It's always nice to get a positive take on how things are improving in North America. I'm excited to see where things will go in the next 10 years. I just had a conversation with someone the other day about not just "running away" from the problems we have, and actually working to solve them.
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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Some days the battle feels unwinable when you have rich people and governments brainwashing the masses into acting against their own self interest in the name of looking successful. Some days it seems easier to just let them have it and go to where the life you desire is already established and let the people who are too blinded to know better get what they asked for.
Those are the days I have to remind myself I was one of them. I was willfully ignorant to the problem because I was doing well enough to not care. I ignored the consequences and still I was given the opportunity to change. If I deserved the ability and opportunity to change then so do the rest of the herd. And then the die hards who refuse to change can be the ones who can leave if they don't like it.
first few minutes, talking about all the amenities that I do not have, because I live in the U.S. Then they go on about how some cities in the U.S are getting better. but oh wait, those are also the most expensive cities to live in. Also, the average life expectancy for adult males in the U.S. is 73. so if you're in your mid 30's, congrats, you're middle aged. Pointing that out just to say that I don't want to live in a walkable, bikeable, mass transit-able city in 20 years (if republicans don't tear everything down first), I want to live there now, during my lifetime.
this honestly just seems like an ad for montreal.
Then how would living in Amsterdam be any cheaper or realistic?
But I would imagine it is much easier to live a happy life if we simply move to Amsterdam? instead of dealing with unreasonable, old, and stubborn populations in the city hall?
At least I can learn dutch in 5 years, but I dont imagine I can convince our semi-suburbian city hall to remove even the minimal parking requirement during that time.
You can just move to a good US city. It would be way easier than somehow getting the chance to immigrate to Amsterdam and deal with the serious lack of housing and also high cost of living.
I am not quite aware of the living cost in amsterdam, but given a studio (single room apartment, bedroom, livingroom, study, and kitchen all in one) in a somewhat walkable major city in the U.S. cost around 400k, and a 2 bedroom apartment can easily cost 700k. And none of above includes luxury apartment, which can add another 50% to the cost.
I would be really keen to see how netherlands can top that.
https://rentberry.com/nl/apartments/s/amsterdam-netherlands
Just from a quick google search the first things I find are more expensive than my nearest major city. Anything in the "affordable" range was co-living with strangers.
This is a great counter to the video that NJB put out, and his comments on bluesky. You don't have to move to an urbanist paradise to be happy. Even if you feel like you do, you don't have to leave North America to get that.
In Georgia, a very car centric place with a shit ton of suburbs, there's a town called Peachtree City. Nearly every place is connected by paths that you can drive golf carts and ride bikes on. That's just one example of many, but if all you listen to is NJB and some people on here, you'll get the impression the US is a black hole and cannot be fixed.
For those of you who mention "yeah but those places are really expensive to live", okay, and? Most countries are going through a housing crisis right now, so if you wanted to move to a country like Amsterdam you're not exactly going to have much of an easier time. Moving to a different city in the US or Canada is way easier than uprooting your life, learning a new language and begging whatever country to let you stay there as a resident.
But in general, the argument of "just move" is dumb. A lot of people can't. There are people who deal with more than just bad city design and even if they wanted to move, they can't. In the case of NJB, he has explicitly dedicated his channel to this. In essence he has told us that he doesn't care about our advocacy in our cities and thinks we are a lost cause, and we should give up and move. His channel is, by his own admissions, for people rich enough to escape the plight of the common man and get the fuck out of where they live. How is this productive?
You don't give a fuck about advocacy and wanna move? Fine. Do that. But don't seed fear and despair into those who can't and fight to make their communities better. Change only comes when it is fought for.
"yeah but those places are really expensive to live"
They're expensive because they're rare. Supply and demand. If more places became better at walkability, then everywhere already walkable would get cheaper.
Not Just Bikes has a recent video that kinda covers this topic too.