There’s something deeply unsettling about American suburbs, rows of identical houses, and not a human being in sight, no noises, just this artifical maze, my Uber took a detour though one once and I looked up from my phone and saw that I didn’t realize where I am and it all looked so identical it was disorienting and I freaked out a bit, had to open Google maps to realize where I was. The movie Vivarium captures this feeling well. Why don’t y’all get out and go for a walk and talk to your neighbors.
I am an American, and I once found myself far from home traveling through what I later learned was a ‘bedroom community’ in New Jersey just trying to find a place where we could all pull over and eat something, but apparently “restaurants” were just supremely exotic anywhere within in those, Idk, 300 sq miles.
It was EXTREMELY unsettling… even for an American!
The suburbs are bad enough but what really gets me when play Geoguessr type games is how much of towns are just a highway with a strip mall and parking lots. Gives me a weird dread-like feeling, kinda like being inside a dying mall right before it’s closing.
Yeah separating commercial and residential zones so much creates such dead zones, and a huge car dependency. Where I grew up everything I needed was in walking distance, from the optometrist to the bodega, never needed a car and my neighborhood felt so lively.
Even in the deepest suburbs it’s not that hard to form community and connection with your neighbors. Hold a few yard sales, make small talk, greet people walking their dogs, get to know who lives where. That’s literally all it takes, that and actually going out.
We complain endlessly, particularly on sites like Lemmy, about the US’s lack of “walkable cities” and other systemic obstacles to having better sense of community and social contact, but we hardly ever see people doing something about it.
I get that it’s less “fun” to go out and make friends if you don’t got a riverwalk and cafes, but the most important ingredient is still there, which is other people you just need to step up and make things happen.
Most places don’t actually look like this. You see stuff like this when a single developer buys up a bunch of land and stamps down a bunch of houses with the same 2-3 layouts. It’s pretty shitty and I’d eager most people don’t actually like it.
Most suburbs here are much more heterogenous as the houses are added incrementally over time.
These types of identical house suburban hellholes are the exception, not the norm. Mostly it’s the newer developments being built out in the middle of nowhere that look like this, and presumably so the builders can skimp out on construction costs by making (or attempting to make…) everything the same for each one. Plus the HOA, “but muh resale value!” factor.
I live in an American suburb. All the houses in my neighborhood, and all the others in town, are different. We don’t have an insane HOA and I can paint my house whatever color I want. We have quite a few services, shops, and various eateries (to be fair, three of them are fast food joints) well within walking distance. With sidewalks. And in some places, even a bike lane.
This area was built up in the 1940’s through the late 1950’s in the post-war boom.
There’s something deeply unsettling about American suburbs, rows of identical houses, and not a human being in sight, no noises, just this artifical maze, my Uber took a detour though one once and I looked up from my phone and saw that I didn’t realize where I am and it all looked so identical it was disorienting and I freaked out a bit, had to open Google maps to realize where I was. The movie Vivarium captures this feeling well. Why don’t y’all get out and go for a walk and talk to your neighbors.
I am an American, and I once found myself far from home traveling through what I later learned was a ‘bedroom community’ in New Jersey just trying to find a place where we could all pull over and eat something, but apparently “restaurants” were just supremely exotic anywhere within in those, Idk, 300 sq miles.
It was EXTREMELY unsettling… even for an American!
The suburbs are bad enough but what really gets me when play Geoguessr type games is how much of towns are just a highway with a strip mall and parking lots. Gives me a weird dread-like feeling, kinda like being inside a dying mall right before it’s closing.
Yeah separating commercial and residential zones so much creates such dead zones, and a huge car dependency. Where I grew up everything I needed was in walking distance, from the optometrist to the bodega, never needed a car and my neighborhood felt so lively.
Even in the deepest suburbs it’s not that hard to form community and connection with your neighbors. Hold a few yard sales, make small talk, greet people walking their dogs, get to know who lives where. That’s literally all it takes, that and actually going out.
We complain endlessly, particularly on sites like Lemmy, about the US’s lack of “walkable cities” and other systemic obstacles to having better sense of community and social contact, but we hardly ever see people doing something about it.
I get that it’s less “fun” to go out and make friends if you don’t got a riverwalk and cafes, but the most important ingredient is still there, which is other people you just need to step up and make things happen.
the aetheric monotonous nightmare of commie blocks, with absolutely zero advantages, high cost, and HOA control
little boxes
You ever seen Vivarium?
Yeah I mentioned it in my original comment, nice movies
Oh word. My bad.
That shit is WOKE.
Most places don’t actually look like this. You see stuff like this when a single developer buys up a bunch of land and stamps down a bunch of houses with the same 2-3 layouts. It’s pretty shitty and I’d eager most people don’t actually like it.
Most suburbs here are much more heterogenous as the houses are added incrementally over time.
These types of identical house suburban hellholes are the exception, not the norm. Mostly it’s the newer developments being built out in the middle of nowhere that look like this, and presumably so the builders can skimp out on construction costs by making (or attempting to make…) everything the same for each one. Plus the HOA, “but muh resale value!” factor.
I live in an American suburb. All the houses in my neighborhood, and all the others in town, are different. We don’t have an insane HOA and I can paint my house whatever color I want. We have quite a few services, shops, and various eateries (to be fair, three of them are fast food joints) well within walking distance. With sidewalks. And in some places, even a bike lane.
This area was built up in the 1940’s through the late 1950’s in the post-war boom.