spend too much money to not have a good time....But profits trumps sanity every time.
Being in Oklahoma, looking at those pics of Minneapolis just make me think "oh wow: they get a sidewalk!"
Comparing the Minnesota examples to a touristy section of Rome doesn't seem correct. All those folks in shorts in the picture in Rome are tourists. That is not the locals enjoying the evening. It would have been better to show an example of locals out for the evening in some place that the tourists don't outnumber them. Otherwise you just look like another American complaining about why his local town doesn't let him live like he does as a tourist in Europe.
I mean Rome is a super touristy city in general. I just chose it because I studied there and I know it pretty well. Places like Campo de Fiori actually was where some native Italians hung out (they took me there) but also more so places like Trastevere or areas in Prati. The purpose was to show the contrast between a good and a bad area. A city like Minneapolis will never be super touristy, but that doesn't change the fact it is badly designed, and vice versa.
@@Phillowownz Sure. I will watch some of your other videos to get a better idea of your viewpoint. I am still a little confused.
Actually, it turns out I have already watched all your videos! I better subscribe because you are obviously making content I enjoy. Thanks!
If Minneapolis was better designed it would be touristy because, people would want to visit it.
@@adanactnomew7085 That's true. But Rome is a capital city with 2.8 million people and 2500 years of history. A sister city of Minneapolis is Uppsala Sweden. Similar populations and if you image search Uppsala downtown, you will see some areas that are very nice and walkable and prove the point a little better I think.
I grew up in Minneapolis. Washington Avenue was an industrial area until it was recently redeveloped. It's unsurprising that so much land must be devoted to off street parking. Hennepin Avenue, the historical entertainment district of Minneapolis, was improved immensely for pedestrians when the street was made one way, and part of the road was dedicated to buses. In addition, there is light rail on 5th St.
Weather, though, is another major factor. Although Minneapolis is not under snow all year round, the nights are often too cool to invite one to stand outside. As a result, you tend to park, have fun, and leave for home, not walk someplace else. I live in south California now, and the nights are often invitingly warm, unlike the Twin Cities.
As an American who lives in the South, I can't imagine enjoying drinks in one of the Minneapolis/St. Paul entertainment districts... and then having to get in my car and drive on snowy & icy roads to get home!
I agree with everything except the bit about cops making a place feel safe. Here in NY it's a downer whenever I see NYPD cops posted up. To me they look and feel more like loose cannons, hammers that think everyone around them is a nail. Not a safe feeling at all.
They just harass and arrest street performers in the subway and fuck around on their phone. Fuck em.
There are cops all over downtown Atlanta. Personally I don't feel negative about them being there at all, especially because I saw a fair amount of them casually interacting with people instead of commiting too hard to the "posted up" imagine you're referencing. That aspect helps a lot and we need more of that.
I don't mind the streets in America are old. What make them look bad are the garbage, gang tags/graffiti everywhere. The pandemic has revealed the true American civilization to the world.
one of Jakarta's popular night entertainment hub is Senopati (often memed into Senoparty) close to the CBD. It is a 3-lane one way stroad lined with middle to high class restaurants and bars (and the first Tacobell), Every weekend lots of cars are parked on the street and sidewalk. There is also 2 pharmacies, one of which is an unfortunate victim of drunk driving twice. Transit wise, there are 2 bus routes and 2 elevated BRT stations that serve the edges of this road but they're far away from the restaurant street.
As somebody that does a lot of bar hopping those are like the 2 absolute worst examples of entertainment districts
None of the first shots match with what the speaker is saying. Those shots were all from Europe or Asia, but not America which should have been shown.
It's also possibly a problem of cities that are designed vs those that just evolved organically. The designers seem to really struggle with the concept of making places liveable. I live in a town in England that was "designed" in the 1960s. It even had a traffic-free main piazza in the centre of town, where some designer no doubt imagined it would be lined with cafes and bars. Instead it filled with shoe shops, jewelers, chemists etc, and was completely dead after 5.30. In the 90s they realised it was terrible and decided to redesign, knocking down half of the town centre, which reponed about 5 years ago. Unfortunately it was designed to be 'high-rent' meaning every single establishment there is part of a chain, other than one old pub which survived the rebuild. It's vastly better than it was, but still feels like a shopping complex, rather than a true town centre.
