What areas of America aren't soulless sprawl? In Phoenix for a couple days and I hear this is one of the worst offenders
What areas of America aren't soulless sprawl?
What areas of America aren't soulless sprawl? In Phoenix for a couple days and I hear this is one of the worst offenders
You have two choices; head downtown, or leave the sprawl altogether and enjoy Main Street towns & the countryside.
Maybe the first, oldest cities that were colonised? They're probably also the city with the most interesting history.
Downtown Santa Fe fits this if you wanna stay in the Southwest. Also Main Street tiny towns. Go to any piece of land that is government-owned (BLM, NFS, state) that isn't extremely popular (Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, PCT/Appalachian Trail during their season) and you will be nearly entirely alone for many miles.
Downtown areas of most places are pretty good. You won't notice sprawl if you don't go to the suburbs.
But yeah, the desert ones are going to be the worst. Phoenix isn't really a city, its a bunch of land that was developed in the middle of a desert.
tf? suburbs are literally one of the core components of sprawl. read more
Boston and much of coastal New England
NY City, Philly and DC
San Francisco
New Orleans
Asheville, North Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Savannah, Georgia
Seaside, Florida
Saint Augustine, Florida
>philly
Philly may be the most walkable large city outside of NYC
Are there any areas you recommend? The less crackheads the better.
Rittenhouse, Fairmont, society hill, old city, east passyunk, Fishtown, manayunk, northern liberties
weird way to spell salt lake city
Salt lake City has massive unwalkable streets. That's like saying Phoenix is walkable
Bait or actually moronic
SLC isn't a big city, kek.
But it is walkable, though the weather sucks balls most of the year and most people prefer to ride around on those stupid scooter things or park their car where they want to go.
Yes, Philly.
You’ll see crackheads and homeless more or less everywhere unfortunately, but Fairmount, Logan Square, Rittenhouse Square, Center City, Chinatown, Washington Square, Society Hill, Old City, and Northern Liberties are better than others. Don’t bother with Fishtown, Manayunk, South Philly (unless you’re there for a game) or the others. They’re fine. You just won’t find it worthwhile or the others and don’t bother going North of Girard or West of the Schuylkill. Philly has great walkable suburb towns along the Mainline and in Chester County. Honestly, the Bucks County, Montgomery County, and Chester County suburbs are what people really love about the Philly area. Don’t bother with New Jersey or Delaware County though. Again, they’re fine for the most part, just kind of ugly and not worthwhile. There are some gems but too small to be worth it. Lots of agricultural stuff and old sites out in Chadds Ford, West Chester, and Kennett Square if you’re into that. If you’re into American history at all, Philly are is the single best area to check out.
Manayunk may be the most European feeling place I've been in America
Lol what? Manayunk is an extremely stereotypical New York blue collar industrial neighborhood. It’s not remotely European. Surely you mean Old City or something.
Mill town along river that's extremely vertical with a mainstreet. Old city looks nothing like Europe and is completely colonial architecture. Manayunk could be a stand in for some many towns I visited in Germany along rivers
Millvale in Pittsburgh reminded me a little bit of German valley towns
>What areas of America aren't soulless sprawl?
Sprawl
I just got home from Phoenix. While it’s true that the suburbs are packed in tight and everything is soulless suburban development, you only have to drive a little distance to access wide open land where you can do literally anything you want. If you feel like driving around in an off road vehicle and shooting stuff you can do it. I live in New England where houses are spread out and nobody has less than two acres of land but there are very few public places where you can do anything wild like in Arizona.
>What areas of America aren't soulless sprawl?
Somewhere that interests you? I've never been a fan of phoenix, but if I were there my interest would be going to the mountains.
just read the thread, OP delivered back with the verdict already. and as a westerner, the west is full of land to do whatever.
I live in Phoenix and I visited Portland and surrounding areas for the first time over the weekend, the difference is astronomical. Portland is beautiful and integrated within nature, Phoenix is not. Most of Portland's buildings and houses have visual appeal and character, whereas every strip mall and track home in Phoenix appears cheap and more or less the same. The weather is dreary in Oregon but there are still plenty of people outside and Portland is very walkable. Phoenix is extremely isolating and anti-social in comparison.
