WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.980 Hello and welcome back to the Deep Dive. We are 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:05.139 so, so glad you're here with us today. You know, 00:00:05.179 --> 00:00:07.980 I had a bit of a moment this morning. I was taking 00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:10.419 the dog out, just the usual loop, nothing special, 00:00:10.660 --> 00:00:12.759 the same route I take every single day at like 00:00:12.759 --> 00:00:16.660 7 a .m. The morning ritual. Exactly. But for 00:00:16.660 --> 00:00:18.460 some reason, maybe it was the light and maybe 00:00:18.460 --> 00:00:20.300 I just hadn't had enough coffee yet. I actually 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:23.039 stopped. I stopped and I looked around. I mean, 00:00:23.059 --> 00:00:25.940 really looked. You saw the Matrix. I think I 00:00:25.940 --> 00:00:28.800 did. I saw the way the hedges were perfectly 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:31.879 aligned, the specific gentle curve of the road 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:34.679 that slows cars down just enough but not too 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:37.119 much. And the way all the houses are set back 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:39.659 from the sidewalk at almost the exact same distance, 00:00:39.820 --> 00:00:41.479 you know, like little soldiers in a row. Right. 00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:45.299 And it hit me. We spend the vast majority of 00:00:45.299 --> 00:00:47.380 our lives in these environments. We sleep here. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:49.820 We eat here. We raise our kids here. We argue 00:00:49.820 --> 00:00:52.240 with spouses here. But how often do we actually 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:55.119 stop to analyze the, well, the machine that we're 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:58.079 living inside? It is remarkable when you actually 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:01.359 pause to see it, isn't it? It is the backdrop 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:03.899 of our entire existence, the stage set for our 00:01:03.899 --> 00:01:06.890 lives. Yet. It is arguably the most engineered, 00:01:07.150 --> 00:01:11.329 regulated and artificial environment humans have 00:01:11.329 --> 00:01:14.129 ever created. We tend to think of cities as engineered 00:01:14.129 --> 00:01:17.810 and the suburbs as natural or open. But the residential 00:01:17.810 --> 00:01:20.670 area is a machine of its own. Exactly. A machine. 00:01:20.750 --> 00:01:23.549 We just call it home or the neighborhood. It 00:01:23.549 --> 00:01:25.250 feels natural because it's where we keep our 00:01:25.250 --> 00:01:28.269 stuff. But today on this deep dive, we are going 00:01:28.269 --> 00:01:30.670 to peel back the vinyl siding and look at the 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:33.329 studs we were talking about. The residential 00:01:33.329 --> 00:01:36.430 area. The very concept. And I have to tell you, 00:01:36.450 --> 00:01:38.090 looking through the stack of research you've 00:01:38.090 --> 00:01:40.629 pulled together, articles, history books, zoning 00:01:40.629 --> 00:01:43.069 codes, this isn't just about architecture. It's 00:01:43.069 --> 00:01:45.730 about invisible rules, a surprising history involving 00:01:45.730 --> 00:01:48.950 like assembly lines and streetcars and some very 00:01:48.950 --> 00:01:51.510 specific design choices that dictate everything 00:01:51.510 --> 00:01:53.349 from your daily commute to whether or not you 00:01:53.349 --> 00:01:55.439 actually like your neighbors. That's right. It's 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:57.379 so easy to assume that our neighborhoods just 00:01:57.379 --> 00:02:00.099 happened or that they look this way because it's 00:02:00.099 --> 00:02:02.420 the only way they could possibly look. But the 00:02:02.420 --> 00:02:04.620 reality is that the residential area is a very 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:07.799 specific and actually a relatively modern concept. 00:02:07.939 --> 00:02:10.939 And to really understand it, we have to start 00:02:10.939 --> 00:02:13.919 with the absolute basics. If we look at the high 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:16.560 level definition from the source material, we 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:19.780 are talking about land use. A residential area 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:23.020 is defined specifically as Land where housing 00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:25.599 predominates. Predominates, as in it's the main 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:27.599 thing. As opposed to industrial or commercial 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:30.280 use, exactly. Right. So in the simplest terms, 00:02:30.419 --> 00:02:32.919 it's where we go to power down. It's distinct 00:02:32.919 --> 00:02:35.460 from the factory, the office tower, or the marketplace. 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:38.439 It's the off switch to the city's on switch. 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:41.719 Precisely. But that distinction, that separation, 00:02:41.939 --> 00:02:44.180 is the key to everything we're going to discuss 00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:46.949 today. As we dig into the source material, our 00:02:46.949 --> 00:02:49.289 mission is to decode the anatomy of these spaces. 00:02:49.590 --> 00:02:51.409 We're going to look at everything from these 00:02:51.409 --> 00:02:54.150 technical metrics, like the floor area ratio. 00:02:54.409 --> 00:02:56.530 Which sounds incredibly dry. Right. It sounds 00:02:56.530 --> 00:02:59.090 dry, but it actually determines how much sky 00:02:59.090 --> 00:03:01.530 you can see from your window and how close your 00:03:01.530 --> 00:03:03.889 neighbor's window is to yours. We'll get into 00:03:03.889 --> 00:03:05.330 that, and then we'll go all the way back to the 00:03:05.330 --> 00:03:08.340 history of the streetcar suburb. And finally, 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:10.659 we'll look at some of the modern critiques of 00:03:10.659 --> 00:03:13.419 how we build. Because as it turns out, the way 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:16.599 we design our streets might be causing more arguments 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:19.219 with our neighbors than we realize. Oh, I can't 00:03:19.219 --> 00:03:20.939 wait to get to the arguments with neighbors part. 00:03:21.099 --> 00:03:23.199 I feel like everyone has a story about a parking 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:25.400 spot feud or a fence line dispute. I definitely 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:27.740 do. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:29.740 start with the basics. When we say residential 00:03:29.740 --> 00:03:32.539 area, what actually counts? Are we just talking 00:03:32.539 --> 00:03:35.500 about the classic white picket fence, suburban 00:03:35.500 --> 00:03:38.620 house? Because that's the image that immediately 00:03:38.620 --> 00:03:41.580 pops into my head. Not at all. That is the stereotype, 00:03:41.699 --> 00:03:44.439 certainly, but the definition is actually quite 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:48.069 broad. Housing varies significantly between different 00:03:48.069 --> 00:03:50.830 residential areas and even within them. Okay, 00:03:50.870 --> 00:03:52.969 so what else is in the bucket? Well, we are talking 00:03:52.969 --> 00:03:54.889 about single -family housing, which is what most 00:03:54.889 --> 00:03:57.229 people picture, the detached house on its own 00:03:57.229 --> 00:04:00.710 lot. But it also includes multifamily residential 00:04:00.710 --> 00:04:03.689 units. So think of apartment complexes, condominiums, 00:04:03.830 --> 00:04:07.509 duplexes, and even mobile homes. The core identifier 00:04:07.509 --> 00:04:09.830 isn't the shape of the roof or the materials 00:04:09.830 --> 00:04:12.330 used. It's the primary function of the land. 00:04:12.509 --> 00:04:15.349 Is this land for living? Then it's residential. 