7 ms·

A Decade of Urban Transformation, Seen from Above

41 points by jbegley 7y ago

neonate 7y ago
http://archive.md/NrnL8 http://archive.md/NrnL8 (Doesn't have the 'after' images though.)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
fourthark 7y ago
Just don’t try to scroll back to see any of them again, or you will end up somewhere else on the page.
cgriswald 7y ago
I'm from Minnesota originally and still have family there, so I visit regularly. It looks both the same and very, very different from when I lived there. It almost feels like an alternate reality. I grew up primarily south of the river in what would probably have been considered exurbs. There were farms and vast areas of undeveloped land. They're all quite suburban now (a lot of this was happening when I was growing up) and the populations have exploded. This same thing seems to have happened in many other cities around the U.S. as indicated by the 'bullet wound' pattern all over the map.
Ericson2314 7y ago
Which is more likely to end the suburban madness: land war / security breakdown or carbon tax?
- mirimir 7y ago
  That's hard to say. The US sure painted itself into a corner with suburbanization. I doubt that it's reversible. Or at least, that it would ever be reversed before it was far too late.
  - dashundchen 7y ago
    It already is too late for much of the of mass suburbanization in the US. They are not finanically sustainable. https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme A bit of a read in a 5 part series but well worth it. Strongtowns.org refers to suburban sprawl as the "growth ponzi scheme". Low density sprawl requires more infrastructure with less density to pay for it. The density of suburbs can never hope to pay for the renewal of roads, water, sewers, schools without massive transfer payments from denser areas. By the time the bill comes and the illusion of growth has stopped, the center of development has already moved out to the next ring of farms to pave over for subdivisions, shopping plazas and highway expansions.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  High cost of fuel to income ratios. People aren't going to give up single family detached homes with garages and yards until they have to. And they're sure as hell not going to vote for it. Alternatively, sufficient numbers of people stop having children altogether, and then don't mind living in dense cities.
  - asdf21 7y ago
    I'd advocate for the opposite... I think everyone should own an acre or two, planted with as many trees as possible to stave off climate change. There are many more mental health issues in densely populated areas, much less biodiversity, more pollution, etc. >Alternatively, sufficient numbers of people stop having children altogether, We tried that, it was called billed as a "aging population crisis" and used as justification to import millions of people from other failed countries into the US.
    - bwanab 7y ago
      Lots of people living far away from each other - this is the recipe for mental health issues related to loneliness. Young people are voting with their feet by moving from such areas to urban areas and they're staying there.
      - asdf21 7y ago
        I'm one of those people.. and I hate it in the city. But I like making six figures and that's not currently possible where I'm from originally. >mental health issues related to loneliness Citation? It's a fact that urban living is associated with higher levels of mental illness, not just conjecture.
        icebraining 7y ago
        I don't have a citation for loneliness per se, but suicide rates for young people are much higher in rural areas, "even after controlling for a broad array of county-level sociodemographic, economic, and health care system characteristics." https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2195006 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/... Of course, there's always the issue about whether suburbs and exurbs count as rural or urban, which leads to people talking past each other.
- nine_zeros 7y ago
  Gas prices. We're really really dependent on a finite resource
  - BrandonMarc 7y ago
    Not if Elon Musk and Bill Gates have their way. Electric cars, using power provided by thorium reactors ... two massive game-changers for everybody.
- naravara 7y ago
