American Suburbs are UGLY and We Should Be Ashamed

This is the most depressing game of Geoguessr ever.....

”Where is this? The answer is… everywhere.” So unbelievably true.

When we emigrated to the states back in 1998, I remember my parents driving to the store and sayin”where are the people”? And that stuck with me and I constantly remember the surprise they had. Coming from Europe it was a shock to rely on cars for everything and I always said how bad the lifestyle here is glad more people are realizing it.

Thirty years ago I read a book, “The Geography of Nowhere” which changed my life. It got me thinking about what those in charge did to the U.S. in the 20th century. It is a crime, and now we are living with traffic noise, pollution, overwhelming architecture that is not welcoming to people, and the ugliness of the landscapes shown here.

AS a former OTR truck driver, I can vouch for this video because I have driven it. It is the exact same shit everywhere. I admit you can't take a Class A truck anywhere you want, but I got a really good glimpse from my drivers seat of how "Copy/paste" Every neighborhood is no matter what State you are in. Some of the Country is beautiful; like heading west on I 40 in New Mexico as the sun is rising and you can see the painted desert in the low day break sun. However, when you get to a town, it's back to "rinse and repeat" on the same shopping centers with the same eateries and the same "anchor stores". I have seen MILES of the exact same style of homes in PHX, Los Angles, Chicago, Dallas/Ft.Worth, Houston, Atlanta.... Each city had it's own flavor of how the houses looked, but each of those cities had rubberstamp style for MILES. When I first started, driving I was so excited seeing all the different places, but after about a year, I realized that no matter if I went to somewhere I hadn't been, it turned out to be the same thing as I'd already seen. I literally told people when they asked me if I saw anything exciting, my reply was : "nyaa, it's all the same". George Carlin even had a bit in his show, about how the USA is just one big shopping mall, and he's totally correct. "Only a bunch of arrogant assholes would take a beautiful Country and turn it into a coast to coast strip mall" ( paraphrased). Everyone in the audience laughed, because the truth is , it's a joke, and everyone knows it.

I moved from Sweden and lived in the US (suburbia) ages 10-15. While I liked the US - my friends, school and society - the inability to get around and visit friends on my own was increasingly irritating. Always dependent on having parents drive me. Moving back to Sweden meant FREEDOM. Even though we lived in suburban Stockholm I was able to bike everywhere to visit friends, stay out late (without my parents being afraid), bike to school and take the subway into downtown Stockholm.

Someone commented that Italy has a lot more problems than the US. We have a lot of problems, but very different from the equally huge US problems. I consider my self very lucky to live in Rome, otherwise my life in the last 15 years would have been a hell, or would have been simply finished. First I had to take care of my mother who has Alzheimer and going out walking, speaking and seeing people helped her to have a decent life until the end. The same year she died, I discovered I had a cancer and for these last 5 years I cared for myself mostly alone ( but I have great friends that help me!). I was forced to quit my job and I can't drive anymore but live in the middle of the city so I have my doctor, several pharmacies, 2 supermarkets and plenty of shops, all at a walking distance (even when I feel really unwell). I can go the hospital where I have my therapy with a metro line or by a 10 minutes taxi drive. I can see people and ear voices through my window, and there's an elementary school on one side of my apartments building and I can see children playing outside during break time. I would have been not only desperately lonely but already dead in a US suburb. So thanks for the "thoughts and prayers" but I take Italians problems over US ones every day.

This is going to be the video I show people when they don’t understand what I mean when I say that living in America is depressing by itself.

Every country has suburbs. The difference is how they are built. I just got back from a trip to France. There were suburban areas lined with McDs, gas stations, garden warehouses, and mini golf parks. The difference lies in the experience. The roads are half as wide. Numerous textures and colors are used on the street and sidewalk. Traffic signals are firmly attached to poles, not swinging wildly in the wind. Roundabouts are numerous. There is an egalitarian spirit that does not prioritize cars over pedestrians. More people walk. Bus stops are prevalent. Overall, it's a more desirable environment.

The thing I hate about cars is that people act like they’re in a hurry to go somewhere, when they’re just going to go home and plop on the sofa to watch tv. I live in a small town and, despite that, I’m the only one that walks. It’s nearly impossible to walk across the damn street because, traffic goes a whole mile. Nobody in their cars will let you walk across so, you just end up standing there on the corner even after two cycles of the stop lights changing.

I've had multiple nightmares about suburbs following me, being endlessly built. Not a monster or something, but suburbs!

The public went along with arrangement because they have never been to Europe. This arrangement treats the human being as consumer first...resident and citizen last.

Something tells me that the city planners responsible for these stroads are among the 40% who never travelled outside the US...

My daughter was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. When she was nine, we decided to move to the US. On the first day, she looked out my brother's front door, and puzzled, asked, "Where are the people?" We lasted only a year and a half in America. We now live in Istanbul, Turkey.

I'm a European, and some of the pictures you showed remind of that empty, soulless feeling of an early AI generator dreamed picture. It's so depressing it looks unreal.

This is an understatement, we used to have an untouched beautiful country, what we have now is an unrestricted nightmare.

As a European, one of the parts that surprised me the most was what you said at 1:30 about how the only restaurants are part of massive franchises. Where I'm from, pretty much all restaurants are small privately owned businesses and they're spread out throughout the city which makes them easily accessible by walking. You're never more than 50 meters from a restaurant and there are so many options available if you want to try something new. Even in small cities you can find plenty of small, locally owned restaurants. Sure, you're likely to also be within walking distance to a Subway or a McDonalds, but you only pick those if there are no other options available to you. I suppose this is a consequence of America's zoning laws; when you only have a limited central place for restaurants, the only ones who are able to get a spot are the large players who can muscle out everyone else.

I remember landing for the first time in America at 17 years old in 1990 all excited wanting to see the high rise buildings that we keep seeing on TV. my uncle picked me up and drove me to the town he lives in, I was literally shocked, I kept asking myself, this can’t be America, this can’t be the same places I watched on TV growing up, where is everybody, this can’t be the city I am gonna live in for the rest of my life..my village back home is more lively than this American suburb. Finally, after I visited downtown and saw the high rise building, I got even more depressed and more disappointed.

Born, raised, and still live in NYC. Yes, it's pretty expensive here but I count my lucky stars I live here every day. I couldn't imagine growing up or living in these depressing suburban hellholes.

After staying in Italy for a month I came back depressed at the state of America