Yeah. My city was organic, I guess. It just sort of happened and so it has no real design to it. First, there was the railroad that owned land on both sides of the tracks. Then, the railroad sold off some of its land. Some dude bought some of that land back in the early 1950's and built a mill. A mill needed workers to operate it, so some housing units were built (and owned by the milling company) and they also built a company store, too. Other industries and businesses also bought land from the railroad and the place started really growing. The area was walkable at first until a tornado came through about a decade later and destroyed the mill and a bunch of the walkable neighborhoods. The mill closed down and the people who stayed bought their homes from the company and eventually formed a town with a townhall and small jail all built within the same building. Eventually, the town grew over 10,000 people and was designated a city by the State. There was a small church that wanted to build a larger building, so it sold the old church to the city to become the courthouse. Today, my city has about 33,000 people in it. Just within this decade, we finally built a new city hall and are in the process of building a new jail house. Everything is scattered about because of the way our city grew as it was never intended to be a city in the first place. It doesn't have a real downtown. Just a few old buildings left that didn't get destroyed in the tornado. That is the evolution of a small city in semi-rural USA.
My city developed somewat strangely for an American city before WW2. Being an old riverboat/canal city from the 1820s, it stayed very very dense for a long time and didn't really grow outwards from the river until after the Civil War. I'm a huge local history nerd and have studied the expansion of my city over time. I've found that very little of the nineteenth century developments were planned in large swaths. Basically, people would buy a smal piece of land and the city would add some more streets. This ended up forming a wonky grid that just kind of worked. There are also two Victorian once-suburbs; one on a stupidly steep hill with very triangular blocks and sreets all over the place, and another with long sweeping brick streets in a densly wooded area. Once subruban sprawl hit my city though, all new developments became very generic, unfortunately.
I don't think the problem is cars but it can contribute to that. We need more places of interest and people living in these pockets with amenities so they don't need to drive everywhere. Less chains would be nice but in the lands of capitalism its harder and harder for smaller shops and boutiques to compete with mega corps who own a lot of places we eat at. Housing/office costs is destroying my city's downtown district as it is now a deadzone with many vacant businesses. Not fun at all to go there anymore. Another thing is the states doesn't have the same history that Europe has where many landmarks go back thousands of years and have proven the test of time. Cutlure is also different and can be attributed as well to thousands of years of history.
As italian i would say comparing Piazza Navona in Rome and american suburbs isn’t fair at all…
Hmmm...damned if you do, damned if you don't: LA has scores of vibrant "strips" of walkable, nightlife areas ( WeHo- Santa Monica & Sunset, Abbott Kinney, 3rd Street), yet visitors to LA always seem to bitch that there's no single focus.
what about japans den den town or akihabara?
Uber and Lyft is a game changer. In my city cabs are very unreliable and they extort you at night when they know you are desperate. Uber and Lyft changed all of that.
Don't forget Nicollet Mall in Downtown Minneapolis. This is probably the closest we have to a car free street. It is a bus/bike only area. This is a start, and Minneapolis could convert way more streets to the Nicollet Malls, but obviously we should go all the way and ban any motorized vehicles.
I live in a quiet downtown residential area of one of the cities shown in this video. The least thing we want around is "entertainment" (yes, nimbyism at it's worst...). We see what happens to the "entertainment areas" just a kilometer or two away, and no, just plain no. Even if the addicts give up their pills, even if the bike gangs suddenly install mufflers, no way.
The very idea of having large masses of people leaving their home areas and congregating in some designated "entertainment ghettos" is flawed. On the contrary, the city should strive to make each and every neighborhood attractive. This is probably impossible in North American suburbia, but elsewhere it's the way to go.
Move to the suburbs then, grandpa.
@@johndong7524 Great advice, son, but wrong. There's nothing like the US suburbs in my country, it's either an urban flat or a chalet in the mountains. And living in the mountains all year round isn't for grandpas...
@@jmi5969 If that's the case then you already have some sort of a gathering place in the down town area of your city or town. You just don't live near it. I'm from a fairly big city in Eastern Europe and we have entertainment pretty much everywhere. Even in the suburbs. But the main gathering place for shopping, dining, and entertainment is downtown and the surrounding areas where we also have a boardwalk on the river shore and two big parks. And yes, we do have apartment blocks in those areas as well. Some of them are located along the main city street, which is quite busy with both car and foot traffic, so I assume it gets pretty loud for people living there. At the same time owning a residence in downtown is considered prestigious and desireble in our country, while suburbs are more relegated to the working class. Property values are higher the closer to downtown you get.
