German Neighborhoods are ILLEGAL IN AMERICA | Zoning & NIMBY-ism
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 พ.ค. 2024
- Local shops & restaurants sprinkled throughout residential neighborhoods in Germany bring a liveliness and purpose to the community - and even helps traffic issues. So why is this kind of urban design illegal in most of the USA? And why do so many fight for it to stay that way?
Watch our Other Videos on the American vs. German Housing
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German Houses vs. American Houses: Construction, Design & Scale
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COST: German vs. American Houses | Purchasing Trends & Regional Differences
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Other GREAT Resources to learn more about this topic
City Beautiful - The Case Against Single-Family Zoning:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajSEI...
The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in Most of North America
• The Lively & Liveable ...
Episode 68 | #housing #housingcrisis #economics in the United States & Germany | Filmed July 14th, 2022
👉Quick Jump to Your Favorite Topic:
00:00 Intro
00:48 Why Compare Zoning in Germany and the United States?
02:36 Germans have a VERY Different Definition of "Living" Zone
06:40 Why Americans Worship Euclidean Zoning
10:19 Playing 'Devil's Advocate'
12:23 Trump's Made-Up "War on Suburbia"
14:55 Suburban Segregation = Why we Choose to live in Germany
17:32 On the Next Episode...
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Tbh the American (and Canadian?) Zoning feels like something a 5 year old came up with in a city simulation game.
because that is what those city simulation games zones are based from
Making new city planners 😉
Hax if done right zoning lawa enhance neighborhoods!
@@oldfogey4679 you do realize how stupid your answer is? There should be no if done right. It should be right way from the beginning. Suburbs is the biggest waste of space ever.
@@tiitgeorg720What’s wrong with you?
As American retirees my wife and I just recently moved back to village France after 6 years in Southern California. We spent the last 3 years in the U.S. in a 55+ community of small duplexes. We often spoke of how the neighborhood could have been completely transformed by simply allowing one building on each block to be a small shop of some sort. A coffee shop, a bakery, a bookstore, and outdoor cafe, etc. - would all have greatly increased the daily connections between neighbors, leading to more social contact and cohesiveness, but of course American zoning laws instead force everyone in that neighborhood into their cars for literally EVERYTHING. It's an approach to daily life that is completely at odds with our both our physical and emotional needs as human beings. What a strange and wonderful experience it is here in village France to never pass by another fellow human being without saying "bonjour" and hearing the same in return.
@gary, I am German, living near Cologne and I was now for more than 50 years nearly every year in France on vacation at several areas, more than twenty times in Vallon at the Ardeche Canyon. I still remember the first years in Vallon beginning 70ties, a sleeping litte Village somewhere in the nowhere with there little alimentationes, the boucheries, the boulangeries. But what happened over the decades and this not only in Vallon, everywehre in the countryside. Big supermarkets growing at the peripheries of all the small towns too, Intermarche, LeClerc, Casino Hyper U build shopping centers close to the US style. Why, you could create more sales with less personell and the space for the buildings and parking lots was available. I see very often the french infrastructure equeal to the USA compared to Germany. Big Countries with less population areas and few big cities or areas like Paris, Lyon Mediterane Coast. France has only 4 cities with a population over 500000 Germany has 15. The Size of France is 644000 Squarekilometer, Germany 357000 km2. So depends where you live in France the situation regards shoppig is similar to the US, you need a car.
In France they are duplicating the same system as US since 2005, since N.Hulot (fake)ecologist minister, by forbiding, mainly by high taxation and difficult permits by complex rules and compliances, in most small villages any form of commerce.
This is done for control purposes and extremists ideological views of WEF, which was immediatly noticed with lock-downs in 2020.
And fuel prices (artificially higher) wil not permit to go to the next mall easily (no public transports) because nothing in the village where even actual zoning forbed gardens for food growth.
People slowly abandon all small villages ans that was the plan of all "ecologists" groups.
Ban humans from land , only concentrated in towns; in the famous "15min blocs" of WEF which Macron was a #YGL (Young Global Leader) student in the 2000s (as Trudeau!).
In Germany difficult to enforce because of the actual high population density and lack of land.
nearly impossible to reconcentrate in towns as is tempted in France.
@@d.boumghar7385 - I agree. I think what's happening is a sort of planned "controlled demolition" of the current social & economic structures that are in place - leading to the implementation of the WEF's insane agendas and their trans-humanist fantasies of their immortality. I think elites are terrified of the whole house of cards imploding around them, and ending up in the rubble with we peons - so they are trying to structure the disintegration to their benefit. In spite of the challenges of living without a car at the edge of a small village, and walking a good distance to the grocery store, my wife and I are loving the intimacy and human scale of life here in our French village. We really can't imagine living in the U.S. ever again.
I suppose France is different than Germany. I got weird looks when saying hallo or waving to strangers. The Southern US is more my speed; land, friendly people, bbqs, cookouts, music.
In Germany the 'little shops in between housing' approach, combined with gorgeous public transportation, works so much better, than the suburban sterility often found in the US.
How is it sterile? In suburbs that I have grown up in there is plenty of life and people don't have to live on top of each other and life is affordable.
@@GeekRex
Sterility Example:
The "nice" green suburban grass lawns are heavily sprayed with toxic carcinogenic Glyphosate to prevent the natural growth of a variety of medicinal plants, that humans dismissively label as weeds.
@@liloleist5133 wow, a disciple of Sayyid Qutb! At least make an attempt to be accurate. Americans are using less and less chemicals on their yards.
@@GeekRex You do realise that you are very privileged that your parents could afford this? For me, I live in Germany, it is super strange to not have stores in the area you live in and always depend on a car. My grandma lives in a neighbourhood with houses only and there are a few shops as well. Some years ago it would be even more than today. It even is a bad sign when there are fewer shops, we often have this problem in small cities and in the country. Just to clarify, we don't have to "live on top of each other" all the time. :) And I think we have an overall different point of view. I like it to live in a flat, bc a house is so much more work and you can't usually afford it in the city centres even when you can find some. And I don't need the space as a single woman with no children.
@@GeekRex It's not sustainable though. Like yes, there are people, obviously, because they live there. But you literally need cars to get everywhere. Without them, you're kind of fucked. You can't just walk down the street to the supermarket to picke up groceries or have a quick dinner in the restaurant around the corner.
Also, it's not like german, or european countries in general, don't have suburbs - the outskirts of our cities are still filled with single or double family houses, even newly built ones. It's much less uniform, less car orientated, more individualistic. And even there, you have these small shops and infrastructure which serve as a meeting and socializing point and give life to the area aside from privately held gathering like bbqs.
I grew up in a US suburban town that was founded in the colonial era- the entire town was walkable, and as a kid I could (and did) bike to school, stores, and friends' houses. Now I live in a town that was officially incorporated in the late 1800's, and combined with a nearby shopping district that was gutted, it takes a car to do basic things.
I also find the age of a town telling in how it's set up. You can feel when a place is older than cars as you walk.
I have been many times in the US, mostly in Detroit and Chicago, but also in South Carolina, New York and Boston. Suburbia was always weird to experience for someone that grew up in a small town in southern Germany. I never understood why people did not want/need small shops, Kindergarten, Medical support and Schools close to them.
right now searching for a car and looking to get a loan, but then realized i wouldnt be in this mess if I lived in europe
@@airpodsmurf6175 Depends where you live. We - living in a small village in the middle of Europe - need cars to go grocery shopping. But we have no problem whatsoever getting loans. With less rates than the inflation rate.
@@airpodsmurf6175 I know, it just makes too much sense.. having to go through so much stress and finances just to simply go to basic amenities.
It does not matter if you cannot afford those things anyway. That is the irony of America. Its the pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality and the few who actually do that are painted as the norm.
Traffic, parking, safety. Those are the main reasons people oppose mixed commercial and residential. There’s not a culture of walking to local stores. I’m fortunate to live in an older suburb where it is possible to walk to our small downtown, parks, and schools. Yet few people do. 🤷♀️
There's a war on suburbia? Oh. Sorry about that. My bad.
This was a _great_ video and I really like how you went into more detail than the average "zoning" video with specific examples and what's allowed "by right". In particular, the section at 9:45 sums it up nicely that in the US, a retail store doesn't fit among houses unless you can prove otherwise, while in Germany, a retail store fits among houses unless you can prove otherwise.
The segment about classification by income is an important one. Many zoning ordinances were blatantly racist laws that became illegal in the 1960s, but those laws didn't go away, instead they were law-for-law converted from laws that exclude certain races, to laws that exclude certain incomes. Climate Town touched on this in his video about suburbia.
Completely, 100 percent honored to have you watch and comment. Personally, we are huge, huge fans and love your content and videos. Although we are a small channel by comparison, I made sure to link to your video in the description to send viewers your way because you were so inspirational to me. (Okay, okay...I'll stop fan girl-ing, but seriously.... This made my evening).
The connection between suburbia and race is one I would like to explore more in another video. Like you mention, although red lining and racist zoning laws aren't on the books doesn't mean that we aren't living with the effects or that we don't still have similar policies that divide and exclude by de facto in the same way. My PhD research was conducted in St. Louis, and the "Delmar Divide" is one of those phenomenon that is both mystifying and utterly heartbreaking to see in 1962, let alone today in 2022. I'll be sure to give the video by Climate Town a watch.
My work "speciality" is in low income housing tax policy, but since wrapping up my academic research I have been trying to learn more and more about other funding structures that influence architecture and urban form. I recently watched a video of yours about the suburban municipality Ponzi scheme and it lead me down a three hour reading session rabbit hole on the Strong Towns website. Thank you for continuing to inspire and expand my learning.
Have you ever thought about starting a second channel about land reclamation called "Not Just Dikes"?
Yo NJB I'm slowly starting to orange pill my sister into being a walkable City fan
@@kemp10 that's fucking funny
@@kemp10 Or how about a channel for those with _Wanderlust_ in their heart: "Not Just Hikes"?
Just returned from a one week vacation near Freiburg, Germany. Your insights helped me to understand why living-conditions in German towns are so different from ours here in the US. Life in German towns seem just more vibrant and creative. Also many bicycles with young and old in towns and on the country-roads. You explained it very well based on the differences in zoning-laws. Did you ever do such a segment on another typical German Urban planning concept: The Pedestrian-Zones in downtowns?
The pedestrian only zones are usually in the middle of cities (but they are more common in smaller towns) and the concept stems from old times where every little village was one community that people often didn't even really leave all their lives, and in the middle of the village usually a towns "main place" was located, usually next to some offical building, and this place was kinda the main focus of life/things happening, like markets, or where witches would be burned in these times (xD). In modern times these places are often surrounded by lots of shops that maybe aren't found anywhere else in small towns, it's a place of contact for people, but theres also usually still most official/governing buildings there. So it's protected from cars/traffic so people can wander around/shop/talk to other people. In a lot of towns there are also still small farmers markets like every Sunday or something like that.
@@Scarlett.Granger Is 600.000 small?
I live in Japan which, like Germany, allows for a wide diversity of businesses and other types of buildings in residential areas so I appreciated learning what you presented here.
Most Japanese towns and cities have an area called the “shoten-gai” which translates into something like the shopping district or the shop street but almost all of the shops that line the street or lie in the district double as residential homes for the shop keepers. These types of homes are typically called “naga-ie” which literally means “ long house” as these buildings are exceptionally long compared to their width, which in many cases are five or six times as long as they are wide. The point is that shops that provide the town with the essentials for everyday life for the surrounding townsfolk also create a community within themselves as they are usually occupied by three generations of shopkeepers and their families. This gives the shopping areas in most small to midsize towns a very nice atmosphere and a lot of liveliness and diversity as well as a feeling of tradition and history. Unfortunately, nowadays a lot of these shoten-gai areas of many towns in Japan are loosing their business to modern American style shopping malls, which may be profitable for big developers and convenient for people with cars and/or folks who desire to appear more “sophisticated” and “modern” but are not easy for many older people to visit or shop at if they don’t drive or have someone to take them shopping. Anyway, I definitely see the advantages of allowing family homes to also serve as small family-run businesses and also the desirability of allowing small businesses to co-exist with residential homes in towns and cities. Yes, the way that you think about what living means really does have a big impact on how you ultimately design your towns and cities. Excellent video!
