QOTD: do you think chain restaurants and stores ruined US’s landscapes? How about suburbias? This video took me a while to produce. I’d really love it if you’re able to like and comment for the algorithm ❤ I am a one-woman show here & do all the editing, animations, filming, scripting, etc myself. I hope you enjoy(: always open to video suggestions too!
What you may or may not realize is that standardization began in the early 1950s. Anyone traveling by vehicle back then had to endure numerous small mom & pop stores, some good, some bad, and a few absolutely awful. This made for horror stories I still heard as a child in the 1960s. When a few restaurant chains began to appear that promised reliable clean places with decent food, everyone gravitated to them, allowing them to grow exponentially. The retail merchants quickly saw what was happening and by the early 1960s began to make stores exactly the same to entice people, first in a metro area and then regionally that they could expect the same quality as the big downtown stores.
Suburbia for sure is a plague, but I think chains can do things right (see Barnes and noble allowing stores to become individual), and some places like Chicago are still gorgeous. Video was great though, and lots of interesting food for thought. Does seem like those of us in the younger generations are realizing white flight and suburbs are not the dream people once thought they were. 😅
did a Tour off U.S.A. and found city buildings look all the same , and all flat land.- Find new zealand less boreing as buildings mixed and land mixed- flat/ hilly/ rolling mixed with native .- in north island not far too a Hill/ sea/ farm/ bush/ forrest/ volcano/ river/ lake/ town/ city/ church/- etc etc.
We all live in dystopian economy zones. Very few actual countries left in the world. My country has it's sovereignty only on paper, every major decision is delegated from EU non-elected bureaucrats.
@@agricolaThis. Rural America is huge, you have no idea how mind bogglingly huge it is, it's really the cities that suffer from this, there are still tons of quant small towns out there, unfortunately there are also tons of dead small towns out there too, full of fentanyl users on disability, especially in the rust belt. But if you're stuck in a city, then yes it looks like ALL of America is like that.
@@user-ow1jb7wg8uI would say that rural and small town America is more dominated by chains than the cities. At least in cities, you get dense historic urban areas like Beacon Hill in Boston.
@@jooch_exe Both ideologies go hand in hand. They both have real world impacts in the "physical world". Corporations benefit from Globalism's integration of new markets into the world trade network.
The sad thing the US is pushing this to Europe ... we don't want this. Europeans should resist global chains. Sponsor local stores. Definitely boycott McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, anything American, if you must go to a chain go to a local or at least a European one. Definitely no Walmart or Costco. Keep the profits in your own country as much as you can.
Sometimes there is a European copy of the American brand like Heinz with better ingredients. If it's perishable it must be good. Shop local if you have savings
In case the best strategy doesn't work.... make some local restrictions that the chains must locate within existing architecture. Or create something new that fits the local architecture.
Stroads is the term you're looking for. The basic definition is, an ugly boulevard with the same chain stores and restaurants found across the United States. Even Canada has stroads as well.
It’s very boring and depressing looking. Which is why I want move to someone like Vermont or Alaska. Cause those states at least have a nice comforting, welcoming and homey look to them.
Stroad = Street + Road It's supposed to be a weird mix of the smaller, charming Street, and the larger Road used for faster travelling. You'll have to watch urban planning videos to really understand the nuance of them...
@@bonnieparkertheoutlaw7353 Beginning in the 1890s, the new middle class wanted to be like the rich & wanted to live in semi-park conditions. The new middle class also wanted to ensure that none of the undesirable immigrants (southern & eastern Europeans) lived near them so they limited how many buildings as well as the number of families that could live in them, all connected by larger roads. When the immigrants moved up the social ladder from 1946 to 2000, they wanted to live exactly the same way. Owning a piece of property and a car was seen as proof of achieving the "Dream". As the kids of immigrants went to university, more of them could afford the quiet suburb neighborhood, with shops & restaurants within 5-to-15-minute drives, and one-hour commutes to the city centers. Now most people enjoy living in very quiet residential-only areas, and personal vehicles, which require roads big enough for the smooth flow of traffic at posted speeds (about 60-80 km) which allow them to go where they want when they want.
People have been saying for years that every town in American looks the same due to all the chain stores which consume a downtown. And every American town is increasingly suffering ..."Mom and Pop" stores in the Old part of town going out of business because of the impacts of these chain stores...and Amazon more recently.
in america almost every house looks different, it makes the cities in general look all similar but thats because america is about individualism on the worker level not on the ruling class level, and it will always stay this way because of freedom
As a french who has been living for 20 years in California I agree that america is boring , it is s country of parking lots , highways, stores, soulless suburbia. I long and starve for cities with downtown, history, old stones, things build for beauty and not for convenience and profit only.
Looking at the wrong spots. Look the the beautiful untouched nature which you won't find in Europe. Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, carmel-by-the-sea...
Google "One Happy Big-Box Wasteland" and read the editorial written in August of 2005 in SFGate about this exact topic. No matter where you go, every town is exactly the same. I'm so glad I'm old enough to remember when every town had it's own personality. I miss that.
If you are raising cattle, then you standardize everything. In the US, humans are not much more than cattle. Cattle get just enough healthcare, feed, and shelter but they don't get anything else. Raising humans like cattle is the most profitable. If you want to have community, family, culture, tradition then you would have to have something higher than profit driving your leaders and that is all expensive. And the US is not a nation, its a business.
That's exactly the reason why anti-depression and anxiety medication is everywhere. It's a part of the business. Subconsciously, we know we are cattle, and it's causing terrible damage to our physche. Big pharma took advantage of this by selling us more and more pills.
All this started in June of 1956 when the Interstate highway System was signed. One by one, little towns were bypassed and individual business died. You can keep the country.
Prior to the interstate system most people would take boats down to Panama cross the Panama and then take a boat up to Los Angeles. The interstate system did more to help people actually see the rest of the country
I already posted this, but.... Charles Kuralt "Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything."
@@robertbrouillette6767 Prior to the interstate, most Americans who wanted to get from, let's say, New York to California would take a boat down to Panama, then cross Panama and take another boat up to California. What the interstate did was make it possible to travel by land, which was not possible before that as the roads were too unsafe and too unreliable to be able to actually get anywhere.
The interstate system was (is) really good for trans regional movement, the problem is how it was implemented in urban environments. Japan and most European nations have their own “interstate” style freeway networks but with far far far better urban integration. Also they have good rail networks too.
@@fermentedcinema4892 Yes, this. It didn't need to 'eat out' the hearts of our towns. But not enough thought was put into it. It was a measure undertaken during the height of the Cold War.
I visited many cities around the world. The first time I visited the US back in the 90s, it almost made me feel uneasy because you could see already from the airplane cities like Chicago, Indianapolis, and Houston, with road grids from one corner to the other like a computer game simulation. Once on the ground this feeling was even stronger looking at hundreds of houses looking identical, and with all the usual stores and their layout. Since I did not find a single American unhappy at the time, I concluded these people were quite pragmatic - because this standardization made construction faster and cheaper without regard to style- little did I know the housing bubble was at full speed. I did find most downtown of small American cities charming though, and wondered why almost nobody lived there. When I was younger I wished to live in an apartment atop a store so that I wouldn't need a car to buy food and groceries. Today I am building my own house, and funny enough, despite all my efforts it is starting to look like a lot of houses already built in the region. This happened because of my limited budget, the concern of building something that can be sold later, and because local construction workers would not know how to build differently (brick and mortar is what they are used to around here). So economics I say is the single biggest force that dictates what the urbanization and architecture end up looking.
Economics is definitely the driving force. Affordable energy and transportation allowed people to get away from the cramped urban cores to live the American Dream characterized as a single family home with a white picket fence on a small personal lot. Nobody really wants to live in a small apartment with a 3 or 4 story walk-up.
@@wtfdidijustwatch1017 Why would I need to pretend? I do not owe anybody´s approval to express my honest feelings and opinions, specially in a RUclips comment section of all places.
It's all a plan to make people think there in no reason to fight for anything because everythng looks the same. When everything around You looks exactly the same You have no will to fight for it becasue You feel no emotional connection with that. When something is unique You always have a need to preserve it. That is why cars, roads, buildings, even people (especially women with implants) look exactly the same. It's all a part of sat4ns plan to destroy the world.
After living in the US for 40 years we bounced and live in Central Europe. It's been a life changing experience for the better. Sameness is gone. However, we see it when we go West and its jarring and sad.
After being on the road for 12 years and travelled 46 states, I can conquer that! It's almost boring to travel in the US, because there's not uniqueness of anyway of the US. There all look the same, same food, same shopping center, same walmart!
Find it real easy too hitch hike around new zealand.- iff stuck plenty water/ grass/ hay- barns .- butt U.S.A> looks harder too bum around and camp out.
I have a Peruvian friend whose dream holiday was to travel the USA from east to west in his car.... When he returned he said it was the most boring journey he ever done.....
I've noticed this in the Midwest especially. The same architecture pervades every small town in every direction for hundreds of miles. There is no wilderness to speak of, most national forests and parks are minutes away from a busy road, residence, or other development. Prime farmland goes to waste on suburban sprawl, developed cities experience a steady flux of residents that never bother to create a community, many professionals constantly moving to chase after jobs or lower costs of living. There is still some uniqueness to parts of the country, but even the accents are homogenizing.
@@jesseward568 My condolences. I'm out in Michigan and even though we have our state rivalry, at the end of the day we're both Midwestern states with way too many strip malls and crusty small towns. Every inch of Michigan is being paved, one day we'll be as flat as the Ohio turnpike, without a single Waffle House as a consolation prize.
I live in Switzerland, one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. So, keep in mind that what I’m going to describe is likely even worse in other European countries. When people outside of Europe, especially Americans, think of living here, they often imagine residing in a picturesque village straight out of a fairytale, like those commonly featured on Instagram. However, these quintessential European scenes are isolated relics of past architectural eras and have little in common with the built environment the average European interacts with today. Unlike the U.S., a large part of Europe was destroyed during World War II. Architects, engineers, and city planners saw this devastation as an opportunity to reimagine what constituted good architecture, leading to the rise of postmodernism, which still significantly impacts housing in Europe. In short, many aspects that defined earlier ways of living-such as low density, decorative elements, single-family homes, classical architectural references, and the use of natural materials-were deemed unsuitable for the future. Over the following decades, architects and city planners created what are now often regarded as architectural sins. Morbid-looking concrete apartment blocks were constructed, and the concept of density was stretched to the absurd, with people living next to shopping centres or surrounded by noise. The beauty of Europe’s architectural heritage was largely ignored. Although there have been some improvements, the underlying system remains largely unchanged. If you’re an average middle-class citizen, you likely live on the outskirts of a major city, in a typical neighbourhoods of these apartment blocks. Your home is likely a small, overpriced, and often oddly designed apartment. The view is probably just the facade of the next apartment block. When you step outside, you’re surrounded by noise, as high density is still seen as desirable. Many governments also encourage you to rely more on public transportation. In the U.S., the housing market works very differently. For the same money, you generally get much more of what most people look for when choosing a place to live. The standard housing product is a single-family home, typically located in a quiet, calm, and peaceful neighbourhoods where commercial areas are separate from residential ones. Secondly, the architectural movement that dominated Europe was less influential in the U.S. Ironically, what many people are now calling for-references to classical architecture-has been a staple of American residential architecture for centuries and continues to be so. At least much more than in Europe. American homes often incorporate core elements of classical architecture, such as columns, symmetry, loggias, or cascading roofs, always adapted to the specific context, which brings me to the next point. America has a rich architectural heritage. And unlike here in Europe, it is referenced in housing architecture. From the California Arts and Crafts Bungalows to the Pueblo Revival in the Southwest, to the Colonial Revival along the Upper East Coast. Nowhere in Europe do you find architectural richness in residential areas as in the U.S. Please don’t be misled by clickbait videos on RUclips where privileged American expats claim that life is much better in Europe than in America. By many objective measures, most European countries are, compared to the U.S., third-world countries. I’m fortunate to live in a rich European country, but here, we especially notice this discrepancy. There are countless people from Spain, Portugal, or Italy working because they cannot find jobs in their own countries. These countries may look nice on postcards, but they are known in Europe for their deficient economies. In fact, I have never met an average American who migrated here. All the Americans in Switzerland I have met so far are rich expats working for big Fortune 500 companies. No matter where they live, they will always have a good life. But I did the other way around. A befriended couple of mine bought land in Florida, where they built a house. As far as I know, it’s in a city called Naples, Florida. That’s something they could have never afforded here.