To be fair, you are comparing ice ridden mid western cities to Mediterranean climate Rome. St Paul and Minneapolis are less than 50F for like half the year. And it's the colder months that more people want to go out the bar. People are busy BBQing and having parties during the summer.
Glad someone else noticed this!
An American who exposes and criticizes the negativities of his own country is rare!
You've never met a leftist? Lucky you.
@@diggydude5229 : )) Maybe bro. I worry about that is Peter Davies leftist?
@@128789842 lmao snowflake "oh no this person has superior political views to me" what you gonna do, cry about it?
This isn't rare in the slightest. We tear each other apart about our issues.
It’s not important for me bro…
It would have been better if the US had taken care of its own internal problems instead of imposing strategy on the whole world! In my opinion.
One thing I know for sure:
You'll be making videos for a VERY long time.
I agree with you completely but let's not forget the US has some really cool cities and entertainment districts also.
One good example of a so called entertainment district is located in Glendale Arizona called Westgate. Well everything is all chained not unique places. Yes there’s a mall, football and hockey stadium but everything is all chained, chipotle, Johnny rockets, AMC, Starbucks etc. I like Roosevelt street in downtown phx at least it’s the only place in Arizona with unique bars and restaurants that’s a real entertainment district and visit it often due to also a lot of cool street art.
* Vote, for the people who will change this
* Go to local planning meetings. Currently only the NIMBY's go there
Hopefully the Hennepin ave renovations help somewhat with the issues hennepin has.
I would like to see some comparisons with Mexico´s important urban areas, such as Querétaro, Mexico City, or Guadalajara(entertainment districts, corporate and financial districts, downtown)
Villahermosa too pls
It's strange:
As a kid i always fantasised about going to the US, because these cities seemed so awesome and those suburbs so nice with big roads, huge green lawns, nice big houses. At least, in the movies it seemed attractive.
And now watching video's like this, i'm so thankful i live in the Netherlands. These American cities seem awful to live in. Not trying to offend anyone. We here in the Netherlands were going the car oriented way first too, but then changed to bike/walk oriented. So i believe things can change, but people and mostly: people in power need to want to change.
Unfortunately... fountains, green spaces, and aesthetically pleasing fountains don't satisfy the profit motive. Public safety and quality of life in urban districts, as well as rural communities, simply gets in the way of satisfying investors. Much like every aspect of 'Merica, the Corpos own it, and utilize it to their financial advantage.
So basically a mall?
Where is Roger Scruton when we need him? America is turning into one large strip mall!! I hate it here and if I were able to move elsewhere I would!!
Stampford New Rd in Altrincham, Manchester is lovley!
Your audio is incredibly quite in the video. Otherwise enjoyable watch.
I've been saying forever, but downtown Minneapolis is ugly af. It's not a nice place to hang out, it just feels lifeless, even when lots of people are there.
the nightlife area in my city is essentially a pedestrian mall on weekends and 4-5 nights a week and it takes like 10 minutes to drive through a stretch of road under a mile. it’s really strange to me that they haven’t blocked off the area to through traffic as literally thousands of people are walking the sidewalks and crossing the road
Ybor City in Tampa is a decent example of an Entertainment district integrated well into an otherwise terrible city for walkability.
A really well planned out city would be laid out in a way which meant car ownership would be unnecessary for most people, even families.
It's amazing how being carless can improve your sense of well-being financially, mentally, physically and emotionally. You need to experience it to know what I mean.
City: Look at our teeming downtown entertainment scene with its many live music venues!
Developer: I KNOW! It's so perfectly trendy that the whole place should be made into condos!
The story of Fitzroy-Collingwood or St Kilda (in the 90s) in Melbourne incarnate. It's gentrificationville!
Ironically, redeveloping into stack-pack condos is exactly what an urbanist would want.
@@AaronCMounts For everyone.
Why have an entertainment district when everyone has a TV and computer??
Because people sometimes need to communicate physically. When the city has a centre and place to go, people can make new friends and get new experiences and learn new things and generally feel a deep wholesomness which is not achievable using a computer. Entertainment districts just provide a place for people to come together to do things together.