If places like New York city and San Francisco are popular places where people want to live, then...

[Yavin4]

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]

1. Many cities expand gradually and somewhat unpredictably in ways having to do

with existing geography and demographics. It's hard to redesign a city that's already fully built up and populated.

[Yavin4]

2. See the link below.

&t=0s

[maxsolomon]

3. Some are. Boston is. Philly is. Chicago is.

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]

4. Many cities are designed around automobile traffic.

There is little in the way of public transport.

[maxsolomon]

6. Yep. I've been told Fort Worth doesn't even have buses.

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]

7. I think Biden is hoping to build this kind of thing in the US.

I would love rail.

If you go to other countries their bullet trains are unreal.

[dawg day]

5. Chicago is like that.

There's a 12-mile walking path along the lakeshore greenspace-- you can walk to downtown.

[mr_lebowski]

8. You can't just make more San Francisco's. Why don't people just paint more Mona Lisa's? nt

[Yavin4]

9. No, but you can imitate its design.

Walkable. Mixed residential and light commercial use.

No sane person wants to live in suburban sprawl.

[JI7]

10. Becsuse cities are not built that way. They grow based on things like industry, geogrsphic location

and things like public parks are made from money brought to cities after.

[Me.]

11. New York Is Unique?

[Mc Mike]

12. Jane Jacobs' 'Death and Life of Great American Cities' talks about all the forces

(economic, developmental, planning, and people) that hurt or help cities.