00:04:15.650 --> 00:04:18.269 Simple as that. Okay. So it's the function. But 00:04:18.269 --> 00:04:20.769 who decides that function? Because I can't just 00:04:20.769 --> 00:04:23.069 decide to open a welding shop in my garage, right? 00:04:23.149 --> 00:04:25.949 I mean, I shouldn't for safety reasons. I'd probably 00:04:25.949 --> 00:04:28.230 burn the house down. But there's also a rule 00:04:28.230 --> 00:04:30.029 against it. I can't just turn my living room 00:04:30.029 --> 00:04:32.209 into a 7 -Eleven. Right. And that brings us to 00:04:32.209 --> 00:04:35.639 the DNA of a neighborhood. Zoning. Zoning. It's 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:36.920 one of those ones that makes your eyes glaze 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:39.279 over a bit. It sounds like pure bureaucracy. 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:41.759 But reading the notes, it seems like it's actually 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:44.019 the most powerful force in our daily lives. It 00:04:44.019 --> 00:04:46.740 is incredibly powerful. Zoning is the invisible 00:04:46.740 --> 00:04:50.300 framework that dictates what can and cannot happen 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:53.120 on a piece of land. It's a legal tool used by 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:55.639 local governments. So the city council draws 00:04:55.639 --> 00:04:59.019 a map and says, this area is for this, that area 00:04:59.019 --> 00:05:02.459 is for that. In a nutshell, yes. In a residential 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:05.430 zone. The regulations might permit some small 00:05:05.430 --> 00:05:08.269 services or work opportunities. Think of a home 00:05:08.269 --> 00:05:11.449 office, maybe a small daycare, or perhaps a religious 00:05:11.449 --> 00:05:14.620 institution. But in many cases, they totally 00:05:14.620 --> 00:05:17.399 exclude business and industry. So it's fundamentally 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:20.000 an exclusionary rule. It's saying this stuff 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:24.019 belongs here and the noisy, smelly, busy stuff 00:05:24.019 --> 00:05:26.279 belongs over there. Exactly. And historically, 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:28.620 that was the entire point. You didn't want a 00:05:28.620 --> 00:05:30.639 tannery or a chemical plant next to where you 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:33.560 slept. That makes a lot of sense. Sure. But zoning 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:36.399 goes deeper than just house versus factory. It 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:38.759 also dictates density. It determines whether 00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:40.920 you can build a skyscraper or just a bungalow. 00:05:41.100 --> 00:05:42.860 And this is where we run into that technical 00:05:42.860 --> 00:05:45.660 metric from the sources called the FAR or floor 00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:48.920 area ratio. OK, FAR. I've seen this acronym in 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:50.879 city planning articles, but I've never really 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:52.500 understood the math. It feels like one of those 00:05:52.500 --> 00:05:54.560 things you just nod out while pretending to understand. 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:57.279 Break it down for us. So floor area ratio is 00:05:57.279 --> 00:05:59.629 essentially a measurement of density. It's the 00:05:59.629 --> 00:06:02.449 relationship between the total amount of usable 00:06:02.449 --> 00:06:05.290 floor area that a building have and the total 00:06:05.290 --> 00:06:07.350 area of the lot on which that building stands. 00:06:07.649 --> 00:06:09.870 Okay, let's try to visualize this. Let's say 00:06:09.870 --> 00:06:12.329 I have a piece of land that is, I don't know, 00:06:12.389 --> 00:06:15.069 a thousand square feet, a nice square patch of 00:06:15.069 --> 00:06:17.230 dirt. Perfect. So you have a thousand square 00:06:17.230 --> 00:06:20.529 foot lot. If the zoning code says the FAR is 00:06:20.529 --> 00:06:23.350 1 .0, that means you're allowed to build a structure 00:06:23.350 --> 00:06:25.730 that has exactly 1 ,000 square feet of total 00:06:25.730 --> 00:06:28.110 floor space. So I could build a one -story house 00:06:28.110 --> 00:06:30.649 that covers the entire lot, edge to edge, like 00:06:30.649 --> 00:06:33.089 a box. Theoretically, yes, if there were no other 00:06:33.089 --> 00:06:34.990 rules, like setbacks, which there always are. 00:06:35.569 --> 00:06:38.060 Or... You can build a two -story house that covers 00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:40.500 only 500 square feet of the lot, so half the 00:06:40.500 --> 00:06:42.879 land, leaving the other half in open space. Ah, 00:06:42.980 --> 00:06:45.279 because 500 square feet on the first floor, 500 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:47.500 on the second, that adds up to 1 ,000. Exactly. 00:06:47.699 --> 00:06:50.439 500 times two floors equals 1 ,000. The ratio 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:53.199 is still 1 .0. You can build up or you can build 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.319 out, but you can't exceed that total volume. 00:06:55.540 --> 00:06:57.560 I see. So it's a volume control. It limits the 00:06:57.560 --> 00:06:59.600 total amount of building relative to the land. 00:07:00.019 --> 00:07:02.699 Exactly. Now, here is where it shapes your neighborhood. 00:07:03.610 --> 00:07:05.949 Commercial zones, especially in a city center, 00:07:06.129 --> 00:07:10.290 often have very high FARs, maybe 5 .0, 10 .0, 00:07:10.410 --> 00:07:13.050 or even higher. This allows for skyscrapers. 00:07:13.050 --> 00:07:16.310 You can stack floor upon floor upon floor. You're 00:07:16.310 --> 00:07:18.910 maximizing the economic utility of that dirt. 00:07:18.990 --> 00:07:20.810 Right, you're trying to squeeze as much rent 00:07:20.810 --> 00:07:23.129 as possible out of that square footage. Every 00:07:23.129 --> 00:07:26.529 inch counts. But residential zoning. We tend 00:07:26.529 --> 00:07:28.730 to prioritize open space, or at least the idea 00:07:28.730 --> 00:07:31.310 of it. Residential zones usually include a much, 00:07:31.329 --> 00:07:33.670 much smaller AFAR than business or industrial 00:07:33.670 --> 00:07:37.129 zoning. Often it's 0 .5 or even less. So if the 00:07:37.129 --> 00:07:40.529 FAR is 0 .5 on my 1 ,000 square foot lot, I can 00:07:40.529 --> 00:07:42.709 only build a 500 square foot house. Correct. 00:07:42.850 --> 00:07:44.910 No matter how many floors you build, the total 00:07:44.910 --> 00:07:46.930 floor area can't be more than 500 square feet. 00:07:47.009 --> 00:07:49.600 That means you must leave land empty. You are 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:52.459 legally mandated to have a yard or air or distance 00:07:52.459 --> 00:07:54.600 between you and the next house. That's fascinating. 00:07:54.740 --> 00:07:56.519 So we think of the suburban lawn as this cultural 00:07:56.519 --> 00:07:58.459 choice, like we all just collectively decide 00:07:58.459 --> 00:08:00.800 we love mowing grass, but it's actually a byproduct 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:03.459 of a math equation in the city code. It's a deliberate 00:08:03.459 --> 00:08:06.740 design choice encoded in the law to ensure lower 00:08:06.740 --> 00:08:09.759 density. It creates the feeling of the suburb, 00:08:09.819 --> 00:08:12.980 the airiness, the separation. It guarantees, 00:08:13.180 --> 00:08:16.079 by law, that you aren't living right on top of 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:18.240 your neighbor. And I assume this scale varies 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:21.860 wildly. Oh, immensely. A residential area can 00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:24.279 be very small, just a few streets in a pocket 00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:27.589 of a city. Or it can be massive, stretching for 00:08:27.589 --> 00:08:30.490 miles and miles. And the dynamic changes completely 00:08:30.490 --> 00:08:32.710 when we move out of the city and into more rural 00:08:32.710 --> 00:08:34.909 contexts. Oh, that's a good point. I grew up 00:08:34.909 --> 00:08:37.169 near some pretty rural areas, and residential 00:08:37.169 --> 00:08:39.330 there meant something totally different. You're 00:08:39.330 --> 00:08:41.350 not exactly walking to get a coffee. In fact, 00:08:41.389 --> 00:08:42.870 if you tried to walk to get a coffee, you'd be 00:08:42.870 --> 00:08:45.049 gone for three days. No, you certainly aren't. 00:08:45.330 --> 00:08:47.789 In the sources, they refer to this as the rural 00:08:47.789 --> 00:08:50.389 dynamic. In these residential areas, you often 00:08:50.389 --> 00:08:54.049 have large tracts of land, maybe 2, 5, 10 acres 00:08:54.049 --> 00:08:56.970 per house, but with absolutely no services whatsoever. 