Suburban sprawl is stifling the US economy

Re:Suburban sprawl is stifling the US economy by stevep98 on Sunday March 29, 2015 @01:22AM (#9283998)

It's not necessarily that there are no sidewalks. Walking through retail/commercial-zoned suburbia can be mind-numbingly boring.

Straight roads, boring 'architecture', giant parking lots between the sidewalk and the retail buildings.

Compare Atherton, UK - nice, homely "typical UK" town with busy high-street.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.523623,-2.491372,3a,75y,92.9...

Now, San Jose, CA, USA suburbia: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.323192,-121.972195,3a,75y,25...

Boring. Thankfully planners seem to have recognized this, and now the trend is to build high-density housing, and right out to the street.

James Howard Kunstler has a FANTASTIC Ted talk about this subject, which cracks me up every time. Highly recommended:

http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_subu...

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Re:Suburban sprawl is stifling the US economy by adevine on Sunday March 29, 2015 @01:39AM (#9284016)

I remember the first time I came to San Jose how surprised I was. This was the Silicon Valley of lore, and it basically looked like every other boring, nondescript suburb in America.

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