There are chain stores that look different in smaller towns that have a specific style written in the code, like Leavenworth, WA. Personally I really like Eichler homes, they were track homes but built with style in many different designs.
@@Bonserak23 towns can do some light style zoning, more significant changes to urban sprawl are more difficult. Leavenworth was able to specify a style of storefront and sign style, Park City, UT was able to do this too. Those were older towns already built in a walkable way before cars were common. Sugarhouse district of Salt Lake City tried to specify storefronts up to sidewalks and parking in back to make town more walkable. A pharmacy chain sued to put the parking lot in front which was their standard style and encourages driving. The city couldn’t afford the lawsuit and let the pharmacy do what it wanted.
Even in older communities you see standardization. While folks might find Sears houses different and appealing now, they were sold as a kit and shipped anywhere. Craftsman style homes, Cape Cods etc. These were pretty common during different periods, and standardized floor plans have been around a very long time. I personally like the pre-WWII styles myself. (BTW, you missed the big retailer before and after WWII - Sears). As for eateries and shopping, having a standard designs saves on architectural costs and one has to assume that it is easier to get local approvals as well. Yeah, code varies by location, but it won't by much. This also plays into store standardized store layout, knowing how much land is required and a host of other things. For businesses this is smart. Bland, but smart. It also can give the building instant recognition - I give you IKEA as an example (BTW their buildings looked the same when I lived in Germany). Ike got the freeways built, but the underlying purpose was military. They are based off of the Autobahns that we encountered in Germany in WWII.
God this is SO true. I've lived all over this country, and the only difference between any region is that on the east coast they use more brick, and on the west you find Spanish-style roofs, and that is quite literally it.
I live in Switzerland, one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. So, keep in mind that what I’m going to describe is likely even worse in other European countries. When people outside of Europe, especially Americans, think of living here, they often imagine residing in a picturesque village straight out of a fairytale, like those commonly featured on Instagram. However, these quintessential European scenes are isolated relics of past architectural eras and have little in common with the built environment the average European interacts with today. Unlike the U.S., a large part of Europe was destroyed during World War II. Architects, engineers, and city planners saw this devastation as an opportunity to reimagine what constituted good architecture, leading to the rise of postmodernism, which still significantly impacts housing in Europe. In short, many aspects that defined earlier ways of living-such as low density, decorative elements, single-family homes, classical architectural references, and the use of natural materials-were deemed unsuitable for the future. Over the following decades, architects and city planners created what are now often regarded as architectural sins. Morbid-looking concrete apartment blocks were constructed, and the concept of density was stretched to the absurd, with people living next to shopping centres or surrounded by noise. The beauty of Europe’s architectural heritage was largely ignored. Although there have been some improvements, the underlying system remains largely unchanged. If you’re an average middle-class citizen, you likely live on the outskirts of a major city, in a typical neighbourhoods of these apartment blocks. Your home is likely a small, overpriced, and often oddly designed apartment. The view is probably just the facade of the next apartment block. When you step outside, you’re surrounded by noise, as high density is still seen as desirable. Many governments also encourage you to rely more on public transportation. In the U.S., the housing market works very differently. For the same money, you generally get much more of what most people look for when choosing a place to live. The standard housing product is a single-family home, typically located in a quiet, calm, and peaceful neighbourhoods where commercial areas are separate from residential ones. Secondly, the architectural movement that dominated Europe was less influential in the U.S. Ironically, what many people are now calling for-references to classical architecture-has been a staple of American residential architecture for centuries and continues to be so. At least much more than in Europe. American homes often incorporate core elements of classical architecture, such as columns, symmetry, loggias, or cascading roofs, always adapted to the specific context, which brings me to the next point. America has a rich architectural heritage. And unlike here in Europe, it is referenced in housing architecture. From the California Arts and Crafts Bungalows to the Pueblo Revival in the Southwest, to the Colonial Revival along the Upper East Coast. Nowhere in Europe do you find architectural richness in residential areas as in the U.S. Please don’t be misled by clickbait videos on RUclips where privileged American expats claim that life is much better in Europe than in America. By many objective measures, most European countries are, compared to the U.S., third-world countries. I’m fortunate to live in a rich European country, but here, we especially notice this discrepancy. There are countless people from Spain, Portugal, or Italy working because they cannot find jobs in their own countries. These countries may look nice on postcards, but they are known in Europe for their deficient economies. In fact, I have never met an average American who migrated here. All the Americans in Switzerland I have met so far are rich expats working for big Fortune 500 companies. No matter where they live, they will always have a good life. But I did the other way around. A befriended couple of mine bought land in Florida, where they built a house. As far as I know, it’s in a city called Naples, Florida. That’s something they could have never afforded here.
Thanks for making this video, which is very well researched and professionally crafted. What you are talking about here is one of the reasons I left the USA way back in 1992. The pervasiveness of same-everywhere soulless vapid sterile impersonal chain stores, restaurants, hotels, car-addicted vast parking lots, and heavy social pressure to conform and be part of the game (the machine, the matrix) was something I became particularly aware of the first time I left it. I went backpacking on the cheap around Europe for a summer and, well, it really opened my eyes. Soon after, ironically I landed a good-paying job, but after a couple years of that all I could imagine was being buried in a workaholic lifestyle and spending my leisure time buying stuff and eating at boring plasticized totally impersonal restaurants and cruising strip malls and searching for my stupid car in huge parking lots, also being forbidden to walk anywhere because roads block pedestrians everywhere. And of course no one gives a rats ass about anyone else and every employee is just there to greet you and pour your coffee and tell you to have a nice day even though they couldn't care less. Anyway you get the general picture. I wanted out. So I moved to New Zealand to be *far away* and start over - and admittedly because I had a good job lined up there as well. After six years of becoming a "Kiwi" of sorts and exploring that gorgeous country I cut loose, quit my job and went walkabout around the Australian outback for a few years in a campervan, to effectively "escape" the world, and hell-yeah it was one of the best chapters in this life. I met a German girl, of course, and went to live there in various shared living places around the country and did a bunch more independent travel in Europe, including this time the former Soviet Union and and eastern Europe which was incrementally eye-opening. I also did several long trips around India, southern Africa, Egypt, China, etc. I flew back to Australia and "the van" many times and repeatedly stopped off in Southeast Asia on the way, eventually getting bitten by the Thailand bug, so I came to live in Chiang Mai in 2004 which is a very nice east-meets-west old-and-new balancing place. Again, one thing which attracted me about Chiang Mai 20 years ago was the absence of chain stores, restaurants, hotels, etc. and the pervasiveness of family/locally-owned independent corner stores, guesthouses, cafes, food stalls, etc. so it had a very local village vibe even for a fairly big city and one can walk to almost anything you might need. The historical walled old city in particular is mostly very charming, calm and inviting, very much unlike your average downtown US city. But slowly year after year the McDonaldization has crept in even here, and just a couple weeks ago a f*cking Taco Bell opened in the city center tourist zone. Thankfully I have moved out of the city now and now live around the rice fields and hills just far enough away to "escape" again. Still there are shopping malls sprouting up like mushrooms and the "cancer" of America-style consumerism continues to spread, even in northern Thailand. It has also been encouraged and fueled by the increasing number of gen-z "digital nomads" who are moving here by the thousands, maybe thinking they too are "escaping", but to a great extent they just bring their bratty lazy phone-zombie toxicity and self-entitled material addictions with them. Boo!!! Anyway I now have my own "enclave" piece of land out in the middle of nowhere with the city a half hour drive away, but I am ever mindful of keeping the McDonaldization effect away. Whenever I go back to the US to see family every few years it is increasingly depressing to witness just how soul-crushing the average way of life is - so lonely, so impersonal, so fake, and of course everywhere you go is in-your-face advertising telling you what to buy and how to live. Guess what - F*K that! The worst thing might be that most Americans seem oblivious to the bubble they have created and inside it become habituated, dumbed-down, and institutionalized. Hello?!?! There is this *whole other world out there which doesn't live like that* and hopefully still connects on a personal level, has locally owned businesses and meeting points where humans can be human, and eat unprocessed real food that doesn't come in a single-use plastic container. Anyway I have to go climb a coconut tree and eat some sticky rice with mangos from our small friendly neighborhood jungle. Be well... =)
Excellent essay on the rot of our culture! I grew up in NZ in the 1950s when Televison did not yet exist and the first supermarket opened maybe in 1959. Our small town suffered from the Americanisation with a shopping mall and supermarket in the late 60s and all the little family run business withered away. I moved tothe UK and it has proceeded the same .I now live on a Scottish Isle to escape the poisoned world you describe. All over the UK our towns and cities are in decay. My nearest village has a little general store ,a local butcher, and a baker which uses ancient techniques of baking bread ,and there is a pub and a newsagent. No boarded up shops and the islanders value their land . You never see any litter.
What always gets me about critiques like yours is that you're comparing the most generic suburban American life to urban or rural life elsewhere. Not really a fair comparison. It's like when Americans go tour the premier urban centers of Europe then come back and moan about their exurban neighborhood and their cookie-cutter house as if they couldn't choose to live another way even in the US. The only reason average people in Thailand don't live similarly is because of lack of resources/poverty.
@@artix548 Well certainly the Blah huas modernists crap I see being built today in apartment buildings. Nor do l think everything should resemble a suburb of McMansions. Things l definitely would prefer to see 1) More durable construction in single and multi unit construction. 2) Walkable neighborhoods with nearby shopping, schools and parks 3) Neighborhoods with a mix of housing styles and types (1). And density. Some single family. Some duplex, preferably upper and lower flats. And some higher density up to say 8 to 12 units. With sidewalks so you are not walking in the street. In fact I would prefer that the fronts of housing face a path or sidewalk with limited vehicle access in the rear from an alley. Orient all housing East West if on a grid with a major North South street every 8 To 12 blocks. East West cross Streets are all one way alternating directions. Major cross Streets every 8 to 12 blocks. Transit lines running dense enough that no one is more than a two block walk from at least a minor transit line. Neighborhood schools, parks and shopping. The goal being to reduce car dependency as much as possible. Also limit lot sizes on single and two unit housing to some reasonable size. Enough for a decent garden perhaps. If you want a two hectare lot. Move out to the country. 4) Trees. Lots of trees and other greenery. Plus municipal composting of yard waste. 5) Intelligent planning to limit or eliminate strip malls if possible. I would not expect to eliminate them entirely but at least limit them. 6) Absolutely no on street parking in residential neighborhoods. All housing units must provide at least one space per unit of housing. 7) Building codes that encourage the use of factory built housing components as long as the housing does not look like a house trailer. 1) Styles would include Craftsman type bungalows, Two story single or multi unit, Four square style, row houses,
Well, to be honest America isn't really a nation in the traditional sense of the term, it's an economic zone, a giant Walmart where people conduct business activities, and then retreat in their soulless private spaces. If a lot of places and cities around the country are outright ugly and dysfunctional, it's by design and it's intentional. Sadly, Europe is slowly heading in the same direction. Changing the crash course of the US would require a tremendous effort at every level, and frankly, this country probably doesn't "have it" anymore. America is just reflecting its core value: the almighty dollar, and it comes with a collective price to pay, not to sound too "socialist" here. There're still plenty of natural beauties to check out though.