00:08:57.389 --> 00:09:00.750 None. No corner store, no post office, and crucially, 00:09:00.789 --> 00:09:03.470 not even municipal infrastructure like sewage 00:09:03.470 --> 00:09:06.470 or water. So you are basically on an island. 00:09:06.909 --> 00:09:09.830 You have your own, well, your own septic tank. 00:09:09.990 --> 00:09:12.649 You are the mayor of your own tiny kingdom. An 00:09:12.649 --> 00:09:15.029 island surrounded by land. And the consequence 00:09:15.029 --> 00:09:18.490 of that design is crucial. Residents must use 00:09:18.490 --> 00:09:20.970 a private motor vehicle. It is not an option. 00:09:21.070 --> 00:09:23.629 It is an absolute necessity. If you need milk, 00:09:23.750 --> 00:09:27.250 you drive. If you need to see a doctor, you drive. 00:09:27.769 --> 00:09:30.210 If your car breaks down, you're stranded. You're 00:09:30.210 --> 00:09:32.149 effectively stranded. It creates a fragility, 00:09:32.210 --> 00:09:34.250 doesn't it? If you can't drive, maybe you're 00:09:34.250 --> 00:09:36.330 too old or have a disability or you lose your 00:09:36.330 --> 00:09:38.950 license, you can't live there. Wow. It's not 00:09:38.950 --> 00:09:40.889 a place designed for all stages of life. Not 00:09:40.889 --> 00:09:43.500 at all. And because of that dependency, we see 00:09:43.500 --> 00:09:45.940 a very specific pattern in how these areas grow. 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:49.399 Land development almost exclusively follows existing 00:09:49.399 --> 00:09:52.159 or planned transport infrastructure. It follows 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:54.480 the road or the rails. Yes. You don't build a 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:56.220 house out in the field and then hope a road shows 00:09:56.220 --> 00:09:58.679 up. The road is the lifeline. The development 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:01.340 clings to it. Everything sprouts from that central 00:10:01.340 --> 00:10:04.500 artery. So we have zoning. setting the rules 00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:08.139 the far the density the separation from industry 00:10:08.139 --> 00:10:12.059 and we have infrastructure setting the path but 00:10:12.059 --> 00:10:14.080 i was reading in the deep dive material about 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:16.159 something else something that feels a little 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:20.259 more private maybe a little more sinister or 00:10:20.259 --> 00:10:23.059 at least more restrictive ah yes you talk about 00:10:23.059 --> 00:10:25.659 restrictive covenants yeah this blew my mind 00:10:25.659 --> 00:10:27.809 a little bit Because we tend to think the government 00:10:27.809 --> 00:10:30.250 sets the rules, but apparently there's a whole 00:10:30.250 --> 00:10:32.809 other layer of law that comes from the property 00:10:32.809 --> 00:10:35.210 deed itself. This is where it gets really interesting 00:10:35.210 --> 00:10:38.429 and frankly quite complicated. A restrictive 00:10:38.429 --> 00:10:41.590 covenant is a clause written directly into the 00:10:41.590 --> 00:10:43.769 deed of the property. It's a private agreement 00:10:43.769 --> 00:10:45.970 between the land developer who first built the 00:10:45.970 --> 00:10:49.070 neighborhood and every subsequent buyer. So when 00:10:49.070 --> 00:10:51.389 the developer builds a subdivision, they write 00:10:51.389 --> 00:10:53.429 in a bunch of extra rules. Exactly. Rules that 00:10:53.429 --> 00:10:55.750 say you cannot build a fence higher than four 00:10:55.750 --> 00:10:58.590 feet, or you cannot paint your house pink, or 00:10:58.590 --> 00:11:00.889 you cannot run a business from this home, or 00:11:00.889 --> 00:11:03.529 even you cannot hang laundry outside to dry. 00:11:03.809 --> 00:11:05.470 Wait, wait. So these aren't laws passed by the 00:11:05.470 --> 00:11:07.049 city council. The police aren't going to arrest 00:11:07.049 --> 00:11:09.610 me for hanging out my socks. No. These are civil 00:11:09.610 --> 00:11:12.070 matters. They are private contracts attached 00:11:12.070 --> 00:11:16.049 to the land itself. But here is why they matter 00:11:16.049 --> 00:11:19.889 so much and why they are so powerful. They are 00:11:19.889 --> 00:11:22.750 incredibly difficult to change. Why is that? 00:11:22.830 --> 00:11:25.110 If I own the house and I want to paint it pink, 00:11:25.269 --> 00:11:27.970 why can't I just ignore the rule? Because your 00:11:27.970 --> 00:11:31.090 neighbors can sue you. The homeowners association 00:11:31.090 --> 00:11:33.549 or even an individual neighbor can take you to 00:11:33.549 --> 00:11:37.259 court to enforce the covenant. And usually, changing 00:11:37.259 --> 00:11:39.899 one requires the agreement of all property owners 00:11:39.899 --> 00:11:41.700 in that development. All of them. So if I live 00:11:41.700 --> 00:11:43.500 in a neighborhood with 200 houses and I want 00:11:43.500 --> 00:11:46.120 to change a rule about fence height, I need 200 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:49.399 signatures. Essentially, yes. It varies by jurisdiction 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:51.440 and by the specific language of the covenant. 00:11:51.879 --> 00:11:54.779 But generally, it requires a supermajority or 00:11:54.779 --> 00:11:57.840 unanimity. And remember, many of the property 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:00.009 owners might not even live there. Oh, right. 00:12:00.269 --> 00:12:02.330 They could be landlords living in another state 00:12:02.330 --> 00:12:05.029 or investment firms holding the property for 00:12:05.029 --> 00:12:07.250 rental income. Good luck getting them to care 00:12:07.250 --> 00:12:09.909 about your fence. So you end up with a situation 00:12:09.909 --> 00:12:12.990 where the development patterns and the character 00:12:12.990 --> 00:12:16.250 of the neighborhood are locked in by these private 00:12:16.250 --> 00:12:19.169 legal agreements from decades and decades ago. 00:12:19.409 --> 00:12:21.470 Exactly. It's like the neighborhood is frozen 00:12:21.470 --> 00:12:24.169 in time. Based on what the developer thought 00:12:24.169 --> 00:12:27.710 was a good idea 50 years ago, it creates a tremendous 00:12:27.710 --> 00:12:30.610 amount of inertia. It's the invisible hand that 00:12:30.610 --> 00:12:32.929 keeps the neighborhood looking a certain way 00:12:32.929 --> 00:12:35.490 long after the original builder has moved on. 00:12:35.629 --> 00:12:38.549 It really highlights how little control we sometimes 00:12:38.549 --> 00:12:41.529 have over our own property despite owning it. 00:12:41.750 --> 00:12:44.389 We were really just stewards of a pre -approved 00:12:44.389 --> 00:12:46.830 aesthetic. And that aesthetic is protected fiercely. 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:49.539 We will touch on this later. But often these 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:52.279 covenants are defended not just for looks, but 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:55.159 to protect property values. It's financial anxiety 00:12:55.159 --> 00:12:57.840 disguised as neighborhood rules. That makes so 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:00.460 much sense. Your pink house lowers my resale 00:13:00.460 --> 00:13:02.259 value, so I'm going to enforce the covenant. 00:13:02.379 --> 00:13:04.399 It's not about taste. It's about the bank account. 