Why Are American Cities Squalid?

In Europe the pinnacle of collective action is the government.

In America the pinnacle of collective action is the corporation.

Corporations are required by law to maximize shareholder value - not maximize communal quality of life.

There are other levels of communal action in the US - churches and family mostly.

Cities are a product of intense collective action. In the US - it's very easy to hobble the collective action of a city. The days of Robert Moses are gone - which is a good thing - he was a bastard.

Even if we adopt strategies like "Strong Towns" that's not a guarantee of non-squalid street conditions.

Nation states need to re-evaluate what their purpose is. Not likely to happen though.

The answer is racism, see the story of Robert Moses [0].

[0] https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236...

Racism is real and a problem, but you could have an entirely all-white city in the US, it would still have this problem. In my own city, Austin Texas, the great majority of the homeless appear to be white. NYC has a black mayor, it hasn't (apparently, according to this article) made an appreciable difference.

America is one of the few countries in the world where a majority of the population lives in the suburbs, in single family homes and large apartments, with almost universal automobile ownership. It is designed this way, by both the federal and state government through prioritizing highways over passenger rail, and local governments by prioritizing local roads and parking over public transportation and pedestrian and cycling paths. Largely this has the support of the population who prefer prioritizing automobiles.

You lose a lot when you make these your priorities. You lose the magnificent airport of Singapore, the railways of Japan, the cycling paths running across the whole of the Netherlands, the twisting trails linking villages together in the Alps. You lose a lot of social venues and social cohesion.

But you also gain something. You gain something almost unique in the world, which is the ability of the majority of the population (especially outside high CoL areas) to own their own house, a real house, earth to sky, with four walls to the winds. Often with its own garage, often attached, allowing you to pass directly to your car without touching the elements. You get space - the tremendous space - that feeling of infinite possibilities that hits you when you first step out of the airport of an American city, squalor and all.

"Germany, like much of northern Europe, is a high-regulation society, but it’s also high-trust"

I've lived in Germany a long time, and while it's a wonderful place, I can tell you a lot of people who want to get out, who are tired of being trapped in their tiny cold apartment worried if they can afford heating more than just their bedroom or (the decadence!) the entire apartment. The kind of freedom you feel in a country where you can just drop everything and move to a different coast and find a job and speak the same language, you can't do that here, at least not with a tremendous number of barriers to cross. And don't even get me started on dryers.

"I like to live here, but the reality is we are rapidly falling behind the rest of the world in liveability (sic)"

Livability as defined by world rankings, no, American cities won't match up. Even NYC's public transit is a joke compared to much of the world. But livability as defined by, somewhere I have the freedom to live, to own, to dream... the USA might just be the place.

I think the real answer is.. whatever we are personally 'against' is the real cause... and whatever we are personally 'for' is the solution.