I moved from Sonoma County CA to AZ due to the draconian coof panic, but this Pacific Northwest trip really struck a nerve. Modern liberals are intolerable to live around, but they coalesce in the most incredible regions of the country. Perhaps living in Portland would be awful, I didn't feel safe around the downtown riffraff, and Oregon's economy seems terrible, but living in a safe, bland community like Phoenix feels like I'm playing life too safe, and life is about being more bold. Has anyone else struggled to live around liberals?
Pic related is a bridge with a suicide sign in Portland.
I live near Portland and work downtown. I know what you mean about the cheap strip mall setup, but outside of Portland proper that's how most things in Oregon are formatted. Also, some stuff in Portland does have a lot of character, but a lot of it is a postmodern illusion. The same cheapness that you get anywhere else just has a "vibey" graphic design sheen or color pattern stamped on it as a reason to charge absurd amounts of rent. It really leaves an ugly hollow feeling to a lot of these buildings, especially when a tweaker is screaming at the top of their lungs right outside it.
Portland is a shithole but you are right about the walkability. There may be a lot of flaws, but goddamn I respect them for at least trying to get that right. Most times I am really impressed with their public transit layout. Not many cities in America have that experience.
The walkability is so important. Portland's layout is superior to the big cities like SF and Chicago. It felt communal.
>I believe you can make friends with reasonable views anywhere you go and just ignore the liberal morons.
Yes, but the bittersweet thing is that those with the means escaped the liberal cities after 2020. Maybe it's worth seeking out the brave ones who stayed.
>Liberals are mostly introverts and social isolation is a staple of this region so you never feel confronted face to face with anything.
I was confronted almost daily for not wearing a mask in stores during the coof. Liberals are empowered in numbers, which is why living in their communities is frightening and arguably irresponsible. Their emotions overrule cognition. But they are real estate geniuses.
As a tradesman I can tell you the builders in Phoenix are piss poor. I didn't realize the state's involvement in this however. It seems like those jumping the US-Mexico border are conveniently being thrust into these construction jobs. Is there any place in San Diego worth visiting now?
I agree. Most liberals have dangerously low self-esteem. It's to be expected when raised in a victimhood/entitlement culture.
I always assumed living close to the nation's capitol made citizens more prone to be government bootlickers. The wild west was supposed to be more autonomous, but we devolved into a bunch of self-hating pussies.
The one upside about Portland controlling Oregon state politics is that they passed a law requiring all municipalities to abolish minimum parking requirements. And i think they also mandated allowing more townhouse development too. The smaller Oregon cities might get a little more walkable now.
Also would like to add that yes, living around liberals is a significant downside to Portland. They are just as narrow minded and one dimensional is the big meanie republicans that they despise so. It makes it really hard to connect with or relax around anyone with their outlook. But, I believe you can make friends with reasonable views anywhere you go and just ignore the liberal morons. There are morons in every square inch of the country, they just translate appearance. One must learn to ignore and go about your own day to preserve inner peace. Liberals are mostly introverts and social isolation is a staple of this region so you never feel confronted face to face with anything. The city, aside from downtown, is much safer than people make it out to be.
On another note, wtf is this aesthetic that liberals have? Maybe this is my age showing but every young (or sometimes old) liberal just has some dipshit mullet haircut, random dye, shitty sticker-looking tattoos all over, and then the most disjointed thrift shop outfit known to mankind. It looks like everyone is in a circus cosplay competition. I wonder if, now that everyone is hypervigilant about bullying, there is a social bounceback where the trendy thing to do for kids who were bullied is to wear the most moronic bully-able outfit and have everyone pretend like it looks good.
>Maybe this is my age showing but every young (or sometimes old) liberal just has some dipshit mullet haircut, random dye, shitty sticker-looking tattoos all over, and then the most disjointed thrift shop outfit known to mankind.
Yes, they look like what would happen if you gave 7th graders money and adult IDs. Also a ton of trashy facial piercings, they all look like they work at the mall piercing kiosk.
>Has anyone else struggled to live around liberals?