00:13:04.539 --> 00:13:05.980 At the end of the day, that's what it comes down 00:13:05.980 --> 00:13:09.240 to. So we've got these rules zoning and covenants, 00:13:09.259 --> 00:13:11.360 but let's zoom out a bit. If we were looking 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:13.840 at a map, how do geographers make sense of all 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:15.559 this? Because when I look at a city map, it just 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:18.840 looks like chaos. Sprawl everywhere. To the untrained 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.679 eye, yes. But geographers love models. They love 00:13:22.679 --> 00:13:25.399 to find patterns in the chaos. And one of the 00:13:25.399 --> 00:13:27.799 most famous ways to categorize residential areas 00:13:27.799 --> 00:13:31.779 is the concentric zone model. Sounds like a target. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.440 That's a good way to visualize it. Imagine the 00:13:34.440 --> 00:13:36.720 city center as the bullseye. That's the central 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:39.860 business district. High density, high FAR, all 00:13:39.860 --> 00:13:44.019 commercial. Then moving outward in rings, you 00:13:44.019 --> 00:13:46.019 have different types of residential areas. Okay, 00:13:46.059 --> 00:13:48.320 so what's the first ring? Right outside the bullseye, 00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:50.000 you might have the transition zone. This is often 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.019 older housing, maybe some light industry mixed 00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:54.580 in. It's often where new immigrants first land 00:13:54.580 --> 00:13:56.779 because it's the most affordable. And then? Then 00:13:56.779 --> 00:13:58.759 the next ring out is the working class homes, 00:13:58.820 --> 00:14:01.039 smaller, closer together. Then you get to the 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:03.460 middle class suburbs with more space, bigger 00:14:03.460 --> 00:14:06.179 lots. And finally, on the outer rim, you have 00:14:06.179 --> 00:14:08.519 the commuter zone, the exurbs, where people have 00:14:08.519 --> 00:14:10.940 large houses but very long commutes back to the 00:14:10.940 --> 00:14:13.519 center. So it's a way of mapping out how the 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:16.399 city expands and where people live relative to 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:18.600 that economic center. Sort of like tree rings. 00:14:18.820 --> 00:14:20.840 Exactly. It helps us understand that residential 00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:23.679 areas aren't just random clusters. They are part 00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:26.580 of a larger organism that grows outward. The 00:14:26.580 --> 00:14:28.899 wealthy tend to move to the periphery to get 00:14:28.899 --> 00:14:31.639 more space and newer housing, leaving the older 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:35.059 inner rings for lower income groups. It's a constant 00:14:35.059 --> 00:14:37.679 outward pressure. But to really understand why 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:40.519 it grows the way it does and why we have this 00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:42.899 obsession with the detached house on the periphery, 00:14:42.899 --> 00:14:45.519 we have to go back in time. Yes. The history 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:48.419 segment. My favorite part. I love this part because 00:14:48.419 --> 00:14:51.259 the house feels so timeless. We think humans 00:14:51.259 --> 00:14:53.590 have always lived this way. But the way we buy 00:14:53.590 --> 00:14:55.590 and build them is actually pretty new, isn't 00:14:55.590 --> 00:14:57.950 it? It is radical, actually. If we look at pre 00:14:57.950 --> 00:15:00.149 -industrial living, so going back a few centuries, 00:15:00.350 --> 00:15:02.509 the concept of residential development as we 00:15:02.509 --> 00:15:04.870 know it simply did not exist. So what did you 00:15:04.870 --> 00:15:07.929 do? If you needed a house in 1800, what was the 00:15:07.929 --> 00:15:10.649 process? Well, it depended entirely on your bank 00:15:10.649 --> 00:15:12.950 account. There were really only two main categories. 00:15:13.710 --> 00:15:16.309 If you were rich, and I mean properly wealthy, 00:15:16.429 --> 00:15:20.850 the top 1%, you bought a town lot. Then you hired 00:15:20.850 --> 00:15:23.629 an architect or a contractor, and you built a 00:15:23.629 --> 00:15:27.210 bespoke mansion. Bespoke, like a tailored suit. 00:15:27.549 --> 00:15:29.549 Exactly. It was completely customized for your 00:15:29.549 --> 00:15:32.149 family, your needs, your taste. You were the 00:15:32.149 --> 00:15:34.570 driving force. You picked the doorknobs. You 00:15:34.570 --> 00:15:36.490 decided where the kitchen went. You were the 00:15:36.490 --> 00:15:38.970 developer of your own life. Okay, and if I wasn't 00:15:38.970 --> 00:15:41.860 rich? Which, let's be honest, is statistically 00:15:41.860 --> 00:15:44.159 where most of us would have been. Then you were 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:46.320 likely living in a shantytown, a self -built 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:48.740 shack on the edge of town, or a crowded rental 00:15:48.740 --> 00:15:51.340 tenement in the city center. You crowded into 00:15:51.340 --> 00:15:53.240 whatever structure was available. You rented 00:15:53.240 --> 00:15:55.679 a room or maybe just a bed in a room. So it was 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:57.679 either a custom mansion or a crowded rental. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:15:59.720 There was nothing in between. Right. And here 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:01.799 is the key point that defines the modern era. 00:16:02.659 --> 00:16:05.320 Single -family houses were seldom built on speculation. 00:16:06.100 --> 00:16:08.519 Speculation meaning building it before you have 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:10.720 a buyer. Just hoping someone will come along 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.580 and want it. Correct. The modern idea of driving 00:16:13.580 --> 00:16:16.759 past a construction site, seeing a finished house 00:16:16.759 --> 00:16:19.299 with a for sale sign and say, I'll take that 00:16:19.299 --> 00:16:22.059 one. That just didn't happen. No one was building 00:16:22.059 --> 00:16:24.639 houses for a future unidentified buyer. Why not? 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:26.600 It seems like a good business model. It was far 00:16:26.600 --> 00:16:29.940 too risky. Capital was scarce. Mortgages were 00:16:29.940 --> 00:16:32.519 not common for the working class. If a builder 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:35.759 built a house and it sat empty for a year, he 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:38.840 would go bankrupt. You built when you had a specific 00:16:38.840 --> 00:16:41.460 paying customer lined up. So the missing middle, 00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:44.460 the affordable single -family home owned by the 00:16:44.460 --> 00:16:47.720 occupant, wasn't really a product yet. No. Housing 00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:50.600 wasn't a product. It was a bespoke creation or 00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:53.110 a rental service. So when did that change? When 00:16:53.110 --> 00:16:55.590 did we start seeing this shift towards the subdivision? 00:16:55.710 --> 00:16:58.289 The turning point is really the late 19th century. 00:16:58.450 --> 00:17:00.470 We see the introduction of the subdivision. The 00:17:00.470 --> 00:17:02.990 subdivision. Even the word sounds organized. 00:17:03.450 --> 00:17:05.849 We are taking this land and dividing it into 00:17:05.849 --> 00:17:08.430 subunits. It implies dividing a larger whole. 00:17:08.730 --> 00:17:11.109 And the catalyst here was the streetcar suburb. 