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> because of style of community they want to own their home in?

No, I do not care about their choices, provided they are willing to bear all costs from it. The problem is not living in the suburbs. The problem is affluent people that have their lifestyle subsidized by poorer people living close to the city center.

Also, it's virtually impossible to claim that people want to live like that in the US, because most places have zoning laws that simply forbid the emergence of any other alternative. Suburbs in Germany are smaller, less dense versions of the urban center, but they are not devoid of life. They are still walkable, they still have local shops, they do not make cars a requirement for everyone, kids do not need to be driven around anywhere, etc. You can bet that if more people in the US could come to visit they would rather live like that than in the traditional cul-de-sacs/picketed fence developments from American Suburbia.



Aren't those zoning laws created by people elected by the residents?


"Aren't those laws being lobbied by corporations who only fund the politicians that promise to keep things in their favor?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOttvpjJvAo


What's stopping people from voting for "cyclist Joe" who promises to transform the city into new Amsterdam (no, not NYC :-) or new Berlin?


> What's stopping people from voting for "cyclist Joe"

The corporations who are lobbying and funding the campaign of "Trucker Bob" and "Soccer Mom Susan".


Nevertheless I thought that elections were free.


The laws that maintain roads for personal car use? Those are genuinely popular laws, not some sort of spooky corporate conspiracy. You anti-car cycle fascists can't seem to comprehend that your cause is unpopular.


The term "jaywalking" was invented by car companies in a political campaign to reframe the car deaths problem as the fault of pedestrians.

You're conflating "the cause is unpopular" with "the cause organically became unpopular".




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