Comments by "alex smith" (@alexsmith-ob3lu) on "City Beautiful" channel.

Eisenhower wanted German inspired autobahns in the USA for military logistics. He never intended the Interstate Freeway to be used by hundreds of millions of civilian cars. But at the end of the day, Eisenhower never realized that Hitler built the autobahn for commercial trucking and not for the Wehrmacht.
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Many small towns below 15k population have been abandoned after WW2. Many people have been displaced into suburbs, inner cities, farms, isolated gas stations, and car mechanic shops to earn their bread. Passenger railways have either been demolished or converted over to freight rails, so that’s another reason why townships are so car centric. Difficult to say what will happen in the future, as most of our infrastructure systems fall apart, interest on decades long debt accumulates more, and we have less skilled tradesmen to do the heavy lifting. We’re basically living in a century of decline.
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It’s not about re-living the 1950s of suburban sprawl. I deal with many contractors and developers on a regular basis; the common answer for a lack of infill projects and higher density buildings is due to technical labor shortages in HVAC controls. In other words, America produces 5 lawyers for every 1 engineer. For a low density home, you can easily hire a small scale HVAC technician for the job, but when it comes to larger facilities; you need a team of BAS technicians, Design Engineers, Controls Electricians, and highly specialized chiller/boiler mechanics in order to make the condo or apartment liveable and energy efficient. Right now, we have more than just a housing crisis.
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Too much zoning codes, over reliance on lawyers to interpret zoning codes and an overall “engineering” labor shortage. Skilled trades shortage aside, for medium/high density buildings; you’re going to need a lot of HVAC engineers and BAS specialists to make higher density work. And right now, every American city cannot find enough of these professionals.
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The reason why New York Coty is experiencing big gentrification is because the USA has mostly become car centric, low density suburban. New York is one of the few places where strip malls, parking lots, etc. did not get built in large numbers. While there was demolition in New York, it wasn’t as much compared to other regions of the USA.
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@eugenetswong Most cities in North America have poor public transit because of too many transit codes that need to first be interpreted by a team of lawyers before the engineers/technicians can even start to do any design work. It is also common for small shop and medium sized contractors to decline many jobs because getting the city permits for new home construction or a home renovation is time consuming and very expensive. If they cannot reach a profit margin of 15%, they won't take on the work because of too much risk associated with regulations and the courts.
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After the dollar was taken off the gold standard in 1972, the dollar became the debt standard. Rising home prices in the 1980s and the 1990s is caused by the dollar losing its purchasing power. Not the price of homes going up in value. Housing is a liability because you have to constantly take money out of your own pocket to pay for ongoing maintenance. The rise of housing prices today is due to (again) the dollar losing its value, zoning codes, minimum parking, and the moving back of traditional trends of rich people in cities surrounded by poor people in the countryside/suburbs.
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Fixing a stroad can also mean rezoning the land use around the area, increase the reliability of public transit buses, etc.
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For the USA, Streetcar Suburbs from pre WW2 are the best way to go. Europe economy is varied and has different standards, compared to that of America, which was founded and gained momentum in the industrial age.
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Why not the new construction of streetcar suburbs and small towns? These are good options too.
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Hexagons with triangles, square/rectangle grids, grand avenues, and lakeshore boulevards are what I really love about pre-WW2 era urban layout.
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Good points you make, but why would urban planners and local governments change their bad habits, when the Feds continue to reward financial loans/grants to local governments to continue their bad behaviour? Psychologists call that phenomena “Cognitive Dissonance”.
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@ianhomerpura8937 No, urban planners are also part of the problem. It is not just building density, it is about understanding people and where they struggle. Strong Towns has a better approach of incremental development.
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Wow, that is interesting info. Thanks for sharing!
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@eugenetswong My company has done commercial renovation work in Toronto, Canada for high rise buildings. Every skyscraper renovation site (that I've been to) is a mess, because of god-awful labor shortages. Deadlines are constantly getting pushed further and further back because instead of a team of engineers working on HVAC-BAS design, it's one engineer doing all the calculations by himself. Same with BAS technicians! You need a team of 15 BAS technicians for a 70 story skyscraper renovation, and not one tech running up and down the building doing everything by himself! And that goes on constantly on a daily basis!
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Great content in this video. I support the proposals you make. However, these projects are slow to start and often get grinder down in maintenance/design issues because of the lack of HVAC control specialists. Skilled trade shortage aside, every American city is lacking design engineers that are so badly needed to implement HVAC controls.
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@ianhomerpura8937 For ordinary people without much money, it is all about returning back to the civilian ways of Victorian America.
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@reenakemp9132 Texas has zoning codes but they don't call it zoning codes, which is deceptive. Urban areas in Texas have the same development pattern as every other state (car dependent suburban sprawl).
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@ianhomerpura8937 Yes, there are many faults to your assumption. You and urban planners cannot fix the urban mess without correcting the regulations, code books, revising skilled labor etc. etc. Everyone benefits from this urban mess except poor people, which is why they'll be forced into areas less urban, with less infrastructure and have less basic life support.
