Comments by "michah7214" (@michah7214) on "Can we fix the suburbs?" video.

  1. A lot of people LOVE the suburbs. They are here to stay, whether anyone likes it or not. No one in the suburbs will EVER allow commercial property because the point is the residential property that it's NOT near commercial property. That's NOT what anyone in the suburbs wants. And a lot of people in the suburb want to drive, not walk. Besides, all the saved driving will be replaced with endless trucks driving around to refill and stock a million little shops.... instead of delivering to big stores in one place.
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  2. You can't and shouldn't " fix" anywhere you don't live! It's SO obnoxious. If people want their suburb to stay the same, they will stay the same.
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  3.  @danielkelly2210  I've never heard anyone, especially people with kids, say ' I gotta get out of this suburb and get my family into the city".
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  4.  @danielkelly2210  the suburb I grew up in hasn't changed, and it's lovely. It's a suburban town and it will stay that way. There needs to be areas that reflect what different people want. Some people don't want to live in the city
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  5.  @danielkelly2210  some will change, many will remain largely the same. Where I grew up the houses stayed the same but nearby they built residential condos and two family homes. Nothing commercial, but definitely more housing is available.
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  6.  @barryrobbins7694  you're talking about California. In the northeast, suburbs are their own towns are have been doing fine for decades.
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  7.  @barryrobbins7694  everywhere I've seen, people are leaving cities the first chance they get and the cities have crumbling infrastructure
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  8.  @danielkelly2210  we must live in different parts of the country. Houses here are selling quickly.
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  9.  @danielkelly2210  there's a lot of people willing to commute from the Poconos to NY city so their kids don't have to live in the city
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  10.  @JesusManera  I grew up in a suburb with a big yard and all my friends had big yards. We had SO much fun playing in our yards. We didn't need parks
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  11.  @koolmckool7039  people LOVE them, which is why they exist. If you don't like them don't live there
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  12.  @koolmckool7039  the city DOESN'T subsidize the suburbs. They are SEPARATE towns supported by their own commercial areas that are separate from residential. Where these " pro city/anti suburb people get that idea, it's RIDICULOUS. Show me the line in the city budget that goes to another town. It DOESN'T exist. As for independence, no parent in the US would send an 8 year old loose in a city EVER. Because we WATCH our children.
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  13.  @koolmckool7039  we're HAPPY, and doing GREAT. And our kids are being raised, not running feral in a city. And YES the businesses in the suburbs do support them. Show me the lines in city budgets that send money to suburban towns?? They DON'T exist. So how cities subsidize suburbs is a MYTH you want to believe but you sure as HELL have zero real numbers to support your claim. We aren't Europe, we don't want to be Europe. So mind your business and leave Americans alone.
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  14.  @stealth_chain well if the community votes to change it, it will change. We don't live in a country that just dictates its will to people, that's not how it's supposed to be. If the community votes to change the zoning it Will change. But people outside that community don't get to vote because they don't live there. That's representative government
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  15.  @stealth_chain  well that's fair. Here's a hint. Go routinely to the zoning hearings. Usually people only go if their block is the topic. First of all, they are REALLY interesting, sometimes really funny (exceptions for 9 emotional support chickens) But you might be able to advocate for things that other people would fight because they aren't paying attention to be there. If they get to know you, maybe you could get on the panel at some point. At least if there are voices in the peanut gallery, it really makes a difference. Because that zoning committee is exhausted and want to go home. So if someone testifies, it can swing things in a direction. So it's really a chance to have a local impact.
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  16.  @stealth_chain  wow. You should really try Scranton PA. It's a much less sophisticated crowd. They tried to build a bike trail, and it's nice, but there's SO many homeless people and feral cats, I couldn't go back . They all looked reasonably fed thankfully. ( Both people and cats). You could probably make interesting inroads in PA. You'd just have to endure 9 months of soul crushing clouds, cold and dampness
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  17. ​ @AssBlasster we don't FORCE car ownership. You don't understand the US. We're not controlled by some overseeing parental power. The most popular opinion wins. We are a democracy. Americans love the suburbs and they love their vehicles, at least the majority does. There are urban places you don't need a car, but if that's not sufficient, you'll have to go elsewhere
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  18. ​ @barryrobbins7694 because in the US politicians aren't benevolent parents who try to give everyone what they want. We are bottom up, popular vote wins. It's just that simple. If you don't like it, choose another country
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  19. ​ @barryrobbins7694 NO they are NOT. That makes ZERO sense. Every town is a SEPARATE municipality and you better believe there is NO line in any city budget to give another town money. People would lose their minds if their town gave away their money to another town
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  20.  @barryrobbins7694  most suburbs in the US are separate towns.