Almost all of your reasons for this sameness can be summarized in one phrase: "extreme unrestricted capitalism". Through the years mom and pop stores have been washed away by greedy corporations that have morphed into multi-national corporations. Governments have contributed to the growth in power of these too-big to fail corporations through tax policies and other means. Competition among corporations is a myth. There is no significant competition when one giant corporation gobbles up another in what is called a "merger". As a result, consumers have fewer and fewer options. Like it or not, this capitalistic model has spread globally. And it almost doesn't matter what form of government a country has.
We also have this in The Netherlands. There are two major chains of toy stores so you think you are getting to choose between them. However they are both owned by the same parent company. So the competition between them is completely fake.
Everything built in the UK in the last twenty years looks the same. The bit that makes me laugh is I remember growing up we used to define ourselves as opposite to the Soviet Union because were individuals and don't build identical communist towns, fast forward, we build identical capitalist towns.
Also, we in the West used to vilify Eastern Bloc countries for their totalitarian tyranny and now we are moving rapidly toward that, if not arrived there already alas.
When I watch these kinds of videos, I am a bit skeptical about their content, especially on those on which we have a person whose real "job" or "primary skills" have nothing to do with what they are talking about, e.g. Architecture, History, etc... I have to say I looked into all your links (even LinkedIn ones) and I found she has a degree in Architectural design, which, in some way, supports her content and the arguments she has about it. I recommend doing the same with any other videos. I know there are a bunch of "liars" and "scammers" and all, but at least you tried verifying the info. Based on that, you decide. I liked this video and I'll keep watching other ones. She explained the things clearly and with good information. Thanks for sharing, and all the work you do.
Yes, and that term used to describe the same as in the video has been around for decades. If there's anything new, it's just more generica than before.
I find it amusing how every city and town in the US, even the lesser-known ones, seem to be replicas of each other. This similarity extends to even the most remote locations that may not be familiar to you!
If people do not like the way an area is zoned and built, they will not buy property there. You don't spend 30 years of your life paying a huge mortgage for a place you hate. Sorry, but people vote with their WALLETS that they like USA suburbs and a considerable amount of similarity. If you think that's wrong, you can always move to a place you like.
@@gregorybiestek3431What I meant to say is that out of the thousands of cities and towns in the US, any other city or town looks like a copy-paste of the other.
@@yaelbj If people in the USA were really unhappy with copy & paste towns, they would be demanding & buying something different. Since they are not, and still paying huge mortgages for the privilege of living in them, they must like what they are buying.
There was a movie based on the cartoon of Ricky and Bullwinkle . They come back from the 1950’s and are driving along when Ricky calls out - Stop the car ! We must be lost and have gone In a circle ! Why? Says the driver . “Well we just went past a McDonsks Starbucks , Target etc and i Know we just went last them only 20 minutes ago ….
regarding businesses - its advertising. they use their outside appearance, their physical building, to advertise themselves. once you know the logo, and other physical aspects of the brand (color, building style, etc) seeing it is another form of advertising. think of it as a billboard. i used to be in this biz, for a well-known storage company that uses the same approach.
When hopping freight trains we always looked for a Wal Mart when riding into a town, because we knew that there will always be fast food, a place to charge our phones, get water and bum some money. So essentially we used the homogeneity of US towns to our benifit
I recall seeing a McDonalds like the one at the beginning somewhere in SC. Not sure if it was a survivor or deliberately retro. It was cool enough to make me stop, though, and I don't generally like McDonalds.
There's a 4 hour documentary called The Century of the Self where they talk about how Freudian psych was used in market research to appeal to people's individuality in order to sell goods and services. But then with housing and infrastructure they appeal to people's sense of sameness. I'd also recommend the documentary Helvetica that talks about advertising and design. Everything is about standardization and sameness so they can mass produce goods and services in order to keep our economy afloat. Finally, I suggest checking out the documentary Zeitgeist: Moving Forward for a real eye opener. It shows the running theme between all of them.
Honestly that's why I stopped travelling in the U.S. Everywhere looks exactly the same in the consumer districts. They also made sure to destroy historical sites of aboriginal indigenous copper colored American Indians. Add shipping the economy out of the country and you have a country in decline.
thanks for an awesome professional video I especially appreciate your on-screen presence and your content great job keep up the good work .northern Maine
In the Netherlands, outside the cozy small old city centers it's much the same. Standardization not just in size of homes but into the smallest details. Big apartment blocks with dark, depressing outer stone walls; houses put on ever-smaller lots. That in turn happens too in the US, despite having much more ground: new houses are closer and closer to each other on smaller lots
@@TexMarque Unfortunally the affordability part isn't real. Here in Brazil after everywhere adopted this model of building, thehouse prices skyrocket, because companies own this models, so they build in large scale.
When I was a kid fast food was a once in a while treat and there were less of them and less chains. That has changed a lot since the 70s. As a musician I've even seen this. Finding local stores with service has become tough. Oh and by the way, my dad was in the restaurant business. He always said the food was much better if you didn't go to a chain. Great video. Even in the suburbs I lived in ,kids could get around on bikes. Unlike now where you take your life in your hands on the high speed roads around suburbs.
I live very close to the strip you show in your thumbnail. It’s the “golden mile” in Breeze wood Pennsylvania. My region is so packed with natural beauty and it breaks my heart that all the lifeless development takes away from people not only visiting the area, but most importantly the people who live here.
This has really been bothering me my whole life. As a kid, and now as a 31 year old carpenter of 12 years. The strip mall gross commercial structures are totally “Soviet” style of designs. Beauty in architecture invokes a higher sense of worth and pride in our country. If it looks like shit, makes you feel like shit, it is shit
The real estate market is corrupt. Mortgage interest deductions, which most nations don't have, cause suburban sprawl and over-consumption of real estate. Every time they reduce the capital gains tax real estate becomes more inelastic and unaffordable. Where the price is based off of the ability to borrow rather than supply; there're too many speculators. There's no reason to offer real estate improvement deductions, it allows people to upgrade outhouses and write off the entire expenditure. Real estate is too fungible, it's too easy to trade and causes upward price movements, they need to make real estate sales tax non-deductible. It's up to the government to prevent real estate from becoming inelastic, but it actually looks like the government is trying to increase real estate investing, which is corrupt [it makes housing unaffordable]. Homes are built because someone needs a place to live, not because someone needs an investment, which is why, I think, architecture in America looks the way it does.
Single use zoning that separates homes from businesses favors big box stores over smaller more often locally owned stores. If I have to get in a car and drive 5-10 miles to get to a store I’m going to a big box with lots of stuff. If small commercial shops in walkable neighborhoods are allowed near homes a local business can open and compete by being convenient. 75% of living space in the USA is zoned single family homes only with no shops allowed giving big boxes and advantage over small local shops.
This exactly! And for groceries, people will bulk buy lots of food that will either go to waste since they'll only want to go once a week, or be full of harmful preservatives that make us sick. The idea of walking home from work and casually picking up food for that night's dinner is so foreign to us, and it's sad.
@@hezekiahthompson6817 Those zoning laws were not mandated by some faceless politicians, but rather at the demand and insistence of the local populace. I don't know about others, but I HAVE lived in an upstairs flat, 300 feet from shops & 500 feet from public transit. You could never pay me enough to EVER move back into that sort of situation. I Love my reasonable 1800 sq ft home on my own lot in a totally residential neighborhood. I will vote to keep dense housing away from my inner ring suburb. In my suburb my bakery & deli are 1 km, the supermarkets are 5 km & 7 km, all of the fast-food restaurants are between 1 km & 8 km, the better restaurants are between 5 km & 10 km, the doctors & medical specialists are likewise 5km to 10 km away and there are several shopping districts with 10 km. ALL of those in MY suburbia are within a 5-to-10-minute drive from my home. And no, I NEVER want ANY shops next to or ANY closer to my home.
@@hezekiahthompson6817 Because I LIKE having a nice size house on a good size lot AWAY from any business. I ENJOY my area & neighbors in a quiet section without ANY buses or trains running at all hours. I LIKE being able to drive where I want, when I want. I do NOT want any business ANYWHERE closer than 1km away.
So true, look at the architecture of New York or any large city in the early 1900s through today, why are they tearing down those old beautiful retro buildings and skyscrapers for generic replacements? My own town demolished their beautiful 1910 classical revival county courthouse for some ugly square brutalist architecture monstrosity built in 1955 and is now going to replace this with a new courthouse which will look almost exactly like the 1910 courthouse they demolished.
@@possiblyinsane6995 Everyone should care what buildings look like otherwise why have architects, building design, engineers, etc, just make them square/rectangular metal buildings and be done.
@@coopsnz1 No, they are independent and often run by locals but with an Italian background. The American chains that I talk about are not popular with serious coffee drinkers but they are popular with young kids or holidaymakers from overseas. Drinking coffee in Australia is a serious business - thanks to Italian migrants.
@@WillieFungo Mate, the coffee in the US is crap - every Australian that goes to the US says the same thing. I am sure we have things that you think of as crap.
Time for a geographical restriction that prohibits big fast food chains from expanding any further. Let’s support small businesses, support local people
To your idea of supporting a small business is by preventing a big business from expanding? People want to buy McDonald's food. That's why they're successful. A big business is just a small business that was selling something that people really wanted. So they decided to sell that same thing somewhere else. People there really wanted it. So they decided to sell that same thing somewhere else. And guess what, people wanted it there too. People not be allowed to have that which they want because you, a third party not involved in this transaction, don't want them to have it? Who are you?
@@FreedomTalkMedia the real problem is, they bankrupt or put smaller fast food restaurants out of business because they couldn't afford to keep up with the competition. And they couldn't even make food fast enough, so I call it "slow food"
Chef and history major here. Best answer is company's and government as a whole have adopted a cookie cutter format, be it with homes, businesses, and infrastructure, based on what works, is most easily mass produced without the need to redesign, what facilitates traffic in/out best, and what turns profit for minimal expense.
For those who don't know, this is not a new thing. The "Ancient" Romans made their cities in the same plan so if they went from One Place to Another they could always find where government and Social buildings were. It just happens the "People" across millennia have the same idea even if they are boring. And, it does save money in constructions. In the past there were unique places, but that has obviously been rejected. Who knows for the future...
I don't eat fast food, but I was driving down the main road in the small town I live in the other day and finally noticed that all the fast food places look the same--dull, streamlined, and kind of like prisons. The only places that have more character in their buildings are a non-chain drive-in and an Italian restaurant, which makes really good Italian food for a small town. There's also a ma-and-pa store that makes the best pizza I've ever had, and their building looks cozy.
