2mo ago

Even if you live in the U.S., you don't have to drive an F-250 truck to McDonald's. American car-centric cities now have neighborhoods where you can walk

angieschmitt.substack.com

Instead of Moving to Europe, You Could Just Live More Like a European in the U.S.

5 comments

There’s nothing stopping you (except money)
Just be rich everybody, then you can afford to live in a nice walkable neighborhood in a nice downtown area.
What an absolute waste of fucking time this article is.
Just more “wah wah cars bad big cars worse” drivel.
I mean, even in a not car-centric city you don't have drive a tank to go buy toilet paper
- Goddamn right; this is 'murica! Take your private jet instead.
- If I had a million dollars
  We wouldn't have to walk to the store
  If I had a million dollars
  Now, we'd take a limousine 'cause it costs more
Angie Schmitt, who wrote this article, and mentioned Ithaca, NY has clearly never visited or lived in Ithaca, NY. While Ithaca itself has a vibrant downtown, is pretty walkable, and has a really great food co-op, it is a high cost of living area. Aside from it being a very expensive college town, it's situated on one of the great lakes, so it's also a tourist town, which also drives up the cost of housing/living. As a result, most of the people that actually work in Ithaca end up living several towns over in what is essentially farm communities. No sidewalks, no shoulders, speed limit 55, and an incredibly dangerous place to be a pedestrian. If you want to do anything you have no choice but to drive 15-30 minutes to get to fun things, or to shop. There are many places with the same problem, small vibrant cities with great downtown's and super unaffordable housing that pushes the rest of us out into the stix with no choice but to drive.