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About 30 years ago, Joel Garreau wrote "Edge City," about suburban commercial developments. They had many flaws, such as car dependence, bad traffic and being convenient only in one direction from Center City. They are now mostly abandoned as young people don't want to drive that far and many prefer urban living. But fear of contagion could bring some of them back. Your thoughts?
Depending on how remore working/working from home sticks around, suburbs may get a renewal from people wanting to live in less densely populated areas.
About 30 years ago, Joel Garreau wrote "Edge City," about suburban commercial developments. They had many flaws, such as car dependence, bad traffic and being convenient only in one direction from Center City. They are now mostly abandoned as young people don't want to drive that far and many prefer urban living. But fear of contagion could bring some of them back. Your thoughts?
Only in some ill-informed urbanophile's dreams.
Not sure how transit-dependence is a positive objective for anyone especially when contrasted with the independence a car provides.
Some places may have traffic problems - but that's going between a place that's not so great (employment in the city) to a place where you can actually have a yard, housing not connected to your neighbors, decent school district, lower crime rates, your own garage, and generally distance between you and the bad that comes with the city.
Go to Hoffman Estates IL or parts of NJ, even VA
You'll find them. Yes, abandoned malls, too.
There are definitely a fair amount of abandoned malls. That's mostly due to rising rent costs, rising online shopping, and several of the companies that act as anchor stores in malls going out of business or facing difficulties.
My guess is that most of the anti-car advocates are single males who have never attempted to take a couple of preschoolers to an appointment or, better yet, shopping via mass transit.
Quite typical for this forum.
They also have:
i) problems with definitions of terms like "suburb";
ii) an inability to understand why others are not interested in their lifestyle or re-visiting dormitory living;
iii) an inability to sell others on a mythical housing environment so they attack reality;
iv) an inability to sell others on an actually undesirable housing environment (for others) so they try to attack everywhere else as somehow being inferior or failing;
v) a fascination with choo-choo trains;
vi) hatred for folks that own and utilize cars for utilitarian purposes rather than mere recreational purposes;
vii) hatred for parking lots and private open space;
viii) a need to generate a vocabulary of fluffy, ambiguous words ("urban fabric") or perjorative words ("car dependent") to support a communitarian/socialistic agenda (e.g., anti-car, pro transit-dependence, pro small living quarters ("you don't need a yard..."))
Fundamentally, most also likely aren't in the income bracket or property valuation bracket to suffer the taxes they want everyone else to spend to support the mythical lifestyle they seek.
In many suburbs, kids' lives are limited by parents' availability to drive them everywhere. Walking to a neighbors' house could be "too dangerous." Child Services may be called on parents who let their kids walk to school. When they can't get rides, kids will probably stay inside and do something sedentary like play video games.
Driving is becoming less affordable for most of the nation, with repairs, insurance, fuel, and seven year car loans. The many excuses in posts above won't make driving cheaper.
In many suburbs, kids' lives are limited by parents' availability to drive them everywhere. Walking to a neighbors' house could be "too dangerous." Child Services may be called on parents who let their kids walk to school. When they can't get rides, kids will probably stay inside and do something sedentary like play video games.
Driving is becoming less affordable for most of the nation, with repairs, insurance, fuel, and seven year car loans. The many excuses in posts above won't make driving cheaper.
Gee, it's almost like some people want improved public transport infrastructure for concrete reasons, not just whatever bs their opponents think they want it for!
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