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At first this might seem to be a no-brainer, but it is a huge issue when it comes to planning and creating a pleasant urban environment. Lots of cash makes for attractive developments, but why do less exclusive areas have to be so damned ugly?
This is where the US has really messed up. Why is it a poor or average income area in Europe can still look like a classic painting:
But in the US we get garbage like this:
Why does "poor" equal "ugly" in this country? It seems to me it doesn't have to be that way...
I think because Europe is so used to creating towns like that, they've done so for hundreds of years so even if they are poor it is expected to look like those towns. However America is young and it wants to be "progressive" and "modern" and they don't like European-like towns ever since the start of the automobile age. Also, Americans also value cheap, because many do not like to spend a lot of money and they want the most for their money so they'd want the absolute least expensive possible, think of why Walmart is so popular hear in America. I think culturally that is what separates Europeans from many Americans these days. Europeans are more willing to invest in their cities and keep their charm and community while Americans don't care how something such as housing looks as long as its cheap to build and very profitable since we are inwardly focused on things like consumer items such as TVs and such and we also want lots of space for our cars and roads.
I also think when WWII ended, the horrors of Modernist architecture arose and one of the doctrines of that was that unlike previous eras, buildings should not be built to be beautiful but rather to be cheap and functional and that thought caused and continue to cause lots of destruction to our cities and our land today.
South Bronx during the 1970s is perhaps the greatest example of urban decay, but it's also one of the greatest examples of renewal as well.
The fact is that many cities around the world go through boom and bust patterns. What might have been a thriving business district in City X might become a ghetto some time later. Or vise versa.
I wish all European housing was easy on the eye like that but there are plenty of ugly post-war low-income housing types in Europe. Here are some I've taken pictures of myself in England/Ukraine/Poland/Belgium/Germany respectively:
Funny how you should criticise American housing because although I've never been there myself most times I see American houses on TV I marvel at how well-kept (and in particular how big) most of them look.
I wish all European housing was easy on the eye like that but there are plenty of ugly post-war low-income housing types in Europe. Here are some I've taken pictures of myself in England/Ukraine/Poland/Belgium/Germany respectively:
Funny how you should criticise American housing because although I've never been there myself most times I see American houses on TV I marvel at how well-kept (and in particular how big) most of them look.
It is funny; we probably romanticize each other's continents in our own minds more than we realize.
I've spent too much time on Googe street view and base my opinions on that more than anything; of course there are ugly parts of Europe and pretty parts of the US, but by and large the built areas of Europe (especially Western Europe) are much prettier than the majority of the U.S. to my eyes.
Europe has plenty of poor places that look ugly. It has little to do with the age of the buildings aside from individual taste in architecture. In Sacramento we have plenty of pre-WWII suburbs. South of Downtown looks nice. The homes are maintained, lawns mowed, no cars parked on the lawn or junk stored in the side yards.
North of Downtown used to be like the neighborhoods to the south. There are still a few pockets of nice areas, but the type of people who take care of their homes are fleeing from the people who just don't seem to care. The yards are overgrown with weeds. Old cars and junk is stored on the lawn and graffiti is all over everything in some places. And this is the reason why people don't like low-income housing near them.
I wanted to move in here: washers and dryers with an on-site trader joes! In a good location!
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