Addy, WA. Cozy little bar and restaurant in a tiny town in NE Washington.
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Yes, rural US looks *exactly* like that. You can pin that as being western because of the construction style, but the shoddiness and decay is universal.
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In general rural America is very different from rural Europe, which has been slowly civilized over the course of thousands of years. Most of America was still untouched forest 200 years ago
@Kazak @cjd @Chzikken_1486 I dunno, we also build WAY closer. I went for a walk via streetview through those towns and it's crazy how many cars there are sometimes on a single property
@Kazak @Chzikken_1486 @cjd if a european had designed those towns, they would be a third of their current size in actual square whatever
The American logic is as follows: You WILL need a car, it's just inevitable, so you might as well have plenty of space around every building for whatever stuff you might want. Also in the US, zoning generally makes ALL farmland also usable for single family homes.
@cjd @Chzikken_1486 @Kazak I dont want to turn it into a car thread but it also just makes towns look uglier when all the buildings are so far apart. But that may just be my bias
Regarding commercial buildings, I agree - and I think everyone has kind of come around to this. Regarding houses, my personal preference is not to be able to see any neighbors out my windows...
@teto@cawfee.club @cjd@pkteerium.xyz @Chzikken_1486@poa.st @Kazak@shin.mugicha.club in America we prefer not being able to hear our neighbors farting next door at 2AM. Sausage pack housing is for city slickers.
@macguffin @Chzikken_1486 @cjd @Kazak I still have space between my house and the other ones. Im far from any city. So far away that I have to work from home or wont find work at all. I dont know how to explain this without pictures but even the tiny villages here are all quite closely packed. "New" houses usually have some space but it's just another kind of distance. Call it whatever but it's nice to look at and live in.
People with more land here are usually "old money" rich. If it isnt for farming.
People with more land here are usually "old money" rich. If it isnt for farming.
Those villages are super beautiful, really the pinnacle of suburban planning.
I'm not a fan of suburban living, but I love seeing them.
I'm not a fan of suburban living, but I love seeing them.
Germoney in the house LOL
I bet you you can also still find some real dumps over there though
I bet you you can also still find some real dumps over there though
If you take the train from Paris to Berlin, you pass through some Rural Maine type shenanigans on the way... Campers and dog houses ...
Oh and blue tarps
thank God a european didn't design them then
Well (depending on which European) there's a fairly good chance they wouldn't look like fucking shantytowns, so that's also relevant.
@teto @cjd @Chzikken_1486 @Kazak not put west it'll be 3 days of hoofing it to the nearest large town
Yeah the design pressure is that you NEED a car to get around in rural areas, which makes rural town design car-centric, which reinforces the need to have a car, etc. Walkable villages aren't really prevalent except on the East Coast, where civilization arrived before the invention of the automobile
@Kazak @cjd @Chzikken_1486 there was a time when car lobbyism also transformed west germany into a more car centric society after ww2 but most of that has been reversed
All over Europe, same.
If you're in a rural area, you basically need a car to get to work, that's just reality. MAYBE by some miracle, you happen to work at the corner store that's walking distance from your house, but this is really not that realistic. 99% of everyone has a commute.
So walkable villages is kind of a cute thing, it's not really that useful in practice.
When you get into more urban areas with more commercial, then yes, walkability makes the place a LOT nicer. But this is also challenging because you need parking lots or parking garages because most people will be coming into those areas by car.
And then to make matters exponentially worse, Low Time Preference Individuals are weaponized and used to make public transport and public areas unsafe and dystopian so as to ruin nice cities.
So walkable villages is kind of a cute thing, it's not really that useful in practice.
When you get into more urban areas with more commercial, then yes, walkability makes the place a LOT nicer. But this is also challenging because you need parking lots or parking garages because most people will be coming into those areas by car.
And then to make matters exponentially worse, Low Time Preference Individuals are weaponized and used to make public transport and public areas unsafe and dystopian so as to ruin nice cities.
@cjd @Chzikken_1486 @Kazak I used to commute to freiburg via bus and train. Took forever but it worked. Handheld gaming and music were mandatory to stay sane
@teto@cawfee.club @Kazak@shin.mugicha.club @cjd@pkteerium.xyz @Chzikken_1486@poa.st houses with shit tons of cars are usually houses full of immigrants who are living 3+ to a room in some cases.
Unfortunately the area I am in was raped by mormon cattle ranchers and it destroyed the grasslands.