Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Do you guys want EVERYONE to live in the city? Wouldn't overpopulation happen anyway? It would just happen within the city, like Indian cities.
What the government should have done is create more cities from places where there are none. Then they can connect them to high speed rail so that existing cities won't be overcrowded when they build new ones like how they build suburbs where there was once just wilderness before.
LoL @ waronxmas pointing out SF's sprawl, and being so off base on the companies
San Jose is denser and more populated than Atlanta, the nerve of some people... Atlanta must be Sprawltropolis, and it's actual sprawl must be UberSprawl!
I'll keep this short. I have lived in all types of areas. I choose not to live in a densely populated area but can still get fresh food, don't spend 3 hours in a supermarket and that little shopping cart you felt like posting, I am pretty sure I was using one before you were born.
Oh, and fresh seafood, pass the store everyday on my way home that gets it from the docks a few blocks away.
congrats. You should feel good. Obviously if you're a few blocks from the sea you're going to have access to fresh seafood. My whole point is i'm minutes away from all types of stores, baker, a butcher, farmer's market, there also about 3 dozen restaurants and a dozen bars within a mile of my house. Moving away from food, also a tailor, dry cleaner, furniture store, multiple art stores, smoke shop, a record store, at least 5 book stores, 3 thrift stores, comic book shop, 3 pharmacies, computer store, 2 florists, 2 theaters, a concert hall, a movie theater, 6 parks, two sports fields, 3 public schools, an art college..... Do I really need to keep going? Anything I could possibly want or need is at the most a fifteen min walk from me.
congrats. You should feel good. Obviously if you're a few blocks from the sea you're going to have access to fresh seafood. My whole point is i'm minutes away from all types of stores, baker, a butcher, farmer's market, there also about 3 dozen restaurants and a dozen bars within a mile of my house. Moving away from food, also a tailor, dry cleaner, furniture store, multiple art stores, smoke shop, a record store, at least 5 book stores, 3 thrift stores, comic book shop, 3 pharmacies, computer store, 2 florists, 2 theaters, a concert hall, a movie theater, 6 parks, two sports fields, 3 public schools, an art college..... Do I really need to keep going? Anything I could possibly want or need is at the most a fifteen min walk from me.
Some people don't want that though...or care about being close to it. My mama sure doesn't. She likes living out in the country because it's nice and quiet. (i don't think she would like suburbs though). The country is boring to young people though, so i've asked her a couple times before "why didn't you move to raleigh or such and such city here?" She's never wanted to live in a city. So some people aren't missing out on those things because they don't care for it. They're not bothered driving 15 mins for things instead of walking 15 mins.
I don't have a huge problem with sprawl per se....but when it becomes the primary new development for a city, it's a problem.
Sprawl is a product of everyone wanting the American Dream. Some people are fine with living in condos or apartments in very dense areas...others want a little space. Sprawl provides the dream of your own home, with your own yard, and your own garage to park your car.
I think every city should have its fair share of sprawl. You have the urbanites in their densely packed living conditions, your in-town dwellers with their tightly packed homes, and your suburbanites with their larger lawns with more space. I don't see a problem with that.
What I do see a problem with is unplanned and unadulterated development. There are too many cases where neighborhoods of 2-3-or even 4,000 units are built away from a city on farmland and narrow unimproved 2 lane roads not suited to handle the traffic from such a development. Another pet peeve of mine is seeing large non-contiguous tracts of farmland developed...so in effect, you have a large neighborhood...then a farm...then large lot houses, then another large neighborhood. It looks f-ed up. Beyond that, you have cul-de-sacs and winding streets with only one or at most a few outlets. I'm not saying everything needs to conform with a grid pattern, but it's no small wonder that so many cities have become traffic nightmares because the suburban communities don't have connecting roads that provide ease of travel. Sure, you get your quiet neighborhood streets...but at the expense of 2-3 lane suburban connectors and collectors with 5 times as much traffic as they should handle at peak hours.
Americans have a right to live where they like, but I think city/state leaders should bite the bullet and plan ahead.
The only problem I have with the newer stuff, is that it has such a private and detached vibe, that there is pretty much no sense of community. I would never want my kids to grow up in such seclusion, it would hurt their social development. Classmates are one thing, but it can't compare to the neighborhood kids and the neighborhood experience.
Do you guys want EVERYONE to live in the city? Wouldn't overpopulation happen anyway? It would just happen within the city, like Indian cities.
Being against sprawl doesn't necessarily mean being against suburbs. It just means they are opposed to the massive housing and retail developments which consist of massive parking lots, rely on virtually 100% large corporate chains as tenants, and have zero aesthetic appeal whatsoever.
Suburbs don't necessarily have to have the historic homes and town centers of Westchester County, NY or Plymouth County, MA...but they can avoid this (http://americancity.org/images/buzz/58183800_bbc817770d_o.jpg - broken link)and this.
The biggest problem with car oriented suburbs ad exburbs is that the zoning encourages sprawl. I live in a neighborhood that has about 8000 pp/mi, the neighborhood next door is about 20000 pp/mi. In both areas there are apartments, large homes, condos and small homes on the same block. Everyone who lives within in a 1 mile radius of me has easy access to groceries, amenities and transit: 2 subway stations, ~100 restaurants and eateries, 1 farmer's market, 2 mainstream grocery stores, 1 indie grocery, 1 natural foods store, 1 produce stand, 2 drugstores and plenty of shops. I am not in the "Center" of town.
If zoning allowed mixed use and mixed density neighborhoods, towns could grow in a sustainable way. Today's suburbs are designed to not walk/bike or bus anywhere -- they start with the town center, drive 5-10 miles and build single family homes off the highway. The only transit option is to drive. Rethinking our cities to design around a town square where shopping and services are concentrated and where different types of housing are within in 2 miles of the center of town would allow everyone to live in a slightly denser area, cut down on pollution and increase activity levels of the residents.
People who drive their car to go shopping normally go once a month... or even less frequently. loading up and then going back when you're running low.
This is the most ridiculous comment I've seen on this thread. Offering up this gem shows that you are as ignorant of other peoples lifestyles as other people are ignorant of folding shopping carts.
Quick show of hands: how many of you slacked jawed, soulless suburbanites only go grocery shopping one a month?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
