My boyfriend told me he comes from a small town in China, so I went there and..

[beijingwalker]

They still works, right?

Depends on how you define " work", anyway, if you guys are happy with what you have, good for you.

 

[gambit]

Depends on how you define " work", anyway, if you guys are happy with what you have, good for you.

And good for the hundreds of million Chinese who needs US, after all, without our shiddy infrastructures, they would be out of jobs, including yourself.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

However in the 1950's after WW2 a second shift started happening.

You have been arguing with Beijing walker for so long, but you haven't talked about the real problem. Why is the infrastructure of American cities so bad?

More of what happened in the 1950's to old US cities with dense housing that people rejected for the suburbs.

Detroit now has 1/3 of the population that it had during the 1950s...even though the US population has doubled.

Detroit, Michigan Population 2024

worldpopulationreview.com

"The average household income in Detroit is $44,730 with a poverty rate of 33.19%."

 

[letsrock]

More of what happened in the 1950's to old US cities with dense housing that people rejected for the suburbs.

Detroit now has 1/3 of the population that it had during the 1950s...even though the US population has doubled.

Detroit, Michigan Population 2024

worldpopulationreview.com

"The average household income in Detroit is $44,730 with a poverty rate of 33.19%."

I would go a little easy on "people rejected" part.
Most of the time people adjust to what policy makers have provided and then they become the norm.

I really doubt people wanted to leave the cities where they are making a comfortable living and move to suburbs purely voluntarily.

As i said before - it is a mix of redlining and cheap mortgages.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I really doubt people wanted to leave the cities where they are making a comfortable living and move to suburbs purely voluntarily.

Well that is the story for me and my classmates.
I grew up in Boston. My parents still live there.

Every single one of my grade school classmates who went to college (and many of those who didn't) are now in nice homes in the suburbs. Some have indeed bought houses in the city...for renting to others.

It is truly an amazing flight. Nobody ever talks about selling their suburban home and moving back.

Some who didn't go to college live in a unit next to their parents or took over their home when their parents became infirm. Or worse because they can't afford the the high rents moved to some crappy city/town 75 miles away with a lower cost of living.

 

[letsrock]

Well that is the story for me and my classmates.
I grew up in Boston. My parents still live there.

Every single one of my grade school classmates who went to college (and many of those who didn't) are now in nice homes in the suburbs. Some have indeed bought houses in the city...for renting to others.

It is truly an amazing flight. Nobody ever talks about selling their suburban home and moving back.

Some who didn't go to college live in a unit next to their parents or took over their home when their parents became infirm. Or worse because they can't afford the the high rents moved to some crappy city/town 75 miles away with a lower cost of living.

Yes ofcourse - now it is indeed the norm.

The country is literally built around suburbs - with largish roads, huge parking spaces. And offices relocating to suburbs. Making it convenient to live there.

I was talking about 50s when it started. I am betting they were at least quiet a few who were resentful about this new norm of moving in to the woods and leaving everything they are familiar with.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I was talking about 50s when it started. I am betting they were at least quiet a few who were resentful about this new norm of moving in to the woods and leaving everything they are familiar with.

Nobody was forcing people to move out there.
It's not like the buildings in the cities were suddenly torn down and they had no other choice.

All that happened was a building spree in places that were likely once farmland. Multi-units were also build to..but the demand was for single family's.

 

[letsrock]

Nobody was forcing people to move out there.
It's not like the buildings in the cities were suddenly torn down and they had no other choice.

All that happened was a building spree in places that were likely once farmland. Multi-units were also build to..but the demand was for single family's.

African americans were entering cities . And riots against them or terrorizing them was no longer an option. So this is one reason to take some pain and move out.

Second is the confluence of various industry - you have builders, auto manufacturers and mortgages - all coming together and favoring a type of real estate. What can people do ? except go along.

i am not saying it is a terrible option - but still - there is far less choice that it is being made out to be here by you.

And i believe it is the same in china too. Most of the builders are handful of mega corporates . And they and chinese govt in general decided the best way to live is in towers - widely spaced out - enclosed in one square block of land - with a nearby metro station.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

African americans were entering cities . And riots against them or terrorizing them was no longer an option. So this is one reason to take some pain and move out.

No, we are talking about the initial building of suburbia after the war in the 1950's...you know that thing called the "baby boomer" generation.

The riots were in the 1960's and only in a few cities so blaming them as the main cause of the move to suburbia is absolutely ridiculous.

It makes far far far more sense to blame television in the 1950's hypnotizing people into thinking they deserved a better life. The opening credits of major tv shows splashed the idea that if you didn't have a white collar job, a wife, a single family house with white picket fence, 2.5 kids, and a dog you were basically a failure. Just imagine the influence these weekly shows of happy smiling well dressed upper middle class families in the suburbs had on the populace of people living in apartment buildings in some old dense city. By the mid 1950's from these shows it is very very clear the exodus to the suburbs had ALREADY become mainstream.

Scenes of a happy new lifestyle in suburbia way way way before any kind of migration of black Americans to cities.

Meanwhile here is the intro for "The Honeymooners" a 1950's show about people who are not "making it" and struggling to survive in the city. To add insult to injury the sponsor is Buick and they are running a tv commercial where they are driving in the suburbs and saying "almost everybody can own one" (ie if you are not some poor city dwelling shmo like the people in this tv show)

Even the "I Love Lucy" a show about some upper middle class family living in a New York high rise had them move to the suburbs. That is definitely a nail in the coffin.

The main reason African Americans were moving into cities in the 1960's is because people were already moving out in the 1950's.

My parents bought their place in Boston cheaply in the early 1960's (for $17,000) because they said people were simply leaving and the prices had fallen because nobody was buying.

Boston, Massachusetts Population History | 1840 - 2022

Access the most recent census population information for Boston, Massachusetts, including a population profile and history.

www.biggestuscities.com

In 1950 the Boston population starts a steep decline...to the suburbs...even though the US population is going up.