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  21.  @barryrobbins7694  I love Jimmy Carter but here's the reality. Politicians respond to what voters want, or they lose their job. That's how it works. They aren't looking for what every single person wants to give it to them so everything is 'fair' like nursery school. They will only do what voters petition for and no more
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  22.  @barryrobbins7694  and for that infrastructure thing, yeah maybe the suburbs need more piping and wires but ultimately each person uses so much water and electricity wherever they live
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  23.  @barryrobbins7694  show me one budget line anywhere where one town is sending money to another
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  24.  @barryrobbins7694  if they trigger a lot of people to vote against them, they won't do it. Or more importantly if there's no significant demand for a project to be done, it won't even be considered. They aren't scanning the environment for everything anyone might want so " everything is fair" and everyone gets " to choose whatever they want". The US government isn't like a controlling parental power deciding what's " best " for the people. It responds to what things a significant number of voters ask for. That's the way US government is supposed to work
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  25.  @barryrobbins7694  the people in the city aren't paying more, there are more people there. And city infrastructure has its own expensive things AND pollution that's NOT created in the suburbs because of all the people that live there. Ultimately each human uses a certain amount of water and electricity, regardless of where they are. You can use mental gymnastics all you want. Americans will not put themselves in densely populated cities. It will NEVER happen. It's not how people want to live. You live however you want. We're not living in a city. And city budgets are not sending money to suburban towns. In fact, cities get a larger percentage of state money and that's fair because there are more people there but that's not supplementing towns outside of their borders.
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  26.  @barryrobbins7694  and who's going to ' make people" who don't live in cities pay more because people like you don't like it?? NO ONE. Not in the US. Because we have representative government not authoritarian dictators telling us how we have to live
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  27.  @barryrobbins7694  cities greatly benefit from the business from suburban people. But we go no where that we can't bring our cars and park. I don't really know anyone who travels to any city for work or anything because they're at least 2 to 3 hours away. And while there's been some interest in running trains there, it hasn't been well supported. If cities want to get rid of cars, go ahead, but suburban people may stay away.
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  28.  @barryrobbins7694  I don't know anyone who works in the city. We live at least two and a half hours from either big city. Think about it. Most of PA, and even most of New York is hours and hours from a big city. Suburban towns use the tax base of the big box stores and other businesses to support their communities. And who's really lugging groceries and home products home without a car? You'd have to be at the store every day if you had to walk. Who the hell wants to do that. It would be too heavy to lug a gallon of milk three blocks for God's sake.
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  29.  @barryrobbins7694  no it's NOT. Are you serious??? Do you have any idea how many towns there are between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh?? Omg. The Poconos are really WAY too far to travel to Philadelphia and even too far for long term commuting to New York City. By the time you're to Scranton and Wilkes Barre you're way too far from either. There's Harrisburg and Lancaster and Allentown which are small cities but everything west of that isn't close to any city. You obviously don't know PA. The suburbs of any city in PA are separate towns that have their own business areas and jobs. And I know no one that commutes to any city.
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  30.  @barryrobbins7694  how far out does that include?? Most cities within 50 miles of a city have plenty of their own infrastructure. Besides it doesn't matter. Many Americans love the suburbs and aren't trying to live in a city. They want an SUV and a yard. No one is taking that away. No politician that tried would survive.
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  31.  @barryrobbins7694  of course I meant politically!!😟. There's oligarchyish situations but ultimately, once Americans get themselves together on a topic, they are pretty fierce.
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  32.  @barryrobbins7694  well I see a population that's decreasing so that the children we do have are able to have the future that we have, a beautiful life that's not in a city. And the US government isn't some authoritarian parent telling us how to live, so if a majority doesn't rally for something, it doesn't happen because the US government is bottom up, not top down. That's how we built it, that's how we want it. If the world doesn't like that, we don't care
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  33.  @barryrobbins7694  population is growing much more slowly than was ever predicted. That being said, can you imagine predicting how people should live in the future from 1800? Or 1900? We have no idea what the future will bring. The US isn't going to sacrifice our way of living and we aren't going to be like Europe or anyone else. We have far fewer people and less population growth than many countries. That's our way to limit consumption, by not crowding the world with a billion people in a country. How does that even happen?? And it seems most places are getting population growth under control. But how do you fix having grown a population to a billion people? That's American conservation, not adding another 600 million people to the earth. That's the key to everything. Not shoving tons of people in tiny apartments and limiting what people can have and do. Because then the only thing they can hope for is more children. Prosperity leads to less population. That being said, we don't know what will be invented in the future, and we have no right telling future generations how to live. I just hope the kids in my family have a chance to have what I've had and no one from a country with three times the population tries to tell them they have to give up a good life when other countries filled up the planet with more people than could ever be supported.