US is able to trash neighborhoods! too many land! not so many people.....
As does the US. This channel is stating a large misrepresentation of how urban planning is conducted throughout the US.
@@walkerpublications4418 "As does the US." Going to need some more clarification on which part the US does.
Mom n Pop shops losing to big bad amazon? designing for the rich at the cost of livability (of the elderly)?
The big difference is how much pressure suburbia puts on designing around its cars, which I don't believe is as bad in Japan.
@@walkerpublications4418 you might want to make a video about it then. Explain it to us.
@@ianhomerpura8937 I think, poster was under the influence of 'something' while stating his statement :-) 🙂
One of the reasons japan is such a tourist attraction is the zoning. They allow a lot of different developments next to each other. I can recommend the video "Why Japan Looks the Way it Does: Zoning"
Crazy how americans, who always scream "Freedom", are not free at all in building what they like
You have the freedom to cosplay a 1950’s version of the American Dream.
Freedom*
*conditions apply
Yep, as much US loves freedom, it is literally opposite when it regards to urban development. So much restrictions that it is actually killing the city.
One can say they scream "freedom" in excitement exactly because it is a rare gem and they are happy to see it from time to time
@@feedbackzaloop ouch. amazing conclusion. Love it.
Lived in Germany for 18 years. I love how integrated their neighborhoods are. Everything was in walking distance.
And for long distance an excellent high speed train/rail system...!
@@kpdvw depends where you live I would not say that the railway system is always great especially being on time, hopefully they will improve it in the future
If I could not walk to bakery or shop to get fresh Semmeln for the family breakfast on Saturday morning, my quality of living indicator would turn negative...
Same thing for me in Slovenia. It makes Europe much more interesting.
@@kpdvw Germanys public transport system isn’t that well. Just compare it to neighbouring Switzerland and you will hate the German Public Transport. On one hand everything in Switzerland, even very small towns, is connected to a bus/railroad system and also they are very punctual, unlike the DB.
I always say:
If you are not able to walk in your city, you doesn't have real freedom.
This is probably the hardest thing that any foreiner would experience in the US.
That's true. But I actually do live in the suburbs in the American South, and I walk multiple times a week to a coffee shop. I also can go grocery shopping by walking to it. But I wish I could get more places without a car still, and I also want to be able to go further distances, other towns etc. without a car. I stayed in Ireland for a month in college and would've loved to live like that forever.
I lived in Hong Kong for a few years. My apartment complex sat atop a massive mall with a metro station built into it. I could do all my shopping (from groceries to clothes to furniture), watch movies, eat at restaurants, go ice skating, and also catch buses/trains/taxis - all without stepping outside. Now that's convenience.
Even Disco Bay in HK had everything needed.
The expensive high end communities in HK lacked what you mentioned. Repulse Bay, Breamar Hill, the Peak etc…
I always loved living in HK…
Food businesses can attract pests like cockroaches, mice etc. I would never live over a cafe, restaurant or food shop again for this reason. Once they are in a building, pests migrate everywhere. Another annoyance is loud extractor fans that restaurants, chip shops etc use.
I live in a 'suburb' of Manchester, UK five miles from the city centre. I was going to list the amenities available within a ten minute walk of my house but it ended being too long - shops, pharmacies, cafés, restaurants, clinics, gyms, swimming pools, garages etc. Also I'm a ten minute walk from a tram stop which takes me to a major train station in the centre of Manchester so I never drive into Manchester and I can be in London by train in two and a half hours. But if you look at old maps from the 1800s or even 1700s you can see that where I live and many other areas regarded now as suburbs of Manchester existed already as separate villages. These villages were already communities before the city grew and 'incorporated' them. As our country is smaller and land is more scarce this kind of merging happened a lot. I wonder if this is often the case across Europe that areas of big cities are actually former villages. Certainly in many big cities like London and Manchester travelling around them feels a bit like going around a group of physically connected smaller towns.
I can confirm that this is the case in Germany, too. Most cities just grew too big so the former villages aroung it were just incorporated into the bigger city. There are some exceptions, for example in my hometown, the adjacent other town didn't want to be a part of the bigger town, so now it is a weird cluster of two towns, but usually smaller villages just get included. That's were the different town districts come from.
My Italian experience (ymmv).
If a neighborhood in a large city has a graveyard, then you're looking at an old village slurped into urban growth.
Not german but living in Cologne and that looks like what happend with Cologne, a lot of the suburbs within Cologne are something....dorf (dorf meaning village or small town).
Not sure about the UK with their kind of reformation, but in Germany and likely most other continental European countries you can just look at the churches and their age. A bunch of 10-15th century churches outside of the "inner city"? That is (except cases like Cologne or Nuremberg) likely a sign for a city grown together from separate villages
In US your live in the city. I live 45 miles out, a suburb. 20-60 miles out is suburb.. over 60 under 100 is an exurb
Suburbia with its R-1 single-family units looks like a wasteland to me, neat, pretty, little boxes with lifeless lawns, keeping people in rabbit cages - in their houses and their cars. It's suffocating. Not being able to just walk five minutes to grab a loaf of bread in the local bakery and cold cut in the local butchery seems so outlandish to me. Riding a bike on American stroads looks equally suicidal to me. "Not just bikes"'s videos of North America are more horrifying than any horror movie could be.
It's an uncanny, isolating nightmare.
It is a wasteland. Cars arec5heir gods.
Jonathan and I regularly talk about how downright dangerous it was to ride a bike in the USA. Don't get me wrong - there are wonderful pockets of bike-friendly areas... but in a large part of middle-America there is the connotation that only those who can't afford a car (or aren't legally allowed to drive), use a bicycle. The infrastructure just isn't there. The awareness of cyclists isn't there. The holistic education about bike safety and bike rules (mutual respect for law abiding cycling and driving) isn't there. Both Jonathan and I have stories of people in trucks actively trying to run us off the road. So as a kid - riding my bicycle through my neighborhood was the only place I WAS allowed to go by bicycle (to and from a friend's house or biking to the park in our neighborhood). So in a weird catch 22 - suburbia was the one area of "refuge" for kids to be kids.
American suburbs are zones of cultural death that drive people into isolation. As a result, they reach out to others via alternative means, from Facebook groups to megachurches. One of the big problems with this is that in those social circles, they only meet people just like them, who look and talk and think like them, which results in cult-like behaviour and political radicalisation. That is why, for example, the Jan. 6th rioters overwhelmingly came from US suburbs.
That channel also has a bunch of videos comparing Germany to the Netherlands. We're fairly ok (especially Freiburg!), but when you look to our neighbor, you can see there's lots of room for improvement.
As a UK resident this was fascinating. Here planning REQUIRE developers to mix income strata and, on large developments, put small shops etc in place as part of their development permissions. The segregation of housing in the USA explains a great deal about American politics and outlooks as well as their dependance on the car. Thank you.
I studied spatial planning in Germany. Thank's for your view on our planning system.
The mix of small shops and housing was necessary at the time the laws came from. At those days cars and railroads didn't really exist and even the bicycle was a new thing. So it was necessary to plan housing in a way that you were able to do everything by foot because you couldn't have horses everywhere and many couldn't afford them.
For similar reasons btw, you can find a special type of house in our laws that combines living plus a little bit of agriculture basically for your own supply. Not very common nowadays.
Also these "policies" were introduced when the cities already existed. They tried to provide some order in existing conflicts of land usage.
This idea of a mix got revitalised in the guiding motive "Stadt der kurzen Wege" in the 1980ies for decarbonizing and making/keeping residential zones livable.
NIMBY-ism in Germany: People moving from cities to the countryside soon starting to complain about the noises of cattle and the smell of fertilizers and to start proceedings against their neighbour farmers.
Or they are complaining about wind turbines, accusing us, living in the cities to not take our fair share of civilazation noise. Reading that I then look at the Bundesstraße out of my front or I sit on my balcony out to the back, looking to the approaching planes about to land over my head and always think "sure, you guys really have it worse. How loud is your commute, btw?" 😄
Luckily the possibility to sue a farmer or some louder trade- workshops is not so easy anymore like it was in the 80ies...
Yes! We must eliminate livestock production!
@@patrickhanft Yes, that was unbelievable as the law was passed, that an wind turbine has to be further away from houses than a coal reactor. 1km for windturbines and 400m for coal reactors 😂 Thank god the CDU is not anymore in power
@@toomflussiggrillanzunderfu8828 Hi from the US. That law sounds dumb enough to be here in the states!
Interesting. I would also add that the "little bakery/coffee shop/grocery store at the corner" picture of German and European city life almost certainly goes back a long way before the modern zoning laws. I assume modern law only codified that idea from the 1870s on.
The Southwest U.S. got zoning by way of Mexico. Air B’n’B is doing its darnedest to destroy it. There should not be strangers in a residential neighborhood, coming and going at all hours, bumbling around. They belong in hotels in the commercial zone, where they can get what they need and won’t won’t bother anyone.
You think the united states is bad, try building in California.
@@jeffk464 I did. After 10 years I sold the project and moved to Idaho. I hope to never spend a $ in CA again. And I have kids in CA.
@@jeffk464 Sorry but isn't California in the United States ????
@@ogribiker8535 eh, kind of
It seems particularly odd that the self-declared land of the free has such strict and inflexible zoning systems, often reinforced with HOAs enforcing even more rules. It's not even as if these zoning rules have been beneficial either in that they've encouraged those vast, car-dependent suburbs. Canada also has the same sort of system.
Speaking personally, I am thankful that I can walk to the local medical centre, to a couple of small supermarkets, a deli/cafe, the pharmacy, the bus stop, a couple of local pubs and a railway station among other things. I can't imagine living in some huge suburb and then having to drive for a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread. We do have situations like that, but it tends to be in rural villages which have lost their local facilities.
Where I come from we don't have zoning, but there is a system of development planning. All the local planning areas (and there are almost 500 of them) have local development plans, informed to a large extent by national targets on some things, like the amount of housing required, it's type and sustainability. Further, it is informed by local requirements, transport, environmental and other issues. Some parts are protected, and might have a conservation area (I live in one such). Some rural land is very heavily protected against development. Individual properties will have been allocated particular uses based on their role at the end of WW II. For example, for retail, or residential, food outlet, pubs, office, industrial and so on. To change the use requires change of use consent so it's not possible to just decide to turn a house into a fast food store. Some development is what's called "permitted", which means that it doesn't have to go through planning, but that's limited. Otherwise it goes to local planning authorities who will assess, along with local consultations, if what's proposed is suited to the neighbourhood. So, if a supermarket proposed to build a vast new store in the middle of a tightly packed residential area with poor roads, it's likely to be refused. If somebody wants to open a night club in such an area, that might be refused too. If there is housing proposed, then the type and mix will be looked at according to local needs, including provision of "affordable" housing and often with a contribution required to local services of some sort, such as school extensions, roads and so on. The planning authorities might also insist on local retail premises too, or cycle paths and so on. There are, ultimately, appeals processes to higher authorities, but it's rather decentralised.
However, there is no hard and fast rule of what is allowed, and what is not. There's certainly no mono-culture of a particular type of housing set in law. What of course it tends to be is very controversial. There are some who oppose virtually everything. Nobody like that view over fields from your house to be replaced by some huge housing estate for instance.
HOAs make the rules, and their members are often tyrannical and it is difficult to remove the individuals involved.
I live in America, and I would never live somewhere I had to walk everywhere. I am disabled , I used to hike all the time but you never know what will come your way in life. HOA and subdivision life is definitely not for me, I enjoy rural life and will always live in the woods!
@@lisabruner7018 You seem to have misunderstood the point. I am simply stating that I don't want to live somewhere were I have to travel by car for simple things like basic grocery shopping, visiting the doctor or going to a restaurant. As it is, where I live, I also have the freedom to drive wherever I wish.
