If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember the American dream of a cute home with a white picket fence out in the ‘burbs.
Isn’t that what a lot of folk worked for. The slice of normalcy our parents and grandparents wanted too.
But, let’s face it that dream is slipping away for most of us. Housing is so expensive, a lot of folk stuck in rentals for decades.
Well urban planning expert @jonjon.mp4 took to TikTok to share his concerns about suburban living.
The TikToker from Tennessee said urban planning is actually making us lonelier as humans. He believes better planning could help create walkable cities to build closer knit communities.
“Cities are the driver of economic development, technology and innovation, culture and the arts. And as such, they pay for and subsidize the infrastructure for rural areas. But that’s okay, ’cause rural areas are where we get our agricultural surplus, which allow for cities in the first place.”
He added that cities and rural areas have a “symbiotic relationship.” He explained that dense cities allow for space for farming on rural land. And those areas produce food for city dwellers. But what about those ‘burbs?
How are they contributing?
According to this guy. Nada! Well, now. I can hear the offended folk right there in the suburbs.
He said: “But then you have the suburbs, which does neither of these things.”
Ouch. But it doesn’t stop there!
He continued, saying the necessary infrastructure to support suburbs – such as roads, utilities, etc – is majorly financed by urban and rural residents because apparently the ‘burbs don’t claw back enough tax revenue from residents!
He then went on to highlight a map of his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, highlighting green areas, to symbolise locations that are tax flow positive and red and yellow for non tax positive areas.
The downtown areas are green while the ‘burbs “cannot afford the infrastructure that’s around them,” he added.
A lot of us still want that white picket fence dream though.
Watch the full clip here:
@jonjon.mp4 Replying to @It’s me if you know you know. 1. Traffic problems @The Happy Urbanist 2. Isolation problems @The Happy Urbanist 3. Parking problems @The Happy Urbanist #urbanism @Strong Towns #strongtowns #janejacobs #urbansprawl #suburbamsprawl #suburbs #urbanism #urbandesign #cities #agriculture #farmlands
Here’s what people thought of the clip:
Someone doesn’t like cities.
The ‘burbs ain’t getting no love.
Not cool.
It certainly is a interesting thing to think about, right?
If you liked that story, check out this one about a 72-year-old woman was told by her life insurance company that her policy was worthless because she’d paid for 40 years. 🙁