The future is dense, walkable cities.

[BrightShinyGirl]

They are still going to produce pollution, except now it is on a giant concrete plate that reflects it upward. Spread people out among green space and the pollution is absorbed. Most of them can work locally if we get away from your idea of one giant downtown. Many cities like LA and Houston already have this kind of informal districting in place.

L.A. isn't like Manhattan where everything is crammed in one small downtown area. It's a collection of villages that grew together over time. Fortunately we still have many of the original rail right-of-ways connecting the pockets of density, making it easier to rebuild the city so we can transition away from the polluting freeways.

Houston is in a far worse position. Its spawl was built entirely around car infrastructure which is unsustainable in the long run. Many of its outlying suburbs may have to be abandoned when they're no longer enough tax revenue to maintain the expensive road network.

 

[Chernosoth]

People have to live somewhere. The rural utopia you’re describing can’t exist without killing off most of humanity.

That is exactly what is starting to happen. The population will take a long bumpy ride down for a few centuries. One of the consequences of overpopulation is damaging the earth's ecosystems so much that its carrying capacity is reduced. The population after the industrial age will be much lower than before the industrial age. Telling the planet it's not allowed to grow less food makes no difference to the planet.

For a source in extensive scholarly boring detail, there is Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change by William R. Catton Jr.

 

[desecration]

Houston is in a far worse position. Its spawl was built entirely around car infrastructure which is unsustainable in the long run. Many of its outlying suburbs may have to be abandoned when they're no longer enough tax revenue to maintain the expensive road network.

Actually, Houston is exactly as you describe LA: a group of nearby communities that ran together over time. There is still extensive rail infrastructure, but like in LA, the growth is actually toward the exurbs, for example the fasted-growing area in America, the Spring-Woodlands complex.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1779941054222852104

 

[Chernosoth]

L.A. isn't like Manhattan where everything is crammed in one small downtown area. It's a collection of villages that grew together over time. Fortunately we still have many of the original rail right-of-ways connecting the pockets of density, making it easier to rebuild the city so we can transition away from the polluting freeways.

Houston is in a far worse position. Its spawl was built entirely around car infrastructure which is unsustainable in the long run. Many of its outlying suburbs may have to be abandoned when they're no longer enough tax revenue to maintain the expensive road network.

Rail won't matter when the whole region runs out of water. Both cities will lose some population when electricity is too expensive for air conditioning.

 

[desecration]

The car dependency exists because no one wants to get stuck in the trailer park or ghetto hood areas, and no one wants public transit connecting those to their nice middle class homes.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

The car dependency exists because no one wants to get stuck in the trailer park or ghetto hood areas, and no one wants public transit connecting those to their nice middle class homes.

Racism has alway gone hand-in-glove with car culture. That’s why many cities tore down black neighborhoods to build freeways.

 

[desecration]

Racism has alway gone hand-in-glove with car culture. That’s why many cities tore down black neighborhoods to build freeways.

It's not racism to want to avoid poor areas, hence the mention of trailer parks as well. Poor people commit the most crime.

 

[MajorRewrite]

It's not racism to want to avoid poor areas, hence the mention of trailer parks as well. Poor people commit the most crime.

Fearmongering is dumb. As long as you aren’t involved in the illegal drug trade, you can safely walk around in any neighborhood in the US.

 

[desecration]

Fearmongering is dumb.

It's not fearmongering to recognize risk. The problem is not walking around their neighborhood, but them coming into your neighborhood and stealing your stuff or assaulting you.

 

[MajorRewrite]

It's not fearmongering to recognize risk. The problem is not walking around their neighborhood, but them coming into your neighborhood and stealing your stuff or assaulting you.

Yeah, that doesn’t happen either. I’m 61 and I’ve never been robbed or assaulted.

 

[Fuzzy1975]

Like the NYC subway.

They move 3.4 million people a day.

 

[desecration]

Yeah, that doesn’t happen either. I’m 61 and I’ve never been robbed or assaulted.

Anecdotal evidence, the best kind. Just post your address and I'll post it to a couple of the shoplifting groups on Facebook.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Anecdotal evidence, the best kind. Just post your address and I'll post it to a couple of the shoplifting groups on Facebook.

And you belong to these "Facebook shoplifting groups" why?

 

[Fuzzy1975]

Anecdotal evidence, the best kind. Just post your address and I'll post it to a couple of the shoplifting groups on Facebook.

You first. Honestly, if that's your defence against a personal testimony of their life experience , you need to do better.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

They are still going to produce pollution, except now it is on a giant concrete plate that reflects it upward. Spread people out among green space and the pollution is absorbed. Most of them can work locally if we get away from your idea of one giant downtown. Many cities like LA and Houston already have this kind of informal districting in place.

But that means less green space.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

It's not fearmongering to recognize risk. The problem is not walking around their neighborhood, but them coming into your neighborhood and stealing your stuff or assaulting you.

I live within walking distance of a train station. I ride it to work. The main risk I face is not criminals on the train, it’s being run down by an aggressive driver. For months last year I walked past a memorial to a man who was killed that way.

 

[Chernosoth]

I live within walking distance of a train station. I ride it to work. The main risk I face is not criminals on the train, it’s being run down by an aggressive driver. For months last year I walked past a memorial to a man who was killed that way.

I would worry about earthquakes derailing the trains.

 

[Rightguide]

Fearmongering is dumb. As long as you aren’t involved in the illegal drug trade, you can safely walk around in any neighborhood in the US.

The above needs a major rewrite, but this time try not to be under the influence of any drugs.

 

[Fuzzy1975]

I would worry about earthquakes derailing the trains.

Yes, it's obvious from your postings that you worry about dumb shit. Do you sleep with a pacifier to help calm your frayed nerves at the end of the day?

 

[MajorRewrite]

How a poverty-stricken city in east Germany became a re-densified success story.

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

How a poverty-stricken city in east Germany became a re-densified success story.

This doesn’t seem to be the future of any of the large west coast cities in the US. Some of the biggest cities are experiencing disinvestment and stagnant or declining population. At the end of the video, narrator asks viewers who live in cities that are not experiencing what’s happening in this German city a simple question: “why not?”

 

[TrailerHitch]

This doesn’t seem to be the future of any of the large west coast cities in the US. Some of the biggest cities are experiencing disinvestment and stagnant or declining population. At the end of the video, narrator asks viewers who live in cities that are not experiencing what’s happening in this German city a simple question: “why not?”

Simple answer that the lefties won't like is why invest in declining cities that are overrun by drugs, crime, and now illegal immigrants dumped there that are a drain on the system. Cities have no money for infrastructure and are laying off municipal workers to fund the illegal flood.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

Simple answer that the lefties won't like is why invest in declining cities that are overrun by drugs, crime, and now illegal immigrants dumped there that are a drain on the system. Cities have no money for infrastructure and are laying off municipal workers to fund the illegal flood.

I’ll bite, which west coast cities are “declining” and how?

 

[MajorRewrite]

Simple answer that the lefties won't like is why invest in declining cities that are overrun by drugs, crime, and now illegal immigrants dumped there that are a drain on the system. Cities have no money for infrastructure and are laying off municipal workers to fund the illegal flood.

Most cities are doing just fine. Not laying off anyone. Not in decline.

PS: it’s interesting how the right wing nuts try to devolve every discussion into “ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL!!!”