Mayor of Madison, MS stood up to some of that crap when Walmart came to town. Instead of that cheap look the Walmarts have, she made them change the exterior to something nicer that fit in with the town’s Germantown look. Did the same thing to Sam’s.
As if the rest of the world is much better! Sure, we here in Europe have truly old buildings and often grand old town and city centers and castles and what not, but most modern buildings are also ugly, because of that French dude (architect) who's name I have forgotten (the one who also wanted to flatten half of Paris to build ugly sky-scrapers there!
So monotonous and bland… The layout of every City in North America is all the same… No density as expected from a city, Lost sense of community, just massive roads, cars and empty spaces… No soul in sight walking, or engaging in any social normal activity…
@@JohnEmerick-ts7st You sound like you are having the time of your life and wouldn’t change a thing about the cities which are supposed to be for people not soulless parking lots, cars and other massive individual homes causing urban sprawl making it difficult for people to make commute to their jobs which is in the city… Think about it… .
I started out as a residential estimator after completing my architecture degree but currently I work as a commercial and multifamily housing construction estimator. Think 4 story and 5+1 podium apartment buildings with the occasional McDonald's, Starbucks, or other fast food restaurant mixed in. It is interesting to see just how little difference there is, structurally speaking, between a McDonald's, a Starbucks, and a Burger King. The building shells are nearly identical. From a single family home standpoint much of what I saw I would describe as an embellished ranch style home. Single story, but with bump outs, dormers, tray or vaulted ceilings in a couple rooms, and the addition of prominent attached garages. Imagine giving a 1960's ranch home growth hormones. It is interesting because if we think of the ranch home as an evolution of Frank Lloyd Wright's prairie style homes of the 1910s-20s I could certainly see modern suburbia as a partial attempt at Wright's Broadacre City un-urban design. Americans are a paradox, we demand the freedom to travel to experience new things, but we also demand consistency when we get there. Good video, good luck with the channel!
Most of the US is very ugly due to design around automobiles. Few cities are walkable. It’s the zoning laws that separate where people live , work, and shop. Very frustrating and not likely to change soon.
As a Japanese we experience the completely same situation. Other than a few exceptions, say Kyoto or Okinawa, cities look pretty identical. you can see Mcdonald's and convenience stores everywhere
Let me answer this being a 37 year vet of food service's and security for big chain companies. It was joe krocker who bought the property which mc donalds is on 2 major corporation's coke and Pepsi followed suit and bought the chain's of restaurants as well.i know I was a co-owner of a taco bell in the 90s taco bell in the mall was Pepsi across from burger king coke which the mall wouldn't allow another color Pepsi franchise in the mall mc donalds or pizza hut etc.so step outside the mall and down the street there's a mc donalds. Pepsi vs coke were playing monopoly in every city every state that's why even today you can't get Pepsi at McDonald's and you can't get coke at taco bell. When the franchise leaves the company still owns the property 8000 farm's closed guess who owns the remaining farm's. In Georgia Senate republicans tried to outlaw catching rain water for personal irrigation they are beyond greedy
@@TheRichie213 Cities like Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia have been around longer than the U.S itself, and they have a lot of old buildings that wont be destroyed anytime soon.
@@CTJM_Middleton There's a lot on NYC that doesn't look the same anymore. When they touch up the buildings, they use modern style to fix it. Also, plenty of old buildings have got torn down and modern buildings were put in place.
I would argue the market in the US is not very free, and rigged against smaller businesses. This leads to less competition and bigger companies taking over, thus less varation.
yo It's not that bad if you compare it to the 90% of the countris under the poverty line... if yougo to an average wealth country like south korea, portugal, turkey etc, yu would need a high qualification profile in order to get those 9/13$.h MCd'S offers, yeah prices are higher but it's just crazy to see how american complain about everything instead of working for it, you guys are watching everybody from the next closest step! obviously you have a lot of regular people but the excellence stands out from the global avg...
Every city in my home country Germany looks more or less different. I can say the same for the country i am actually living in since 12 years France. This is one reason it is so exciting to visit and explore new places.
You're *soooo* close to realizing why federalism works, and our regulatory approach since ~President Wilson (hey, progressivism!) is an abject failure. Solid video, but I'd recommend including a '5 Whys?' approach, otherwise you're only skin deep. Also, travel the scenic route vs the interstate, and you're thesis gets tweaked.
With nary a thought, disdain almost, for wildlife habitat and natural terrain watershed systems to help in even a tiny manner. What ya wrecked in one fell swoop. Disturbia is real...the boogemyan is not some scary guy either.
Japanese suburbs offer a diverse and stunning landscape, with each home boasting its own unique charm. Thanks to the narrow streets and lenient zoning regulations, it's easy to stroll to nearby shops, schools, and factories. You can find plenty of inspiring examples of these neighborhoods on RUclips.
A typo at 1:08, restaurant is misspelled. Not a big deal but you might want to make correct. I totally agree with you, I am not from the US but I have done a lot of travelling there and every city looks the same and are tasteless. One will find the exact same store and restaurants everywhere. It is a sad thing. You may call it the McDonalization of society. It is also what is expected from Wall Street, the expansion of corporations and the value of their respective stock. This phenomenon will only get worse in the coming decades.
Try visiting the UK. Our towns and cities are really ugly messes. Far worse than America.
Месяц назад+1
While I don't disagree that I'd be good with fewer fast food joints, nail salons, phone stores, etc, all of America doesn't look the same. Anyone from states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Wyoming, etc can attest to that. What we should be saying is why do the burbs all look the same. I've been to the northern part of Michigan and the Upper Peninsula many times. Some of the most beautiful and pristine land you will ever see.
Those places are not low priced to see. Flights are low priced big city to big city but big city to small city or small town can be multiple stops and costly. Once you add in the car rental its out of control for a lot of people to do. Traveling is very expensive.
As much as I disagree with the politics of the family that owns Walmart and the socioeconomic ramifications of Walmart's success I just can't afford not to occasionally shop there. Also everytime I've tried in the last few months to talk myself into a deal I've succeeded. 🤷
The same architecture you find at modern storage facilities can be found at incarceration complexes where arrested people are sent to, by the police departments.
Last year I was in Old Town Temecula, CA and I loved that they keep the old architecture there. As a tourist I think USA should promote Victorian architecture style more , even in big cities.
Oh yes, you could not be more correct, even back in 1996 when I took my 14-year old son (both of us from England) on a road-trip for two weeks from Denver to L.A. fantastic scenery and generally most Americans on hearing our British accents very much wanted to speak to us and were very welcoming. But as you so correctly say, plus I have travelled a great deal in my life to many places in the world that every town, store, shop, restaurant and motel all looked exactly the same. We also after only a short period of time with all the food being fast-food got this horrible taste in our mouths which took a few days to go after getting back to England.
A partial reason is summed up in a quote from the artist Hundertwasser: "Straight lines are godless". Travel around to any State and you will find much of the same stuff (superstores and chains with the same or similar busineas culture) more or less locked down on a grid. Remember the sketch on The Chapelle Show where the lawyer correctly guesses what Michael Jackson's netherregions are like? You cou do that with just about any intersection coming off an interstate. You also can't get anywhere except by car or plane.
You are correct about much of the USA, however, the City of Milwaukee is one of the exception to your rules. Different neighborhoods have different architecture. Brady Street does not look like Sherman Blvd. and Sherman does not look like National Avenue. The Milwaukee Bungalows in the Sherman Park neighborhood does not look like the Polish Flats on the Near South Side. None of these look like Lake Drive especially headed north towards the suburb Shorewood. Actually, right around Brady Street close to Lake Michigan is the street called Prospect which is full of towering condos and repurposed old mansions (e.g. Wisconsin Conservatory of Music).
QOTD: do you think chain restaurants and stores ruined US’s landscapes? How about suburbias?
This video took me a while to produce. I’d really love it if you’re able to like and comment for the algorithm ❤ I am a one-woman show here & do all the editing, animations, filming, scripting, etc myself. I hope you enjoy(: always open to video suggestions too!
What you may or may not realize is that standardization began in the early 1950s. Anyone traveling by vehicle back then had to endure numerous small mom & pop stores, some good, some bad, and a few absolutely awful. This made for horror stories I still heard as a child in the 1960s. When a few restaurant chains began to appear that promised reliable clean places with decent food, everyone gravitated to them, allowing them to grow exponentially. The retail merchants quickly saw what was happening and by the early 1960s began to make stores exactly the same to entice people, first in a metro area and then regionally that they could expect the same quality as the big downtown stores.
Suburbia for sure is a plague, but I think chains can do things right (see Barnes and noble allowing stores to become individual), and some places like Chicago are still gorgeous.
Video was great though, and lots of interesting food for thought. Does seem like those of us in the younger generations are realizing white flight and suburbs are not the dream people once thought they were. 😅
did a Tour off U.S.A. and found city buildings look all the same , and all flat land.- Find new zealand less boreing as buildings mixed and land mixed- flat/ hilly/ rolling mixed with native .- in north island not far too a Hill/ sea/ farm/ bush/ forrest/ volcano/ river/ lake/ town/ city/ church/- etc etc.
We can take comfort in knowing that none of these buildings are designed to last long. They are all glorified cardboard boxes
Not just the US: unfortunately America exports its ugly architecture to the world as well. Only Europe has been saved.
America is not a country, it's a business.
We all live in dystopian economy zones. Very few actual countries left in the world. My country has it's sovereignty only on paper, every major decision is delegated from EU non-elected bureaucrats.
You haven’t travelled enough in it
@@agricolaThis. Rural America is huge, you have no idea how mind bogglingly huge it is, it's really the cities that suffer from this, there are still tons of quant small towns out there, unfortunately there are also tons of dead small towns out there too, full of fentanyl users on disability, especially in the rust belt. But if you're stuck in a city, then yes it looks like ALL of America is like that.
@@user-ow1jb7wg8uI would say that rural and small town America is more dominated by chains than the cities. At least in cities, you get dense historic urban areas like Beacon Hill in Boston.
Juice are to blame...for almost pretty much, everything.
As a European kid this never made sense to me. Fast forward a few decades and Europe now looks the same. It's called corporatism.
Or globalism
@@leinster22 Globalism deals more with ideologies but not directly with the physical world. Corporatism deals more with policies.
@@jooch_exe Both ideologies go hand in hand. They both have real world impacts in the "physical world". Corporations benefit from Globalism's integration of new markets into the world trade network.
You have no idea what you are talking about
I'm from Europe and have been to the US many times. I would any time prefer to live there than in Europe.
United States of Generica.
love this!!
The sad thing the US is pushing this to Europe ... we don't want this. Europeans should resist global chains. Sponsor local stores. Definitely boycott McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, anything American, if you must go to a chain go to a local or at least a European one. Definitely no Walmart or Costco. Keep the profits in your own country as much as you can.
Good point, there is a fetishisation of global brands on Tik Tok etc, good reminder to spend locally.
It is too late, that ball was set in motion four decades ago.
@@walter77ify it is never too late.
Sometimes there is a European copy of the American brand like Heinz with better ingredients. If it's perishable it must be good. Shop local if you have savings
In case the best strategy doesn't work.... make some local restrictions that the chains must locate within existing architecture. Or create something new that fits the local architecture.