  >Which is more likely to end the suburban madness: land war / security breakdown or carbon tax? The hollowing out of the middle class will get there first. Already the outer ring suburbs and excessive McMansions are becoming concentrations of poverty. As the jobs go, so will go the young people and these suburbs without any real economic anchors will become ghost towns of lonely, elderly folks with nobody to take care of them. They will be without the means to move elsewhere because they're stuck owning a house nobody wants to buy or rent. Their best bet is to hope someone builds a bus or metro line to the nearest job center so a real estate developer might come by and buy up a block.
nojvek 7y ago
American Exurbia/Surbubia reminds me of this song by Malvina Reynolds Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes all the same, There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same. And the people in the houses All went to the university Where they were put in boxes And they came out all the same And there's doctors and lawyers And business executives And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same. And they all play on the golf course And drink their martinis dry And they all have pretty children And the children go to school, And the children go to summer camp And then to the university Where they are put in boxes And they come out all the same. And the boys go into business And marry and raise a family In boxes made of ticky tacky And they all look just the same, There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same.
- asdf21 7y ago
  Also the theme song to Weeds
- malyk 7y ago
  IIRC, she was inspired to write the song by the rows of identical square houses with identical rectangular picture windows on the hillside of daly city south if san francisco.
- TulliusCicero 7y ago
  I'm an urbanist and hate this sort of condescending BS. Like, sure single family homes in suburbia tend to look the same. You know what also looks the same from the outside? Apartments. Literally all you can see for each one is a window and maybe a balcony, and they all look identical. The problem with American suburbia is not that houses are similar looking, or that the people in them raise families, go into business, or go to university. The song seriously reads like r/im14andthisisdeep material.
  - naravara 7y ago
    >Like, sure single family homes in suburbia tend to look the same. You know what also looks the same from the outside? Apartments. Literally all you can see for each one is a window and maybe a balcony, and they all look identical. It really kind of depends. People focus on the "And they all look just the same" element of the song and glance over the fact that they're "made of ticky-tacky." In an urban setting large solidly built structures slowly form accretions and extensions to them that slowly help a neighborhood develop character and personality over time. Large apartment blocks that don't permit something like that, as you see in lots of East Asian countries where they had to throw up tons of housing REAL fast, can also end up looking really bland and dehumanizing. But then you go to a place that has had time to really develop character as multiple generations of residents have written over them without ever fully erasing what came before and you end up with beloved urban centers like New York or Paris. The suburban development model doesn't really allow for that. The houses can get extensions in theory, but often deed restrictions or HOAs insist on things adhering to specifically defined code about how they can look and what they can do. The conformism is a willful aesthetic choice rather than just a pragmatic shortcut.
dredmorbius 7y ago
NYT's "interactives" features are an excellent example of presentation directly thwarting reader utility. There's a classic format for side-by-side image comparison. It's called "side-by-side image comparison". Display both images (or all images in a series), and allow the reader's eye to move between them at will, picking out differences and similarities. By scroll-hijacking and overloading, this is defeated. I cannot toggle between images, and instead have to scroll up some indeterminate and majickal amount before ... I'm parked several paragraphs or images above, or my viewing position simply jumps randomly about the page. Some designer is having a fun time, but this is too clever by half. Please stop.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  Just to be clear: the article and analysis are interesting. The presentation detracts massively from them.
cia-killer 7y ago
Soccer, Baseball, Basketball being replace by Asian sports. Should be titled The Great Replacement.

