Why your city is SO UGLY: The Death of the American Dream

In this video, we explore why American cities are so ugly and how to fix them. We discuss the lack of local amenities, the importance of Third Places, and how bad urban design is the root of the problem. This video dives into the reasons behind the unattractiveness of American cities and offers insights into creating more livable and community-oriented urban environments.

➜ References:
American Suburbs Are a Horror Movie and We’re the Protagonists @strongtowns

American Community Life Survey:

The Great Places Erased by Suburbia @NotJustBikes :

“Third places” as community builders

If design is everything, is it anything?

The Great Good Place

Confessions of a Recovering Engineer

➜ Follow Me:

0:00 Suburban horror
1:06 Third places
2:30 Suburbs are isolating
3:51 Why Europe is better
4:14 America is car-centric
4:47 Poor design standards
5:51 Why design matters
6:34 Fix zoning laws
7:11 Update our standards
7:35 Outro

-flurf
#urbanplanning

[Daniel-Deshaun]

looking at american cities in the 1920’s before car dependent infrastructure is a dream

[purpleicewitch]

As an engineer, I completely agree with your points on bad road and neighborhood design. It's what I've said for years -- we could have cities and towns that both have what people need close by and don't destroy the environment. It just takes designing them right.

[slapshotjack]

The American dream has been dead ever since minimum wage stopped allowing you to afford basic necessities

[TaySlayXOXO]

I hated growing up in suburbia. Always felt like I was being watched by someone peeping out the window, looking for even the slightest hint of trouble to report to their personal army, the police. So everyone just stays in doors and it almost feels questionable to walk around. Like why would you walk around when you have a car and a house? No need for walking so are you looking to burgle a place? It just sucks.

[LoveToday]

I grew up in "suburbia". Looking back most of our trips were within 5 miles of the house and yet we needed a car to reach them. I now live in Chicago in a neighborhood with access to a 24/7 train line, bike share stations, etc and yet there are shortcomings. I'd love more inviting PUBLIC spaces to make friends and acquaintances. Yes we have parks and such in Chicago but most of them lack seating and restrooms which I consider basic/ the floor. I'd also love heat lamps or fire pits so we can enjoy our parks more in the winter. My point is, even in cities typically seen as great American cities, there's still plenty of room for improvement.💜 Great video. Loved that you showed what we're missing in the United States. It's sad how few people realize what we're being deprived of. If people don't know about better options, they can't demand better.

[Xrand]

Great Video. It perfectly explains why I as a german always felt so weirded out by American suburbs. It just seems so lifeless, non inspirational and not aesthetic. Even in the worst suburbs in germany I dont get a feeling like this, there is always shops, restourants plants and trees nearby that don't seem unnatural, people walking around or taking the bike and it's always full of life no matter what.

[AndreiTupolev]

"When your destination is far enough that you have to drive": I heard the story from someone (possibly Bill Bryson) telling how his neighbours said they'd call round, and they literally got in their car, backed out of their driveway, and drove round to next door and parked in his driveway 😬

[joshchang]

The personal automobile is the #1 ill of USA society and is the root cause of most of our misery

[FlyingOverTrut]

I've been a cyclist in LA for a year and a half and love it more every day while seeing more and more how unpleasant and dangerous cars are. Great to see another urbanist on YouTube. Subscribed.

[tankboy]

"and just so you guys don't click off" pulls up laptop with background gameplay. You sir are funny as shit

[lazerlord_lance]

For some reason I find your videos so fascinating, even though I don't even live in North America but in Europe. As someone who's gone down the YouTube rabbithole of terrible urban planning many times before, much of the information you present I've encountered before in some way. Though you condense it all in a pretty unique and appealing way, which I find not many channels do when making videos on these subjects. I think your content is very well digestible for the average Joe and I hope you will keep up with it as I really enjoy your style and the high quality of your videos!

