> Those failures are visible everywhere: Have you ever wondered why so many residential streets wind around in aimless, circuitous patterns, disconnected from the town around them? Or why you are forced to endure a nightmare commute to drive just 10 miles?

When I first moved to California in 1980, Silicon Valley's famous orchards were giving way to homes and businesses. Now, I see farmland outside Fresno being turned into giant home developments. And why not? Homes in the Central Valley are half the median cost of the rest of the state, some $430,000 (YMMV)

And it's so well planned. (not)

Months of highway work on Hwy 41 only seemed to add drainage alongside. Same old two lanes. And where your one lane used to fan out into two headed into Fresno, the right lane was dedicated to right turns only, causing mile-long "stop and stop" backups that didn't exist before, and many a short-stop (don't ask me how I know)

It's ALL unplanned, from an average Joe's perspective. Only making affordable (and WAY too large) homes from available farmland, with zero upgrades to roads, and no public transit except for existing city busses.

I see improvement only on the margin (and the current margin is noted above) leaving the overall situation about as tractable as unscrambling spaghetti, my cable collection or most aptly, tangled fishing line.

I am planning to reply to the post on how suburbs aren't so bad. But I guess that will have to wait, because I need to shop and all the useful stores are some 50 miles from my boondock (it was affordable!) home. Beautiful as all heck, like Jackson Hole on the cheap (make an offer) but nada else. People here actually say it's a great place to die. I have no such plans.

Suburbs, even the "unplanned" ones, do offer a little space to gather friends. My Buddhist group meets in peoples' homes. And Trader Joe's isn't a 50 mile drive. Since the affordability is basically in the Central Valley, with temps in the 100's lately, and insane electric rates ... I might just rent in the bay area. I have always lived in suburbs, except for the past 11 years in the woods.

I grew roses and a few veggies in suburbs. Here, the deer eat everything not made of stainless steel, or so it seems. Lovely wildflowers make their brief appearance only because deer can't stomach them. And for a fair number of years, BART'ed to work. Those were the days, my friend.

Seniors always get the wrong end of the stick. I'll make do.

The article seems to change its title from time to time. The above is the title I saw when I last checked the actual link (the archived version has a different title).

A few interesting tidbits:

"Imagine that, in 2076, you’re walking through a residential neighborhood in La Mirada, California, a midcentury, southeastern suburb of Los Angeles, one of the regions at the epicenter of today’s housing crisis. [...] Some bigger houses have been subdivided into two homes. Other lots now hold triplexes, fourplexes, and small apartment buildings that sit comfortably among single-family homes. [...] the hard wall between home and commerce — which is near-universally mandated by local zoning codes today — has softened. Near the neighborhood’s edge, where local streets meet a larger main road, a neighborhood grocery and clinic have opened on what used to be strictly residential lots. And, yes: That is a donut shop running out of a neighbor’s garage. [...] more of the rituals of daily life mixed in, the suburb has gained a richer, more connected public sphere. There are simply more people around — walking, talking, and lingering."

Living in a place where you can just walk for 10 minutes to get to a coffee shop or grocery store, but still have the option to drive, is a joy. Unfortunately, there seems to be a QAnon-style of conspiracy theorists who protest the idea (I've even seen small groups of such protesters on a stroad where I currently live in Canada, even though I've heard no plans to make our stroad-heavy area the least bit walkable).

Also:

"“You have to ensure that every neighborhood is connected to another,” Alain Bertaud, former principal urban planner at the World Bank, told me. “The market does not provide that. The job of the planner is to get involved much less in what is private, and much more in what is public.”"

That sounds great to me. I don't really love the new "carved-out gated community" style of building that seems to be all the rage in Nevada (for example) these days, where you might have to drive for 10 minutes and go through two gates just to get to a house that borders on your backyard (but exists in a different gates community).