As for being disabled, have a brother who has multiple sclerosis at a fairly advanced stage. At one time, he had a vehicle which was adapted so that he could drive it from his electric wheelchair. His condition has now deteriorated to the point where he has been unable to do so for the past 5 years, but he can still get around with the wheelchair. Fortunately, whilst he can't walk, he can use his wheelchair to get around the local community, he can take it on the bus, go to get his hair cut and has a degree of independence.
In other words, even though he can't walk, he benefits from living somewhere where others can as he is mobile enough to be able to make use those facilities. If he was marooned in some solely car dependent environment, then that would be impossible.
So, far from having a disability being a problem in a walkable environment, it's a positive benefit in this case. If you live in a place where that is not an option, then it traps you, it does not enable you.
I grew up here in Germany on a mountain in a village with 13 houses and 10 sheds. I had to beg my parents for every little thing, or walk more than two kilometers through the forest to the nearest shop myself. The footage of "Suburbia" reminded me of that time. - Argh!
Here in Bonn I have a supermarket nearby, but I prefer to walk even further. - I can use public transport for a flat rate and go to the Rhine, to the forest or to all kinds of sports.
For me, that's the German way of life.
Sounds like where I grew up in Denmark; the grocer and the butcher was one kilometer away, the baker was almost two kilometers away, and the nearest supermarket was five kilometers away. Futhermore the busses only ran about twice an hour. Theses days I can walk to the nearest maxi supermarket within 10 minutes by foot. Living close to the most essential shops is a must!
It is interesting to see the ways in which "The Land of the Free" lacks freedom - we Americans are often blind to our true lack of freedoms. It would be so freeing to be able to walk to a local grocer/bakery - I expect that it would actually increase property values too (although that should not be factored in anyway).
And yet Americans have become so attached to the idea that cars are “freedom”, despite costing thousands per year and can kill you at any time, that even suggesting making an area with a variety of ways to get around (biking, transit, walking) is an “attack” on their freedom, even if they don’t take away car lanes to do it
I know. I'm Canadian and never want to go to America it looks horrible, but our entire land here in Canada every single inch is made following American shit standards. Endless oceans of parking lot concrete.....not having a car also makes it annoying. Some good channels about this are "Not Just Bikes"
@@pharaohsmagician8329 Just move to the Netherlands already. If you want to compare a country that can be driven across in one hour to countries the size of Canada and the US, be my guest. "Not Just Bikes" is a joke.
@@norwegianblue2017 why does a country being large mean that it has to have dumb laws and badly designed towns and cities?
@@philroo1 It's just a dumb way for Americans to stay in their imaginary world
I have „lived“ in Brasilia, the capital of Brasil, where zoning has gone completely crazy. There are zones exclusively for schools or banks or residential or shopping - you name it… Leading to crazy traffic jams when parents bring or pick up their kids from school. All that connected by a central motorway system with about 12 lanes - pedestrians have to run like rabbits to cross because the pedestrian tunnels were blocked due to too high criminality. Oscar Niemeyer has created here really a completely unlivable city - populated only by politicians and bureaucrats who don‘t care a damn where they live…
Yes this bauhaus inspired stuff may be nice for office buildings. But not for a holistic life-work concept…
Brasilia's plan was created by Lucio Costa, Niemeyer only designed the main builidings.
@@SD_Alias Don't disqualify the Bauhaus style for residential- or mixed areas. Here in Biel, Switzerland, a big quarter around the railway station was built in Bauhaus style in the 1930-ies. It's a very vibrant area with a good mix of shops and apartments above.
Tel Aviv is probably the best example of a very livable city in Bauhaus style. Bauhaus architecture in fact tries to put the human inhabitant at the center and very much adheres to the principle of "form follows function".
It's probably more the city planning of the time (1930-ies and 40-ies) that in a lot of places, particularly in Brazil - focused on a car-centric design.
@@vcostaval Sorry, I stand corrected.
@@markusstudeli2997 It is a matter of taste. For me Bauhaus is too cold and brutal. I never want to live in such a house. Even the furniture may look good at first. But when in use for tall people it is very uncomfortable and has bad ergonomics.
i like Gründerzeit buildings with smaller windows more. They are more gemütlich and i am feel much better in them…
But it is like seafood someone like it someone hates it…
I grew up in Eastern Europe, in an old, two-storey town house, built sometime between WWI and WWII. My family told me that before the war, the ground floor was a shop. The rest of the house was occupied by a family of seven, and it was just one of many such houses in the town - business downstairs, upstairs - life.
Love this video! I'm a born & raised American, but I have lived and worked in Europe and I love the mixed use neighborhoods! Being able to walk to the bakery, grocer, beer garden, restaurants, parks, train station, etc. was so nice! We used to have such places here in America, too, but now it's mostly illegal, here in the land of "freedom". And the property value argument is a red herring. The neighborhoods here in the USA that are European style are typically the most sought after. Many Americans also love the mixed use neighborhoods, if they have a chance to experience them.
It's interesting how in the US, folks have finally realized that they also want to live in walkable neighborhoods, but since there are so few remaining, the price of living there is prohibitive except for the ultra-wealthy forcing the rest to live in suburban wastelands.
Very few people have realized this consciously, though Im sure many have subconsciously (as we can see from apartments prices in dense cities...).
Charles Marohn from Strong Towns has mentioned this trend in his talks and his book. Before, we had the white flight where the wealthy were leaving the dense urban centers into suburbs. This left the poor in those dense cities. Now that the suburbs have gotten old and without the money to fix their aging infrastructure, there is a trend of the wealthy moving back into the cities and pushing the poor out to the suburbs. This scenario is far more dangerous to the poor as they can't afford the cars to get to the places they need to survive.
@@suspiciouspooh5988 Same. I hope you’re able to get to a decent place soon.
@@suspiciouspooh5988 I think people crying about the suburbs need to spend some in Central America or Africa and see how people live there
@@sweetpeach3649 Yeah clearly one should compare >these< two. 🤦
In a few moments, I will step out of my flat to enjoy breakfast in the cafe-bakery 100 yards from my home in the Black Forest. As a UK citizen living in Germany, thanks to this video, I now see what a treasure the mixed use planning principle is, and what a millstone round the neck of American society the zonal system is. It's no surprise that Trump appropriated the planning system ('our beautiful suburbs') for political purposes. In truth, the US would do well to take a leaf out of Germany (and the UK's) book and edge towards mixed use planning. This was an exceptional video . . .
@That guy with the brain.: Yes, indeed. The US seems to be the odd one out . . .
Are you worried about how you will heat your homes this winter in Germany?
"Beautiful" suburbia. 🤣🤣🤣 Looks more like a "home alone" nightmare.
We love our space. I don’t want to hear a bunch of incessant talking from a nearby business or have to trek to a park or trail to enjoy some grass.
9:45 I agree with you 100%. My family's from Poland and every time I visit in Poland I appreciate that in a very residential neighborhood there is still within walking distance or a short ride a small little store. Here in the US we have "convenience stores/gas stations" sometimes, but most of them just sell junk food, snacks and drinks and are geared more towards travelers. In Poland it's a mini grocery store. I think that's a lot better of a use than a "convenience store" in the US.
Yes, I totally agree with you. There are convenience stores near from my work and home, but they all sell junk foods. So I go further to nearest grocery store for better food.
In Finland it is taken granted that residential areas should have grocery stores nearby. Where I grew we originally had a store 150 meters away. Eves still it is 800 m away i.e. at a walking distance. The idea that you should have a car to buy food is insane.
In Czechia, city plannin uses the term “občanská vybavenost” (public equipment), which refers to services and public infrastructure that must be available to residential zones. In some cases, local governments may even require that a developer includes space for small shops, services, kindergardens, tram stop etc. in order to approve a huge real-estate project.
as you heard, that is the exact opposite of us zoning laws
Your statement that German type neighborhoods are illegal in the US is a bit strong. There are plenty of examples of European style developments, and a wide variety of mixed use developments all across the US. Its just not historicaly typical in suburbia. Far from illegal. Idk where you are coming from when it comes to urban environments. Are you asserting that in NYC a mix of properties don't coexis? Europe developed 100s of years ago, while most of America's towns are only a couple hundred years old max, except in the east. The only thing you see excluded from many US neighborhoods are industrial uses, for obviousreasons. I was a real estate appraiser for 35 years & i can only agree with your thesis in generalities, & the fact that US cities are sprawling. Many foreigners come here and love it. Trump never said what you assert, as well. You are repeating a talking point, that when it comes to Trump, are rarely true, but ALWAYS believed to be true by many. What you are making is an argument between cultures as well. And I can think of a dozen or more developments taking place in my town, in the backwards midwest i need to point out because only the coasts are "progressive", where apartments are mixed with single family, mixed with condos, mixed with 2 to 4 family homes, with supporting commercial uses. So gtfoh with a lot of ur bs, & just admit its more about bashing the US than anything else. At least i call it how i see it.
There’s another big difference between the US and most of Europe: rugged individualism. In the US there *are* places where walking, biking, & public transport, but these cities also generally lack the same sense of individualism. Collectivism is more common in these areas. And that includes even here in America’s Midwest, in the OKC Bricktown area many of the apartments are within pedestrian distances of the downtown executive center, the local markets (many of which are located on the first floor of the apartments). Some of my family also live near Boston and similarly, being able to walk to the grocery store & work.
Contrast that with rural NH, OK, or CA, where food is actually grown at, and it returns to self reliance, independence, and such. Again, go to rural communities in Germany or elsewhere in Europe and it’s a similar thing to some degree.
I lived in Germany for several years when I was a kid, absolutely loved it. I loved living in Europe! But it’s a tale as old as time: collectivism vs individualism, collective rights vs. individual rights, subjugation vs freedom.
It’s nice to be able to walk/bike to the store/work, but I’ll take my liberty and freedom over that.
I was in the USA once to finish a job. The manager invited me to visits his suburb home. The drive there was strange. We exited from a busy street into an empty one and drove there through a single home suburb for twenty minutes and i saw only five people on the street and ten cars driving.
Jonathan is from Kansas City and that is also a very odd experience for me too. So much of Johnson County, Kansas is like one gigantic neighborhood after another with mega roads in-between. I am from a small town and this was so odd for me the first time I visited.
In Germany there once also was the idea of a "Stadtteil-Zentrum" which means, sort of an "inner city" inmidst every quarter (neighbourhood), which means a small center with some shops، maybe a supermarket, a school, a pharmacy, maybe one or two restaurants, maybe a library, one or two doctors. A kindergarden and a playground were standard, too. That was really great, especially in newly built neighbourhoods. I experienced this concept in Munich. You could get everywhere by feet. Maybe then between two neighbourhoods some (clean) industry (clean, i.e. no smoke, no smell, no noise). Or a Park. Or both. When you look at a map of Munich, you can still identify these Stadtteilzentren. At least by the local density of shops.
In Vienna I don't know if it was planned but this is the case, the districts have a main street or square that's lined with shops and restaurants and there's often trees, a small park and sometimes a farmers market, living in Vienna is like living in one of a series of connected villages that have formed a city, some districts are villages that were absorbed for real.
@@c.w.8200 same historical background. The agglomeration in the old parts of a town sign the former market-places, and those in the new parts just kept that tradition. In old houses, over the shop there is often the place, where the first shop-owner lived. That's the reason why we have no problem with people having a shop in the house where they live. Ok, nobody would be tented to live over a McDonalds or an Aldi.
Ja.Die 15 Min.Städte! So schaffen sie die Autos ab u. sperren die Menschen ein.
@@jurgenjung4302 ??? Das Stadtviertel in München, wo ich aufgewachsen war, war so organisiert. Dass ich keine 5km zum nächsten Supermarkt muss, finde ich sinnvoll. Aber eingesperrt war ich nie. Ich bin gnadenlos mit Fahrrad, Bus, U- und S-Bahn quer durch München durch. Für Studium, mehr Kino-Programme, Disco, Museen, Theater, Oper, Kajak auf der Isar, Baden am Starnberger See, Wandern in den Bergen... Wieso meinst du, man ist eingesperrt, wenn man den Supermarkt zu Fuß erreicht?
"Stadtrandkerne erster und zweiter Ordnung" that's the legal term in our planning laws.
