We Might Be Able to Fix the Suburbs
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The suburbs don't have to be bad. We can improve them by looking at what makes them problematic in the first place and what we can change to create the subur...
  • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
    29·
    11 months ago

    And here’s my European suburb ass thinking those 13 minutes to walk to the store are rather long…

    • Mannivu@feddit.itEnglish
      14·
      11 months ago

      I live in a small European town (~17000 persons) and if I walk 13 minutes I get to the other side of the town.

  • 768English
    23·
    11 months ago

    Largely overlooked feature of overzoning, parking requirements and setback regulations are the economical opportunity cost - odd for the USA and its history of deregulation and neoliberalisation.

    • Magiccupcake@startrek.websiteOPEnglish
      9·
      11 months ago

      I agree, it seems like it should be easy to convince libertarians and conservatives with deregulations, but exactly how to frame that argument is tricky.

      • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        11 months ago

        Deregulation would be a horrible idea, given the disasters that created over time. If we want town centers over suburbs, that’s a great goal, and zoning needs to support that. Zoning should be a tool for creating places we want to live.

        I’m sure it helps that my town was built out before cars, but we have zoning encouraging denser housing near transit and near town centers, we have a great walkable “Main Street” with shops and restaurants, and parking in back. And we don’t have “stroads”

        Fixing Bad zoning doesn’t mean throwing out zoning, it means revisit your end goals and ensure zoning supports them.

        And yes we have sufficient parking for everyone. However we can get away with less parking by making walking and transit convenient; it doesn’t start by making things tough to get to

        • Magiccupcake@startrek.websiteOPEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          I dont mean throw out zoning entirely, but reducing the way they promote single family housing only. I live in a county with a million people and 84% of the land is single family zoning only, I want to throw that bit out.

          Also if done right you dont need to zoning for all those things. Transit development will drive denser, walkable areas all on its own if its legal to build those kinds of areas. All the city has to do it manage transit as these areas develop.

          • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            11 months ago

            Zoning lets us banish hazardous or noisy industry from where people live, it lets us specify features like sidewalks and trees, it lets us size development appropriate to the area and to the infrastructure. It lets us protect society and future citizens by specifying minimum standards for health, safety, livability.

            While it’s up to the market to decide, local government can’t abdicate its responsibility for shaping the market to best serve the citizens

            • Magiccupcake@startrek.websiteOPEnglish
              2·
              11 months ago

              I don’t disagree, but where I live zoning is a large part of the problem

              The zoning in my area perpetuates unwalkable, uncyclable, parking lot infested sprawl, because single family houses take up 84% of the available land.

              I don’t want industry to move into neighborhoodseither , but I wouldn’t mind commercial or retail, currently prohibited.

                • Magiccupcake@startrek.websiteOPEnglish
                  11·
                  11 months ago

                  That would ne ideal, but sadly city planning in the United states is too political.

                  We’ll never get anything done relying on city planning, so the only thing that seems possible is to improve the city organically, through markets.

  • RubberElectrons@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    11 months ago

    Note in the image, the reduction of greenery as well. We’ve got to be careful to keep a balance of green and urban, but this is otherwise a great idea.

    • Magiccupcake@startrek.websiteOPEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Parking lots waste a lot of area that could be green space too.

      But yes overdevelpment could be a problem , but is easily fixed by adding a green space rule to development. Like we have now for minimum parking and such.

      Also high speed roads destroy a lot of green space too, with nothing in the median or a good chunk on either side, and huge empty areas in dead zones of interchanges.

      Lets not think cuurent car use is good for green space.

  • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    11 months ago

    So the solution to suburbs is town/village centers? You can still see some of these in the US, for areas built up before cars

    I just want to say it really is awesome: this is one of the reasons I live near Boston. I’ve always appreciated walkable neighborhoods and town centers whether living in the city itself or surrounding communities.

    I wanted to relate an experience for the first Thanksgiving my ex and I hosted together. We moved into a townhouse near a town center. Small yard, privacy, off street parking, quiet street. Nice. However neither of us had hosted a large meal before. I got to know my future father-in-law as we walked to the nearby grocery for “one last thing we missed” five times. The point is we could, and it was the most convenient way to get there