00:17:11.190 --> 00:17:13.250 I love that term. It sounds so romantic, almost 00:17:13.250 --> 00:17:16.230 quaint. But practically, what did it mean for 00:17:16.230 --> 00:17:18.750 the average person? It meant that for the first 00:17:18.750 --> 00:17:21.799 time, Development was linked explicitly to mechanical 00:17:21.799 --> 00:17:24.500 transit. Before this, you had to live within 00:17:24.500 --> 00:17:27.019 walking distance of your job, maybe a horse ride 00:17:27.019 --> 00:17:29.779 if you're lucky. But the streetcar allowed you 00:17:29.779 --> 00:17:32.579 to live three, four, or five miles away and still 00:17:32.579 --> 00:17:35.160 get to the factory or the office reliably every 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:37.460 day. So the city could spread out. It could breathe 00:17:37.460 --> 00:17:40.279 a little. Exactly. Cities were expanding, the 00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:42.980 middle class was growing, and crucially, mortgage 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:45.079 loans were becoming more and more commonplace. 00:17:45.220 --> 00:17:47.460 Ah, the money piece. Always the money piece. 00:17:47.700 --> 00:17:49.940 Suddenly, a broader group of people could borrow 00:17:49.940 --> 00:17:52.980 money to buy a home. So developers started buying 00:17:52.980 --> 00:17:55.519 up farmland at the edge of the city, wherever 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:58.079 the streetcar lines ended, and subdividing it 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:00.519 into lots for this new emerging middle class. 00:18:00.859 --> 00:18:03.559 So the streetcar line is the artery, and the 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:06.089 houses grow around it like... I don't know, moss 00:18:06.089 --> 00:18:09.250 on a branch. A very organized moss. But yes, 00:18:09.369 --> 00:18:12.230 however, if the late 19th century was the spark, 00:18:12.390 --> 00:18:15.890 the post -World War II era was the absolute explosion. 00:18:15.990 --> 00:18:18.230 This is where we get the American model that 00:18:18.230 --> 00:18:21.829 spread globally. Right. The 1940s and 50s, the 00:18:21.829 --> 00:18:27.269 soldiers are coming home. American dream pie. 00:18:27.769 --> 00:18:29.950 The geographic focus here was really New York 00:18:29.950 --> 00:18:32.769 City and Los Angeles. The demand was unprecedented. 00:18:32.970 --> 00:18:36.130 We had millions of GIs returning, starting families, 00:18:36.230 --> 00:18:38.890 the baby boom. And we had a massive housing shortage. 00:18:39.069 --> 00:18:41.369 We needed thousands, hundreds of thousands of 00:18:41.369 --> 00:18:43.690 new homes. And we needed them yesterday. And 00:18:43.690 --> 00:18:45.829 the old way, hiring an architect, building one 00:18:45.829 --> 00:18:49.150 house at a time, the bespoke method, just wasn't 00:18:49.150 --> 00:18:51.029 going to cut it. Not even close. Impossible. 00:18:51.150 --> 00:18:54.210 It was too slow and way too expensive. So a new 00:18:54.210 --> 00:18:57.039 type of businessman emerged. Now, interestingly, 00:18:57.319 --> 00:19:00.140 these large -scale practitioners disliked the 00:19:00.140 --> 00:19:03.420 term property speculator. Oh, why is that? It 00:19:03.420 --> 00:19:06.000 sounded risky, maybe a bit shady, like a gambler. 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:08.460 So they coined a new term, residential developer. 00:19:08.779 --> 00:19:10.799 A little rebranding exercise? I'm not a gambler. 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:13.160 I'm a developer. I'm building the future. It 00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:15.180 sounds much more stable, doesn't it? More respectable. 00:19:15.539 --> 00:19:18.140 And the process they invented was purely industrial. 00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:20.920 They would take entire farms and ranches, huge 00:19:20.920 --> 00:19:23.160 tracts of land, hundreds or thousands of acres, 00:19:23.319 --> 00:19:26.460 and subdivide them. But unlike the past, where 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:28.539 maybe they just sold the lots to individuals 00:19:28.539 --> 00:19:31.500 to build on, one entity controlled everything. 00:19:31.799 --> 00:19:34.259 Vertical integration. Precisely. They controlled 00:19:34.259 --> 00:19:36.059 the entitlement. The permits from the government. 00:19:36.339 --> 00:19:38.779 Right. Then the land development, so grading 00:19:38.779 --> 00:19:41.460 the dirt, paving the streets. Then the infrastructure, 00:19:41.740 --> 00:19:44.400 so laying the sewage pipes and power lines. And 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:46.319 finally, the construction of the housing itself. 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:48.339 They were building the whole world from scratch. 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:49.920 They weren't just building houses, they were 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:52.960 building entire towns. Specific examples that 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.099 define this era are places like Levittown on 00:19:56.099 --> 00:19:59.420 Long Island. or Lakewood, just south of Los Angeles. 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:02.539 The pace was absolutely staggering. We're talking 00:20:02.539 --> 00:20:04.819 about sales rates of more than one house a day. 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:08.160 One a day. That is insane. I can't even fathom 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:11.079 that. Imagine signing the closing papers on a 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:13.200 brand new house every single day of the year. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:15.539 And to achieve that, they had to mass produce 00:20:15.539 --> 00:20:18.500 living. They applied the principles of the Industrial 00:20:18.500 --> 00:20:22.019 Revolution, standardization, assembly lines, 00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:25.720 repetitive tasks, to where we sleep. I want to 00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:28.519 drill down on this assembly line concept. How 00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:30.599 do you assembly line a house? It's stuck to the 00:20:30.599 --> 00:20:32.359 ground. You can't put it on a conveyor belt. 00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:35.480 You reverse the conveyor belt. In a Ford factory, 00:20:35.700 --> 00:20:39.220 the car moves and the workers stand still. In 00:20:39.220 --> 00:20:41.380 Levittown, the house stood still and the workers 00:20:41.380 --> 00:20:44.240 moved. You had a crew that only poured concrete 00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:46.299 slabs. That was their whole job. Their entire 00:20:46.299 --> 00:20:48.980 job. They would pour a slab at house one, then 00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:51.599 move to house two, then house three. Right behind 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:53.920 them came the framing crew. They only did framing. 00:20:54.299 --> 00:20:56.940 Behind them, the roofing crew. Behind them, the 00:20:56.940 --> 00:20:59.400 guy who only installed kitchen sinks. So instead 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:01.920 of a craftsman spending months on a single beautiful 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:04.380 staircase, you have a guy whose only job is to 00:21:04.380 --> 00:21:07.039 install staircases, and he does 10 a day. Exactly. 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:09.339 He becomes hyper -efficient. He doesn't need 00:21:09.339 --> 00:21:11.119 to look at the blueprints anymore after the first 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:14.859 week. He knows exactly where the nails go. Standardization 00:21:14.859 --> 00:21:17.559 of design was absolutely key. You couldn't have 00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:20.039 custom requests. You had a few models, you picked 00:21:20.039 --> 00:21:23.180 one, and that was it. This allowed for a smooth 00:21:23.180 --> 00:21:26.160 flow. of capital and materials. They could order 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:28.259 lumber by the trainload. And all this efficiency, 00:21:28.420 --> 00:21:29.839 it must have dropped the price dramatically. 