The story of Houston’s land-use policies is a lot more complicated than “no zoning.” In reality, Houston is a big mixture of ordinances, policies, tactics by neighborhoods, and independent efforts by nonprofits, all of which play a role in determining how land is used. Whether or not the lack of zoning and the use of these other tools add up to a more equitable city or a city where the affluent are protected is open to debate.
Bristol, Virginia rezoned a public park for a private golf course, rezoned the nearby farmland for a suburb, and rezoned a nearby mobile home park to be a condemned flood zone.
"The strong do eat."
We've been several times in the US and on our first trip, we nearly suffer by hunger in Utah 😁. We thought, we can keep it cheap, buying our food an stuff at the grocerys, do a lot of hiking...
We did hiking. But the little town we came up had no grocerystore. No restaurant, literally nothing but houses. So we expended our hiking to find food. Stupid we were sure, there has to be a place, where all these people had their food from. After another very exhausting and hungry "hike" along one of these straight roads without any noticeable traffic, with one overnighter in the fields 😎, we reached the "shopping area" and were flashed out 😂😂😂. We were tired, dirty and HUNGRY. And had to pass all that parking sites. It was like in a surreal movie. Then we saw a McDonalds sign....
Well, we survived. And never again thought "oh, we can just take something from the local grocery".
You would have needed to be in a state with greater populations that were around much earlier in time. Any of the midwest states, like Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, should have had the right size grocery store for the area, providing the population of the area is high enough.
Here in Texas, where I am, if I would start cycling west past all shopping here, it would be about 15 miles to another grocery store, then another one at about the 30 mile mark. Each of those areas having a population over 10k.
Omg haha! Adventurous but check a map next time 😋
@@lightdark00 Yeah my brother experienced something similar, traveling through the US and Canada. He said if they found local grocery stores they only had shit anyways, not even a nice Apple, maybe a half-rotten one because who would buy weird stuff like fruit at a local market. Hell, even local fruit, a weird concept as the US mainly has factory farms now. Standard meat quality was disgusting, he was afraid of ordering anything with "cheese" because that "cheese" was usually some atrocity that did not taste like real food at all. he basically became vegan during that trip, without the luxury of having tasty fresh vegs and fruits (Some tasteless shit if they were very lucky, but at least those were big, shiny flawless looking, those tasteless potatoes, apples, tomatoes probably without any nutritional value). Back at home he and his friends had a HUGE vegetable bowl and fruits, and they aren't usually that much of a veggie friend.
Also everything is wrapped in 3 tons of plastic. The standard family probably produces a ton of waste per day, this is why we have the American trope of "carrying out the trash" as a real task, lol.
You and your consumerism are an ecological catastrophe, and the sad thing is that WE AND THE WHOLE WORLD have to carry the consequences as well. Thanks for that.
@@blackrain1999 the saddest thing is that for 50 years most of the world tried to copy them, and many still do.
Ha ha! Do NOT try to visit the Western US without a car. Especially in rural areas. There are some of the world’s most beautiful sights, but you need transportation.
Not Just Bikes has done a great series on the economic issues with North American style zoning : e.g there’s so much road per house in most US cities that local taxes don’t cover repair & renewal - meaning most US cities (and their roads) are going broke.
YES! he has a wonderful series on this topic.
Americans, from rooftops: socialism is bad! The state can't run be trusted to run things! I want freedom of choice!
Also Americans: cities need to have publicly owned road networks and sewage systems, and the municipality needs to severely restrict what kind of houses and neighbourhoods we are allowed to build! Also we want everyone to have to get around by cars, with no alternatives! :eagle screech:
Now the way you explained this is excellent. It also explained another thing to me in greater detail:
The reason why so many in the US don't have access to fresh food and a local small - easy to access - grocery, which is, indeed a big subject on its own.
However, if you are not allowed to make small store, bakeries, groceries, market to convinces the locals - because of the zoning it explains why people more easily go for easy access and unhealthy food.
So one may claim that by law, people are denied convinces, quality and a healthy lifestyle.
Shooting themselves in the foot by getting an continues unhealthy and poor population.
If I got this all wrong, by all means let me know.
I'm merely trying to understand, as an outsider and from Scandinavia why the laws seems work so hard against the people they are supposed to serve.
You got that exactly right! They're known as "food deserts".
In Denmark they strive for a healthy population. In the US there is a lot of money to be made of an unhealthy population.
Same over in other Nordic countries! Esp if you compare to US
A great video! Thank you!
I'm an Australian retired pastor and a former town planner, and found this fascinating.
Much of our church's work for 30+ years was with people of low socio economic status, many with mental health issues.
While the Euclidean zoning system (I'd never heard that term!) is basic in Australia, some measures such as location of government social housing among privately owned dwellings and a growing tendency of local government to require a proportion of new housing to be available for low income earners slows economic stratification, it still happens.
As a planner I advocated for performance standards for housing rather than proscriptive standards (so allowing for a mixture of accommodation types in residential zones); as a mid level planner my views carried little weight.
As to accessibility, where I now live is a two storey attached dwelling in a complex of nine in a mixed residential zone, similar to what I was talking about in the 1970s. But it is a 20-25 minute walk to the nearest shops, and a few minutes more to the station, and the temptation to walk there is slight.
Again, thank you.
Interesting, in Germany apartments and houses are the most popular, where shops, schools, kindergartens, and doctors are within walking distance. But there are also few people here who are of the opinion that something as noisy as a school or a kindergarten should not be built near their house. These are mostly people who don't have children.
But the same people would go to the barricades if, for the same reasons, the nearby shops disappeared.
Oddly enough, my house was probably with 500 feet of two schools, a playground and a church when I lived in Germany, and the neighborhood was still quieter than most places I've lived in the US.
@@eurodoc6343 As NotJustBikes put it: cities aren't loud, cars are. Does there happen to be a noticable difference in car traffic volume?
@@eurodoc6343 Yeah schools are really not that loud.
I live 300feet linear distance to a church, Kindergarden, playground, football field and the main road since 40 years. The church bell rings every hour but I don't hear it anymore. If the sun is shining and the children of the Kindergarten play's on the playground I wonder sometimes how little girls can shout so loud. But they do it for 10 minutes and if it gets boaring they go on playing less noisy. All this noise isn't disturbing or anoying to me. I think it's triggering the inner noise inside some people who are upset.
I moved from Sweden to the US and during the decision process of if I could see myself living there found a neighborhood that reminded me of Europe. It’s at the outskirts of the city, still officially city limits, but calmer and still (to an extend) walkable. I keep describing it as “a bit suburban” but my American friends usually disagree and correct me that it’s still “city”. I couldn’t put my finger on why it felt familiar, but I think it is because we have stores and houses intermingled. Stores are mostly restricted to a central Main Street but I can reach most things by foot. And now I also understand why my US friends oppose the “suburban” description. We don’t have sprawling single family homes, but a mix of row homes, apartment complexes and single family. Thank you for the informative video.
Where is this magical place you speak of?
@@pidgepagonis Philadelphia
Your comment certainly shows the distinction between the definitions of "suburb" across the Atlantic: In Europe, they're mostly former towns and villages incoorperated into a city (and still act like them) while in NA, they're defined to be between a high-density city and a rural settlement, as a gradient.
By the way, your comment also reminded me Alan Fisher's video about rural towns and one commentor called the example town a "city" since it build is denser than a modern US suburb despite the fact that it is too small to get the city status (or if it is one, it's a very small city, not comparable to San Francisco, New York or Chicago).
Uffda!
Two of my favorite channels (in addition to yours, of course): Not Just Bikes, and Strong Towns. Highly recommended.
I liked this video very much. I'm an American retiree living in Nîmes, France. After spending our 30 years in suburbia, in the US, my wife and I decided to move to Europe so that we could travel and enjoy a different lifestyle. While planning to move abroad we considered having a house in a village, or living in a city center. We definitely wanted to be able to easily walk to shops, restaurants, and services. In europe, that's certainly possible in either type of environment. Both visions had their appeal. Which to pick?
When I was working and raising a family, suburban life worked well. With work and sports we were always on the go (in a car). Our suburban house was the place we slept in and had family time in on the weekends. After the kids left and I retired I found suburban life was stifling me. I had retired a few years before my wife so was home alone quite a lot. As work-life receded into the past, I came to realize how much of my social life was connected to work and that retiring and living in a suburb made me feel increasingly isolated. My regular social interactions were eventually limited to a few neighbors and my soccer buddies. Puttering around a big empty house in a largely empty neighborhood is a pretty sterile existence. I decided I wasn't ready for isolation and boredom just yet.
My wife finally retired, and after a lot of research and discussion we decided that city center living (something that neither of us had ever done) appealed to us. We wanted to not only be able to walk to shops, but also to museums, transport, performances, and to have people around to interact with. I must say, I'm really pleased at the way it's turned out so far.
We now live in a funky apartment in a 19th century "hotel particulier" in the city center of a moderately sized, 2000 year old city and love it. We don't have a car. We walk everywhere or take public transport. We're within a 10 minute walk (or less) of: the main train station, with high speed trains to Paris and Barcelona (about 3 hours each), the post office, the city (farmer) market, several boulangeries, dozens of restaurants, two cinemas, and a roman arena that still functions (concerts, bullfights, shows). That's all been great. But, we're also slowly making french acquaintances, and have stumbled into a really active community of expats from all over the world. I have to admit that my social and travel calendars are pretty full and keep me waaay busier than the suburban rut that I thankfully escaped. Our new social circle includes people from Britain, France, South Africa, Belgium, India, Brazil, the Netherlands, Switzerlands, etc.
I will never bash my old US neighborhood. There was a lot to enjoy there and some of the nicest and friendliest people around. But, I know that I definitely traded up!
PS... I really want to visit Freiburg. One of our lovely french friends (our language tutor) is moving there next month to do a teacher exchange. We'll miss her .... but visiting her will give us an excuse to check out the Black Forest!
I grew up in the US Southeast. We had small shops in walking distance, not just 80 miles outside of Atlanta, but also when we moved up into the Appalachian Mountains. At the latter, there was a convenience store only a mile away, and 2-3 small grocery/gas stations in the nearest town a little over 2 miles away. --Sure, I walked home from school many times (2 miles) but you couldn’t get everything you needed at those small stores and the doctor (and hospital) was at the other end of the county; everyone has to have a car because everything is so far apart, not because of zoning.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, city councils have done away with mixed zoning. They don’t want you to be able to live near where you work or shop. They can’t get the sales tax off the gasoline if you’re waking or biking everywhere.
It's very interesting that "property values" are always on Americans mind while it's a non discussion in Germany. People don't care as much their home is valued until they sell or buy.
This has to do with how often people statistically move in their lives. In the US average residents owning a property moving 4-5 times while in Germany they most likely grew old in that house. This is due to a totally different working culture in the US, where jobs change often. Employees are more seen as interchangeable resources and have less rights. On the other hand employees do not identify themselves with the companies as much as in Germany.
Well, tbh, plenty of boomers and investors complain about property values. Extra3 released several episodes on people blocking good things because they implied it would lessen the value of the location by say, bringing more (mostly less affluable) people there.
Property values also seem upside-down compared to here in Europe. Property values are high, if you have close access to amenities. Every real-estate agent will list you all the advantages, like how close the next supermarket, bakery, bank, school, cafés, school, playground, station is. The closer to those amenities, like right in the middle of the urban center, the more expensive it will be.
@@janrasmus6967 Americans deal with ethnics and minorities moving into their neighborhoods much more often than Germans. This is why Americans are obsessed with "property values". It represents the quickness the American homeowner can sell the house if minorities become a notable presence in their communities. It might be hard to swallow but that's the reason. The fact that Americans use home flipping to increase their wealth is a symptom of Americans fleeing areas that become occupied by minorities.
Small shops are disallowed within a residential zone because they generally attract the local riff-raff. Also there's usually more trash coming from small shops compared to homes. In the US supermarkets take the place of all other types of stores and you're expected to accep that.
