2 ms·
My favorite is Detroit and their absolutely ridiculous approach to planning the city, which was along the lines of “hue hue hue hue let’s make it look like a wh
by seanp2k2 5y ago
My favorite is Detroit and their absolutely ridiculous approach to planning the city, which was along the lines of “hue hue hue hue let’s make it look like a wheel and spokes!!” then only a decade later “hmm wait never-mind”, leading to an awful mishmash of design ideas resulting in a downtown that is basically impossible to drive. Luckily, no one really goes downtown in Detroit since the riots in the 60s, otherwise the traffic would be terrible.
https://detroitplanninghistory.weebly.com/1700-1900.html https://detroitplanninghistory.weebly.com/1700-1900.html
This was fun too: https://panethos.wordpress.com/2020/11/22/the-worst-failures-of-american-urban-planning/ https://panethos.wordpress.com/2020/11/22/the-worst-failures...
They also displaced whole neighborhoods to build highways and bridges https://www.luc.edu/eminent-domain/siteessays/detroitmi/ https://www.luc.edu/eminent-domain/siteessays/detroitmi/
Add in the collapse of the American auto industry that was keeping Detroit relevant and these days it all adds up to be a place I never see myself going back to in this lifetime, and an example of how bad in so many different ways a city can be.
Bonus: they have an above-ground train that goes between places no one actually ever goes between https://gizmodo.com/i-spent-a-day-on-the-world-s-most-pointless-transit-sys-1723996796 https://gizmodo.com/i-spent-a-day-on-the-world-s-most-pointl... it’s like if BART went between the SAP Center and Levi’s Stadium with no other stops.