Absolutely. I'm from San Diego and I don't recognize it anymore. San Diego used to be normal, it used to be this patriotic military town on the ocean. It's now full of bum encampments and illegals and they elected a moronic socialist mayor and I still see ~50% of people wearing masks. I don't meet anybody normal anymore, only mexicans, c**ty women and guys that have man buns and NPC speak... why do they do this? Why do coastal liberals talk with weird academic language in casual conversation and use phrases like "unhoused folks" that nobody else uses?
My parents, like you, moved to Arizona to get away from California's policies and the people who vote for them. I like Arizona, it still feels like normal America, but my god you're right about how ugly the development is. I've also noticed most construction looks super cheap there and its done by dumbass hicks and beaners so if you look hard you notice things on buildings aren't level, don't have good lighting, things like that. Driving is also shit there because of the demographics of old people driving under the speed limit and dumbass hillbillies and illegals driving pickup trucks at 25 over.
Liberals gravitate to nice areas because they don't care about having a big house or shit like that, hippies want to live around nature, which yes, has ruined all the pretty areas of the country that have agreeable climates with their presence.
Arizona is all-in on development because it keeps taxes low. The state owns a ton of land there and to finance things they just sell off another chunk to a tract home builder every once in a while, so you see random, miles long empty areas in the middle of cities, that's land owned by the state still, then a mile of tacky strip malls, warehouses and subdivisions out beyond it.
they put on the "unhoused folks" persona to distance themselves from the fact that they are shallow consumerist NPCs. It's all a coping mechanism because they are internally damaged and adopting a socially generated personality provides a spiritual outlet to their life which otherwise consists of ordering doordash and using streaming platforms.
Hmm, I feel so bad about those "unhoused folks," but maybe that phrasing just seems a little... problematic... How about we normalize calling them "xhose in need of habitation?" Emphasis on "xhose," removes the non-existent gendered connotation of the third person plural just for good measure... Alright, enough good deeds for today, back to Netflix
>Modern liberals are intolerable to live around
I find Boston liberals annoying but tolerable.
Maybe there's just barely enough mix of old school conservatives and immigrants to keep it somewhat sane compared to the west coast. Plus a lot of liberals in Boston are the Corrupt Irish Catholic type moreso than the smoothbrains actually buying into woke propaganda.
Overall though the scourge of modern left-wing propaganda machines reaches far beyond the coasts.
portland maine is better
holy donut>voodoo doughnut
The reason cities like Phoenix are popular is because if you're married with kids, you want as safe, stable and affordable a place to live as possible. Suburbs may be soulless, but you can get a nice McMansion, send your kids to a decent school, no homeless schizos and street shitters, no random crime, malls and big box stores for everything.
Urban walkable environments are going to be universally liberal-dominated because higher population densities make people more authoritarian (seriously; the number one predictor of political leaning is pop density). However there are lovely parts of the country that are more conservative, they're just rural or exurban. Hill Country TX, the PNW outside of the coasts (Idaho) etc. Nowhere is perfect but you don't have to be in Portland to enjoy nature.
Only the coasts
>it's another euroid tries to say that US is a sprawlscape while europe totally isn't episode
Please. I recently took an intercity bus trip in southern europe and almost the entire way was gas station filled sprawl. Europe is filled with it, you guys aren't just cute little villages and picturesque countryside. At least in the US it's easy to get out into places with virtually no civilization
For sure. But the difference is that once you do get into towns in Europe, they are walkable and appropriately dense. Sprawl in Europe is the exception not the rule.
In the Southwest, I only know of San Francisco and Santa Fe. There’s less sprawl on the East Coast and around the Great Lakes.
Just don't go to the Midwest, Texas or Phoenix
>watermarking a meme decrying modern sprawl when its just a hasty photoshop of classic art
incorrigible homosexual
here is a list of us cities with an actual architectural theme and zoning laws
monterey/carmel ca by the sea
tarpon springs fl
santa fe nm
harper's ferry wv frederick md
williamsburg va
you only get 5
San Clemente, California
>The most diverse climate of any country
>Spend trillions ruining it so that everywhere can look near identical
I don't get it tbh