@That guy with the brain. I lived in Germany for a few decades, and the times I talked with people from work or friends about the value of their homes can be counted with single digits. That is the number of times to topic is mentioned around here per week. You are currently looking for a home, so you care, as soon as you settled in - you don't go Immobilenscout and check your Hauspreis every other day or?
First time viewer of your videos, enjoyed it immensely. I am a Design/Build Contractor. I am American schooled and trained, I have lived and worked in Mexico for the last 16 years, and I've travelled in Germany numerous times and worked for a Swedish company. It's fascinating seeing the very specific differences between US & German concepts of planning and zoning from the perspective of a PhD in zoning and planning... and now adding in my own awareness of planning and zoning in Mexico. This gives me much to think about in regard to quality of life and living... subscribed and looking forward to more.
That's awesome that this video reached you! Thanks for subscribing and I hope you enjoy our future videos.
So it took me this video to finally understand why I always get so confused in many major US cities and need an Uber to get anywhere. I realise it is not just the scale of the cities but the zoning that contributes to this. It is way easier though to find this diversity in walkable distances in smaller cities like Charleston or Savannah though.
I lived in Stockholm (Sweden) for all my Life (almost 60 yrs) both in city and the in the "suburbs" within the city limits. It is quite shocking to realize how poor the zoning is made in US. I never owned a car and actually only used public transportation and walk long distances. In essence it is so far away from the US style and model it seems. For those who like cycling there are also expanded facilities made to use them in latest decades. Am happy to see you thrive in Germany and appreciate the way of living in it's true meaning and not in an empty "lifeless" sterile community.
you can't survive without car in usa
@@johnjames8707 I am aware of that was just sharing my thoughts.
@John Stuart Mill Well, that is another aspect but it doesn't give clarification or reason why it is a zoning problem in USA as the video is about.. Crime is not the sole reason to the development and current status.
@John Stuart Mill No you didn't but I thought it was not that relevant. I am sorry if I have offened you or something, it was not my intention. Stay safe and take care.
@John Stuart Mill My point was that I did not find it so relevant. My apologies if I have offended you with my blunt English. Stay safe and take care.
As always fun to watch one of your videos. As a dutch person (living in Utrecht) i grew up in the middle of a 900 year old city. First 24 years in the core. Then i moved to other area that was more a outer area where for legal reasons (not my fault) i needed to move and bought a home in the one of the biggest new building expansion in our country that in the end will grow Utrecht by 100k. And i felt this split since my area was one of the first build and there are no shops, bars and very little (temp) services it felt like a 'camping place' where you only had a shopping mall (1) about 800meters away no bars or real places to eat. Now 15 years later building is much further along and the newer areas popped up with a massive second 'inner city' where shops, bars, eating, movie theather and services are i guess about 50% of the lower levels and the upper levels of the buildings are all homes. What is new compared to the old innercity is the inclusion of more 'hidden' green like in old old city part there are parks (4 or 5 between 300meters and 1km) but here they also designed green intermixed in the innercity with waterways, gardens on tops of buildings or shops. having been living here for 15 years (and walking and esp. biking is a dutch thing) the feeling of closeness to things has returned.. It just starts at about 250meters away from me from my small dutch suburbia which also has its plusses like no cars allowed in my street/block. Also indeed within 1km homes range from about 250k to 1m so a 700k, 800k gap is not weird. When visiting a usa suburbian area i feel strangly 'locked in' esp as a kid where in many ways life only starts when you have access to a car almost like a phase of life you need to wait for. How do you even get drunk in a bar and walk home slowly and semi steadily. Sorry if this offends people in the states i know city life is different but the while concept of zoning without mixing what is needed for living and even more for kids to slowly learn, adapt and integrate feels just weird.
I don't know much about housing, but this was a very interesting video. Thank you for taking the time to make it.
One thing I wonder about is that I have a couple real estate friends that have been reporting that corporations have been on a high trend of buying residential homes and turning them into rentals, and then started hearing that these types of purchases are happening more frequently in Texas, Nevada and California. Housing seems to be vastly out of reach for single families as it is, and I cant imagine that this trend is a good thing for the possibility of social class movement upwards.
I am absolutely taken in by your enthusiasm, level headedness and intelligence. I agree totally. Just think, if you have a village square surrounded by the village hall, school, library, baker, pub/kneipe/bar/restaurant, grocery store, doctor's surgery and bus stop and surrounding this is the housing (in all their different forms) for the people. That means that when you want to eat out (or just go out for a pint), you don't have to drive, because it's within walking distance and thereby reducing drink and drive. Road fatalities will be illeminated. You hit the nail on its head. Thank you for your thoughts/videos. Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪.
If you want to touch on one of the oldest still existing low-income housing projects in the world, please take a look at Augsburg, and the Fuggerei.
Yeah, yeah, I can already here the suppressed giggling coming from all English speakers... 😋
But since more than 500 years these buildings have been maintained, rebuilt, refurbished by the foundation setup by Jakob Fugger der Reiche / Jacob Fugger the Rich in 1521.
Today 67 catholic families (a prerequisite Fugger demanded) from Augsburg live in these homes for a YEARLY rent of 0.88 euro, or roughly 90 US cents per YEAR.
There are some requirements, being a poor family, resident of Augsburg, catholic, and you have to pray three prayers in the chapel on the Fuggerei grounds for Jakob Fugger every day.
Jakob Fugger feared for his soul due to his incredible wealth. He assumed that having had so much good fortune in life must mean that his soul would be damned in the afterlife. So he setup this welfare low-income housing, demanding even back then a ridiculously low rent. Under the premises that every resident prayed for his soul three times per day, hoping to alleviate the guilt of having been so incredibly rich, and for the inadvertant sins he committed by accumulating such wealth. He hoped that such deeds and prayers might shorten the suffering of his soul in purgatory.
As an atheist I must say that he was not too wrong about his concerns. We all know what the road to success may demand and what it can turn us into. Considered man. Atheists may not be so considered. We do not have an organized way to share/train/practice our teachings in the first place. Such neighborhood is more disciplined with the teachings as well. More consistency again over atheism.
@@techpriest4787 you mean "considerate"? ;-P
I don't think being religious is required to do something noble like Fugger, although atheists do good for different reasons of course. I'm an atheist too and I've donated and tried to help people around me. I don't see why improving well-being and reducing suffering would only make sense with religion.
I was surprised once when I saw on the not just bikes channel how zoning actually destroys the economical sustainability of north american cities and is one of the reasons for american infrastructure is what it is: big parking spaces just do not earn enough taxes to finance the upkeep of the roads leading to them. Quite interesting.
You know the "taxation is theft"-crowd? I always wonder how they didn't yet learn that car dependency is just government squander in favor of businesses over the very people that provided the money.
And im speaking from my german point of view, which means its the same people, just a lot less in number than in the US, and infrastructure that is a lot less wasteful than the US-american counterpart^^
@@MannIchFindKeinName Funnily enough, I was thinking that exact point when trying to imagine how I would explain to Trump that suburbs aren't beautiful. Ponzi Scheme cities are a massive waste of taxpayer money. Any small government advocate should be against restrictive zoning laws for that reason, but also _because_ they're restrictive. Why does the "Land of the Free" have some of the most draconian zoning laws in the world?
Plus, allowing commercial use of home properties encourages small business growth, which the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" crowd should be all for.
@@ReddwarfIV Assuming those people don't already understand Ponzi Scheme Cities, even if you explained it to them, nothing would change, as short-term development (that others might call Ponzis) is seen as a feature, not a bug.
It's not just zoning in the US, but also minimum parking requirements. (Houston famously doesn't do zoning, but they still do minimum parking requirements and other shenanigans.)
Strong Towns, City Beautiful and Not Just Bikes are few of the channels I love to watch for this type of content. I will add your channel to the list now. 👍
Thanks for explaining Euclidian zoning. All this time when I'd heard the term, I assumed it had something to do with the geometry of the lots!
When it comes to low income housing. The idea of the "Gartenstast" might be an interesting historic concept you might be interested in.
Districts/Communities like "Margarethenhöhe" in Essen that were build to provide steel workers with livable housing are now some of the most desirable places to rent in the city (the district is still managed by an NGO / gemeinnütziger Verein) and the rent is as originally intended still really affordable.
The district even has it's own Wikipedia page and is quite beautiful.
I know this Genossenschaftshäuser from Vienna and it has been quite common in Germany as well when I was young but with the downfall of Neue Heimat this idea was more or less destroyed. However I still believe it is a good idea that lower income people cooperate and build houses together so that each apartment is much cheaper that if it is built by a private company. The downside is that you need people who know what they are doing and are principally honest to lead these entities this was the major problem of the Neue Heimat since managers have been put there due to their political merits more than due to know-how additionally several of them behaved as if it is their property not the one of the people.
I signed up for an apartment at the time with a waiting period of 8 years. In the end, however, I gave up the project.
@@habi0187 I live in such a house. It's one in several rows of small townhouses built in the 1920s. They are small (90qm), simple (initially they had no bathrooms), had small vegetable gardens and were built by the future owners collectively. Once a house was finished there was a lottery who would get to live there. This ensured that the self-builders wouldn't know in advance which house they'd get and would build each one with care. After all, they might end up living there. Till the 1980s you couldn't sell them to the public. You would have to sell them back to the building collective which made sure they remained affordable.
One of the reasons I left the US was because of its lack of walkable cities. I now live in Istanbul where there are several bakeries, coffee houses, and markets within a minute's walk. I have no need for a car, and if I do have to go further, the mass transit system here is excellent.
As a Turkish person from Istanbul living in the US, this is spot-on. I am glad you are enjoying it. I shall return for good one day myself.
Idk how you would ever carry your kayak, skidoo, or ATV anywhere without a car. Bless your heart for loving life without open spaces and wild places.
@@midori4352 I don't have a kayak, skidoo (what is this?), or ATV. I did live on a Chinese junk for several years, however.
@@midori4352 my dogs (Aussies) have land to run on. We have a hot tub. Garage. SAFE neighborhood. We all walk here. Neighbors Little girls ride their horses down our street. But my spa (small business owner) is only 7 min drive. Which is where the city blows up. I love my “Suburban” hood. Oh and our truck carries the camper when we need to escape. All on our land. It’s not being miss used. Or forgotten. Or not used. The US is just a different Country. You get to pick what kind of place you prefer. I’m pretty sure Texas doesn’t want German housing. BUT illegal is a no go for me. Less Gov please! Oh and no HOA! Again pick where you want to live. (Wish we had an ATV, Skidoo, kayak and horses, chickens etc).
One thing I've heard and noticed about German villages and suburban areas is they all have more walking areas, unique features, and a real culture about them. Here in America, pretty much every suburban development looks the same and is largely designed for cars. Miles and miles of concrete, fewer beautification areas, more shopping centers going up. Family-owned shops and stores in my area are quickly getting replaced by chain stores, fast-food restaurants on every corner, and gentrification has been wreaking havoc downtown. You don't find much culture, aside from maybe the occasional festival once a year, and certainly less unique features and innovative planning. Makes me sad.
Actually newly planned projects in Germany mostly include shops and Kindergartens. Often it is a requirement if a real estate company wants to build on a piece of land. Another requirement is the inclusion of flats for low income households, which are subsidized.
Excluding small bakeries, grocery stores, restaurants, barbers, etc. in neighborhoods has not only made life much more stressful, less cozy and quaint, but more expensive, always needing a car to drive longer distances! It has also made Americans less social! Besides, not enough walking and riding bikes, makes Americans more overweight, unless they add exercise to their already busy schedules, rather than normal part of every day! The German way of life in neighborhoods is also much easier for the elderly!
Coming from the USA and living in Germany now I completely agree with you. Life is MUCH less stressful here. The local store is only a 5 minute walk away. There are a few restaurants in about a 5 minute walk from me or a lot more in a 15 minute walk to the city center and all the stores and restaurants there. It is a really nice place to live and it is so much quieter.
@@Immudzen California here. Would you mind sharing what general area you are in Germany?
@@gilliantracy7991 I am not far from Aachen in western Germany.
