From the article: Stop Sprawl: How to Design a Walkable Neighborhood
New Urbanist thinker James Howard Kunstler wrote that America has become a "national automobile slum" with a landscape dominated by parking lots and highways. Do you agree? What's your vision for America's cities and towns?
Speak your mind
Can't wait to leave America!
- I am so tired of the lack of cultural beauty and refinement in this country. The way that all natural areas are devastated when even a small building has to be built. The horrible, monotonous chain businesses everywhere, selling junk food and cheap rubbish made in China. Any cultural originality, seems to exist mostly just in the past now, when American towns and cities were actually beautiful, with nice, solid buildings, and REAL gardens, with flowers and various kinds of plants in them, including climbing vine plants, that made a neighborhood look striking. Americans are obsessed with mowing vast areas that are not even used, instead of turning them into gardens, or, God forbid, allowing wildflowers to grow there. They must spend a fortune on mowing, or concreting/tarmacing everything over. Turning every urban space into a parking lot, so that there's nowhere to walk without having to constantly look out for cars. There seems to be an obsession with sterility and monotony.
- —Guest Liz
Beautiful Country, Hideous Cities
- American cities and towns are hideous. The culprits are skyscrapers, strip malls open air car parks, suburbs and freeways. Good, well architected, traditional buildings with some modicum of style and history got razed in the past to make space for these monstrosities. American suburbs are the epitome of dullness and shoddiness, the awful plastic siding, plastic windows, asphalt shingle and lousy chipboard everywhere. It's a nice country, with beautiful landscapes here and there and nice people, but what the same people--American business especially--made of it is terrible. There are some places that are likeable, e.g., San Antonio in Texas, Santa Barbara in California, Miami South Beach in Florida--basically what used to be Spanish. But there are so very few of them for such a large country. It's just sad.
- —Guest Zdzislaw Meglicki
Depends on what lifestyle you prefer....
- Born in CA, USA, educated in Europe, I would take my current for the past 15 years Scottsdale AZ lifestyle over any European city. Custom homes with EVERYTHING in it, acreage, breathtaking views from every room, world class golf and outdoors within 5-10 min drive, safe, clean, quiet, very private. Undisputed quality. And NO! I would never give up my climate - controlled vehicles with sat comms for cattle-style smelly mass transit! I can visit a city but not live in it. In Europe you have to be one of only few very wealthy to live lifestyle that American middle class can afford. The vast majority of Europeans are stuck in flats and buses, dragging all their daily essentials in their backpacks. I agree that warehouse- style shopping malls and food chains are simply disgusting, but unfortunately so many people prefer cheap junk and that's the demand that is driving the market. And I sure don't want to pay taxes for someone's "free ride", including the government itself.
- —Guest AMN
Does America have a culture?
- Maybe this is the question. Or to rephrase: Does a society have a culture if the culture consists entirely of a market culture? In America (a deliberately political appellation), the only answer to the question, "Is it good?" is "Does it make money?" Americans seem incapable of articulating any set of values beyond this one. Since as a society Americans do not value a socialized medical system, education system, retirement system, etc. since childhood is not revered and valued, since things such as gun rights are elevated above standards of public health, the result is a fundamentally unaesthetic society. The hideousness of American society is typified in America's lack of standards to protect children who are citizens who cannot vote. The Sandy Hook massacre aside, how does the American rate of annual firearm deaths per capita compare with other similar countries? (see gunpolicy.org) The United States of America is a sad and hideous place that is unfit for children.
- —iconoclast1966
Awful depressing and slum looking
- From Holland originally, I get depressed when I return from there - takes me at least a week to get used to the slummy way everything looks with gaudy colors on commercial buildings, screaming loud signs, no architectural interesting place to be seen anywhere. It is very awful
- —Guest elsa
If You Leave America
- ...For a better country, you're never going to be able to go back to America without feeling dead, scared and miserable. Once you have seen the beauty of Scandinavia for example or even Ireland, or hell even parts of Russia it becomes hard to go back and try to situate yourself in the United States, even if you have a soul mate there, even if destiny calls you, you will feel like destiny is calling you to endure hell and you will always want to run away back to Europe, even willing to be with someone you don't love because it's easier to live, the government, and especially the gorgeous untouched environment that still exists. If you must live in America, do yourself a favor and remain ignorant, don't even go to these countries, because it will break your heart to have to go back and live in America and you will never stop longing to be there and the truth is you might even give up personal relationships and family to be there.