Stroads is the term you're looking for. The basic definition is, an ugly boulevard with the same chain stores and restaurants found across the United States. Even Canada has stroads as well.
It’s very boring and depressing looking. Which is why I want move to someone like Vermont or Alaska. Cause those states at least have a nice comforting, welcoming and homey look to them.
@@bonnieparkertheoutlaw7353 New England in general is far better with stroads than the rest of the country. Alaska is great.
Stroad = Street + Road
It's supposed to be a weird mix of the smaller, charming Street, and the larger Road used for faster travelling.
You'll have to watch urban planning videos to really understand the nuance of them...
@@bonnieparkertheoutlaw7353 Beginning in the 1890s, the new middle class wanted to be like the rich & wanted to live in semi-park conditions. The new middle class also wanted to ensure that none of the undesirable immigrants (southern & eastern Europeans) lived near them so they limited how many buildings as well as the number of families that could live in them, all connected by larger roads. When the immigrants moved up the social ladder from 1946 to 2000, they wanted to live exactly the same way. Owning a piece of property and a car was seen as proof of achieving the "Dream". As the kids of immigrants went to university, more of them could afford the quiet suburb neighborhood, with shops & restaurants within 5-to-15-minute drives, and one-hour commutes to the city centers. Now most people enjoy living in very quiet residential-only areas, and personal vehicles, which require roads big enough for the smooth flow of traffic at posted speeds (about 60-80 km) which allow them to go where they want when they want.
Canadian stroads are different from American ones (although this is starting to change)
People have been saying for years that every town in American looks the same due to all the chain stores which consume a downtown. And every American town is increasingly suffering ..."Mom and Pop" stores in the Old part of town going out of business because of the impacts of these chain stores...and Amazon more recently.
in america almost every house looks different, it makes the cities in general look all similar but thats because america is about individualism on the worker level not on the ruling class level, and it will always stay this way because of freedom
@provisionalhypothesisYou would be insane to say that McDonald's provides the best food though
@@divineantiwokegangsterSuburban houses are the epitome of cookie-cutter sameness though.
@@AbstractEntityJhave you seen russian or Chinese cookie cutters? Those are exact copy/paste structures side by side.
@@SergLapin Yeah, commie blocks are ugly too.
As a french who has been living for 20 years in California I agree that america is boring , it is s country of parking lots , highways, stores, soulless suburbia. I long and starve for cities with downtown, history, old stones, things build for beauty and not for convenience and profit only.
Pourquoi vous y avez vécu aussi longtemps si c'est aussi moche ?😂
@@arslanelahmer2729 bonne question, on suit sa carriere, etant tres specialise mes opportunites en France etaient tres tres rduites a un moment donne.
Alors rentre du con !
@@arslanelahmer2729Question ridicule. Il peut y avoir plusieurs raisons incontournables malgré le désert culturel.
Looking at the wrong spots. Look the the beautiful untouched nature which you won't find in Europe. Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, carmel-by-the-sea...
Google "One Happy Big-Box Wasteland" and read the editorial written in August of 2005 in SFGate about this exact topic. No matter where you go, every town is exactly the same. I'm so glad I'm old enough to remember when every town had it's own personality. I miss that.
If you are raising cattle, then you standardize everything. In the US, humans are not much more than cattle. Cattle get just enough healthcare, feed, and shelter but they don't get anything else. Raising humans like cattle is the most profitable. If you want to have community, family, culture, tradition then you would have to have something higher than profit driving your leaders and that is all expensive. And the US is not a nation, its a business.
Very nicely explained....Sad really but Yes after 28 years as an immigrant to the 🇺🇸 the country as a one big business rings true
That's exactly the reason why anti-depression and anxiety medication is everywhere. It's a part of the business. Subconsciously, we know we are cattle, and it's causing terrible damage to our physche. Big pharma took advantage of this by selling us more and more pills.
All this started in June of 1956 when the Interstate highway System was signed. One by one, little towns were bypassed and individual business died. You can keep the country.
Prior to the interstate system most people would take boats down to Panama cross the Panama and then take a boat up to Los Angeles. The interstate system did more to help people actually see the rest of the country
I already posted this, but....
Charles Kuralt
"Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything."
@@robertbrouillette6767 Prior to the interstate, most Americans who wanted to get from, let's say, New York to California would take a boat down to Panama, then cross Panama and take another boat up to California. What the interstate did was make it possible to travel by land, which was not possible before that as the roads were too unsafe and too unreliable to be able to actually get anywhere.
The interstate system was (is) really good for trans regional movement, the problem is how it was implemented in urban environments. Japan and most European nations have their own “interstate” style freeway networks but with far far far better urban integration. Also they have good rail networks too.
@@fermentedcinema4892 Yes, this. It didn't need to 'eat out' the hearts of our towns. But not enough thought was put into it. It was a measure undertaken during the height of the Cold War.
I visited many cities around the world. The first time I visited the US back in the 90s, it almost made me feel uneasy because you could see already from the airplane cities like Chicago, Indianapolis, and Houston, with road grids from one corner to the other like a computer game simulation. Once on the ground this feeling was even stronger looking at hundreds of houses looking identical, and with all the usual stores and their layout. Since I did not find a single American unhappy at the time, I concluded these people were quite pragmatic - because this standardization made construction faster and cheaper without regard to style- little did I know the housing bubble was at full speed.
I did find most downtown of small American cities charming though, and wondered why almost nobody lived there. When I was younger I wished to live in an apartment atop a store so that I wouldn't need a car to buy food and groceries.
Today I am building my own house, and funny enough, despite all my efforts it is starting to look like a lot of houses already built in the region. This happened because of my limited budget, the concern of building something that can be sold later, and because local construction workers would not know how to build differently (brick and mortar is what they are used to around here). So economics I say is the single biggest force that dictates what the urbanization and architecture end up looking.
Economics is definitely the driving force. Affordable energy and transportation allowed people to get away from the cramped urban cores to live the American Dream characterized as a single family home with a white picket fence on a small personal lot. Nobody really wants to live in a small apartment with a 3 or 4 story walk-up.
@@wtfdidijustwatch1017
Why would I need to pretend? I do not owe anybody´s approval to express my honest feelings and opinions, specially in a RUclips comment section of all places.
@@wtfdidijustwatch1017 Are you studying for an associates degree in psychology?
It's all a plan to make people think there in no reason to fight for anything because everythng looks the same. When everything around You looks exactly the same You have no will to fight for it becasue You feel no emotional connection with that. When something is unique You always have a need to preserve it. That is why cars, roads, buildings, even people (especially women with implants) look exactly the same. It's all a part of sat4ns plan to destroy the world.
After living in the US for 40 years we bounced and live in Central Europe. It's been a life changing experience for the better. Sameness is gone. However, we see it when we go West and its jarring and sad.
After being on the road for 12 years and travelled 46 states, I can conquer that! It's almost boring to travel in the US, because there's not uniqueness of anyway of the US. There all look the same, same food, same shopping center, same walmart!
This is why I go to Tijuana see something else. I don't have the means to go overseas.
Concur*
it's different in the 🇬🇧UK
Find it real easy too hitch hike around new zealand.- iff stuck plenty water/ grass/ hay- barns .- butt U.S.A> looks harder too bum around and camp out.
I have a Peruvian friend whose dream holiday was to travel the USA from east to west in his car.... When he returned he said it was the most boring journey he ever done.....
I've noticed this in the Midwest especially. The same architecture pervades every small town in every direction for hundreds of miles. There is no wilderness to speak of, most national forests and parks are minutes away from a busy road, residence, or other development. Prime farmland goes to waste on suburban sprawl, developed cities experience a steady flux of residents that never bother to create a community, many professionals constantly moving to chase after jobs or lower costs of living. There is still some uniqueness to parts of the country, but even the accents are homogenizing.
Yup. My family is Ohio family.
It is dreadful state.
Everywhere except the capital Columbus is dreary.
@@jesseward568 My condolences. I'm out in Michigan and even though we have our state rivalry, at the end of the day we're both Midwestern states with way too many strip malls and crusty small towns. Every inch of Michigan is being paved, one day we'll be as flat as the Ohio turnpike, without a single Waffle House as a consolation prize.
@@gcv7897 yeah Cleveland is a ghost town. Just suburbia now.
@@jesseward568 jesus is responsible for this
I live in Switzerland, one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. So, keep in mind that what I’m going to describe is likely even worse in other European countries. When people outside of Europe, especially Americans, think of living here, they often imagine residing in a picturesque village straight out of a fairytale, like those commonly featured on Instagram. However, these quintessential European scenes are isolated relics of past architectural eras and have little in common with the built environment the average European interacts with today.
Unlike the U.S., a large part of Europe was destroyed during World War II. Architects, engineers, and city planners saw this devastation as an opportunity to reimagine what constituted good architecture, leading to the rise of postmodernism, which still significantly impacts housing in Europe. In short, many aspects that defined earlier ways of living-such as low density, decorative elements, single-family homes, classical architectural references, and the use of natural materials-were deemed unsuitable for the future.
Over the following decades, architects and city planners created what are now often regarded as architectural sins. Morbid-looking concrete apartment blocks were constructed, and the concept of density was stretched to the absurd, with people living next to shopping centres or surrounded by noise. The beauty of Europe’s architectural heritage was largely ignored. Although there have been some improvements, the underlying system remains largely unchanged. If you’re an average middle-class citizen, you likely live on the outskirts of a major city, in a typical neighbourhoods of these apartment blocks. Your home is likely a small, overpriced, and often oddly designed apartment. The view is probably just the facade of the next apartment block. When you step outside, you’re surrounded by noise, as high density is still seen as desirable. Many governments also encourage you to rely more on public transportation.
In the U.S., the housing market works very differently. For the same money, you generally get much more of what most people look for when choosing a place to live. The standard housing product is a single-family home, typically located in a quiet, calm, and peaceful neighbourhoods where commercial areas are separate from residential ones.
Secondly, the architectural movement that dominated Europe was less influential in the U.S. Ironically, what many people are now calling for-references to classical architecture-has been a staple of American residential architecture for centuries and continues to be so. At least much more than in Europe. American homes often incorporate core elements of classical architecture, such as columns, symmetry, loggias, or cascading roofs, always adapted to the specific context, which brings me to the next point. America has a rich architectural heritage. And unlike here in Europe, it is referenced in housing architecture. From the California Arts and Crafts Bungalows to the Pueblo Revival in the Southwest, to the Colonial Revival along the Upper East Coast. Nowhere in Europe do you find architectural richness in residential areas as in the U.S.
Please don’t be misled by clickbait videos on RUclips where privileged American expats claim that life is much better in Europe than in America. By many objective measures, most European countries are, compared to the U.S., third-world countries. I’m fortunate to live in a rich European country, but here, we especially notice this discrepancy. There are countless people from Spain, Portugal, or Italy working because they cannot find jobs in their own countries. These countries may look nice on postcards, but they are known in Europe for their deficient economies.
In fact, I have never met an average American who migrated here. All the Americans in Switzerland I have met so far are rich expats working for big Fortune 500 companies. No matter where they live, they will always have a good life. But I did the other way around. A befriended couple of mine bought land in Florida, where they built a house. As far as I know, it’s in a city called Naples, Florida. That’s something they could have never afforded here.
Buildings without soul.
Bland as sand
Humans there lack a soul too.
There are chain stores that look different in smaller towns that have a specific style written in the code, like Leavenworth, WA. Personally I really like Eichler homes, they were track homes but built with style in many different designs.