I'd love to see what would happen if a developer took a chunk of land and made a little german dorf out of it, including making the houses the same superior quality as in germany and a tram like what they have in Frankfurt. Bike lanes, parks, public schools you can walk to, Lidls and Aldis, bakeries, pharmacies...man, that would be THE place to live. I mean, not necessarily for those who want a huge cookie-cutter house on a huge lot secluded from all their neighbors, commuting in their big cars an hour or so and never seeing their coworkers outside of work, but hey, to each their own! lol
10000% agree. I often hear our friends and family back home lamenting that they think their town is losing a sense of 'community' but then don't understand that they are self isolating.
Yes it would be wonderful, and some older densely populated neighborhoods are gentrifying and doing just that! The down side is that it is way too expensive for the average Joe, and if you need to work, mass transit can add at least 2 hours to your travel time. Here, in Portland Oregon USA, your employer may be many miles from where you live…..just the ugly true facts.
@@TypeAshton One of my friends has just been to the US and when he came back, he told me that the feeling walking around a small town in Boston was so very different from the feeling here in a regular or small town in Germany. He said it feels kind of like there is no real community but everybody just "fends for themselves", people seemed more isolated from their neighbors. It's hard to put into words but I think I know what he meant and your video helps to explain this phenomenon a little.
@@galejohnson8086you might think you’ll love living right next to your office but in reality you won’t. When you live right next to your office you simply won’t see much of your town anymore. I used to live 30 minutes by bike from my office and had to go through the entire town to my office and I saw my town every day. Now my office is right down the street and on most days this street is all I see of my town.
@@TheHammy1987nah I prefer American neighborhoods
An excellent explanation of German town planning. I'm from the UK and have lived in Germany for around half my life now, but I've never come across such a lucid explanation of why towns are the way they are before. Well done!! I've just subscribed to your channel and hope to learn more.
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it!
What a fantastic video.
I worked as a land surveyor for 30 years, and still freelance performing title searches which was always my favorite part of the job.
I've always enjoyed the archeological aspects of recreating properties from the very first land owner to the present day. I'm also fascinated by land use regulations in their many forms.
Really enjoyed the comparison between the US & German ways of approaching land use.
A hearty thumbs up, definitely subscribing and looking forward to future videos.
Auf Wiedersehen
So glad you enjoyed the video!
In San Diego, my old neighborhood quite accidentally achieved income variety. I grew up in a working-class neighborhood with little crackerbox bungalows. Then word got out that San Diego had the best climate in the continental USA, and suddenly rich people flooded in and made housing prices shoot through the roof. So those little bungalows now sell for half a million at least. But old working-class families still lived in many of the homes, holding onto home ownership, often with 3 generations now under one roof, since rentals were no longer accessible for their kids and grandkids. I knew of one family with 4 generations under one roof. Many of them had long since converted their garages into extra rooms, so it was doable. Other families moved out, leaving their homes to be bought up by rich people. People literally had servants living a few doors down from them in practically identical houses. My grandmother's next-door neighbor collected antique cars for a hobby, he had so much money. Everyone got along surprisingly well, once they got used to the idea that some neighbors were going to hold onto the right to repair their own cars in their front yards and hang laundry in the back, just as they've always done.
Vivid picture and to-the-point writing! Last sentence is great. Nice to read . . .
I love your videos. They are very high quality, very well presented and (above all) very well researched. I learned so much in this one alone. Not only about american zoning but also why our neighborhoods in Germany look the way they do. You taught me something about my own country!
Thank you very much! Keep doing what you're doing!
Every time I learn more about systems and governance in the USA, I become convinced that the whole thing was a great idea on paper, but has gone quite wrong in practice. The desire to separate industrial from residential is good, but taking it the the extreme whereby you cannot have a corner-shop within walking-distance of your house is just grim. Where I live, we're almost in that situation by accident - Inverness (the "city" I live in) is going through a period of massive growth (I believe 10% increase in the last 5-10 years, though I don't know how accurate that is) and every time a new swathe of houses (mix of flats/apartments, terraces, semi-detached and detached houses with between 1 and 5 bedrooms, so a very good mix), there are justified complaints about a LACK of additional shops etc being built too. To be fair to the housing developers, they pay a hefty sum of money to the council who are supposed to then take care of retail facilities, community halls, new primary schools etc, but their finances are a black hole right now
I've said this in many similar videos on youtube bashing Nimby-ism. I live in a neighborhood that, for the USA, is very odd since there are townhouses, condos, duplexes, triplexes, and a full scale apartment complex. The catch is that the nearest grocery store/strip mall is far away from the apartment complex. It's also nestled next to a protected forest area and river overlooking very expensive SFHs. The set-up is fantastic for many reasons. The part that most would expect is that the roads are in disrepair and we are known as the "poor" part of the greater metro area. One thing a business owner and church mate tried to do is open a general goods store close to the 500+ apartment complex but was denied due to the strict zoning. The arguments were valid from both sides and there was not an adequate way he could provide an answer for some of their complaints. Since then my friend has worked with professionals to correct it and are in the process of turning a large trect of land (10 acres with a 150 year old house less than 800 sq ft) into two lots, with the store having minimum parking spots but a lot of walking access.
The moral is that sometimes the people in the neighborhood can be worked with if you answer enough of their complaints or explain to them directly.
I really enjoy this “series” on housing right now. As a German who has spent several years living in different areas of the US it’s great to get the background infos on those differences.
As always so informative Dr. Ashton😍. What really surprises me is that the quick and easy accessibility (on foot) of supermarkets, bakers, restaurants, butchers but also doctors plays no role at all among the residents of the suburbs.
In German there is the saying "time is money" and I would think that especially in busy America this would play a role not to spend so much time on the street. Personally, I prefer the saying "time saved is Freizeit"😛. As always, a great video.
I couldn't imagine living in such a suburbia where my GP is not within walking distance. I mean - do you take the car when you have a high fever or feeling ill?
@@hypatian9093 You either get a friend or family member to drive you, hire a taxi/uber (please don't, strangers don't want your sick in their vehicle), or you push through and drive yourself anyway.
Or call an ambulance, but only if there's no other option since that tends to cost a LOT of money (even with many insurance plans).
Actually, you often try to tough it out at home if you can, with over the counter meds. Even GP visits tend to cost money here depending on what insurance (if any) you have. And heaven help you if you need prescription drugs. It's like pulling teeth to get American insurance places to approve payment for those even when prescribed at a "covered" doctor visit.
Reccieved a mail from her yesterday: she just found you channel last week already and liked it!
Just a couple of blocks from where I grew up in San Francisco was a planned development called Parkmerced that was built in the 1940's. It is a combination of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom tower apartments, garden apartments and townhomes. It has its own shopping area as well as parks for recreation and was planned so that the flow of traffic would not impede what already existed including the use of roundabouts. The garden apartments were very popular with families because they were all situated around a common green area where the kids could play while the parents could sit on their outdoor patios and keep an eye on their kids. The townhomes were mostly popular with older people and the tower apartments accommodated different budgets because of the different sized apartments available. Of course now I'm sure it's alot more expensive to live there than it was when I was a kid playing with my friends that lived in Parkmerced but the concept sure seemed ahead of its time. There are parkinig garages at the tower apartments that years ago had mechanics on site and if you did'nt own a car you could rent one from the garage. It was all nicely landscaped with trees and gardens and was very walkable. It is located right near a university. I've never understood why today more places like Parkmerced are not being built in cities or even suburbs. Now there is this mentality of people who want to live behind gates away from the rest of us instead of everyone coexisting together.
As I understand, in America there is a lot of anxiety in middle-income and high-income people about poor people coming into their neighborhood and causing problems. Basically, they believe that if you're poor, it's because of something you did or that you're screwed up in some way, and they're afraid of having that in their neighborhood where they want their kids to be able to play safely.
I grew up in a middle class family in America, and when moving to a new area we would generally first live in an apartment complex, but only briefly because of course the goal was to get into a big single family house in a suburban neighborhood far away from any stores. I personally hated it, because in an apartment complex there were always lots of other kids to play with, but in single family areas there weren't as many and it was easier to get isolated.
Of course, the more cynical side of me wants to also look at more negative aspects of American culture:
1.) The Atlantic recently put out an article titled "The People Who Hate People", which explored this. Simply put, lots of Americans just hate being around a lot of other people.
2.) American parents are increasingly encouraged and expected to essentially be highly controlling of their children. Things like "stranger danger" (which is in truth way overblown) and the fact that kids here depend on their parents to take them anyplace interesting definitely add to these pressures.
3.) High home prices in an exclusive neighborhood or even town or whole urban area serve as a kind of filter of the kinds of people who can move in. This is why there is so much angst about things like boarding houses, unrelated roommates, living out of your car, and being homeless; in the eyes of the wealthy and privileged in those neighborhoods, those people are cheating the system and that will not be tolerated.
You make a good point about the home being a safety net, because we have been steadily stripping away other safety nets under the guise of "rugged individualism" (which honestly doesn't have as strong roots in this country as might be gleaned from a superficial reading). There's a sense and fear in America that you're on your own, no one's going to come to rescue you if you get in trouble, and changes that impact your singular safety net are direct threats to your way of life.
And that belief is not irrational it is based on facts. So...
When society segregates and vilifies the poor, is it no wonder violence and crime is what those poor turn to? Unfortunately, it is easier for people to simply believe that poor people are inherently violent and dangerous rather than acknowledge that the society they live in fostered that violence.
@@iluvcamping utter nonsense. Society villifies nothing. People vilify themselves and society responds instinctively to defend itself in its desire to survive and live in peace. Nobody proposes that all poor people are violent criminals, however the likely hood of a violent criminal to be poor is very high. Poverty does not push anyone to violence, but the violent are poor because of bad choices they have made. I was extremely poor once and I never committed a crime. I have made sane choices in my life, studied and worked hard and pushed myself out of that situation.
@@nastasedr Wow! That's the way Americans view the word. Sad.
@@olafgogmo5426 no, that is what is in America not the world, assuming you meant world not word. If you can find hard facts that fly against what I said please show them to me.
Thanks for a once again fascinating video! I cannot imagine how much time and work go into your research on this (although I suspect that at least the fundamental groundwork for this series comes from your dissertation/professional work, so you don‘t start each one from scratch). Still, the depth and detail don‘t just come flying in through the window.
I grew up in a small town that had a „downtown“ area where shops, services, the school, etc. were concentrated. You could do more or less all your shopping and dining out there, although it wasn‘t really walking distance for a lot of the people (i.e., > 300 yards 😆). That has completely changed. While small (essentially 2 or 3 streets), the downtown area at that time was vibrant, with people walking around, doing their shopping, working. There is almost nothing there anymore, and it is as dead as a doornail.
It is sad that a lot of small-town American cities have a dead or dying downtown scene. Jonathan and I were pretty lucky to have gone to University in Columbia, Missouri - it's downtown scene is very vibrant and the city planners have invested a lot in making the city more bicycle friendly and encouraging new businesses to invest in the city center. However, your hometown sounds a lot like my own hometown too. There really isn't much of a vibrant downtown.... just a strip mall with a carwash is all that mostly remains.
Omg I'm German living in Japan. For some reason this video has been recommended to me, so I clicked. When I saw my Hometown of Templin at 4:44, this was everything. Thank you so much!!! ❤
I was in Germany back when I was in the Army. My first impression of German cities was that they were beautiful and functional.
It is very instructive to have the German regulations explained from the perspective of a foreign person. Before I just thought "the American settlements look boring" - now I realize that one (a) is stuck without a car and that (b) there are no shops for daily needs. But you need them to live.
I also really like your self-critical episode at about 5:40 - your pronunciation is supposed to be *Messe* and IKEA - well, "I" like "ee" and "kea" like "ka-ar".
(But... I can't pronounce Massachusetts, Lake Chaubunagungamaug, or Albuquerque either)
Albuquerque is french, and Chaubunagungamaug is obviously native.
Americans dont even have their own language
@@maxlange5517 Americans don't have an OFFICIAL language but of course, they all have their own language. Some speak English, some Spanish, some Hindi, there are languages from all over the world there.