00:21:30.339 --> 00:21:31.940 Significantly. And here's where it gets really 00:21:31.940 --> 00:21:34.019 interesting for the listener, because this is 00:21:34.019 --> 00:21:36.700 the economic flip that changed the world. This 00:21:36.700 --> 00:21:39.759 shift, combined with government -backed mortgages, 00:21:39.799 --> 00:21:43.039 especially the GI Bill for veterans, it created 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:46.319 a strange economic reality. It became cheaper 00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:48.569 to own a brand new house. and a new residential 00:21:48.569 --> 00:21:51.269 development than to rent a cramped old apartment 00:21:51.269 --> 00:21:54.049 in the city. Wow. That's the pivotal moment. 00:21:54.109 --> 00:21:55.930 That's when the suburb becomes irresistible. 00:21:55.990 --> 00:21:58.809 You get more space, a new house, a yard for the 00:21:58.809 --> 00:22:01.930 kids, and it costs you less per month out of 00:22:01.930 --> 00:22:04.569 pocket. It was revolution. It reshaped the American 00:22:04.569 --> 00:22:07.509 landscape and the American dream. It turned a 00:22:07.509 --> 00:22:09.690 nation of renters into a nation of homeowners. 00:22:10.109 --> 00:22:12.569 It linked American identity to the ownership 00:22:12.569 --> 00:22:14.910 of the single -family home in a way that had 00:22:14.910 --> 00:22:17.660 never happened before. But like any product, 00:22:17.819 --> 00:22:20.240 you can't just sell the same Model T Ford forever. 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:22.539 People get bored. They want features. They want 00:22:22.539 --> 00:22:25.720 to feel special. True. As the industry matured 00:22:25.720 --> 00:22:28.579 into the 60s, 70s, and 80s, developers had to 00:22:28.579 --> 00:22:31.220 compete. The basic box wasn't enough anymore. 00:22:31.710 --> 00:22:33.690 So we see the evolution of the modern suburb. 00:22:33.789 --> 00:22:35.609 Okay, so how did they start to differentiate 00:22:35.609 --> 00:22:38.109 the product? What kind of features started popping 00:22:38.109 --> 00:22:41.170 up to lure buyers? Well, we started seeing curving 00:22:41.170 --> 00:22:44.130 streets instead of rigid grids. This was huge. 00:22:44.430 --> 00:22:48.450 The grid felt urban and old. The curve felt natural 00:22:48.450 --> 00:22:51.329 and countryside. We saw green -built parks woven 00:22:51.329 --> 00:22:53.650 through the development. Neighborhood pools became 00:22:53.650 --> 00:22:55.950 a must -have amenity. What was it in the notes? 00:22:56.089 --> 00:22:59.230 Community entry monumentation. Yes. You know 00:22:59.230 --> 00:23:01.809 what this is. Is that the big stone wall with 00:23:01.809 --> 00:23:04.069 the neighborhood name in gold letters whispering 00:23:04.069 --> 00:23:07.509 pines or eagles landing? That is exactly what 00:23:07.509 --> 00:23:10.250 that is. It's branding. It signals prestige. 00:23:10.349 --> 00:23:13.910 It says you are entering a distinct place. It 00:23:13.910 --> 00:23:18.250 separates us inside this wall from them outside 00:23:18.250 --> 00:23:20.410 the wall. And I assume the houses themselves 00:23:20.410 --> 00:23:22.670 changed too. They stopped being identical little 00:23:22.670 --> 00:23:25.640 boxes. They did. Or rather, we got the illusion 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:28.380 of choice. Developers started offering diverse 00:23:28.380 --> 00:23:31.799 floor plans with different room counts. You could 00:23:31.799 --> 00:23:33.839 get the three bedroom or the four bedroom. But 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:36.680 my favorite term from this era is the elevation. 00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:39.400 The elevation. Explain that. So the floor plan 00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:41.640 is the map of the inside where the walls are. 00:23:41.819 --> 00:23:44.039 The elevation is the architectural drawing of 00:23:44.039 --> 00:23:46.839 the outside, the face of the house. Developers 00:23:46.839 --> 00:23:48.900 realized they could build the exact same house 00:23:48.900 --> 00:23:51.339 on the inside. Same plumbing, same framing, same 00:23:51.339 --> 00:23:53.440 electrical, but slap a different face on it. 00:23:53.710 --> 00:23:55.730 Like putting a different mask on the same actor. 00:23:56.049 --> 00:23:58.509 Precisely. Maybe one looks Tudor with some fake 00:23:58.509 --> 00:24:01.390 timber beams. One looks colonial with some non 00:24:01.390 --> 00:24:03.470 -functional shutters. One looks Mediterranean 00:24:03.470 --> 00:24:06.089 with stucco and tile roof. So it looks like a 00:24:06.089 --> 00:24:08.009 diverse street, but underneath it's all the same 00:24:08.009 --> 00:24:10.650 skeleton. Exactly. It's incredibly efficient 00:24:10.650 --> 00:24:13.289 for the builder. The crews still know exactly 00:24:13.289 --> 00:24:16.369 where the pipes go. But the buyer feels like 00:24:16.369 --> 00:24:19.630 they got a unique home. And the competition moved 00:24:19.630 --> 00:24:21.990 to the package. The package. The amenities package. 00:24:22.170 --> 00:24:25.329 Who has the best kitchen appliance package? Who 00:24:25.329 --> 00:24:28.329 includes the upgraded granite countertops? Who 00:24:28.329 --> 00:24:31.410 offers the jetted tub in the master bath? It's 00:24:31.410 --> 00:24:33.190 like buying a car. You want the sport package 00:24:33.190 --> 00:24:35.930 or the luxury package? Very much so. It commoditized 00:24:35.930 --> 00:24:37.970 the home. And if we look at the contemporary 00:24:37.970 --> 00:24:40.349 layout, what a typical development looks like 00:24:40.349 --> 00:24:43.630 today, we see some very specific design choices 00:24:43.630 --> 00:24:47.150 driven by safety and exclusivity. I noticed this 00:24:47.150 --> 00:24:50.230 in the notes, traffic calming. Yes. If you drive 00:24:50.230 --> 00:24:52.529 through a modern suburb, you rarely find a straight 00:24:52.529 --> 00:24:54.990 line that connects two major roads. You have 00:24:54.990 --> 00:24:57.329 slowly winding streets, dead end roads, which 00:24:57.329 --> 00:24:59.690 we call cul -de -sacs or looped roads that bring 00:24:59.690 --> 00:25:01.430 you right back where you started. And the goal 00:25:01.430 --> 00:25:04.190 there is strictly to slow people down. To slow 00:25:04.190 --> 00:25:07.390 down cars within the residential zone and, just 00:25:07.390 --> 00:25:10.170 as importantly, to discourage through traffic. 00:25:10.369 --> 00:25:14.089 The logic is, if the road winds, you can't speed. 00:25:14.509 --> 00:25:17.349 If it's a dead end, no one can use it as a shortcut 00:25:17.349 --> 00:25:19.970 to get to the highway. It makes the street theoretically 00:25:19.970 --> 00:25:22.700 safer for kids and pets playing out front. But 00:25:22.700 --> 00:25:24.339 it also makes it a nightmare to get anywhere, 00:25:24.460 --> 00:25:26.140 right? If I'm in the middle of the maze, I have 00:25:26.140 --> 00:25:28.279 to drive in circles just to get out. We will 00:25:28.279 --> 00:25:29.740 definitely get to that in the critique section. 00:25:29.880 --> 00:25:32.619 But yes, it creates a labyrinth. But this layout 00:25:32.619 --> 00:25:35.119 has formed the stereotype of suburban America. 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:38.200 It is the image of the middle class. But we have 00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:40.980 to acknowledge the exclusivity here. These developments 00:25:40.980 --> 00:25:43.779 offer a very narrow range of age, price, and 00:25:43.779 --> 00:25:46.490 size. Right. If you're a single person who doesn't 00:25:46.490 --> 00:25:48.490 need a four bedroom house or if you can't afford 00:25:48.490 --> 00:25:50.930 the entry price, you are effectively zoned out. 00:25:50.970 --> 00:25:52.849 There's nothing for you there. Or if you are 00:25:52.849 --> 00:25:55.109 elderly and need specialized care or if you are 00:25:55.109 --> 00:25:59.009 poor, the monoculture of housing creates a monoculture 00:25:59.009 --> 00:26:01.369 of people. And the ultimate expression of this, 00:26:01.450 --> 00:26:03.910 of course, is the gated community where the exclusivity 00:26:03.910 --> 00:26:06.170 is made physical. You need a code to even enter. 