Believe it or not, there was a point where the U.S. could have reversed its current course of sprawling development.
As we all know, American cities are designed for cars, not people. Or, more accurately, people in cars. From World War II until now, extensive road systems, parking lots, and sprawling, single-family home development has been the norm.
In the middle of the 20th Century, families were sold this Frankenstein version of city and rural life. They were essentially being offered a fantasy version of a life only the rich had once had, where they could have gardens, lawns, and their own slice of paradise.
This trend moved quickly, according to a Brookings article:
From 1970 to 1990, the Chicago area’s population rose by only 4 percent, but the region’s built-up land increased 46 percent. Metropolitan Cleveland’s population actually declined by 8 percent, yet 33 percent more of the area’s territory was developed.
This new urban paradigm of sprawl and auto-oriented life gained steam in the U.S. and abroad over the course of the 20th Century.
Yes, even Europe began to sprawl in the post-World War II era.
Yet, in the 1980s and 90s, Europe (mostly) turned against this idea. Governments and people re-embraced the idea of traditional cities, largely stopping sprawl and aiming for a new type of urbanism that embraced both the old and new.
Visitors today may take it for granted that European cities were “always this way”, but in truth, many of these towns made concerted efforts to redesign spaces, build public transit, and take back urban space from automobiles.
One of the best examples of this movement was the International Building Exhibit of 1987 in Berlin, which aimed for careful urban renewal of certain sites in West Berlin.
At the same time, the U.S. doubled down, continuing to expand suburbs and limit many areas to single-family houses.
There are obviously many factors at play. The U.S., with its emphasis on mega corporations and local government power, have consistently valued large parking lot development and sprawling homes. This makes it difficult to create a walkable place, especially when everything is so far away from each other.
The psychology of Americans has made pedestrian-friendly, walkable places more of a theme park attraction than a reality. These places exist in the United States, but they are more of a novelty than anything.
It’s no wonder that Americans flock to places like Disney World, which offer a fantasy recreation of the idealistic main streets that America forgot.
Sprawl, in its upsides, was supposed to offer spacious rooming situations for every American.
Yet that hasn’t been the reality.
Even in sprawled out cities, people are squeezing into fewer rooms. Places like L.A., which are experiencing a housing crisis, have fewer and fewer homes for working class people to live.
It almost seems paradoxical that sprawl and tight zoning regulations have led to a shortage of housing in the United States.
Yet a closer look uncovers more of the truth: An almost pathologic resistance to change and density in local U.S. areas has made building anything other than a single family home a city council battle.
The rich cry “foul” as the rest of the population suffers, leading to rent prices that eat up large percentages of people’s income.
The U.S. seems to chronically be in denial about the problems that have run rampant in the cities. From homelessness to housing shortages and rising rents, it is becoming increasingly untenable to chase the American dream all this sprawl hinges on.
Now we can look back at the 80s and 90s as a key time in America’s history, when it had a chance to take its prosperity and do something different. Instead, we now have a more unaffordable, and disconnected country, than ever before.
The law of unintended consequences impinges. The car is indeed the problem. The consequences of designing for car use as the dominant means of getting around are horrendous.
I describe an alternative here: https://erlhapp.substack.com/p/against-the-public-interest
Right now it’s very normal for an affluent family to buy a custom home and fill it with furniture from Ikea or KMart. But, the stick frame house being built today has little that is custom built about it. Hopefully, we are not far off a revolution in the housing market that could provide affordable housing for all. The revolution will likely come with the opportunity to buy a beautifully finished house off the shelf and place it on rented rather than purchased land. Hopefully we will see the disappearance of the two car garage, the driveway and the road out front, and the advent of communal garaging within walking distance. The result could be suburbs without subdivision. This will require adjustments in the planning system. Planners will have to get out of the way. Abandon zoning and allow people to generate work closer to where they live or the live closer to where they work.
If this comes with smaller mortgages, easier resale, reduced house price inflation and enhanced mobility for workers, national productivity will be enhanced. We will all be much better off.