- —Guest jen
Commercial ugly
- Almost all commercial activity in America is ugly. And the roads are god awful. Huge, confusing, acres of unnecessary tarmac. Yet, many of the suburbs and houses are beautiful.
- —Guest Simon Worrall
Facelifts would do wonders to improve
- I see great facelifts all the time on buildings in malls and in neighborhoods. Just putting on a new face on many of these uninspiring boxes would make all the difference in the world. Interiors especially in malls need to be more creative. The blandness of architecture from about 1955 to 2000 or so is reminiscent of Soviet style blandness. Today's maximize-profit and minimize-beauty mentality in building leaves society dull and sad looking. Art in building is important, just like wearing clothes. Sure they function, but they also have style. American architects, building owners and developers need to realize that architecture is as much as public service as paying taxes.
- —Guest Joebuilder
Europe Best Urban Design
- Been to a few European cities and have to say they are well-designed and thoroughly thought-out. The UK is also, in my eyes, better than the States.
- —Guest ash
Disgusting cities
- I agree with many of the posters here: Again, America is bountiful with beautiful natural landscape but is slowly vanishing because of the terrible developing. Suburban areas (such as the one I live in) are just plain god-awful; if you don't have a car, you are stuck. The houses are clumped together in lots by the hundreds so it's just a wave of cookie-cutter, cheap houses. When I lived in Germany, and still visit, I felt less stuck in my mother's village of a few hundred people that was way out from the next "bigger" city than in the Texan suburb I live in now. Why? As one poster mentioned, transportation was clean, safe, and reliable and the village was surrounded by lush green hills and forests. My current city has tons of shopping and eating, but there really is nothing to do besides that. I feel boxed in and bored here, and in Germany I feel more free to do whatever and can admire the surroundings and stop in for a bite at a corner bakery. I couldn't dream of doing that here.
- —Guest Jennifer
Depressing
- Flat roof boxes with mechanicals tacked on outside, rivers of asphalt, cars racing through at 30 mph, oceans of parking filled with metal cars and plastic lenses, empty concrete sidewalks, huge propaganda signs yelling at you, chainlink keeping you out, soulless people afraid to look you in the eye. It is depressing.
- —Guest Tim
Yes, sadly
- America is most definitely an ugly country. The weird thing is though Germans always say to me that they feel German cities are ugly compared to the us cities!! Maybe it's the weather??? But anyhow after living in Britain for a year in the gorgeous city of Cambridge, I have to concur that the USA isn't attractive.
- —Guest Sammy
Industrial America, Roads Only.
- Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! America has natural beauty, but the towns, cities EVERYTHING is unimaginably ugly. The town I used to live in, there were only THREE streets with sidewalks. I felt sorry for all of the poor children, they couldn't go anywhere, it was just roads, malls, big box stores. Cars came at the worst time in America's development, and totally ruined everything. There are some things I love about this country that I grew up in, but I may raise my children in another country because it is just too ugly and depressing.
- —Guest Jo
George DeMarse
- Yes--the U.S. landscape is ugly. Much of it, like fast food joints, gas stations, stip malls, etc., were built around the roads and vehicle traffic. The roads have long since gone into disrepair and neglect because politicians refuse to tax anybody. What few new roads we do get are super interstate highways where the only available shopping and signs of life are off the exit ramps. Then what do we see--more roads and strip malls! Yes--the U.S. looks like an ugly off-ramp.
- —Guest George
VDS (Vehicle Driven Society)
- I feel that we as Americans rely on our vehicles too much. It seems like no matter what I have to do, no matter how minuscule the task; I must get in my car and drive to do it. American cities are not designed to be pedestrian- friendly. I feel we must take more pride in the way that we build. We are the greatest country in the world, therefore we should strive to make everything around us just as great. Take pride in everything we build or do, not cut corners just because of price. Vitruvius' definition of architecture says that a building must fulfill three basic principles. Firmness, Commodity, and Delight. I feel that we only acknowledge the first two in the definition and do not produce true architecture but just do the bare minimum. And with that we create a scene of the bare minimum that squanders our nations image.
- —Guest Sam Persons
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