@@Bonserak23 towns can do some light style zoning, more significant changes to urban sprawl are more difficult. Leavenworth was able to specify a style of storefront and sign style, Park City, UT was able to do this too. Those were older towns already built in a walkable way before cars were common. Sugarhouse district of Salt Lake City tried to specify storefronts up to sidewalks and parking in back to make town more walkable. A pharmacy chain sued to put the parking lot in front which was their standard style and encourages driving. The city couldn’t afford the lawsuit and let the pharmacy do what it wanted.
Even in older communities you see standardization. While folks might find Sears houses different and appealing now, they were sold as a kit and shipped anywhere. Craftsman style homes, Cape Cods etc. These were pretty common during different periods, and standardized floor plans have been around a very long time. I personally like the pre-WWII styles myself. (BTW, you missed the big retailer before and after WWII - Sears).
As for eateries and shopping, having a standard designs saves on architectural costs and one has to assume that it is easier to get local approvals as well. Yeah, code varies by location, but it won't by much. This also plays into store standardized store layout, knowing how much land is required and a host of other things. For businesses this is smart. Bland, but smart. It also can give the building instant recognition - I give you IKEA as an example (BTW their buildings looked the same when I lived in Germany).
Ike got the freeways built, but the underlying purpose was military. They are based off of the Autobahns that we encountered in Germany in WWII.
God this is SO true. I've lived all over this country, and the only difference between any region is that on the east coast they use more brick, and on the west you find Spanish-style roofs, and that is quite literally it.
I'm from Europe and have been to the US many times. I would any time prefer to live there than in Europe.
@@jankaufmann4305 where in Europe are you from?
@@jankaufmann4305 I'm from Europe too but I would prefer to stay here.
All of Europe is the same?
@@jankaufmann4305
I live in Switzerland, one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. So, keep in mind that what I’m going to describe is likely even worse in other European countries. When people outside of Europe, especially Americans, think of living here, they often imagine residing in a picturesque village straight out of a fairytale, like those commonly featured on Instagram. However, these quintessential European scenes are isolated relics of past architectural eras and have little in common with the built environment the average European interacts with today.
Unlike the U.S., a large part of Europe was destroyed during World War II. Architects, engineers, and city planners saw this devastation as an opportunity to reimagine what constituted good architecture, leading to the rise of postmodernism, which still significantly impacts housing in Europe. In short, many aspects that defined earlier ways of living-such as low density, decorative elements, single-family homes, classical architectural references, and the use of natural materials-were deemed unsuitable for the future.
Over the following decades, architects and city planners created what are now often regarded as architectural sins. Morbid-looking concrete apartment blocks were constructed, and the concept of density was stretched to the absurd, with people living next to shopping centres or surrounded by noise. The beauty of Europe’s architectural heritage was largely ignored. Although there have been some improvements, the underlying system remains largely unchanged. If you’re an average middle-class citizen, you likely live on the outskirts of a major city, in a typical neighbourhoods of these apartment blocks. Your home is likely a small, overpriced, and often oddly designed apartment. The view is probably just the facade of the next apartment block. When you step outside, you’re surrounded by noise, as high density is still seen as desirable. Many governments also encourage you to rely more on public transportation.
In the U.S., the housing market works very differently. For the same money, you generally get much more of what most people look for when choosing a place to live. The standard housing product is a single-family home, typically located in a quiet, calm, and peaceful neighbourhoods where commercial areas are separate from residential ones.
Secondly, the architectural movement that dominated Europe was less influential in the U.S. Ironically, what many people are now calling for-references to classical architecture-has been a staple of American residential architecture for centuries and continues to be so. At least much more than in Europe. American homes often incorporate core elements of classical architecture, such as columns, symmetry, loggias, or cascading roofs, always adapted to the specific context, which brings me to the next point. America has a rich architectural heritage. And unlike here in Europe, it is referenced in housing architecture. From the California Arts and Crafts Bungalows to the Pueblo Revival in the Southwest, to the Colonial Revival along the Upper East Coast. Nowhere in Europe do you find architectural richness in residential areas as in the U.S.
Please don’t be misled by clickbait videos on RUclips where privileged American expats claim that life is much better in Europe than in America. By many objective measures, most European countries are, compared to the U.S., third-world countries. I’m fortunate to live in a rich European country, but here, we especially notice this discrepancy. There are countless people from Spain, Portugal, or Italy working because they cannot find jobs in their own countries. These countries may look nice on postcards, but they are known in Europe for their deficient economies.
In fact, I have never met an average American who migrated here. All the Americans in Switzerland I have met so far are rich expats working for big Fortune 500 companies. No matter where they live, they will always have a good life. But I did the other way around. A befriended couple of mine bought land in Florida, where they built a house. As far as I know, it’s in a city called Naples, Florida. That’s something they could have never afforded here.
Thanks for making this video, which is very well researched and professionally crafted. What you are talking about here is one of the reasons I left the USA way back in 1992. The pervasiveness of same-everywhere soulless vapid sterile impersonal chain stores, restaurants, hotels, car-addicted vast parking lots, and heavy social pressure to conform and be part of the game (the machine, the matrix) was something I became particularly aware of the first time I left it. I went backpacking on the cheap around Europe for a summer and, well, it really opened my eyes. Soon after, ironically I landed a good-paying job, but after a couple years of that all I could imagine was being buried in a workaholic lifestyle and spending my leisure time buying stuff and eating at boring plasticized totally impersonal restaurants and cruising strip malls and searching for my stupid car in huge parking lots, also being forbidden to walk anywhere because roads block pedestrians everywhere. And of course no one gives a rats ass about anyone else and every employee is just there to greet you and pour your coffee and tell you to have a nice day even though they couldn't care less. Anyway you get the general picture. I wanted out.
So I moved to New Zealand to be *far away* and start over - and admittedly because I had a good job lined up there as well. After six years of becoming a "Kiwi" of sorts and exploring that gorgeous country I cut loose, quit my job and went walkabout around the Australian outback for a few years in a campervan, to effectively "escape" the world, and hell-yeah it was one of the best chapters in this life. I met a German girl, of course, and went to live there in various shared living places around the country and did a bunch more independent travel in Europe, including this time the former Soviet Union and and eastern Europe which was incrementally eye-opening. I also did several long trips around India, southern Africa, Egypt, China, etc. I flew back to Australia and "the van" many times and repeatedly stopped off in Southeast Asia on the way, eventually getting bitten by the Thailand bug, so I came to live in Chiang Mai in 2004 which is a very nice east-meets-west old-and-new balancing place.
Again, one thing which attracted me about Chiang Mai 20 years ago was the absence of chain stores, restaurants, hotels, etc. and the pervasiveness of family/locally-owned independent corner stores, guesthouses, cafes, food stalls, etc. so it had a very local village vibe even for a fairly big city and one can walk to almost anything you might need. The historical walled old city in particular is mostly very charming, calm and inviting, very much unlike your average downtown US city. But slowly year after year the McDonaldization has crept in even here, and just a couple weeks ago a f*cking Taco Bell opened in the city center tourist zone. Thankfully I have moved out of the city now and now live around the rice fields and hills just far enough away to "escape" again. Still there are shopping malls sprouting up like mushrooms and the "cancer" of America-style consumerism continues to spread, even in northern Thailand. It has also been encouraged and fueled by the increasing number of gen-z "digital nomads" who are moving here by the thousands, maybe thinking they too are "escaping", but to a great extent they just bring their bratty lazy phone-zombie toxicity and self-entitled material addictions with them. Boo!!!
Anyway I now have my own "enclave" piece of land out in the middle of nowhere with the city a half hour drive away, but I am ever mindful of keeping the McDonaldization effect away. Whenever I go back to the US to see family every few years it is increasingly depressing to witness just how soul-crushing the average way of life is - so lonely, so impersonal, so fake, and of course everywhere you go is in-your-face advertising telling you what to buy and how to live. Guess what - F*K that! The worst thing might be that most Americans seem oblivious to the bubble they have created and inside it become habituated, dumbed-down, and institutionalized. Hello?!?! There is this *whole other world out there which doesn't live like that* and hopefully still connects on a personal level, has locally owned businesses and meeting points where humans can be human, and eat unprocessed real food that doesn't come in a single-use plastic container. Anyway I have to go climb a coconut tree and eat some sticky rice with mangos from our small friendly neighborhood jungle. Be well... =)
Excellent essay on the rot of our culture! I grew up in NZ in the 1950s when Televison did not yet exist and the first supermarket opened maybe in 1959. Our small town suffered from the Americanisation with a shopping mall and supermarket in the late 60s and all the little family run business withered away. I moved tothe UK and it has proceeded the same .I now live on a Scottish Isle to escape the poisoned world you describe. All over the UK our towns and cities are in decay. My nearest village has a little general store ,a local butcher, and a baker which uses ancient techniques of baking bread ,and there is a pub and a newsagent. No boarded up shops and the islanders value their land . You never see any litter.
What always gets me about critiques like yours is that you're comparing the most generic suburban American life to urban or rural life elsewhere. Not really a fair comparison. It's like when Americans go tour the premier urban centers of Europe then come back and moan about their exurban neighborhood and their cookie-cutter house as if they couldn't choose to live another way even in the US. The only reason average people in Thailand don't live similarly is because of lack of resources/poverty.
try Bali as well, it is 1000+ times more beautiful than US
Make colonial and neoclassical architecture standard again!
And then everything would look the same again.
@@mpetersen6 How would you like everything to look? Like something out of a portrait, or like an Apple Store?
@@artix548
Well certainly the Blah huas modernists crap I see being built today in apartment buildings. Nor do l think everything should resemble a suburb of McMansions. Things l definitely would prefer to see
1) More durable construction in single and multi unit construction.
2) Walkable neighborhoods with nearby shopping, schools and parks
3) Neighborhoods with a mix of housing styles and types (1). And density. Some single family. Some duplex, preferably upper and lower flats. And some higher density up to say 8 to 12 units. With sidewalks so you are not walking in the street. In fact I would prefer that the fronts of housing face a path or sidewalk with limited vehicle access in the rear from an alley. Orient all housing East West if on a grid with a major North South street every 8 To 12 blocks. East West cross Streets are all one way alternating directions. Major cross Streets every 8 to 12 blocks. Transit lines running dense enough that no one is more than a two block walk from at least a minor transit line. Neighborhood schools, parks and shopping. The goal being to reduce car dependency as much as possible. Also limit lot sizes on single and two unit housing to some reasonable size. Enough for a decent garden perhaps. If you want a two hectare lot. Move out to the country.
4) Trees. Lots of trees and other greenery. Plus municipal composting of yard waste.
5) Intelligent planning to limit or eliminate strip malls if possible. I would not expect to eliminate them entirely but at least limit them.
6) Absolutely no on street parking in residential neighborhoods. All housing units must provide at least one space per unit of housing.
7) Building codes that encourage the use of factory built housing components as long as the housing does not look like a house trailer.
1) Styles would include Craftsman type bungalows, Two story single or multi unit, Four square style, row houses,
@@artix548 Most Americans and especially corporates would say Apple Store , Apple Store !!!