[arimihalos]

Great video! I like your take on the subject at hand with liminal spaces. It always felt like a wasteland living in the suburbs even though their are hundreds of people living near me. Just to get a coffee, get groceries, or go to the gym requieres me to go 10s of miles in traffic, when this should be just be a 20 min bike ride at the most. Going from one air conditioned box to another doesn’t live up to the expectation of the American Dream that’s sought after. It’s is genuinely a chore to live a healthy lifestyle in these communities.

Keep up the great work, creators like you raise awareness of this issue. It keeps giving the movement momentum!

[Basta]

This is not really a design issue. This is a policy issue. You see, regulations like minimum parking requirements make it expensive to open up businesses. Small businesses don't have as much capital to meet the parking requirements, and so big businesses dominate as they can open up more stores with less profit for longer periods of time.

Small businesses provide variety and individual flair while big corporations must standardize and be uniform to take advantage of economies of scale. When you have policies that abort small businesses from forming, all we have left are McDonalds, Chilis, Holiday Inn, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Office Depot, Home Depot, etc etc etc in an endless loop.

Contrast this to a mix-used neighborhood before parking requirements and you get more mom and pop restaurants and shops, some with interesting store fronts. When employees and customers live walking distance, parking isn't as needed. Small businesses can thrive with regular patrons that live close by.

[jeongbun]

When I went to America (I’m British) I wanted to love it. I really wanted to, but half of my time was spent in a car, and not a single neighbourhood felt real. I became so homesick and depressed, the only place I didn’t feel like that was NYC. I don’t understand why Americans are so delusional abt cars. 😕

[Gigaamped]

Your humorous and well-read style is such a level up from so many platforms on here. Subbed!

[Amir-jnmo]

Instant sub for another outspoken Canadian armchair urbanist. We really need to update these stupid 70 year old street design standards and zoning laws. We don't even have to re-invent the wheel here just go and copy the Dutch or Denmark road design manual. I think some of them even have english versions too.

[robtyman]

It's not just ugly or badly designed buildings that make a city 'ugly' ;but poor or badly designed public transit networks too. Too few sidewalks or none at all - so that walking becomes impossible without endangering your safety (cars and trucks passing close by at speed).

It's also the calibre of politicians that a city has that either makes them better places to live, or terrible places to live based on what their priorities are, and the decisions they make.

The US still has a long way to go in all these areas, particularly when compared with European the people who run them.

[Stpcjit]

Kids who grow up in suburbs waste their first 16 years of their life. They can’t do anything or be independent until they get a car. If they can afford one. It forces parents to have to do everything for them which I’m sure the parents hate. So why do parents move from the most exciting cities in the world to boring ass suburbs?

[CEO-tpgo]

When i lived in Mexico I always was meeting with friends, neighbour, being in walkable places like restaurants, plazas parks alway connected, and my mental health was great, my social skills were on top, but when I’m living in America i feel socially awkward or introverted, when I see my American neighbours most of them don’t even make eye contact, or they just say nod to be polite but there’s never a sense of connected communities. Yes the car infrastructure is making everyone isolated and miserable, and the safest part is the we know that car center cities are causing problems in all endeavours like mental health, addiction, physical health, societal problems, but no one really wants fix problems. When it comes to traffic jams, developers are not doing anything to build efficient transportation, but are creating a driving tax, and fast lanes that charge to used them but don’t work. I guess capitalism without morality is just as bad as communism,

[empte]

I've always felt that when civic leaders tout "sustainability" and "climate goals" as priorities, oh, and "getting people out of their cars" when launching transportation projects they are completely missing the mark in a huge way. Those talking points are nonsense and meaningless to a pretty significant population. If we simply design our cities to be "nice" and "beautiful" and "economically efficient" I believe we would have less pushback. After all, world-class cities that are beautiful, comfortable, and efficient will by default be sustainable and meet our climate goals. Perhaps it's as simple as, "Make our Cities Beautiful Again!"