In Search of Car-Free America: Why Walkable Places Are Popular for Vacation but Not Everyday Living

[Yavin4]

The American culture, housing, and infrastructure serves to isolate us. Keep us away from strangers at all times. Thus, breeding ignorance of each other which is then compounded by the massive right wing media machine which feed that ignorance.

Humans are social animals, but we have constructed our lives in contrast to human socialization. This is why when we go on vacation, we seek out walkable places so that we can socialize.

[Apollo Zeus]

1. "we" didn't construct our lives this way

Banks and oil companies did.

One of the primary rules of money making is: Get in between the customer and what they need then stay there.
And that's what oil companies have done.

We saw during lockdowns how easily people would give up daily commutes. THAT is what people would choose so they aren't going to give us that choice. Not good for oil, fast food, clothes, insurance and credit card companies.

[Scrivener7]

3. Consumers have responsibility too.

We allow ourselves to believe the millstone of a huge house and yard, the most expensive we can afford, means wealth and status. The plague of McMansions didn't come about because no one is buying them.

[Apollo Zeus]

6. hard to buy a small house in a walkable city if few exist and

building codes prohibit them. Banks have guided and forced local governments to build in a certain way -- sidewalk-less suburbs with no walkable shopping forces people to use cars and keeps out lower income workers.

We should not blame the powerless for the actions of the powerful. Nor is it useful to highlight the actions of the few McMansion buyers and ignore he wider dynamics. Those who own the government are writing the laws and running the game:

>"Consider, for instance, the “mortgage interest tax deduction,” which allows people to deduct the interest on their home loan from their tax bill. The nominal purpose of the deduction is to promote home ownership. What it actually does is promote the over-consumption of housing relative to other forms of spending, savings, and investment, because it taxes a dollar spent on housing less than a dollar put elsewhere. It’s one reason that the average American house grew from 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,480 square feet in 2011....

the program is biased against mixed-use development in walkable urban environments: The FHA has historically refused to back mortgages for condos in buildings that are more than 25 percent commercial....<

https://grist.org/cities/starving-the-cities-to-feed-the-suburbs/

[Scrivener7]

10. Maybe we come from different regions but it is not that hard to find a

good apartment in a walkable town around me. And more and more places near me are making that kind of residence available because those that already exist are so popular.

And I'm not blaming the powerless for the actions of the powerful. But thanks for playing.

[Effete Snob]

8. Zoning and building regulations define what is legal to build

This street cannot be built anywhere in the US:

[Scrivener7]

2. I lived in Manhattan for a long time. When I moved out, there was no way I could have

gone to a place that wasn't walkable.

I can't imagine going to the grocery store and not meeting 3 or 4 friends or neighbors.

And between my wakable town and my hybrid car, this recent gas crisis affected me not at all.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Interesting

With Detroit and Atlanta vs Seattle. Atlanta, you ever try walking anywhere in Atlanta in the Summer? Yeah, you better bring a change of clothes. Detroit had a great downtown before white flight turned it into this sprawling suburban landscape that goes on for tens of miles in all directions. Winters also make Northern cities not as walkable.

Seattle has a lot of rain, but it doesn't stop people from biking or walking everywhere. So there is definitely something different about Seattle.

[Yavin4]

5. They have the same climate/weather in European cities and that doesn't prevent people

from walking and biking.

[Effete Snob]

9. Notice what they just did in Seattle

Their biggest project recently has been ripping out a highway:

Same in SF with the Embarcadero Freeway.

Same in Boston.

[Withywindle]

12. Chicago is very walkable and has decent transit that people really use

Of course bitching about the CTA and the winter weather is a universal hobby, but we don't actually let it stop us much.

[Turbineguy]

7. Older cities in Europe

Narrow streets are for walking, wider streets have terraces where you can sit and enjoy coffee with friends.

This is an arrangement that encourages daily shopping, not Chevy Suburban filling Costco trips.

[The Blue Flower]

11. Seattle viaduct was replaced due to earthquake damage

It wasn't due to any forward thinking by the state and city PTB. I worked on the project for the first 3 years.