41 points by jbegley 7y ago

neonate 7y ago

http://archive.md/NrnL8 http://archive.md/NrnL8 (Doesn't have the 'after' images though.)

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

fourthark 7y ago

Just don’t try to scroll back to see any of them again, or you will end up somewhere else on the page.

cgriswald 7y ago

I'm from Minnesota originally and still have family there, so I visit regularly. It looks both the same and very, very different from when I lived there. It almost feels like an alternate reality. I grew up primarily south of the river in what would probably have been considered exurbs. There were farms and vast areas of undeveloped land. They're all quite suburban now (a lot of this was happening when I was growing up) and the populations have exploded. This same thing seems to have happened in many other cities around the U.S. as indicated by the 'bullet wound' pattern all over the map.

Ericson2314 7y ago

Which is more likely to end the suburban madness: land war / security breakdown or carbon tax?

mirimir 7y ago
That's hard to say. The US sure painted itself into a corner with suburbanization. I doubt that it's reversible. Or at least, that it would ever be reversed before it was far too late.
- dashundchen 7y ago
  It already is too late for much of the of mass suburbanization in the US. They are not finanically sustainable. https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme A bit of a read in a 5 part series but well worth it. Strongtowns.org refers to suburban sprawl as the "growth ponzi scheme". Low density sprawl requires more infrastructure with less density to pay for it. The density of suburbs can never hope to pay for the renewal of roads, water, sewers, schools without massive transfer payments from denser areas. By the time the bill comes and the illusion of growth has stopped, the center of development has already moved out to the next ring of farms to pave over for subdivisions, shopping plazas and highway expansions.
lotsofpulp 7y ago
High cost of fuel to income ratios. People aren't going to give up single family detached homes with garages and yards until they have to. And they're sure as hell not going to vote for it. Alternatively, sufficient numbers of people stop having children altogether, and then don't mind living in dense cities.
- asdf21 7y ago
  I'd advocate for the opposite... I think everyone should own an acre or two, planted with as many trees as possible to stave off climate change. There are many more mental health issues in densely populated areas, much less biodiversity, more pollution, etc. >Alternatively, sufficient numbers of people stop having children altogether, We tried that, it was called billed as a "aging population crisis" and used as justification to import millions of people from other failed countries into the US.
  - bwanab 7y ago
    Lots of people living far away from each other - this is the recipe for mental health issues related to loneliness. Young people are voting with their feet by moving from such areas to urban areas and they're staying there.
    - asdf21 7y ago
      I'm one of those people.. and I hate it in the city. But I like making six figures and that's not currently possible where I'm from originally. >mental health issues related to loneliness Citation? It's a fact that urban living is associated with higher levels of mental illness, not just conjecture.
      - icebraining 7y ago
        I don't have a citation for loneliness per se, but suicide rates for young people are much higher in rural areas, "even after controlling for a broad array of county-level sociodemographic, economic, and health care system characteristics." https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2195006 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/... Of course, there's always the issue about whether suburbs and exurbs count as rural or urban, which leads to people talking past each other.
nine_zeros 7y ago
Gas prices. We're really really dependent on a finite resource
- BrandonMarc 7y ago
  Not if Elon Musk and Bill Gates have their way. Electric cars, using power provided by thorium reactors ... two massive game-changers for everybody.
naravara 7y ago
>Which is more likely to end the suburban madness: land war / security breakdown or carbon tax? The hollowing out of the middle class will get there first. Already the outer ring suburbs and excessive McMansions are becoming concentrations of poverty. As the jobs go, so will go the young people and these suburbs without any real economic anchors will become ghost towns of lonely, elderly folks with nobody to take care of them. They will be without the means to move elsewhere because they're stuck owning a house nobody wants to buy or rent. Their best bet is to hope someone builds a bus or metro line to the nearest job center so a real estate developer might come by and buy up a block.

nojvek 7y ago

American Exurbia/Surbubia reminds me of this song by Malvina Reynolds Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes all the same, There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same. And the people in the houses All went to the university Where they were put in boxes And they came out all the same And there's doctors and lawyers And business executives And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same. And they all play on the golf course And drink their martinis dry And they all have pretty children And the children go to school, And the children go to summer camp And then to the university Where they are put in boxes And they come out all the same. And the boys go into business And marry and raise a family In boxes made of ticky tacky And they all look just the same, There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same.

asdf21 7y ago
Also the theme song to Weeds
malyk 7y ago
IIRC, she was inspired to write the song by the rows of identical square houses with identical rectangular picture windows on the hillside of daly city south if san francisco.
TulliusCicero 7y ago
I'm an urbanist and hate this sort of condescending BS. Like, sure single family homes in suburbia tend to look the same. You know what also looks the same from the outside? Apartments. Literally all you can see for each one is a window and maybe a balcony, and they all look identical. The problem with American suburbia is not that houses are similar looking, or that the people in them raise families, go into business, or go to university. The song seriously reads like r/im14andthisisdeep material.
- naravara 7y ago
  >Like, sure single family homes in suburbia tend to look the same. You know what also looks the same from the outside? Apartments. Literally all you can see for each one is a window and maybe a balcony, and they all look identical. It really kind of depends. People focus on the "And they all look just the same" element of the song and glance over the fact that they're "made of ticky-tacky." In an urban setting large solidly built structures slowly form accretions and extensions to them that slowly help a neighborhood develop character and personality over time. Large apartment blocks that don't permit something like that, as you see in lots of East Asian countries where they had to throw up tons of housing REAL fast, can also end up looking really bland and dehumanizing. But then you go to a place that has had time to really develop character as multiple generations of residents have written over them without ever fully erasing what came before and you end up with beloved urban centers like New York or Paris. The suburban development model doesn't really allow for that. The houses can get extensions in theory, but often deed restrictions or HOAs insist on things adhering to specifically defined code about how they can look and what they can do. The conformism is a willful aesthetic choice rather than just a pragmatic shortcut.

dredmorbius 7y ago

NYT's "interactives" features are an excellent example of presentation directly thwarting reader utility. There's a classic format for side-by-side image comparison. It's called "side-by-side image comparison". Display both images (or all images in a series), and allow the reader's eye to move between them at will, picking out differences and similarities. By scroll-hijacking and overloading, this is defeated. I cannot toggle between images, and instead have to scroll up some indeterminate and majickal amount before ... I'm parked several paragraphs or images above, or my viewing position simply jumps randomly about the page. Some designer is having a fun time, but this is too clever by half. Please stop.

dredmorbius 7y ago
Just to be clear: the article and analysis are interesting. The presentation detracts massively from them.

cia-killer 7y ago

Soccer, Baseball, Basketball being replace by Asian sports. Should be titled The Great Replacement.