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> The areas around New York City are among the least functional urban zones I've ever encountered. I would assume the greater NYC is the best functioning urban

by sampo 10y ago

> The areas around New York City are among the least functional urban zones I've ever encountered. I would assume the greater NYC is the best functioning urban area in the USA? However, if you measure by European or Japanese standards, then everything in USA is bad.

boxy310 10y ago
I remember on reddit when a Swedish guy started randomly looking at Google street views in northern Indiana, and was remarking how the occupied properties look like they were abandoned, and how often guns were brandished at the Google StreetView car. The houses looked exactly the same as those within a 10-minute drive from my house in a major American metro area. A big part of it is how young American cities are. Many European cities are celebrating 800 or 1000-year anniversaries. Many American cities are celebrating 100 or 150-year anniversaries.
rsync 10y ago
"I would assume the greater NYC is the best functioning urban area in the USA?" Probably not. I'm thinking Denver and Minneapolis, pound for pound ? Maybe Las Vegas ... as terrible (aesthetically) as Las Vegas is and as hellish as I think it is to be there, it seems to function fairly well. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, I'll bet San Diego is probably the best managed urban area in the US.
- jhbadger 10y ago
  Well, the public transit in SD is terrible. There is the "trolley", which basically a toy serving the downtown, and a bus system where most of the routes stop at 7pm and don't run on weekends at all. I recently moved back to the Washington DC area after living for some years in SD and despite the troubles of the Metro, it is 1000x better than the SD situation.
  - rsync 10y ago
    "Well, the public transit in SD is terrible." Agreed. But the question was which city is best managed, not which has better amenities in one or the other category. Having lived in both DC and SD, I would give say San Diego is relatively better managed.

by sampo 10y ago

boxy310 10y ago

I remember on reddit when a Swedish guy started randomly looking at Google street views in northern Indiana, and was remarking how the occupied properties look like they were abandoned, and how often guns were brandished at the Google StreetView car. The houses looked exactly the same as those within a 10-minute drive from my house in a major American metro area. A big part of it is how young American cities are. Many European cities are celebrating 800 or 1000-year anniversaries. Many American cities are celebrating 100 or 150-year anniversaries.

rsync 10y ago

"I would assume the greater NYC is the best functioning urban area in the USA?" Probably not. I'm thinking Denver and Minneapolis, pound for pound ? Maybe Las Vegas ... as terrible (aesthetically) as Las Vegas is and as hellish as I think it is to be there, it seems to function fairly well. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, I'll bet San Diego is probably the best managed urban area in the US.

jhbadger 10y ago
Well, the public transit in SD is terrible. There is the "trolley", which basically a toy serving the downtown, and a bus system where most of the routes stop at 7pm and don't run on weekends at all. I recently moved back to the Washington DC area after living for some years in SD and despite the troubles of the Metro, it is 1000x better than the SD situation.
- rsync 10y ago
  "Well, the public transit in SD is terrible." Agreed. But the question was which city is best managed, not which has better amenities in one or the other category. Having lived in both DC and SD, I would give say San Diego is relatively better managed.