00:26:06.490 --> 00:26:09.869 So we've built these incredibly efficient, safe, 00:26:09.950 --> 00:26:12.769 manicured environments. We have achieved the 00:26:12.769 --> 00:26:16.289 dream of the residential area, but nothing is 00:26:16.289 --> 00:26:18.390 perfect. And the source material highlights some 00:26:18.390 --> 00:26:20.829 pretty significant critiques of this model. Indeed. 00:26:21.130 --> 00:26:23.650 And these aren't just nitpicks. They're fundamental 00:26:23.650 --> 00:26:26.049 structural problems with how these developments 00:26:26.049 --> 00:26:29.109 function in the long term. OK, so let's get into 00:26:29.109 --> 00:26:31.970 it. Let's start with connectivity or maybe the 00:26:31.970 --> 00:26:33.670 lack of it. Right. The source material calls 00:26:33.670 --> 00:26:36.210 this the mesh problem. Developments often do 00:26:36.210 --> 00:26:38.170 not mesh well with the greater community around 00:26:38.170 --> 00:26:40.430 them. The mesh problem. I like that visualization. 00:26:41.450 --> 00:26:44.089 Ideally, a city is a woven fabric where you can 00:26:44.089 --> 00:26:46.690 move easily from one part to another. Exactly. 00:26:46.910 --> 00:26:49.369 In a traditional city grid, you have unlimited 00:26:49.369 --> 00:26:51.890 choices of routes. If one street is blocked, 00:26:52.089 --> 00:26:53.769 you just take the next one over. It's resilient. 00:26:54.309 --> 00:26:56.609 But many residential developments are isolated 00:26:56.609 --> 00:26:59.509 pods. They often have only one entrance and one 00:26:59.509 --> 00:27:02.369 exit connecting to a main arterial road. I know 00:27:02.369 --> 00:27:04.289 neighborhoods exactly like that. It's like a 00:27:04.289 --> 00:27:06.829 bag of marbles. The marbles are near each other, 00:27:06.890 --> 00:27:09.549 but they don't touch or connect. If there is 00:27:09.549 --> 00:27:12.349 a traffic accident at the main gate, nobody is 00:27:12.349 --> 00:27:14.569 getting home for dinner. And beyond the traffic 00:27:14.569 --> 00:27:18.109 issue, it creates a profound physical isolation 00:27:18.109 --> 00:27:22.069 because these are often commuter towns. They 00:27:22.069 --> 00:27:24.630 serve no purpose for the greater community. There 00:27:24.630 --> 00:27:26.630 is no commerce. There's nothing to draw anyone 00:27:26.630 --> 00:27:29.390 else in. Right. Nobody from the next town over 00:27:29.390 --> 00:27:31.970 drives into my subdivision to buy shoes or get 00:27:31.970 --> 00:27:34.509 a haircut because there are no shops there. Exactly. 00:27:34.549 --> 00:27:36.910 It is a destination only for the people who sleep 00:27:36.910 --> 00:27:39.549 there. So the residents are forced to leave for 00:27:39.549 --> 00:27:42.099 everything. Unlike a mixed -use area where you 00:27:42.099 --> 00:27:44.099 might live above a bakery and across from a dentist, 00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:47.200 here you are geographically separated from all 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:49.200 of your daily needs. Which leads us directly 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:52.039 to the transportation trap. The car dependency. 00:27:52.539 --> 00:27:54.339 Because there are no great streets connecting 00:27:54.339 --> 00:27:56.720 these pods, and because there are limited exit 00:27:56.720 --> 00:27:59.720 points, getting around takes a pointlessly lengthy 00:27:59.720 --> 00:28:02.519 time span. Pointlessly lengthy. I feel that in 00:28:02.519 --> 00:28:05.740 my soul. A trip that should be five minutes as 00:28:05.740 --> 00:28:08.019 the crow flies takes 20 because you have to wind 00:28:08.019 --> 00:28:10.640 through the maze to get to the arterial road, 00:28:10.900 --> 00:28:13.700 wait at the light, drive down the arterial, wait 00:28:13.700 --> 00:28:15.740 on another light, and then wind back into the 00:28:15.740 --> 00:28:18.460 commercial pod where the grocery store is. And 00:28:18.460 --> 00:28:20.880 this impacts more than just drive time. It makes 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:24.180 walking and cycling difficult, if not downright 00:28:24.180 --> 00:28:27.140 dangerous. If the only way out of your neighborhood 00:28:27.140 --> 00:28:30.549 is a six -lane highway with no sidewalk, you 00:28:30.549 --> 00:28:31.910 aren't going to ride your bike to the store. 00:28:32.049 --> 00:28:33.730 You aren't going to let your kids walk to school. 00:28:33.930 --> 00:28:36.849 So even though we move to the suburbs for open 00:28:36.849 --> 00:28:39.869 space and safety, we end up trapping ourselves 00:28:39.869 --> 00:28:42.509 and our children in cars. And then there's the 00:28:42.509 --> 00:28:44.630 issue of where we put all these cars. The notes 00:28:44.630 --> 00:28:47.950 mention parking wars. This is a fascinating social 00:28:47.950 --> 00:28:50.609 consequence. Modern roads in these developments 00:28:50.609 --> 00:28:53.910 are often packed with what the sources call unattended 00:28:53.910 --> 00:28:56.089 vehicles. Unattended vehicles. That's a very 00:28:56.089 --> 00:28:58.309 polite way of saying cars clotted along the curb. 00:28:58.650 --> 00:29:01.809 It is unsightly, certainly, but it also blocks 00:29:01.809 --> 00:29:04.210 pavements, making it hard for people with strollers 00:29:04.210 --> 00:29:07.049 or wheelchairs. And it makes roads more dangerous 00:29:07.049 --> 00:29:09.710 for children because it reduces visibility. If 00:29:09.710 --> 00:29:12.470 a child runs out from between two parked SUVs, 00:29:12.470 --> 00:29:15.220 a driver cannot see them in time. But the human 00:29:15.220 --> 00:29:17.839 element is what stands out. It is often the source 00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:20.900 of endless arguments between neighbors. Oh, absolutely. 00:29:21.180 --> 00:29:23.019 You parked three inches in front of my driveway. 00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:25.759 Or why is that van not moved in three weeks? 00:29:26.019 --> 00:29:28.759 Or my favorite, stop parking in front of my house. 00:29:28.779 --> 00:29:30.900 That's my spot, even though it's a public street. 00:29:31.119 --> 00:29:33.859 It creates so much friction. We designed these 00:29:33.859 --> 00:29:36.079 spaces for cars. We gave everyone a driveway 00:29:36.079 --> 00:29:39.000 and a garage. Yet the presence of the cars becomes 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:41.099 a constant nuisance. And you have to ask, why 00:29:41.099 --> 00:29:43.640 is that? Why don't people park in their garages? 00:29:44.029 --> 00:29:46.289 Because the garage has become the attic. We have 00:29:46.289 --> 00:29:48.849 so much consumer participation, so much stuff, 00:29:48.910 --> 00:29:51.309 that the garage is full of kayaks and Christmas 00:29:51.309 --> 00:29:54.650 decorations and old furniture. So the car, the 00:29:54.650 --> 00:29:57.450 very thing the suburb was built for, gets kicked 00:29:57.450 --> 00:30:00.109 to the curb. It's a real irony. We move there 00:30:00.109 --> 00:30:02.990 for more space, fill the space with stuff, and 00:30:02.990 --> 00:30:05.630 then the car clutters up the street. And speaking 00:30:05.630 --> 00:30:08.190 of space, let's talk about the greenery. Because 00:30:08.190 --> 00:30:10.710 the promise of the suburb is the garden, right? 00:30:10.789 --> 00:30:12.910 The connection to nature. That is the promise. 00:30:13.170 --> 00:30:16.329 But the reality is what we might call the greenery 00:30:16.329 --> 00:30:19.029 paradox. Okay, unpack the paradox for me. Well, 00:30:19.069 --> 00:30:21.849 consider the front nursery. This refers to those 00:30:21.849 --> 00:30:24.670 low -walled, well -cared -for front gardens. 00:30:24.910 --> 00:30:28.230 The manicured lawn. The prize -winning hydrangeas. 00:30:28.390 --> 00:30:32.009 The perfect edging. Yes. There is a psychological 00:30:32.009 --> 00:30:35.579 aspect here. The sources point out. Residents 00:30:35.579 --> 00:30:38.660 keep a very close eye on these spaces. They secretly, 00:30:38.779 --> 00:30:41.880 or not so secretly, try to outperform their neighbors. 00:30:42.099 --> 00:30:44.140 They're keeping up with the Joneses effect. Look 00:30:44.140 --> 00:30:46.460 at Bob's lawn stripes. I need to up my game. 00:30:46.700 --> 00:30:49.519 Exactly. It is a performative space. It's a display. 