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Why American cities are weirdly shaped

economist.com

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Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#121

Post by [deleted] »

dayofthedaleks wrote: post #48
robertAngst wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My city is one of the best in our area. Best schools, safe, and has a high property tax. 10 miles south of us is Detroit. Where the Detroit voters re-elected Kawammi kilpatrick despite having constant public corruption. Do I want those voters to impact my schools? Do those voters want to spend 9,000$/yr on property taxes? Its far too simplistic to think that there is only redundancies at play.

Glad that the Voice of White Flight Suburbs could chime in. Edit: Also, it looks like Kwame Kilpatrick hasn't stood for office in more than a decade. Exactly what axe are you grinding, here?

[deleted]

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#123

Post by xte »

scarejunba wrote: post #108
xte wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a result of Japan environment (not only natural), they are too much and too concentrated as a result they can't live relaxed, they can only stress themselves. Few that born or arrive to a "comfort position" tend to exceed in any behavior, others whip themselves to the extreme. That's why we read about people who die working too much, who close themselves in their room for months or years, they use big load of an…

Not convincing. The inner boroughs of London are as dense as Tokyo and a dream to live in. Your hypotheses have not faced adequate tests of falsification yet.

I was for a very short period of time in London and I do not see anything can be dreamed, starting for super-poor quality of ANY buildings... Mean quality I see resemble eastern-Europe ex-communist buildings of the poorer quality, just covered with moquette to hide the disaster...

Without speaking, of course, about pollution, traffic, noise etc. Perhaps for someone who have always live in a big town the level of service and public transport can appear really good, but if you ever live in riviera...

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#124

Post by scarejunba »

xte wrote: post #123
scarejunba wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not convincing. The inner boroughs of London are as dense as Tokyo and a dream to live in. Your hypotheses have not faced adequate tests of falsification yet.

I was for a very short period of time in London and I do not see anything can be dreamed, starting for super-poor quality of ANY buildings... Mean quality I see resemble eastern-Europe ex-communist buildings of the poorer quality, just covered with moquette to hide the disaster... Without speaking, of course, about pollution, traffic, noise etc. Perhaps for someone who have always live in a big town the level of serv…

Hmm, how interesting. It looks like you mostly encountered social housing. Where did you stay and go?

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#126

Post by ztetranz »

Auckland, New Zealand has gone to the opposite extreme. When I first lived there in the late 1970s there were about 25 municipalities with the central one called Auckland, each with their own mayor and council. I guess it wasn't as bad as the US because schools, police, fire, ambulance are a central government thing in NZ but the local governments do everything else that a town normally does.

Throughout the last few decades there have been several amalgamations. Finally we have one "super city" called Auckland. Its boundaries extend way beyond the metro area so it's kind of inside out compared to other cities.

Now I live in Southern New Hampshire in the US. It feels a bit like Auckland long ago. Lots of little towns, each with their own local government and services. They share some things like the a 911 emergency call center and police and fire do "mutual aid" when something big happens in a neighboring town but it still seems like a lot of duplication. If there is no sign, you can usually tell when you've crossed a boundary because the road surface changes because they have different maintenance schedules.

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#127

Post by pishpash »

bobthepanda wrote: post #105
prostoalex wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a contributing factor, but unlikely the decisive one. Some city schools are excellent, and business case for a private or a charter school is stronger in a city. There's also wider availability of various after-school programs. There's the space concern for those who wouldn't mind a backyard and a pet or two, safety concern associated with letting the kids just play outside, transportation concern as far as ef…

Suburbs used to be regularly annexed into cities; in some places they still are. This stops being the norm when desegregation occurs. Now that all races must be allowed to mix in schools, businesses and housing, whites flee to the suburbs, put up giant financial barriers in the form of zoning, and refuse to be annexed. These days overt racial politics is now dogwhistled as concerns about crime or undesirables or cult…

Concerns about crime, undesirables, or culture are real, and taxes. They are neither inherently racial nor dog whistles, but are only so because of how American history shook out along racial lines. You are inverting cause and effect here.

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#128

Post by Symbiote »

chrisseaton wrote: post #2

My understanding is that a city boundary in the US is a big deal. The police force on either side can be completely different, things that can get you in a lot of trouble like gun laws can be different on either side, prices and taxes can be very different. In the UK a city boundary doesn't really mean anything. There might be a nice 'Welcome to X' sign but nothing really changes as it would in the US. I'm not even s…

The UK has some unitary authorities which are cities, like the City of Leicester, which is administered separately from Leicestershire.

As you said though, it makes close to no difference.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_authorities_of_England

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#129

Post by prostoalex »

bobthepanda wrote: post #105
prostoalex wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a contributing factor, but unlikely the decisive one. Some city schools are excellent, and business case for a private or a charter school is stronger in a city. There's also wider availability of various after-school programs. There's the space concern for those who wouldn't mind a backyard and a pet or two, safety concern associated with letting the kids just play outside, transportation concern as far as ef…

Suburbs used to be regularly annexed into cities; in some places they still are. This stops being the norm when desegregation occurs. Now that all races must be allowed to mix in schools, businesses and housing, whites flee to the suburbs, put up giant financial barriers in the form of zoning, and refuse to be annexed. These days overt racial politics is now dogwhistled as concerns about crime or undesirables or cult…

> whites flee to the suburbs, put up giant financial barriers in the form of zoning

In terms of $/sq.ft. an urban residence in the US will almost universally be priced higher than a suburban one. There are a few exceptions to the rule (Atherton might be pricier than SF, Beverly Hills pricier than LA), but in general if you have a fixed price point in mind, suburbs will get you more space for your dollar.

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#130

Post by cjf4 »

amha wrote: post #54
cjf4 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My understanding is that a city boundary in the US is a big deal. The police force on either side can be completely different, things that can get you in a lot of trouble like gun laws can be different on either side, prices and taxes can be very different. The biggest thing that changes is the school district. City schools tend to be worse than suburban counterparts, and that completely drives a cities ability to r…

It depends on the state. At least here in New York (the state, not the city), school district boundaries have nothing to do with municipal boundaries (which, yeah, adds another layer of confusion!)

For the major NY urban districts, the municipal and school district boundaries are essentially the same.
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