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@reenakemp9132 They make it sound looser, but it really is not. In urban areas of Texas, they still have minimum parking, minimum lot sizes, minimum road sizes etc. And they keep building more freeways for cars; which in inefficient at moving lots of people around as quickly as possible.
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Cities are for wealthy people, while the areas surrounding the city are where all the poor people live. Suburbs historically have been a mix of middle class and working class folk who live near a city, since that is where you'd traditionally find a bunch of manufacturing, public sector, services, and commercial jobs. As the city grew, the outskirts would get swallowed up by wealthy real estate developers, which in turn allows the ordinary middle class or working class folk to sell their property for a high price, make a profit and move out financially better.
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@damnitschris_ Go check out Strong Towns before making such a ridiculous statement. Folks out there are already making good progress on streetcar suburb inspired development patterns.
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@tinkerthetinyrobot "nazis didn't invent the autobahn." XD So what's next? Africa created the first missiles, and V-1 rockets? Asians invented the combustion and diesel engine? Lmao Everyone with a basic understanding of history knows that German engineering is always the best!
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@starventure Go check the stats and talk to ordinary people. Anyone who is able to move to NYC has already done so, as car centric suburbia falls apart.
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@lolnyanterts Residential homes like mansions, town home, duplex, row house etc. only require a furnace and an basic AC unit. Most residential homes are "cookie cutter", so a lot of people don't see the significance of HVAC. For commercial, institutional, and high rise condos (not rental apartments); property owners will always go with "HVAC Controls" (Building Automation Systems) with HVAC sub-categories including DDC (Direct Digital Controls) and old Pneumatic HVAC Systems. You won't find any residential furnaces or AC units in these larger properties because of the need for cost savings and the need for energy efficiency. That is why in larger buildings, you have centralized Air Handling Units in Mechanical Rooms instead of a furnace connected to one thermostat. Misconceptions of HVAC: https://www.automatedbuildings.com/news/feb20/articles/basisolutions/200123030808basisolutions.html
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@lolnyanterts On a final note, no property owner cares about maintenance these days, so they'll run their commercial HVAC equipment into the ground after a few years. Property Owners also believe that throwing money into green roofs, PV cells, grey water toilets etc. is wonderful, but when it comes to hiring technical people for maintenance work; they suddenly got no money. So, all those "green" things become worthless at the end of the day.
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user-yl7mr3ck5l What do you mean by bodied? I was just talking truth of the matter. I already know of the channel "Not Just Bikes" and several other channels that hate on Dubai.
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@ScooterinAB At the local level you will see many people convert a single family home into a triplex without notifying city planners or the city itself for a permit. That is how desperate the situation can be or just that nobody cares about enforcing old laws that no longer applies. A good example are recent court battles between Houston residents and the City Council of Houston over "deed restrictions" that nobody cares about.
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@andrewdobson2535 Desperate people do desperate things. Nobody is convincing council members of zoning reforms except Strong Towns. Many home owners have already converted single family unit homes into rental triplex properties without city approval.
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@unconventionalideas5683 Yeah, I know that. Apartments use Building Automation Systems (BAS) to control, adjust and monitor the HVAC. You've got radiators, electric furnaces, actuators, union valves, air handlers, thermometers etc. etc. The experienced professionals for HVAC controls is continuously decreasing even though everyone wants to live in high rise condos and go to high density shopping malls.
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Homelessness is the result of overtly strict zoning codes and building code regulations that make new construction very expensive. Thus, out of reach for many people. If we were to return back to pre-WW2 America with NO zoning codes, then we can easily end this homeless problem by allowing individuals to pursue a traditional vocation and allow them to build their own homes or businesses.
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@universenerdd For a lot of these poor people who are struggling with housing, yes it is. If not, then to greatly reduce zoning codes.
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Wow! What a story! Thanks for sharing! Gary, Indiana sounds like a mushroom city. As fast as the small city appeared on the map as a prosperous place to work/live, it also declined very quickly and fell off the map as a prosperous place to be in. I honestly think the state of Indiana, U.S federal government, and U.S Steel could've saved Gary from blight... Putting up high tariffs on steel imports, improving public education, building a community college to train a new generation of workers, and maintaining their public transit/infrastructure systems (streetcars) would've been much better than simply letting this once financially productive city rot away.
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@spacetoast7783 It's about serving the well being of the general public and cutting back on profit margins of big business executives. Read my previous comment before making a fool of yourself with a repetitive response.
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@spacetoast7783 The answer your looking for is already out there! Human beings have been building cities for thousands of years! Canada/USA is simply making the exact same mistakes again because most have failed to learn. Strong Towns Recommendations: - A Bottom Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity by Charles L. Marohn - Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for A Strong Town by Charles L. Marohn
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@spacetoast7783 Since you don't read anything, I leave you to your intellectual misery.
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