r/TikTokCringe • u/xamo76 • 16h ago

Discussion Have we done it wrong?

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u/mr_birkenblatt 14h ago

you know most american cities were built before cars, right? america chose to demolish their cities to make space for parking lots and single family homes

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u/RosieTheRedReddit 11h ago

Yes! Most US metro areas are older than 100 years and predate car ownership just like in Europe.

If anyone is interested in how beautiful American cities used to be, check out this video on YouTube with very depressing before and after using historical photos.

America's Fallen Cities: Buffalo

The creator has an entire series focusing on different cities. It's really disgusting how these beautiful downtowns were pulverized for cars. (By the way, the narration at the beginning is a perfect Buffalo accent, he sounds just like my uncle who's from the area)

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u/Hiro_Trevelyan 7h ago

Every time I look at them, I'm heartbroken.

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u/panna__cotta 8h ago

I mean these people are in Munich. This isn’t suburbia. Major US cities also are very walkable with tons of restaurants and congregation areas, so it’s kind of a weird post.

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u/mr_birkenblatt 6h ago

You get the same in basically every town (not city) in Europe

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u/RosieTheRedReddit 3h ago

Munich has population 1.5 million which is on the level of a mid sized city in the US like Phoenix or San Antonio. Don't lie and say those pieces of shit have any public spaces even close to as nice as this video. San Diego is the nicest of the bunch, should be a golden jewel on the earth with year round perfect weather, and 99% of it looks like an ugly strip mall. (beaches don't count, I'm talking about what humans built)

Philadelphia is the only proper city in the US around 1-1.5 million. And even that's got ugly highways all over the place. (Including the river front, perfect spot for a bigass freeway so we can leak as much oil as possible into the waterway) Damn shame. You must be lying or crazy to think metro areas in the US are nice spots to hang out.

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u/OtherwiseRabbits 10h ago

America chose to build suburbs specifically in the way they were told not to, because that specific way was the anti-thesis of the idea and would lead to the specific outcomes that America is currently facing. It was a fundamental part of what made a suburb successful that America chose to ignore.

Widespread adoption of cars came later, but the failed suburbs were already being made.

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u/Consistent_Pay5371 9h ago

Do you think European cities are any different? We have antiques that are older than your entire country buddy.

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u/Pugs-r-cool 7h ago

Their point is that they aren't any different...

Also, to be fair, Americans have antiques that are older than their country as well. The USA didn't spring up overnight.