Atleast there would be some style ;)
Well, to be honest America isn't really a nation in the traditional sense of the term, it's an economic zone, a giant Walmart where people conduct business activities, and then retreat in their soulless private spaces. If a lot of places and cities around the country are outright ugly and dysfunctional, it's by design and it's intentional. Sadly, Europe is slowly heading in the same direction. Changing the crash course of the US would require a tremendous effort at every level, and frankly, this country probably doesn't "have it" anymore. America is just reflecting its core value: the almighty dollar, and it comes with a collective price to pay, not to sound too "socialist" here. There're still plenty of natural beauties to check out though.
Almost all of your reasons for this sameness can be summarized in one phrase: "extreme unrestricted capitalism". Through the years mom and pop stores have been washed away by greedy corporations that have morphed into multi-national corporations. Governments have contributed to the growth in power of these too-big to fail corporations through tax policies and other means. Competition among corporations is a myth.
There is no significant competition when one giant corporation gobbles up another in what is called a "merger". As a result, consumers have fewer and fewer options. Like it or not, this capitalistic model has spread globally. And it almost doesn't matter what form of government a country has.
We also have this in The Netherlands. There are two major chains of toy stores so you think you are getting to choose between them. However they are both owned by the same parent company. So the competition between them is completely fake.
Money rules.
It's easier for the simulation to render it. That's how the US can be so big.
Everything built in the UK in the last twenty years looks the same. The bit that makes me laugh is I remember growing up we used to define ourselves as opposite to the Soviet Union because were individuals and don't build identical communist towns, fast forward, we build identical capitalist towns.
I've been saying this for years.
It's the new Soviet Union.
funny that,i can say the same here in holland,holland ffs. almost like its done on purpose on a grand and long drawn scale..
Also, we in the West used to vilify Eastern Bloc countries for their totalitarian tyranny and now we are moving rapidly toward that, if not arrived there already alas.
That’s what I’ve been saying but 99% are too brainwashed to understand
I once called them, the franchised cities and towns of North America. Every single rest stop on a trip, looked exactly the same.
I used to love bike touring in the U.S., but now, what's the point. -- no matter where I go I never left.
😅😅😅
Great video, Girl!!! 🧡💜💛
What an interesting video and great analysis!
I moved from the Bay Area to the Boston area and driving around, I’m like, “Oh, everything here looks the same 😂”
When I watch these kinds of videos, I am a bit skeptical about their content, especially on those on which we have a person whose real "job" or "primary skills" have nothing to do with what they are talking about, e.g. Architecture, History, etc...
I have to say I looked into all your links (even LinkedIn ones) and I found she has a degree in Architectural design, which, in some way, supports her content and the arguments she has about it. I recommend doing the same with any other videos. I know there are a bunch of "liars" and "scammers" and all, but at least you tried verifying the info. Based on that, you decide.
I liked this video and I'll keep watching other ones. She explained the things clearly and with good information. Thanks for sharing, and all the work you do.
Its call "Generica".
Yes, and that term used to describe the same as in the video has been around for decades. If there's anything new, it's just more generica than before.
I find it amusing how every city and town in the US, even the lesser-known ones, seem to be replicas of each other. This similarity extends to even the most remote locations that may not be familiar to you!
If people do not like the way an area is zoned and built, they will not buy property there. You don't spend 30 years of your life paying a huge mortgage for a place you hate. Sorry, but people vote with their WALLETS that they like USA suburbs and a considerable amount of similarity. If you think that's wrong, you can always move to a place you like.
@@gregorybiestek3431what does any of that has to do with what I said?
@@gregorybiestek3431What I meant to say is that out of the thousands of cities and towns in the US, any other city or town looks like a copy-paste of the other.
Check out Japan. Outside of the core, you find the same chain stores everywhere
@@yaelbj If people in the USA were really unhappy with copy & paste towns, they would be demanding & buying something different. Since they are not, and still paying huge mortgages for the privilege of living in them, they must like what they are buying.
There was a movie based on the cartoon of Ricky and Bullwinkle .
They come back from the 1950’s and are driving along when Ricky calls out -
Stop the car ! We must be lost and have gone In a circle !
Why? Says the driver .
“Well we just went past a McDonsks Starbucks , Target etc and i Know we just went last them only 20 minutes ago ….
It's Rocky the squirrel , not Ricky. And its the early 1960s.
You are right of course !
Ricky got some splaning to do !
regarding businesses - its advertising. they use their outside appearance, their physical building, to advertise themselves. once you know the logo, and other physical aspects of the brand (color, building style, etc) seeing it is another form of advertising. think of it as a billboard. i used to be in this biz, for a well-known storage company that uses the same approach.
‘Learning from Las Vegas’ documented this phenomenon very well!!!
Another reason the chains all own their distribution. Rolling billboards on every truck.
When hopping freight trains we always looked for a Wal Mart when riding into a town, because we knew that there will always be fast food, a place to charge our phones, get water and bum some money. So essentially we used the homogeneity of US towns to our benifit
Hey love, i can see your skills have evolved. Nice to see ya again.
I recall seeing a McDonalds like the one at the beginning somewhere in SC. Not sure if it was a survivor or deliberately retro. It was cool enough to make me stop, though, and I don't generally like McDonalds.
There's a 4 hour documentary called The Century of the Self where they talk about how Freudian psych was used in market research to appeal to people's individuality in order to sell goods and services. But then with housing and infrastructure they appeal to people's sense of sameness. I'd also recommend the documentary Helvetica that talks about advertising and design. Everything is about standardization and sameness so they can mass produce goods and services in order to keep our economy afloat. Finally, I suggest checking out the documentary Zeitgeist: Moving Forward for a real eye opener. It shows the running theme between all of them.
Adam Curtis is incredible
The century of the self is incredibly good, it explains so much about how we got where we are now
@plantstho6599 That is one epic piece of work. I love all Adam Curtis' work, but CotS is a must see.
There are strawberries native to Alaska that thrive as perennials. They grow in the summer.
Honestly that's why I stopped travelling in the U.S.
Everywhere looks exactly the same in the consumer districts.
They also made sure to destroy historical sites of aboriginal indigenous copper colored American Indians.
Add shipping the economy out of the country and you have a country in decline.
Cookie cutter homes in sprawling suburbs are such an eyesore!
Worst things ever
The photos always look and feel dystopian
thanks for an awesome professional video I especially appreciate your on-screen presence and your content great job keep up the good work .northern Maine
In the Netherlands, outside the cozy small old city centers it's much the same. Standardization not just in size of homes but into the smallest details. Big apartment blocks with dark, depressing outer stone walls; houses put on ever-smaller lots. That in turn happens too in the US, despite having much more ground: new houses are closer and closer to each other on smaller lots
It's all based on supply and demand with affordability in mind.
@@TexMarque Unfortunally the affordability part isn't real. Here in Brazil after everywhere adopted this model of building, thehouse prices skyrocket, because companies own this models, so they build in large scale.
Human psychology, repetition is comforting.Change is scary. Every McDonald’s is meant to be exactly alike.
This video explains the main reason that I moved to France years ago
When I was a kid fast food was a once in a while treat and there were less of them and less chains. That has changed a lot since the 70s. As a musician I've even seen this. Finding local stores with service has become tough. Oh and by the way, my dad was in the restaurant business. He always said the food was much better if you didn't go to a chain. Great video. Even in the suburbs I lived in ,kids could get around on bikes. Unlike now where you take your life in your hands on the high speed roads around suburbs.
I live very close to the strip you show in your thumbnail. It’s the “golden mile” in Breeze wood Pennsylvania. My region is so packed with natural beauty and it breaks my heart that all the lifeless development takes away from people not only visiting the area, but most importantly the people who live here.
This has really been bothering me my whole life. As a kid, and now as a 31 year old carpenter of 12 years. The strip mall gross commercial structures are totally “Soviet” style of designs. Beauty in architecture invokes a higher sense of worth and pride in our country. If it looks like shit, makes you feel like shit, it is shit
The real estate market is corrupt.
Mortgage interest deductions, which most nations don't have, cause suburban sprawl and over-consumption of real estate.
Every time they reduce the capital gains tax real estate becomes more inelastic and unaffordable.
Where the price is based off of the ability to borrow rather than supply; there're too many speculators.
There's no reason to offer real estate improvement deductions, it allows people to upgrade outhouses and write off the entire expenditure.
Real estate is too fungible, it's too easy to trade and causes upward price movements, they need to make real estate sales tax non-deductible.
It's up to the government to prevent real estate from becoming inelastic, but it actually looks like the government is trying to increase real estate investing, which is corrupt [it makes housing unaffordable].
Homes are built because someone needs a place to live, not because someone needs an investment, which is why, I think, architecture in America looks the way it does.
Single use zoning that separates homes from businesses favors big box stores over smaller more often locally owned stores. If I have to get in a car and drive 5-10 miles to get to a store I’m going to a big box with lots of stuff. If small commercial shops in walkable neighborhoods are allowed near homes a local business can open and compete by being convenient. 75% of living space in the USA is zoned single family homes only with no shops allowed giving big boxes and advantage over small local shops.
This exactly! And for groceries, people will bulk buy lots of food that will either go to waste since they'll only want to go once a week, or be full of harmful preservatives that make us sick. The idea of walking home from work and casually picking up food for that night's dinner is so foreign to us, and it's sad.
Yes. The corporations have a big say in how this is done at the local level.
@@hezekiahthompson6817 Those zoning laws were not mandated by some faceless politicians, but rather at the demand and insistence of the local populace. I don't know about others, but I HAVE lived in an upstairs flat, 300 feet from shops & 500 feet from public transit. You could never pay me enough to EVER move back into that sort of situation. I Love my reasonable 1800 sq ft home on my own lot in a totally residential neighborhood. I will vote to keep dense housing away from my inner ring suburb. In my suburb my bakery & deli are 1 km, the supermarkets are 5 km & 7 km, all of the fast-food restaurants are between 1 km & 8 km, the better restaurants are between 5 km & 10 km, the doctors & medical specialists are likewise 5km to 10 km away and there are several shopping districts with 10 km. ALL of those in MY suburbia are within a 5-to-10-minute drive from my home. And no, I NEVER want ANY shops next to or ANY closer to my home.
@@gregorybiestek3431 Can you explain why you personally don't want these shops and public transit close to you?
@@hezekiahthompson6817 Because I LIKE having a nice size house on a good size lot AWAY from any business. I ENJOY my area & neighbors in a quiet section without ANY buses or trains running at all hours. I LIKE being able to drive where I want, when I want. I do NOT want any business ANYWHERE closer than 1km away.
So true, look at the architecture of New York or any large city in the early 1900s through today, why are they tearing down those old beautiful retro buildings and skyscrapers for generic replacements? My own town demolished their beautiful 1910 classical revival county courthouse for some ugly square brutalist architecture monstrosity built in 1955 and is now going to replace this with a new courthouse which will look almost exactly like the 1910 courthouse they demolished.
@@possiblyinsane6995 Everyone should care what buildings look like otherwise why have architects, building design, engineers, etc, just make them square/rectangular metal buildings and be done.
One HECK🎉 of a program😅 !
Way beyond expectation❤.
The technical term is "Californication."
no , its disneynization
These chains spoil it everywhere in the world.
But the US has most progressed in terms of damage.
Australia is similar except that we have many independent coffee shops as we will not drink the crap that certain American brands serve.
The franchise small business these cafe chains
Non-American Westerners always have to insert their smugness into every comment like clockwork.
@@coopsnz1 No, they are independent and often run by locals but with an Italian background. The American chains that I talk about are not popular with serious coffee drinkers but they are popular with young kids or holidaymakers from overseas. Drinking coffee in Australia is a serious business - thanks to Italian migrants.
