I’m back in the states for holidays but this time it was such a shock to realize everything looks so old, like from the airport to the convenience stores, malls, gas stations, etc. Why does everything look like it hasn’t changed from the 90s? And I was out just for a couple of months but things look newer and shinier in Panama and El Salvador compared to here. I cannot even imagine what some of you coming back from east Asia must feel. Did our country peak in the 90s and other countries are going through their renaissance? I love the convenience of the US where everything is open 24 hrs and you can get things delivered to your door basically overnight if you pay the price but I feel like we’re stuck with very old and boring infrastructure, makes me feel almost the same way I felt when I went to eastern Europe
Sometime after WWII the USA decided that beauty had no value. If something still works but looks bad why would you replace it? That will cost money and all things should be in the service of maximum profit. Unless you literally stop going somewhere because it looks so bad, there is no incentive to improve it.
It's more than superficial too. At some times it seems like convenience and even safety get tossed in to the list of expenses considered superfluous. The damage done by this thinking is immeasurable.
I mean, I personally find it extremely wasteful to replace something simply for aesthetic value. Sure, if a building needs to come down for safety reasons then go ahead and replace it with something nice, but anything built that’s not architecturally unique and just generically nice may very well be considered ugly again 50 years from now
I shouldn't have said replace. It's more about when new buildings are constructed. Making them nice doesn't help the ROI unless you can charge more for rent, and they're charging the maximum possible rent so it's just a waste of money... Or so the thinking goes.