3 ms·
> A few generations ago inner cities were too dense, filthy, undrivable and morally corrupt to allow civilisation to flourish. Wrong, due to an specific Anglo-
by forkandwait 9y ago
> A few generations ago inner cities were too dense, filthy, undrivable and morally corrupt to allow civilisation to flourish.
Wrong, due to an specific Anglo-American cultural meme. Civilization has flourished in cities as long as there has been civilization. In the U.S. (uniquely), we ruined cities post WW2 by subsidizing highways and cars and low density suburban mortgages, due to said cultural fetish. Plus a whole lot of racism.
In France, to my knowledge, there was never a time when the central city was considered lower class than the suburbs (ahem, Paris, ahem). And I think this is generally true.
- TheAdamAndChe 9y ago> Wrong, due to an specific Anglo-American cultural meme. We're talking about the US, so those "memes" are relevant.
- dalbasal 9y agoWell… it’s me he quoted and I’m Irish, not american. I wasn’t talking about the US only. Anyway, it’s not an american meme. In Dublin, there was a massive (and disastrous) effort to move the urban underclass from inner city tenements to what is now inner suburbs. Two generations before that, the upper middle class migrated from the inner city to (different) inner city suburbs. The idea that cities are decrepit and suburbs are the future is a recurring one. Charles Dickens’ soot covered cities (in england, so I guess anglo-american?) existed and the middle class moved to the suburbs, much like americans. The trend back into city centres today is wider than the US too.
- notfromhere 9y agoMiddle and upper class wants to move away from industrial spaces. This is why migration patterns have changed from cities to cities based on manufacturing shifting from urban to suburban to rural