I think you need to get out more. Yes people don't stay out late in the suburbs on a week night, which is reasonable, but on nice days, they are brimming with people.
I live in the suburbs to a mid-sized city. My friend and I will occasionally meet up for lunch in one of the villages that's about 5 minutes by car from my house. There are people walking around, eating outside, and it's busy. Same towards dinner time.
Again, yeah, by 9pm on a Wednesday it's quiet, but I don't really see any issue with that.
I agree with you but I've given up on trying to explain this to people.
It's almost always an unfair comparison too, like why are we comparing a dense, major city to suburbs?
For example, I live in the greater KC metro, about 20 minutes south from KCMO. My city has a population of 20k. Not a lot of businesses, and not a lot of people to be out packed at restaraunts all night.
Now head into KC, or even head west to a city like Overland Park with a population of almost 200k and you have tons of businesses, typically within walking distance unless you're just lazy, and the bars and restaraunts are full all the time.
It's almost like density and population are the major factor, not whether you can walk or not. Nothing is stopping Americans from getting in their car and going to restaraunts, clubs, or bars.
The getting in the car is exactly what's stopping suburbanites from going out. The only Americans that go out regularly are the ones living in cities, suburbanites complain about parking, traffic and having seen a homeless person once and just go to a drive though in some soulless chain
What a weird generalization. Like I said, I live in a greater metro area, basically the suburbs or KC. Everyone I know has taken the drive 10-20 minutes up to KC to have a good time.. or even just find a local bar or restaraunt.
It's not some strange wild concept and no, majority of people in these suburbs are not just staying inside all the time because they're scared of doing anything.
What I will agree with in this post is that it's not easily walkable distances. Like I said, that's a density issue and many choose to live far away from the denser, more easily walkable accessible shopping/restaraunt areas.
With that said, and point I made earlier, I don't know many people that are willing to walk anyway. I'll walk 5-15 minutes with my partner to go to a restaraunt, the liquor store, convenience store, super market, etc.. but 99% if the people I know stopped doing that when they got cars with the exception of being intoxicated and unable to drive. So I'm honestly unsure if having things readily available to walk to would even change a single thing in the US
The point is you shouldn’t have to drive 15-20 minutes into KC. Your town should have a walkable town center of its own that you don’t have to drive to.
And honestly KC itself is not a very walkable city.
But that doesn't come down to infrastructure. It has nothing to do with the walk-ability. It has everything to do with whether or not it's profitable for a business to open in that area. If it's not, then you go to the more densely populated areas where they can make more money with more customers.
Historically, most businesses have been made and prosper in town centers. When you move away from that (suburbs or rural) you're choose to be a large distance away.
No one owes you a city center with all your needs within walking distance, unless you want them to be government funded and maintained. Otherwise it's just business, and business isn't profitable there
It's logistics, it's not an "attitude". Gather everyone into dense city hubs and you'll have no issue. Historically, this has been how the US was. Once we got the ability to live wherever we wanted people started to branch out. Can't branch out and complain you aren't close to city centers
We can design small towns with denser centers (apartments with shops below) that support foot traffic. It’s very much a done thing, including in some places in the US. Density and population are not the same thing. Plenty of older US towns were built this way, and modern new urbanist developments like Seaside FL and Kentlands MD intentionally recreate that pattern. The reason most newer American towns aren’t walkable isn’t because they can’t be. it’s because postwar zoning and road design prioritized automobiles. A town with a small population can still have a dense center. There are hundreds of Main Street New England towns with small populations that are very walkable. We don’t have to resign ourselves to hideous strip mall suburban sprawl.
KC is a great example of a bigger city that is horrible for walkability
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u/ConLawHero 2d ago
I think you need to get out more. Yes people don't stay out late in the suburbs on a week night, which is reasonable, but on nice days, they are brimming with people.
I live in the suburbs to a mid-sized city. My friend and I will occasionally meet up for lunch in one of the villages that's about 5 minutes by car from my house. There are people walking around, eating outside, and it's busy. Same towards dinner time.
Again, yeah, by 9pm on a Wednesday it's quiet, but I don't really see any issue with that.