Why American Suburbs are so Creepy (liminal spaces)

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It’s also the lack of trees in all of the images you depicted

Many of these places make me question "is it legal to walk there?".

I grew up in Los Angeles. My parents who are now both over 75 years old said to me that they used to ride streetcars all over Los Angeles, AS CHILDREN, in the early 1950s in the middle of central L.A., but they disappeared... seemingly all at once. I asked my mom, "well, what happened?" She said they were replaced with buses and more highways were built (destroying many vibrant neighborhoods in the process). I later come to find out that the General Motors company had a nationwide conspiracy to get more people into cars and to buy their vehicles, so they bought up streetcar systems all over the U.S. and replaced them with big, gas-guzzling buses. When the buses proved inefficient in your daily life, you needed to buy a car. The car became de-facto "required" as a means of convenience, plus it was aspirational to own one (along with a suburban home, the car was a sign of "making it and part of achieving the American Dream", riding the bus or taking public transit in many towns was then viewed as socially "undesirable" and "inconvenient" -- and in many cases even derelict). Of course, car ownership shot up. However, the U.S. government FINED General Motors and ruled what they did as a conspiracy. But by then it was already too late. Also General Motors was one of the main lobbies behind the Highway Act which built more and more roads throughout America for its vehicles and to drive sales, under the guise of "convenience," "efficiency" and "modernization". Thanks, General Motors. Oh yeah, the U.S. gov't also bailed out this company not too long ago.

Holy shit… this explains why people from the suburbs always act like they’re fearful/vulnerable. Like a mouse in the middle of an open field where there is nowhere to run or hide to

its wild when i see rows of homes and they dont even have sidewalks. like, those neighborhoods arent even designed for people.

Agreed. I ride my bike to school everyday and it feels so boring tbh. It feels like a desolate wasteland, and also because I'm the ONLY ONE riding a bike. It definitely feels like I'm in a zombie movie or smth. It truly sucks, in no civilized society would you have to drive to a grocery store and not walk there. It seems that the country has been more about making money than putting health first. "Kids, be thankful for your freedom, now get in the car" (I stole this comment)

i live in a small Texas town, and there are legit NO SIDEWALKS. if you walk anywhere, ppl will look at you from their cars and be like “why are they walking to _____?” because it’s so denormalized here. i used to live in the bay area, where walking anywhere was completely normal because there were actual sidewalks, smaller roads, and smaller parking lots. it’s actually wild how society functions in some places.

Yes I'm so glad I grew up in the 70's and 80's where tons of kids on Bikes roamed all around, each house had kids playing outside.. families barbecuing outside, everyone minding their own business to an extent... There were never any HOA's...so everyone had their thing going. One yard had cars on it with people working on them, customizing them...the next had older people gardening... there were always kids everywhere. People back then values freedom and individuality over conformity. They also valued vigilance, and weren't always distracted by the hand held phone. There were block parties.. people went for walks in the afternoon and evening. Kids turned vacant lots into baseball diamonds, or BMX tracks... it was a very fun time. Now I'm completely shocked to hear that some parents get arrested for letting their kids play outside... what a disgusting world we live in!!!

Having grown up in the USA, this video precisely describes how I felt about these places. Its like these places are not places at all like Not Just Bikes says. Being stuck at home feels like being stuck on a remote island surrounded by an inhospitable concrete wasteland. The only practical way to get around is to get in that metal box on wheels. Oh, and you must ask mommy and daddy to take you pretty much anywhere, but to where if everything is just copy-paste chain stores and restaurants.

My suburban neighborhood had an internal sidewalk and a community clubhouse and pool that kids can easily get to and use without being exposed to the risk of cars or needing adult supervision. Had it not been for that, I would have been much more miserable growing up.

My current neighborhood was built in the 80s and I love it! Every house is built differently, the lawns all have the homeowners unique decorations, trees and foliage all over the place, people walking and super friendly; HOWEVER it also has a street that connects it to a suburban neighborhood that was just recently built. That neighborhood is like what was described here. Eerily empty and devoid of people, no trees, cookie cutter houses, no character or uniqueness because it's an HOA; Its like a night and day difference. The fact that the HOA neighborhood is more expensive to live in, despite having no character or charm blows me away.