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  34.  @barryrobbins7694  crowded expensive Europe?? The US isn't trying to be like them
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  35.  @AssBlasster  it's not the US government's job to make sure " everyone has what they desire". The US government is bottom up, not some dictatorship that decides for people what's good for them. If enough people wanted anything to change, it absolutely would. What you want doesn't obviously represent enough of the voting population to piss off the majority of voters who want something different. So it's not happening. And the suburbs are separate towns from the cities so they aren't going to change the format they want to possibly change things in the cities. What you're asking is ridiculous and wouldn't necessarily change anything in the city because there are multiple reasons why it's expensive to live in the city. And I grew up in a suburb. And I loved it. Are you even American??
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  36.  @barryrobbins7694  actually that's not completely true. Politicians know if something really goes against public demand, there is enormous political backlash. If the majority of people in suburbia didn't want their towns the way they are, it wouldn't be that way. We are not a top down government where some dictatorship decides how we live. It's a much more of a feedback loop than that. But more importantly, if a project or change isn't STRONGLY advocated for by a lot of people, the government isn't going to take on an expensive project just so it's " fair" to the handful of people who want it. What I absolutely don't understand is people who don't live in the US having strong opinions about what Americans should do. That's extremely intrusive.
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  37.  @barryrobbins7694  actually NONE of that is true. You'd be very hard pressed to find a suburban home with more than two kids. My house is 2400 sq ft. I'm single and childless my whole life. Every suburb I've ever seen is exactly the same after 30 years. The commercial part of town supports the town, no problem. I don't know where you get the idea there isn't enough tax base. There's plenty of commercial property in suburban towns, just not near the residential parts. No one has big families and most suburban houses have one to four people living in them. The suburbs are doing fine.
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  38.  @tachobrenner  yeah so are cities. AND suburban towns have commercial areas that support the town. Does anyone on these channels even have basic social studies?? The property taxes won't need to be raised, that mostly comes from commercial businesses in the town that are separate from residential but probably equal to a city per capita. And real estate taxes in the US mainly go for by the schools.
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  39.  @moth5799 clearly you have a problem with grandiosity. and hel NO, Americans aren't going to be forced into cities. And we are not " in decline" that's ridiculous.
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  40.  @X4zerm4n  like you said, cities have enormous debt. And don't kid yourself that the systems required to support much bigger buildings with much more plumbing and sewer needs costs the same just because it's all closer together. The utility services to each building is like a block in the suburbs. Are you an engineer, or so you just listen to the strong town crowd? And having debt isn't being " subsidized'" so I know you're not an accountant either. The strong town people always say " the cities" subsidize the suburbs which is ridiculous in the US but no one even tries to explain that statement. In many suburbs in PA everyone has a septic tank and a well so there are no sewer systems to maintain. And roads that are used like city streets get far more wear and tear than suburban streets. So while there are issues with the suburbs, cities have their own cost issues. I don't see how suburbs are being " subsidized".
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  41.  @X4zerm4n well I appreciate the explanation. But there are loads of suburbs that aren't even near a city. The entire Poconos is filled with suburbs that aren't anywhere near a city. In NY there are huge suburban towns that aren't near cities. I grew up in one, we only went to NY city like 6 times ever. So I guess what you're saying is the city pays for the wear and tear in the streets for out of town people who come in. But that adds revenue to the city through the businesses that get customers.
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  42.  @X4zerm4n  are you an American? Because we don't say ' city center '. If you're not American, you really don't have anything to say about the US because you're not from here and you don't know what you're talking about
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  43.  @X4zerm4n  cities do NOT give money to separate towns where the suburbs are. Suburban towns don't give money to the cities. I don't think you're from the US
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  44.  @barryrobbins7694  the US is democratic. Whatever gets the most votes wins. So no, we aren't catering to every single preference. I've seen you before in these comments but you don't get that. I don't think you're from the US
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  45.  @TapOnX  if you're saying " city center" , you're not American so you're not really appropriate to discuss what the US should be doing. And WHY?? It's not you're business
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  46.  @moosesandmeese969  yeah, for Russia then. Not the US now. That's not what people want, if it was, it would be. Every country is unique in many ways, it's useless to compare one to the other.
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  47.  @TapOnX  Well it's certainly your choice, but if you're from Eastern Europe and Russia, you don't' know what the US is like. In the US, the suburban towns are huge and all over the place and interact very little with big cities. So your whole argument doesn't even track.
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  48.  @X4zerm4n  how could you suggest that I, WHO LIVES IN THE US, doesn't know what a suburb is? YES there are TONS of HUGE suburban towns that aren't even close to cities, in that no one goes there for anything AND yes, huge suburbs in which everyone has a septic tank and a well. The city doesn't give any money to suburban towns and the suburban towns give no money to the cities. That's what people who aren't from the US don't seem to understand. Each town/city is like it's own little state. To suggest the taxes collected in a suburban town have anything to do with the city is ridiculous.