I have the somewhat unique situation of living in the same general neighbourhood all my life. I'm 54 now and have seen my neighbourhood evolve over my lifetime. I live just east of downtown, in Toronto, Canada. Some might even call it downtown adjacent. When I was a child, we had all the benefits of a city neighbourhood. We had many shops within walking distance. Markets, bakeries, banks, five and dime stores, restaurants, even a local theater. Most residential streets had a convenience store or market on it. My father spent most of his adult working life employed by an elevator factory, just across the bridge. We had single family homes and apartment buildings. We had good public transit and you could walk to just about anything you needed. But that's been changing all my life. The stores on the residential streets have all been converted into homes costing a million or two. The strips of shops around the neighbourhood are drying up, they can't stay in business. The markets can't compete with the big box stores. No more local hardware stores and so on. The factory district across the bridge has been converted to retail, big box stores and self-storage units. The local mall is a ghost town, I don't know how it stays open. My family didn't own a car for much of my childhood. I need one now. We had all the local benefits, walkability and diversity you talk of, but that's all been going away over the last 15-20 years. We had the zoning that allowed the diversity, but so many other factors brought change. I don't know how we get local diversity back to the neighbourhood with the globalization of shopping.
...or the lack of cooking. No mothers bake cakes. The commercialisation of food is to be thought about.
Very informative. And nostalgic. I grew up in a small city outside Boston. Not suburbia, but not the heart of a major city either. There were mom and pop grocery/convenience stores, clothing repair, (tailor/seamstress) small workshops for fabrication in both metal and wood, even some small auto repair facilities.
The majority of homes were duplexes/triplexes, some converted from single family dwellings. I have to say that what was best by far was the age spread. My neighborhood ran the gamut from 3 recent high school grads pooling together to have their first home away from their parents to a long retired widower and everything in between. I saw what it was like to be 20, 30, 40, 50, etc. Now we have apartments for singles, communities for retired empty nesters. The age segregation of young from old illustrates the truth of a common T-shirt worn in the U.S. for a while-- "I'm not 40, I'm 18 with 22 years experience."
How can you expect to grow up if you have no role models?
And just about everything we needed was within walking distance. Grub, doctors in private practice (actually seeing patients in a home that was smack dab in the center of a residential zone) schools, libraries, hardware stores. (mostly mom and pop, common hardware items, very few tools)
It was a good setup and I believe most of our repair/maintenance people came from neighbors helping neighbors maintain/repair what we owned and passing the knowledge and experience on to their kids.
My neighborhood in central California, built in the 1950s, is strictly single family residences, but within a half mile is a small shopping center with a grocery store, dry cleaners, pharmacy, two small clothing stores, and a general merchandise store (clothing, home decor and supplies). I know some neighborhoods that were built in the last 30 years are 2 to 3 miles away from anything and even a 7-11 convenience store is more than a mile away.
I like how you're reflecting on the differences based on solid research as well as your own personal experience. Having lived in both Switzerland and the US, I can relate very much to what you're communicating here.
What you could bring into the discussion a bit more is how much the differences in urban planning are also dependent on adequate public transit options, pedestrian- and bike infrastructure. Unfortunately, car dependency and suburban sprawling mutually re-enforce each other. CityNerd and Not Just Bikes are two TH-cam channels who bring this up time and again.
Yes those are excellent channels! Suburbia is affected by so many other aspects of urban design and transportation. As you mention, unfortunately - it is in part of what makes it so difficult to change.
Gruezi.
While some zoning rules do make sense, the trend to a seperation of low income/high income, suburbias and trend locations, can lead to very unpleasant situations.
One example I can give is the situation in big Brasilian cities. There the "zoning" can be really extreme, especially in regard of the income/social status. I'm not even sure this a politically motivated thing, or a sort of evolution.
Basically, there are 3 different types of residential "zones" : one for rich/very rich people, one for very poor people, and one for the rest.
This seperation can be really extreme. It can happen, that you are not even allowed to go into a "rich zone", unless you were invited by a resident. There are barricades and guys with shotguns guarding those places. The other extreme are the Favelas, which basically means Slums. The access is not prohibited, but you better not go there, especially as a tourist or wealthy looking person.
Sometimes these zones are really close together. If you can look over a typical coastal city in the Rio or Sao Paulo region, you usually find a mile or so flat strip along the beach, and than a hill row behind that. On the hills you can see one hill with big snow white mansions with swimming pools and tennis courts and all that - and on the next hill, only half a mile away, is a Favela with the typical crammed self made houses in all kinds of colors.
Its exemplary for the extreme social inequality in Brasil and can easily lead to unrest, crime and such things - hence the secured neighbourhoods and the guys with shotguns.
Not a desirable situation and hard to accept for a average German visitor.
It sounds like what the US is becoming
That sounds awful :( Segregation based on who is wealthy, average and poor is very damaging...
@@paolaanimator It is awful. And there are some people, who don't even have a place to live in the Favela, they sleep in the street. Seeing the poverty is hard to endure for a European.
I have been fortunate enough to travel to several international cities. I do like the mixed use of the neighborhoods which I observed. The ability to walk to various businesses one would use regularly. US Suburbia skewed towards the need for the single occupant vehicle instead of walking, biking or public transportation. I sold my car several years ago and now I depend on a motorcycle and public transportation. I like this arrangement so much better.
Great that your channel goes more and more in a scientific and sociological direction!
I also had urban sociology in my studies!
I've researched the development of American suburbs for years, so I know all the history and culture behind their development (I really recommend Crabgrass Frontier, by the way), but it still astounds me how American planners decided it was a good idea to build neighborhoods without grocery stores and other small shops you can walk to. That just seems viscerally wrong on a basic, ontological level.
Planners knew that cars could take them to stores. They also made sure stores had spaces for all those cars with excessive requirements that only ever got filled up on black friday.
It was made that way to make everyone car dependant, more people buy cars and fuel.
@@VErisot in the end its all because of money...
CAUSE YOU CAN DRIVE. Why the fuck would I walk to the store and carry all my groceries home.
@@TheRockkickass Because it's not a true dichotomy.
I have always lived in walkable environments (Germany and all that). People do what they want. I can walk to the store to get something small, which is roughly equivalent in time than taking the car. This is preferred for small trips (as in, one needs to grab little from the store).
Which also means I can just grab something on my way back from work, the train station is also in walking distance.
On the other hand, if one needs to buy _a lot,_ you can also take the car to make a big trip.
In Suburbia? Have fun trying to walk to make a small trip. You do not have the _freedom_ to do that.
Drive to the shop, doordash or starve.
For me it's more like... Why the fuck would I take a car to grab one bag of groceries if I can just walk, keeping myself more healthy while doing so?
Not to mention that it also reduces expenses for fuel, maintenance and other car-related expenses.
Especially if, combining walkable cities with proper public transport means I don't even need a car at all.
I'm 34, I don't even have a driving license. Currently learning for one because I want a motorcycle.
Bringing different income groups and - God forbid - ethnicities together in a single housing development? For God's sake, that could solve the violence problem plaguing the US in the medium term and make people realize that they have been lied to for decades. Impossible, must not happen 😉
Seriously, though, I never understood how one could consider living in such sterile environment as Suburbia an increase of living quality. It's depressing.
I live in an area in Northern Germany (right next to Ostfriesland) that was farmland until about 2000. Cows grazed here. Then the farmer died, there was no one who wanted to continue the farm, so the land was sold to the city, which put out a residential zoning here - only single family homes but we don't have a housing shortage in our area, so that's fine. Today, some twenty years later, I have the following shopping facilities within walking distance, that is, within a radius of less than 15 minutes on foot:
Aldi, Lidl, DM, Netto, Kik, McDonald's, Burger King, a Greek restaurant, a donut parlor, a furniture store, a DIY store, two food trucks, an electronics store, a kitchen studio, a rental car station, a bed studio, two fitness studios, a wholesale grocery store, a car repair shop, two car dealerships, a pet supply store, as well as various craft businesses and smaller trades such as hairdressers, nail salons, or tattoo studios. And I'm sure I've forgotten something.
We also have an elementary school, various kindergartens, as well as playgrounds. And of course, everything is connected with bike paths, and buses go to the city center every 20 minutes. I recently got along wonderfully without a car for six weeks because my car was in the workshop for so long due to supply chain problems with spare parts.
THAT is what I call quality of living.
And that is one reason why even though I like the USA and the Americans and although I'm jealous of their beautiful country sometimes, I wouldn't wanna live there.
Initially, keeping certain ethnicities out was the driving motivation for the creation of zoning rules. I'm pretty sure that there are still mindests out there, for which that sterile environment is a small price to pay (or even appreciated), if they can just keep their colorless micro society.
@@sascharambeaud1609 it started to protect whites from violent non white crime, a completely valid concern in America
@@jettpayton1352hmm..racist or uneducated? Sometimes that's so hard to tell apart.
@@sascharambeaud1609 what these people cant comprehend is that white flight and redlining was what lead to crime spiking in the 70s and 80s
@@jettpayton1352 I'm pretty sure this segregating creates a criminal underclass in the first place. I live in Vienna and we have affordable public housing in every single district, even the most fancy ones. About 40% of the city is public housing and everyone can apply. This really prevents ghettoization and violent crime because nobody is cut off from essential services and education.
Outstanding video: interesting, informative, educational. Plus, your narration is superb. Really well done!
You earned a new subscriber! First time on your channel, and I very much appreciate your honest yet empathetic and pro-diversity perspective.
Thanks from an American, stuck in America....
For now, while actively bettering my own life/well-being and advocating for the drastic climate, social, equality, education etc action that is so desperately needed here.
Thank you for using your platform to bring more awareness to these issues, and differences.
The tragedy is really: The US once built walkable, liveable suburbs - along public transportation lines. When the automobile killed trams and trains it killed the whole idea of mixed-use zones. And even worse: the highway system destroyed many of those older neighborhoods near the downtown areas. Those few that survived are now most sought-after, right?
What's also worth mentioning in that contect: suburbia's infrastructure is not sustainable. In many places population density is so low that tax revenue doesn't fund the maintenance of all those miles and miles of roads and pipes - not to speak of the pathetic system of overhead power lines. Municipailties and developers can finance the construction, but we all can see how long road surface survives in America. Suburbia works like a ponzi scheme: once growth stops, the system is bound to collapse.
Elections have Consequences.... We were warned about our suburbs.. be well.
Trams and trains killed themselves by increasing the costs of ridership to make up for lost riders due to cars, instead of improving their services to remain appealing.
@@MrAnimason You don't need trams to build walkable towns/cities. Walkable cities have been a thing since the dawn of human history, because that's how people got around. Trams were a multiplier, it allowed people to get around further than they would otherwise on foot.
@@MrAnimason That's a whole different point. The success story of the automobile was powered by political decisions to build highways and car-dependent suburbs and to globaly secure access to cheap oil. It would have been possible to continue to plan cities with functioning mass transportation networks and mixed-use zones where citizens have everything they need within walking or easy commuting distance. But America chose a different way - and now faces the plight of suburbia.
@@amainzergoesplaces568 I wouldn't call it plight. I would just call it different.
I live in an American neighborhood built between 1900-1940. It’s a walkable neighborhood, but all the shops we used to have have gone out of business. I can still walk to the pediatrician, an elementary school, a barber shop and a convenience store. I do wish we had more.
Since the middle ages the tradespeople had their shops in their living homes. The baker lived above his bakery, for example...
In our village (about 10K in size), there once were a lot of small shops on the basement floor (every 2nd house originally had such a commercial space). They nearly all closed and were repurposed as normal apartments in recent years (it started in the early 90s). The problem is that once a commercial space has become residential space, it is extremely hard to change it back. Some people call it "dying city centers".There were originally 4 pubs in our village but now there is none left. The internet, local supermarkets and having to travel to work in the next big city make it nearly impossible for small storefronts to survive. Homeoffice has revived local life a bit but i fear that there is not much to change in the coming years.
Basically having all those servives living closely together makes cities more energy efficient. Energy is always costly. The US just did not realize how costly it could become one day.