@@WillieFungo Mate, the coffee in the US is crap - every Australian that goes to the US says the same thing. I am sure we have things that you think of as crap.
@Mike-br8zt Australian whiskey needs a lot of work. Wines decent. America does have Italian espresso shops if you know where to find them.
Very interesting video. And yet, as a European, I still find America fascinating and beautiful
Time for a geographical restriction that prohibits big fast food chains from expanding any further. Let’s support small businesses, support local people
Tell that to any capitalist simp.
To your idea of supporting a small business is by preventing a big business from expanding? People want to buy McDonald's food. That's why they're successful.
A big business is just a small business that was selling something that people really wanted. So they decided to sell that same thing somewhere else. People there really wanted it. So they decided to sell that same thing somewhere else. And guess what, people wanted it there too.
People not be allowed to have that which they want because you, a third party not involved in this transaction, don't want them to have it? Who are you?
@@FreedomTalkMedia I don't eat at McDonald's, KFC or Burger King, thank you! 🤣
@@FreedomTalkMedia the real problem is, they bankrupt or put smaller fast food restaurants out of business because they couldn't afford to keep up with the competition. And they couldn't even make food fast enough, so I call it "slow food"
Chef and history major here. Best answer is company's and government as a whole have adopted a cookie cutter format, be it with homes, businesses, and infrastructure, based on what works, is most easily mass produced without the need to redesign, what facilitates traffic in/out best, and what turns profit for minimal expense.
For those who don't know, this is not a new thing. The "Ancient" Romans made their cities in the same plan so if they went from One Place to Another they could always find where government and Social buildings were. It just happens the "People" across millennia have the same idea even if they are boring. And, it does save money in constructions. In the past there were unique places, but that has obviously been rejected. Who knows for the future...
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Truth. That's exactly what I didn't like about trucking across the US. Very samey
I don't eat fast food, but I was driving down the main road in the small town I live in the other day and finally noticed that all the fast food places look the same--dull, streamlined, and kind of like prisons. The only places that have more character in their buildings are a non-chain drive-in and an Italian restaurant, which makes really good Italian food for a small town. There's also a ma-and-pa store that makes the best pizza I've ever had, and their building looks cozy.
Mayor of Madison, MS stood up to some of that crap when Walmart came to town. Instead of that cheap look the Walmarts have, she made them change the exterior to something nicer that fit in with the town’s Germantown look. Did the same thing to Sam’s.
As if the rest of the world is much better! Sure, we here in Europe have truly old buildings and often grand old town and city centers and castles and what not, but most modern buildings are also ugly, because of that French dude (architect) who's name I have forgotten (the one who also wanted to flatten half of Paris to build ugly sky-scrapers there!
Le corbusier!!
Usa people live in same suburbia home. And they are not protesters. Only unemployed architects are protesting.
So monotonous and bland… The layout of every City in North America is all the same… No density as expected from a city, Lost sense of community, just massive roads, cars and empty spaces… No soul in sight walking, or engaging in any social normal activity…
Dont like it go to africa or something f off
True. What's scary is if people stopped traveling all together because of these featureless cities where everything is and looks the same.
@@JohnEmerick-ts7st You sound like you are having the time of your life and wouldn’t change a thing about the cities which are supposed to be for people not soulless parking lots, cars and other massive individual homes causing urban sprawl making it difficult for people to make commute to their jobs which is in the city…
Think about it… .
Massive roads, cars and houses for massive people.
I started out as a residential estimator after completing my architecture degree but currently I work as a commercial and multifamily housing construction estimator. Think 4 story and 5+1 podium apartment buildings with the occasional McDonald's, Starbucks, or other fast food restaurant mixed in. It is interesting to see just how little difference there is, structurally speaking, between a McDonald's, a Starbucks, and a Burger King. The building shells are nearly identical. From a single family home standpoint much of what I saw I would describe as an embellished ranch style home. Single story, but with bump outs, dormers, tray or vaulted ceilings in a couple rooms, and the addition of prominent attached garages. Imagine giving a 1960's ranch home growth hormones. It is interesting because if we think of the ranch home as an evolution of Frank Lloyd Wright's prairie style homes of the 1910s-20s I could certainly see modern suburbia as a partial attempt at Wright's Broadacre City un-urban design. Americans are a paradox, we demand the freedom to travel to experience new things, but we also demand consistency when we get there. Good video, good luck with the channel!
Most of the US is very ugly due to design around automobiles. Few cities are walkable. It’s the zoning laws that separate where people live , work, and shop. Very frustrating and not likely to change soon.
As a Japanese we experience the completely same situation. Other than a few exceptions, say Kyoto or Okinawa, cities look pretty identical. you can see Mcdonald's and convenience stores everywhere
McDonald's is your kind of place. Hamburgers in your face. Pickles between your toes. French fries up your nose.
Let me answer this being a 37 year vet of food service's and security for big chain companies. It was joe krocker who bought the property which mc donalds is on 2 major corporation's coke and Pepsi followed suit and bought the chain's of restaurants as well.i know I was a co-owner of a taco bell in the 90s taco bell in the mall was Pepsi across from burger king coke which the mall wouldn't allow another color Pepsi franchise in the mall mc donalds or pizza hut etc.so step outside the mall and down the street there's a mc donalds. Pepsi vs coke were playing monopoly in every city every state that's why even today you can't get Pepsi at McDonald's and you can't get coke at taco bell. When the franchise leaves the company still owns the property 8000 farm's closed guess who owns the remaining farm's.
In Georgia Senate republicans tried to outlaw catching rain water for personal irrigation they are beyond greedy
Los Angeles looks very different from Boston.
But all the buildings slowly will perish and only cheap ugly ones will be built. Eventually it will all look the same for the most part.
@@TheRichie213 Cities like Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia have been around longer than the U.S itself, and they have a lot of old buildings that wont be destroyed anytime soon.
@@CTJM_Middleton There's a lot on NYC that doesn't look the same anymore. When they touch up the buildings, they use modern style to fix it. Also, plenty of old buildings have got torn down and modern buildings were put in place.
@@TheRichie213 Plenty of old buildings Haven't gotten torn down at the same time.
I would argue the market in the US is not very free, and rigged against smaller businesses. This leads to less competition and bigger companies taking over, thus less varation.
You know what’s really ugly? What people are paid.
Monopoly merchandise that 's all !!
yo It's not that bad if you compare it to the 90% of the countris under the poverty line... if yougo to an average wealth country like south korea, portugal, turkey etc, yu would need a high qualification profile in order to get those 9/13$.h MCd'S offers, yeah prices are higher but it's just crazy to see how american complain about everything instead of working for it, you guys are watching everybody from the next closest step! obviously you have a lot of regular people but the excellence stands out from the global avg...
Every city in my home country Germany looks more or less different. I can say the same for the country i am actually living in since 12 years France. This is one reason it is so exciting to visit and explore new places.
You're *soooo* close to realizing why federalism works, and our regulatory approach since ~President Wilson (hey, progressivism!) is an abject failure. Solid video, but I'd recommend including a '5 Whys?' approach, otherwise you're only skin deep.
Also, travel the scenic route vs the interstate, and you're thesis gets tweaked.
I live in the Truman show.
With nary a thought, disdain almost, for wildlife habitat and natural terrain watershed systems to help in even a tiny manner. What ya wrecked in one fell swoop. Disturbia is real...the boogemyan is not some scary guy either.
Japanese suburbs offer a diverse and stunning landscape, with each home boasting its own unique charm. Thanks to the narrow streets and lenient zoning regulations, it's easy to stroll to nearby shops, schools, and factories. You can find plenty of inspiring examples of these neighborhoods on RUclips.
Sapporo's suburbs residential area was just awesome.
A typo at 1:08, restaurant is misspelled. Not a big deal but you might want to make correct. I totally agree with you, I am not from the US but I have done a lot of travelling there and every city looks the same and are tasteless. One will find the exact same store and restaurants everywhere. It is a sad thing. You may call it the McDonalization of society. It is also what is expected from Wall Street, the expansion of corporations and the value of their respective stock. This phenomenon will only get worse in the coming decades.
Usa people live in same suburbia home. And they are not protesters. Only unemployed architects are protesting.
When corporations control everything. Everything.
Well done. Very smart and refreshing. You would make a good leader.
Natalie’s vocal fry tone is a good example of mcd of its culture 😂😂
Excellent video. Your channel deserves to grow.
I'm from Europe and have been to the US many times. I would any time prefer to live there than in Europe.
Try visiting the UK. Our towns and cities are really ugly messes. Far worse than America.
While I don't disagree that I'd be good with fewer fast food joints, nail salons, phone stores, etc, all of America doesn't look the same. Anyone from states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Wyoming, etc can attest to that. What we should be saying is why do the burbs all look the same. I've been to the northern part of Michigan and the Upper Peninsula many times. Some of the most beautiful and pristine land you will ever see.
Those places are not low priced to see. Flights are low priced big city to big city but big city to small city or small town can be multiple stops and costly. Once you add in the car rental its out of control for a lot of people to do. Traveling is very expensive.
As much as I disagree with the politics of the family that owns Walmart and the socioeconomic ramifications of Walmart's success I just can't afford not to occasionally shop there. Also everytime I've tried in the last few months to talk myself into a deal I've succeeded. 🤷
That s just what happens when méga corporations run a country.
The same architecture you find at modern storage facilities can be found at incarceration complexes where arrested people are sent to, by the police departments.
I'm an old dude now. I grew up before all this. The USA was once very charming.
I was always amazed meeting people from the states visiting France and they ate every meal at McDonalds.
Super interesting content
I heard that the extra wide streets and big buildings have also a psychological effect on people
Last year I was in Old Town Temecula, CA and I loved that they keep the old architecture there. As a tourist I think USA should promote Victorian architecture style more , even in big cities.
Connecticut = an entire state that is a suburb.
fast food franchises was the death of the American character.
Oh yes, you could not be more correct, even back in 1996 when I took my 14-year old son (both of us from England) on a road-trip for two weeks from Denver to L.A. fantastic scenery and generally most Americans on hearing our British accents very much wanted to speak to us and were very welcoming. But as you so correctly say, plus I have travelled a great deal in my life to many places in the world that every town, store, shop, restaurant and motel all looked exactly the same. We also after only a short period of time with all the food being fast-food got this horrible taste in our mouths which took a few days to go after getting back to England.
A partial reason is summed up in a quote from the artist Hundertwasser: "Straight lines are godless". Travel around to any State and you will find much of the same stuff (superstores and chains with the same or similar busineas culture) more or less locked down on a grid. Remember the sketch on The Chapelle Show where the lawyer correctly guesses what Michael Jackson's netherregions are like? You cou do that with just about any intersection coming off an interstate. You also can't get anywhere except by car or plane.
You are correct about much of the USA, however, the City of Milwaukee is one of the exception to your rules. Different neighborhoods have different architecture. Brady Street does not look like Sherman Blvd. and Sherman does not look like National Avenue.
The Milwaukee Bungalows in the Sherman Park neighborhood does not look like the Polish Flats on the Near South Side. None of these look like Lake Drive especially headed north towards the suburb Shorewood. Actually, right around Brady Street close to Lake Michigan is the street called Prospect which is full of towering condos and repurposed old mansions (e.g. Wisconsin Conservatory of Music).
As an 80s kid I used to love the Play Place and McDonaldland characters. I know much better now!