General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf places like New York city and San Francisco are popular places where people want to live, then...
Why aren't there more cities like NYC and SF in America? I'm not talking about their population densities. More like their urban design. More walkable places that are less dependent on cars. More mixed used zoning between residential and retail. More public parks.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,735 posts)with existing geography and demographics. It's hard to redesign a city that's already fully built up and populated.
Yavin4
(35,442 posts)maxsolomon
(33,345 posts)But in the post-WW2 expansion of American cities, we built for cars. We tore out trolley lines. Dense urban housing was left to decay as Whites fled to leafy suburbs.
This is a decades long fix, and conservatives and NIMBYs will have to be dragged kicking and screaming the entire time.
Irish_Dem
(47,131 posts)There is little in the way of public transport.
maxsolomon
(33,345 posts)Up here in Seattle, a light rail network is being built, slowly, over decades, and ver the loud objections and obstructions of NIMBYs and anti-tax loudmouths.
It will never be cheaper to build than it is now.
Irish_Dem
(47,131 posts)I would love rail.
If you go to other countries their bullet trains are unreal.
dawg day
(7,947 posts)There's a 12-mile walking path along the lakeshore greenspace-- you can walk to downtown.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Yavin4
(35,442 posts)Walkable. Mixed residential and light commercial use.
No sane person wants to live in suburban sprawl.
JI7
(89,252 posts)and things like public parks are made from money brought to cities after.
Me.
(35,454 posts)Mc Mike
(9,114 posts)(economic, developmental, planning, and people) that hurt or help cities.