Eine sehr interessante Folge! Unsere Tochter hat in Collegepark (MD) studiert. Wie das so ist, haben wir als Eltern ihr Zimmer eingerichtet 🤓. Ein IKEA war wenige 100 m von ihrem Haus entfernt. Aber! Es gab nicht den Hauch einer Chance, dorthin zu Fuß (es gibt keine Bürgersteige), mit einem Bus (gibs nicht) oder gar mit dem Fahrrad (Fahrrad scheint dort eher Sportgerät, als Verkehrsmittel zu sein) zu erreichen. Wenn man also mal einen Wandhaken vergessen hatte, musste man das viel zu große Auto anschmeißen. Dito, wenn man zum Grocery Store oder einem Supermarkt wollte.
Ich hatte permanent das Gefühl, dass der Stadtplaner wohl noch jung war und ein paar fundamentale Fehler gemacht hat - die irgendwann korrigiert werden. Bis ich gemerkt habe, dass dies eher die Regel ist. Andererseits ist Collegepark sehr gut mit OPNV mit Washington oder dem Airport verbunden ... nur muss man erst mal bis zur S-Bahn kommen ... irgendwie ...
Bei einem abendlichen Bier auf der Terrasse der Nachbarn, habe ich die Familie gefragt, warum das so extrem nervend ist und sie meinten dann, dass sie das eigentlich ganz OK finden. Denn "so sieht man, wenn komische Leute ins Viertel fahren". Zwar teile ich die Auffassung nicht, aber es zeigt mal wieder, dass man als Europäer nicht alles besser wissen muss.
In einem Küstenort nahe Boston hab ich dann jedoch auch Stadtentwürfe gefunden, die genau so auch 1:1 in Irland oder UK wiederzufinden wären: regelmaessiger Bus, Fahrradwege, Fußgängerwege, Mischgebiete mit Tante-Emma-Läden usw.
Was ich sagen will, die Amerikaner haben ja alle Stadtplanungs-Varianten im eigenen Land, können sich also an eigenen Beispielen orientieren - wenn sie denn wollen.😎
I know my German stinkt so here goes with Google Translate. Die endlosen Variationen der Perspektive lassen uns alle endlos alles hinterfragen. Ich war noch nie in Deutschland, bin aber größtenteils von der deutschstämmigen Seite meiner Familie erzogen worden. Ich hasse die Entwicklung der Vereinigten Staaten mit nur wenigen Ausnahmen, und ich habe vergessen, was diese Ausnahmen sind. Hummel Hummel.
Many thanks from germany for this specific comparison and insight on similarities we share! You've earned yourself another Subscriber, Thumbs up on all those tiny little details we share despite living on two different continents! Greetings from Augsburg, Swabia (Schwaben, District in bavaria) to our American friends! 😉
Awesome! Happy to have you watching. Cheers from the Black Forest.
Excellent video! I returned to the US in 2018 after a decade in Europe and saw the differences from the moment I got into my rental car and started driving. I'm not a fan of our zoning policies and I miss the mixed-zoning approach commonly found where I lived in Germany and Switzerland. I also lived in England for a while and noticed an impact to the traditional English town where mixed zoning was abandoned in favor of US-style suburbia. I currently live in the suburbs and have learned to adjust. It's a shame that my son had more freedom of mobility when he was 12 and we lived in Switzerland than he did here in the US until he got a driver's license. There is something fundamentally wrong with that kind of development strategy.
I have to say, I enjoy this new series about housing differences so so much. I'm super interested in architecture and affordable housing in particular. I find it extremely fascinating how different countries adapt their laws and regulations (or don't) to new demands and trends such as small and tiny houses, densification etc.
In Switzerland these changes are always slow to happen and often happen first locally in cities and towns that are lucky enough to have a government where the need and advantages are recognised. Another thing is that in Switzerland it often feels like poor people don't exist. I think during lockdown was the first time where it became visible just how many people are poor or have a very low income. And as long as this is not understood as something that affects everyone, it is not likely to change. I firmly believe that it is better to indirectly support people with affordable housing than having to constantly give them money to be able to meet the astronomical rents elsewhere.
Another barrier worth possibly exploring in the future as part of this series is property taxes. I am not sure what yours are in Switzerland - but compared to Germany - property taxes are much, much higher. And those taxes can be a huge barrier for low-income families who would like to purchase property. My hometown was/is considered "desirable" for families because it is part of a very good public school system. However, many families say that they can't afford to move to Sherman, IL because - although they could afford to buy the house - the yearly property taxes are too high.
@@TypeAshton I'm not sure about property taxes as such. What is really bad in Switzerland though is for one something called 'Eigenmietwert'. This means you have to pay income taxes on a fictive income (as if you rented your house out to someone else and had to pay taxes on that). This is okayish as long your place of residence doesn't feel the need to up the value according to the crazy immo market. When they do that many older people can't afford to stay in their home all of a sudden, because they can't afford the taxes.
The second thing that can get really bad is the 'Grundstücksgewinnsteuer'. Say you bought a lot 30-40 years ago and want to sell it now, you pay taxes on the increase in value. This can get so bad that many older people stay in their way-too-large houses because after taxes they couldn't even afford to buy a small apartment. So lots of things that really need reworking.
@@TypeAshton Yes! I would be interested in this topic, since property taxation negatively impacted my family when I was growing up in the US (we were eventually priced out of our home after years of struggle), and still has a huge impact on education and opportunity in US communities today. I would love to learn more about how other countries approach this issue, and what changes could be made to tax policies to create more equitable communities in the US.
I'll add my name to those interested in thoughts on property taxes. No argument that we need to pay for things (policy, fire, schools, libraries, streets, parks ...), but how do we structure it so the amount due is based more on ability to pay, rather than just the value of the property? And not have it so those with tons of money drive everyone else out of the market?
@@eds4196 yes, I agree. I’m happy to pay my share to keep my community a great place to live, but feel that the way taxes are structured, and the way the money is allocated, tends to benefit wealthy people, and often actively disadvantage those who have less. This comes into play big time with school funding (I’m guessing you probably know this, but many other people may not). Since schools are funded by property taxes, those who live in wealthy areas have substantial school budgets, while those who live in lower income areas tend to have far less, even though the needs may be greater in those latter communities. It is for that reason that my family fought so long to remain where we were rather than moving when housing costs began to skyrocket. The schools in that neighborhood were far better and offered a lot more opportunity than schools in more affordable areas. In the US we operate as though we are entirely in charge of our own fates, but there are so many obstacles that many folks deal with that are not their fault and are often well outside their ability to control.
Hi Ashton, I've always wondered about the composition of US housing estates that enforce car ownership. Your video at least made it clear to me why that is. Many thanks for that.
In my country, the standard is that most residential zones allow for certain small commercial uses specifically in corners. So almost every block of houses/apartments has a corner (usually family owned) grocery store or a drugstore of some kind, sometimes a barbershop, etc. Almost every person that lives in that area will shop in those blocks if necessary, avoiding using their car.
My sister-in-law lives in southern London (England), and 1 block away from her is a block consisting of small shops and restaurants. It’s wonderful to pop down the road and grab some hardware while my wife is across the street ordering dinner….
A friend lives above the grocery store and bakery his family owns - it is normal to us to walk into the grocery, past his office and open the door to the stairs that lead upstairs to their apartment!
I really appreciate the level of detail and research going into your episodes and your attempt to stick to facts and not be overly biased, this puts you far ahead most yt content where it's all about oversimplification and polarisation.
It's upsetting to see these issues and have everyone else acknowledge the way we design out cities as normal. Just the other day my wife and I saw two kids probably 10-12 years old walking down the main stroad that runs through my town. My wife commented about how surprised she was seeing them and that they are just kids and it's so dangerous just to walk down the road. We live in a place that is built for the car and not for people and it has become more and more upsetting when I see how other places do it better. It's hard to see young kids get excited about owning a car so now they can finally have some freedom. Eventually they realize how expensive that car is to maintain and now they're stuck with thousands of dollars of unnecessary costs at 16 years old all because we decided to build our towns for cars and not people.
That's rather missing the point. Cities aren't designed this way because they don't know better, they are designed this way because people WANT them this way. You might not, the host of this channel might not, but they are not the majority, at least in the US. Large plots of land with single family homes and no businesses in the neighborhood is actually desirable.
So we have to drive 5 minutes to get to the grocery store? So what, we have to drive anyway because you can't carry groceries for 5 people by hand anyway. It could be 2 blocks away and we'd still drive.
These neighborhoods keep the "riff-raff" out, so to speak, it's really hard for people who don't belong here to hide among nice homes. Criminals and the homeless stand out like sore thumbs and a first class police department makes sure they stay away.
So we need a car? It is 106 degrees in Dallas this week, I have zero desire to walk anywhere in this heat. Remote start the car, it's cool when I go driving, same thing when I come home. I get 30 seconds in the heat walking to/from it, and that's about it.
@@TechDeals I understand where you're coming from about the heat. I've lived in Florida all my life and walking anywhere where there's no covering can be exhausting after just a few minutes. I think the part that bothers me is much like what this video title is talking about. It's illegal to build anything other than single family homes in most residential areas in the US. We have very little mixed use zoning locations, so if I wanted to live without a car in a small community where I can walk or take public transit to work, the store, and most entertainment I want I can't. I have no choice or freedom to choose that lifestyle without leaving the country. There are also serious economic repercussions because most business are surrounded by gigantic parking lots. A huge amount of tax dollars go towards servicing roads, water systems, and electrical grids that are way bigger than they need to be because everywhere has to accommodate 100's of cars.
I am seriously not trying to be insulting, but it seems you clearly come from a place of privilege to think that having to drive 5 minutes to go to the store isn't a big deal. It may not be to you, but to the "riff-raff" who aren't able to afford cars, that is a very large distance, and can further cement their social economic position with almost no chance to ever climb the economic latter. If your job, home, and grocery store are not easy to get to using public transport, how is someone expected to survive without a car? You may want your suburban white picket fence home in a nice neighbor hood far away from civilization, but you should pay your fair share of what it costs to build and maintain the miles of roads and public utilities it costs rather than passing that cost off on the people who need the infrastructure the most.
Note: This is coming from someone who, as you may have been able to tell from the first comment, lives in a fairly nice suburban neighbor hood. I just want my kids to be able to walk to a near by candy store without people gawking at how they shouldn't be walking alone, or to be able to walk to the park down the road without being scared of being run down by a truck doing 60 MPH.
Yes, this is exactly why my wife and I decided to leave the US and move to Europe. We looked at France and Germany, but settled on Sweden because most major corporations here conduct all their business in English, so we knew it would be easier for us to find jobs here (they are also among the most child-friendly with the longest paid family leave). We now live in a beautiful neighborhood that is walking distance to everything we need. They also have clean, well-maintained bike paths that are kept separate from the roads with their own signage and under/overpasses so that you rarely need to cross any actual roads, but when you do, they are well marked with their own crossings and lights. We also don’t worry about the “rif-raf” (which @Tech Deals mentioned), since in Sweden, there are no homeless people and extremely low crime relative to the US. We actually like all of our neighbors and have found everyone here to be amazingly friendly and welcoming. So for those who are looking for a better life for themselves and their families (along with great infrastructure, free healthcare, free education, 5 weeks’ vacation, and 16 months of paid maternity and paternity leave), then they should seriously consider making the move. Yes, the taxes are higher here, but not by as much as you’d think. Plus, unlike in the US, you actually get what you pay for. I’m constantly being blown away by how well everything works here. And how everyone-government officials included are so “civil”-friendly and understanding. Like at the Motor Vehicles office where they even made us coffee! Until you’ve experienced it, you probably can’t even imagine how nice it is here.
Zoning laws aren't made according to public opinion like you seem to think.
@@BenGreggSweden Yes, Scandinavia is well-known for the things you mentioned. But the question is how an American can settle there. Don't you need a visa, work permit etc to be able to live and work there?
15:42 Wow, that is a real eye opener. I had thought about many related issues regarding this unfortunate separation, but could never quite put my finger on it. I see more clearly now.
Nice Video and very interesting that people are still discuss how to live together. Here in Germany it's kind of normal for me to have small shops like a hairdresser or at least a bakery in nearly every town.