00:30:49.859 --> 00:30:52.869 But here's the paradox. Many developers, in an 00:30:52.869 --> 00:30:55.450 effort to cut costs, remove the distinctions 00:30:55.450 --> 00:30:57.869 between public and confidential space. What does 00:30:57.869 --> 00:31:00.190 that mean, confidential space? Private space. 00:31:00.450 --> 00:31:03.109 Space that feels like it's yours. They might 00:31:03.109 --> 00:31:05.549 eliminate the verge, which is that strip of grass 00:31:05.549 --> 00:31:08.690 between the sidewalk and the road. Or they'll 00:31:08.690 --> 00:31:11.569 get rid of specific boundary markers like fences 00:31:11.569 --> 00:31:15.130 or hedges in the front. The result is often places 00:31:15.130 --> 00:31:17.990 that become unused, disliked, and neglected. 00:31:18.390 --> 00:31:21.839 Why? Because if a space isn't clearly mine to 00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:25.180 use, if I feel exposed to the street, I won't 00:31:25.180 --> 00:31:27.359 sit there. I won't use it. It's a stage set, 00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:30.059 not a living room. You look at it, but you don't 00:31:30.059 --> 00:31:32.119 hang out in it. Precisely. If you put a lawn 00:31:32.119 --> 00:31:34.099 chair on your front lawn in a modern suburb, 00:31:34.140 --> 00:31:36.859 people look at you funny. It's for viewing, not 00:31:36.859 --> 00:31:38.740 for living. It becomes a burden, something you 00:31:38.740 --> 00:31:41.119 have to mow and maintain rather than a genuine 00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:43.140 amenity. And then there is the issue of trees. 00:31:43.789 --> 00:31:45.710 Everyone claims to love a tree -lined street. 00:31:45.809 --> 00:31:47.789 It's the idyllic image of a neighborhood. The 00:31:47.789 --> 00:31:50.049 dappled sunlight, the shade, the cooling effect 00:31:50.049 --> 00:31:52.970 in the summer, it's beautiful. But new developments 00:31:52.970 --> 00:31:54.950 frequently overlook them, and it's not just an 00:31:54.950 --> 00:31:57.509 oversight, it's systemic. Highway authorities 00:31:57.509 --> 00:32:00.549 often actively deter trees and hedgerows. Why? 00:32:00.829 --> 00:32:03.009 Do they just hate nature? They worry about root 00:32:03.009 --> 00:32:06.170 damage to the road, or visibility issues at intersections, 00:32:06.630 --> 00:32:09.279 or maintenance costs when branches fall. It's 00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:12.019 all about liability. So the path of least resistance 00:32:12.019 --> 00:32:15.039 for them is to minimize the green. So we end 00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:17.859 up with what? Just wide streets and grass? We 00:32:17.859 --> 00:32:20.000 end up with developments dominated by hard materials. 00:32:20.299 --> 00:32:22.839 Concrete sidewalks, asphalt roads, brick houses. 00:32:23.019 --> 00:32:25.759 They often appear colorless and stark. That is 00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:28.299 depressing. We moved out of the gray city to 00:32:28.299 --> 00:32:31.140 find green and we built a gray suburb. That is 00:32:31.140 --> 00:32:33.539 the crux of the critique. We mass produced the 00:32:33.539 --> 00:32:36.400 house, but we may have value engineered the living 00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:39.759 out of the neighborhood. We prioritize the car 00:32:39.759 --> 00:32:42.759 and the curb appeal over the actual human experience 00:32:42.759 --> 00:32:46.019 of connection and nature. Wow. Okay, that is 00:32:46.019 --> 00:32:48.839 a heavy thought to sit with. So let's try to 00:32:48.839 --> 00:32:50.619 summarize where we've been today. This has been 00:32:50.619 --> 00:32:52.680 quite a journey through the machine we live in. 00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:55.519 It has. We started with the definition, the simple 00:32:55.519 --> 00:32:58.680 idea of land used primarily for housing. We looked 00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:01.500 at the invisible rules of zoning, the FAR, the 00:33:01.500 --> 00:33:04.039 separation of uses, and the stubborn power of 00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:05.720 restrictive covenants that lock neighborhoods 00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:09.089 in time. And we traveled from the bespoke mansions 00:33:09.089 --> 00:33:11.549 of the rich and the tenements of the poor through 00:33:11.549 --> 00:33:14.509 the streetcar era and into that industrial explosion 00:33:14.509 --> 00:33:18.210 of the post -WWII suburb, the Levittown model 00:33:18.210 --> 00:33:20.730 of assembly line living. We saw how that model 00:33:20.730 --> 00:33:23.950 evolved over time, adding curves, monumentation 00:33:23.950 --> 00:33:26.849 and traffic calming to become the product we 00:33:26.849 --> 00:33:29.390 recognize today. And finally, we looked at the 00:33:29.390 --> 00:33:32.299 cost of that efficiency. The isolation, the car 00:33:32.299 --> 00:33:35.299 dependency, the parking wars, and the paradoxical 00:33:35.299 --> 00:33:38.579 lack of real usable nature. And it is so important 00:33:38.579 --> 00:33:41.440 to remember that this field is vast. We have 00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:43.619 barely scratched the surface of the varieties 00:33:43.619 --> 00:33:46.420 out there. The notes mention agri -hoods. What's 00:33:46.420 --> 00:33:49.000 an agri -hood? Suburbs built around working farms 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:50.839 where the community is centered on agriculture. 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:53.660 There are McMansions, those oversized houses 00:33:53.660 --> 00:33:56.660 on small lots. We have gentrification, the process 00:33:56.660 --> 00:34:00.190 of changing neighborhoods. NIMBYism. Not in my 00:34:00.190 --> 00:34:02.289 backyard. The list goes on and on. It just shows 00:34:02.289 --> 00:34:04.769 how complex the simple act of living somewhere 00:34:04.769 --> 00:34:07.269 actually is. It's economic. It's political. It's 00:34:07.269 --> 00:34:10.969 social. Indeed. It's everything. So, as we wrap 00:34:10.969 --> 00:34:12.630 up, I want to leave our listeners with a final 00:34:12.630 --> 00:34:14.909 thought. Something to chew on the next time they 00:34:14.909 --> 00:34:16.670 pull into their driveway. I've been thinking 00:34:16.670 --> 00:34:20.230 about this. We built these areas to escape the 00:34:20.230 --> 00:34:23.309 cramped, dirty city. We wanted comfort. We wanted 00:34:23.309 --> 00:34:25.630 ownership. Remember, it became cheaper to own 00:34:25.630 --> 00:34:29.869 than to rent. But I have to ask, have we engineered 00:34:29.869 --> 00:34:32.650 neighborhoods that look perfect on the outside, 00:34:32.869 --> 00:34:36.630 the front nursery, yet actually discourage the 00:34:36.630 --> 00:34:38.630 very community interaction they were meant to 00:34:38.630 --> 00:34:40.590 house? That's the question, isn't it? Are we 00:34:40.590 --> 00:34:43.369 lonely by design? If the streetcar suburb was 00:34:43.369 --> 00:34:45.929 defined by the streetcar, a vehicle of shared 00:34:45.929 --> 00:34:48.550 public transport, the modern residential area 00:34:48.550 --> 00:34:51.530 is defined by the unattended vehicle, a private 00:34:51.530 --> 00:34:54.199 capsule sitting empty on the street. How does 00:34:54.199 --> 00:34:56.179 that shape who we are? If our streets are designed 00:34:56.179 --> 00:34:58.159 for parking, not for people, what does that say 00:34:58.159 --> 00:34:59.719 about our community? The unattended vehicle. 00:34:59.980 --> 00:35:02.219 It's a powerful image. It's there. It's big. 00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:04.619 It's in the way. And it's empty. Maybe it's time 00:35:04.619 --> 00:35:06.460 we filled our streets with something else. Maybe 00:35:06.460 --> 00:35:09.360 a lemonade stand. Or just people walking. It's 00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:11.679 a start. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:35:11.679 --> 00:35:13.760 this deep dive. I know I'm going to be looking 00:35:13.760 --> 00:35:15.559 at my zoning codes a little differently tonight. 00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:18.880 As should we all. Until next time, keep looking 00:35:18.880 --> 00:35:20.019 deeper. Bye for now.