Quote:
Originally Posted by accord1999
A 100 years ago, that was most cities in the West. Today, many of those city cores are less populated because it turns out, it wasn't the way a lot of people wanted to live.
Ironically it could be said that the car saved cities, because it allowed all the people who didn't want to live there or pay for the housing costs to move away. If the cost of living in inner cities are expensive today, imagine Manhattan or Paris with 4 million residents instead of the 2 million today
|
It’s not because it wasn’t how a lot of people wanted to live. It should be no secret why, despite these cores’ population dropping, rural population is also shrinking while urban populations grow.
The issue is that a lot of housing in these areas have turned into offices, stores, and other business-use buildings. As you remove livable areas, you create scarcity, which raises the prices, etc. People didn’t want to stop living in tight-knit, busy, walkable neighbourhoods. They were forced out. That’s also why a lot of these suburban areas people were forced out to do their best to mimic a tiny city with everything people need at arms length.
“Cars saved cities because nobody wants to live in cities” is too silly to stomach.