439
‘People are happier in a walkable neighborhood’: the US community that banned cars
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
439 points (98.2% liked)
Fuck Cars
9809 readers
3 users here now
This community exists as a sister community/copycat community to the r/fuckcars subreddit.
This community exists for the following reasons:
- to raise awareness around the dangers, inefficiencies and injustice that can come from car dependence.
- to allow a place to discuss and promote more healthy transport methods and ways of living.
You can find the Matrix chat room for this community here.
Rules
-
Be nice to each other. Being aggressive or inflammatory towards other users will get you banned. Name calling or obvious trolling falls under that. Hate cars, hate the system, but not people. While some drivers definitely deserve some hate, most of them didn't choose car-centric life out of free will.
-
No bigotry or hate. Racism, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, chauvinism, fat-shaming, body-shaming, stigmatization of people experiencing homeless or substance users, etc. are not tolerated. Don't use slurs. You can laugh at someone's fragile masculinity without associating it with their body. The correlation between car-culture and body weight is not an excuse for fat-shaming.
-
Stay on-topic. Submissions should be on-topic to the externalities of car culture in urban development and communities globally. Posting about alternatives to cars and car culture is fine. Don't post literal car fucking.
-
No traffic violence. Do not post depictions of traffic violence. NSFW or NSFL posts are not allowed. Gawking at crashes is not allowed. Be respectful to people who are a victim of traffic violence or otherwise traumatized by it. News articles about crashes and statistics about traffic violence are allowed. Glorifying traffic violence will get you banned.
-
No reposts. Before sharing, check if your post isn't a repost. Reposts that add something new are fine. Reposts that are sharing content from somewhere else are fine too.
-
No misinformation. Masks and vaccines save lives during a pandemic, climate change is real and anthropogenic - and denial of these and other established facts will get you banned. False or highly speculative titles will get your post deleted.
-
No harassment. Posts that (may) cause harassment, dogpiling or brigading, intentionally or not, will be removed. Please do not post screenshots containing uncensored usernames. Actual harassment, dogpiling or brigading is a bannable offence.
Please report posts and comments that violate our rules.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Wait, it's actually forbidden in (much of) the US to have grocery stores etc. close to where people live? WTF?
It is, the YouTube Channel NotJustBikes explains the issue in a few videos "housing that cannot be built in America" or something like that
This one :)
The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are illegal in Most of North America - Not Just Bikes: https://youtu.be/bnKIVX968PQ?si=7tIT7yD5iw_s5vUe
Exactly, thanks!
Most places have zoning laws and do not typically mix commercial zones into residential zones, yes. There is no law requiring grocery stores to be some distance from residential properties.
So in the suburbs, yes and no. You can absolutely have grocery stores next to residential areas. So like if you have a main (st)road that has a grocery store, there may be housing behind the store. Here's an example in my area (The Price Chopper is a grocery store). Residential zoning has bumped up against commercial zoning along the (st)road. Which means that the grocery store is next door for some of those people. Even a few blocks away is still pretty decent.
But let's say someone wanted to build a grocery store next to this school for some reason. The developer is willing to buy up some houses (and people willing to sell them) and bulldoze them down to make a grocery store. The city will NOT allow that. That's like a 99.9999% chance of never happening. Because that area is specifically zoned for strictly for residential and not commercial endeavors.
And it goes further. Let's say instead of a grocery store, the developer wanted apartments or townhouses/duplexes. That keeps with the residential character and zoning, right? It does, but this area is probably zoned for SFH only. Not for multifamily units. It'll never be built. At least not without overcoming significant local opposition.
This is actually being fought over in a neighboring suburb.
That's not to say zoning is always terrible. If I build a house and then some industrial building/warehouse or commercial chicken coop wants to be my neighbor afterwards, with all the loudness and smells that brings, that's not gonna be great for me. And if I want to move because my quality of life has decreased, who's gonna buy my house? Nobody. At least not for the price I want.
So zoning has its benefits. It's just a tool at the end of the day. But it can make things difficult when people do want change. It's not as simple as tearing things down and putting up something new and completely different.
This is kind of overblown. I live in the Phoenix valley suburban sprawl and there are shopping centers mixed with the suburban zones every 1 mile at major intersections. I can already ride my bicycle to yoga, bars, restaurants, and grocery within easy range. These discussions use Phoenix as examples of bad design but I really don't get it and ride my bike all the time anyway. There are canal paths and stores spread out everywhere in the suburbs.
It's to make big auto and big car happy by forcing us to use their products as much as possible