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  49.  @barryrobbins7694  so??? People are adults. They vote. Period. It's not for you or me to decide what their reasons or motivation is. Democracy is based on what citizens vote for. You may not agree. You might think they were influenced and aren't making the best choice. It doesn't matter. Citizens get to decide.
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  50.  @X4zerm4n  well then you should know there are large suburban towns that interact very little with large cities. Then you know, why are you going on about cities and towns sharing revenue somehow?
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  51.  @X4zerm4n  the YouTube format for long posts with lots of comments is very hard to follow. I just wonder where you got the whole " city center" phrase. Is that an Indianapolis thing? It's true that different parts of the US do have different expressions for things. But that's not all that far from PA. Puzzling.
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  52.  @barryrobbins7694  What's your opinion of a better choice? Authoritarianism?
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  53.  @barryrobbins7694  there's a reason for the electoral votes. Otherwise smaller states would have virtually no say in elections.
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  54.  @barryrobbins7694  yeah it does. Because each STATE gets representation.
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  55.  @barryrobbins7694  they say every vote counts
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  56.  @barryrobbins7694  I don't believe those are flaws
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  57.  @barryrobbins7694  people, in all the states. Not just the crowded states
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  58.  @barryrobbins7694 if it wasn't that way, and you lived in a small state, you'd feel differently.
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  59.  @barryrobbins7694  it doesn't matter anyway. Neither Republican nor Democrats will try to take away local governments' ability to set zoning regulations. That's an inherently local issue and it goes against the entire way our government works for the federal government to dictate local policy to that extent.
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  60.  @barryrobbins7694  true. But I don't see that kind of legislation passing in most states. And more suburbs will be built because apparently there is a housing shortage even though the population isn't growing tremendously. Thankfully the population is expected to level off or drop. People want to live in the suburbs. If they didn't, suburbs wouldn't exist.
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  61.  @barryrobbins7694  cities have no say over separate towns. The state can only control the local government to an extent. Otherwise it ends up going to the supreme court to fight centralized government over reach.
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  62.  @barryrobbins7694  in the small city I live in, all the businesses have failed where they limit cars and parking.
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  63.  @barryrobbins7694  yeah there's plenty of bus service that almost no one uses. It's not nearly big enough for a subway. I asked everyone I know if they would ride a bike to go anywhere if there were bike lanes, they laughed at me!! They were like have you lost your mind? I was like, just checking my reality. I said there's people online convinced everyone is dying to ride a bike everywhere. No one will walk 3 blocks to go to lunch even on a beautiful day. I'd do that much. But the mayor is into this so in an effort to reduce traffic she made it hard to park in the immediate city area and now all the businesses are gone. There is no interest at all in any transportation other than cars. I know people who can't get a car because of duis. They spend hundreds a month on Uber rather than take the bus. The buses are free for anyone over 65 and even they won't take the buses. They're perfectly clean nice buses.
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  64.  @barryrobbins7694  there's always this " if it were this way or that way, people would like it! " Well here's the thing. Driving isn't perfect. There's lots of negatives to that also, but guess what? ALWAYS popular!! So the constant excuse " people will love a non car focused town, if only .. ( fill in the thing). " I think it's a false premise. It's wishful thinking. People have voted with their votes and their wallets for personal transportation.
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  65.  @barryrobbins7694  I mean even senior citizens with a lot of time and very little money don't take the bus, because they have to get to the bus and wait outside and it's too much for many of them. Everyone I know won't ride a bike because they're afraid of falling. They could have a flat interstate dedicated to bikes, they aren't risking the broken bones or head trauma. And they certainly aren't lugging groceries on them! 😬. I go to a campground, no one walks or rides bikes there either, they take golf carts. PA is very hilly, so unless they have a e bike that's not practical and that may as well be a motorcycle. I wouldn't drive one, and I do like riding a regular bicycle
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  66.  @barryrobbins7694  that's California, I looked up the slope degree, it's really flat, and it's not northeast PA! The land of perpetual precipitation
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  67.  @barryrobbins7694  there are a lot of people with disabilities, including being elderly that they absolutely can drive but not walk to a bus stop, and stand in the rain. You're saying elderly people who can't ride get to the bus should have no access to transportation?? I know a few seniors who would have words with you. They're supposed to be shut ins? No way
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  68.  @barryrobbins7694 in cities and towns with two lane roads at best, where would the bike lane go?
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  69.  @start3215  why is it anyone outside of the US' business what we do ???
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