As someone who lives in suburban Philadelphia I have to say, I cannot relate at all to this video. The town I live definitely has the cookie cutter home style as described in this video, but it does not at all feel “liminal” or “empty” here. The streets are lined with trees and sidewalks, and it is a very active community where I live. People are always walking around outside, walking dogs, riding bikes, etc. There are multiple community parks with biking trails and nature trails within walking distance of my house, as well. We also have state parks that are not too far of a drive away. I guess it’s because the town I live was built before all these zoning laws came into effect is why it feels much different than the places described in this video.

Man, the suburbs can be quite a miserable place for teenagers. Literally all of my close friends live outside of my neighborhood, so I rarely, if ever, get invited to the fun things they do. This past winter was really rough. I was planning to learn to snowboard this winter, and possibly go to a ski resort with my best friend, but the cost was too expensive. So while everyone else was having fun during the winter with their friends, I was basically stuck at home. This lead me to borderline addiction to a mobile video game called Clash Of Clans. On some weekends, I’d spend hours and hours raiding people’s villages and earning massive amounts of resources and trophies. I’ve gotten more passive about the game now, but man, was that game my lifeline. Living in the suburbs as a teenager with most fun places being either expensive, too far away, or lonely, is hard. 😔

Fact is, if the street is barely wider than two cars, you actually a) need to know how to drive, b) drive slowly and c) be undistracted. Three things many US-citizens seem to be allergic against. Edit: Because some people in the replies think I'm endorsing that, no, it's obviously pathetic.

These feelings are in you head. If you feel creeped out by a suburban neighborhood, you are the one with the problem.

North American suburbs are worse than most North Americans realize. I grew up in the US, and lived in both semi-rural, and suburban environments, but never realized just how horrible they were until after I moved to Germany then came back to visit the US after several years. Although the German town I live in has only about 40,000 inhabitants, I can still walk out of my home and within 10 minutes and have access to any amenity that I wish: shopping, restaurants, pubs, theaters, outdoor/indoor cafés, bakeries, supermarkets, doctors, train/bus station, etc... just about everything - and that is in this town alone. Most other towns of this size are similar. People are out and about all day and even at night during the warmer months of the year. If I want to visit that next, much larger, town over, I can bike or take a bus, or even drive my car, but I don't have to drive, and prefer not to as driving can be more inconvenient depending on the situation and available parking. Why drive somewhere if you know you might drink a beer? The US is TOTALLY different, and not in a good way. About a year ago I came back to the US to visit my brother who lives in a single home suburb in the Denver area. I was amazed by just the width of the road in front of his house. (Why had I never noticed that before?) It is more than twice the width of the road in front of my home in Germany, which was only built in 2014. One day when my brother was not at home, I figured I would go for a meal in the closest nearby restaurant for a hamburger and fries. I figured I may have a beer or two, so I decided to walk rather than drive, which turned out to be a mistake. The walk was nearly an hour in one direction, with a “stroad” and no other pedestrians along the way. On my way home, a nosy cop pulled over along the side of the road and asked me what I was doing walking along the road in the dark. Luckily, he left me alone, but not after admonishing me for not having a way to get home “safely”. It was surely my authentic, yet fake, German accent that got me out of that one. I was in the Denver area again about a month ago, but this time I stayed in a hotel. Looking out my hotel window toward the back of the hotel, all I could see was a huge wall with a highway flyover behind it, and when looking out the front of the hotel from the lobby all one could see was a HUGE parking lot with a strip mall way off in the distance. What does it take to come up with the idea of building a hotel among so much ungodly concrete? This experience was more soul-crushing than the visit to my brother last year. I can now understand why so many Americans unashamedly and casually admit to having “therapists”. I find this all very unfortunate and have decided that I will not be spending the time and money to bring my wife to visit my suburban family members anywhere in the US outside of New York City. Most American cities and towns are just too boring and ugly, and are essentially just huge parking lots. There are plenty of much nicer places to visit here in Europe. If I start feeling nostalgia for America, I can just drive for 20 minutes to Ikea and walk around the parking lot.

Dude my dreams are full of creepy, empty suburban areas. They aren't quite nightmares but they aren't good dreams either. So glad I live in a community that has biking trails throughout town and a historic downtown with personality. Helps combat that liminal/hopeless feeling.

Fun fact: even though American suburbs are so sprawl they are actually in total taking less space then parking lots in America - which BTW is another alarming statistics. In total there are 8 parking spaces for each car registered in America. In Europe on avarage there's 0.8 parking space for each car registered.

Driving through suburbs in Massachusetts feels like this. Endless neighborhoods, no open space, suffocating.