Not Just Bikes is a great YouTube channel that discusses this repulsive suburban decay and covers a lot of Strong Towns material as well. It's a very upsetting pattern that strips towns of the feeling of community you only really get with walkable and enjoyable neighbourhoods.
These are very much similar between the U.S and Canada, the only difference in my mind being the impression I get from this quote
> So here’s the big picture. All of America’s institutions are focused exclusively on churn. Crank out new stuff, sell it fast, cash out, and move on to the next project. Blighted neighborhoods aren’t an accident. They’re baked in to every facet of how we do everything.
It's my impression that this has wormed it's way into other facets of U.S capitalistic culture. Visiting for the first time, every sign in the airport seemed to be shouting at me "BUY BUY BUY" "BURGERS CHICKEN TACOS IPADS GUNS" etc.. as if I wasn't expected to come back. Massive absurd super Walmarts, Super Targets,(I thought "Super" was just a colloquialism until I saw that in fact they literally have/had it in the name) places to gain as much weight as possible and then lose it instantly with this one easy trick. It was the first time I saw a living blob of a person literally just vibrating on a chair in the damn airport. Not that I have anything against overweight people, but it's symbolic of a level of pure hedonism I'm uncomfortable with. Everything's cheaper and bigger and awful. Not that Canada doesn't have some elements of this, but it's a much much smaller scale of crazy. The cities though are a similar hellscape, with just a few nice walkable exceptions.
These are very much similar between the U.S and Canada, the only difference in my mind being the impression I get from this quote
> So here’s the big picture. All of America’s institutions are focused exclusively on churn. Crank out new stuff, sell it fast, cash out, and move on to the next project. Blighted neighborhoods aren’t an accident. They’re baked in to every facet of how we do everything.
It's my impression that this has wormed it's way into other facets of U.S capitalistic culture. Visiting for the first time, every sign in the airport seemed to be shouting at me "BUY BUY BUY" "BURGERS CHICKEN TACOS IPADS GUNS" etc.. as if I wasn't expected to come back. Massive absurd super Walmarts, Super Targets,(I thought "Super" was just a colloquialism until I saw that in fact they literally have/had it in the name) places to gain as much weight as possible and then lose it instantly with this one easy trick. It was the first time I saw a living blob of a person literally just vibrating on a chair in the damn airport. Not that I have anything against overweight people, but it's symbolic of a level of pure hedonism I'm uncomfortable with. Everything's cheaper and bigger and awful. Not that Canada doesn't have some elements of this, but it's a much much smaller scale of crazy. The cities though are a similar hellscape, with just a few nice walkable exceptions.