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Why Did America Destroy Its Own Cities? (And how to make them beautiful again…)
The Culturist ^ | March 2024

Posted on 10/10/2025 9:23:54 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

America didn’t always build ugly cities. As you tour Philadelphia’s historic landmarks or gaze up at New York’s early skyscrapers, you can’t help but wonder…Why don’t all American cities boast beauty like this? When did ugliness take over…

Public buildings — including buildings that dominate a city, even if not owned by the government — have the power to:

- Grow a city’s economy
- Foster pride in one’s community
- Inspire a loving relationship between residents and their city

With these truths in mind, American architects created breathtaking buildings that became pillars of American identity. Then something happened..

- Freeways instead of streets
- Strip malls instead of historic shops
- Mass-housing apartment buildings instead of homes

What will it take for America to become “the beautiful” again? One major element will be architects that prioritize the human need for beauty over the desire to shock, awe, and impress — as well as companies willing to back design projects that go above and beyond glass and concrete blocks.

But there’s only one way for this to happen: public demand.

(Excerpt) Read more at culturecritic.beehiiv.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Society
KEYWORDS: architecture; artdeco; cities; maga; urbandesign; urbanplanning

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Kansas City: then & now

It can be hard to imagine what an architecturally beautiful America would look like. Fortunately, the U.S. does have a history of design excellence to call its own: Art Deco.

Intentional communities like I’On, South Carolina, are pushing back on the pressure to design cities with maximum efficiency.


1 posted on 10/10/2025 9:23:54 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The modern way of zoning and limited through streets mean that cities are not very walkable.


2 posted on 10/10/2025 9:31:08 AM PDT by marron
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

🚨 FULL INTERVIEW! Nick Sortor just made Tucker have an IMMEDIATE CHANGE OF HEART on Portland and says that Trump should TAKE CONTROL of the city TOMORROW!

Invoke the Insurrection Act NOW!

Mass arrests need to sweep ALL THE WAY through Portland. Start with the Police Chief! pic.twitter.com/AeQ1FsMGif— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) October 8, 2025


3 posted on 10/10/2025 9:34:53 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: marron

Europe does not have this problem.


4 posted on 10/10/2025 9:36:28 AM PDT by nwrep
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
The nostalgic view of cities is far from the truth.




The horse manure and dead horses alone made them disgusting disease ridden nightmares.

https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2021/02/the-unpleasant-side-of-life-with-horses-in-cities/

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/cities-paved-dung-urban-design-great-horse-manure-crisis-1894/


America didn't destroy its own cities - those cities were surpassed when they no longer supported the few industries they once did. There are few if any industries that are better served currently within a city.

Accommodation and Food Services
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services
Administrative and Support Services
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting
Air Transportation
Ambulatory Health Care Services
Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries
Animal Production
Apparel Manufacturing
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation - Some Arts but Entertainment and Recreation are outside cities.
Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing
Broadcasting - Was for decades but podcasters can and do broadcast from anywhere
Building Material and Garden Equipment and Supplies Dealers
Chemical Manufacturing
Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores
Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing
Construction
Construction of Buildings
Couriers and Messengers
Credit Intermediation and Related Activities
Crop Production
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
Education and Health Services
Educational Services - mixed. Larger campuses are outside cities
Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing
Electronics and Appliance Stores
Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing
Finance and Insurance - this has been shifting more and more to outside cities
Financial Activities
Fishing, Hunting and Trapping
Food and Beverage Stores
Food Manufacturing
Food Services and Drinking Places
Forestry and Logging
Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles
Furniture and Home Furnishings Stores
Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing
Gasoline Stations
General Merchandise Stores
Goods-Producing Industries
Health and Personal Care Stores
Health Care and Social Assistance
Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction
Hospitals - some due to population density although more and more are large campuses outside cities
Information
Insurance Carriers and Related Activities
Internet Publishing and Broadcasting
Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing
Leisure and Hospitality
Lessors of Nonfinancial Intangible Assets
Machinery Manufacturing
Management of Companies and Enterprises
Manufacturing
Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods
Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods
Mining (except Oil and Gas) (NAICS 212)
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction
Miscellaneous Manufacturing
Miscellaneous Store Retailers
Monetary Authorities - Central Bank
Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries
Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers
Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions
Natural Resources and Mining
Nonmetallic Mineral Product Manufacturing
Nonstore Retailers
Nursing and Residential Care Facilities
Oil and Gas Extraction
Other Information Services
Other Services
Paper Manufacturing
Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries - Performing Arts; yes. Sports and others definitely outside cities.
Personal and Laundry Services
Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing
Pipeline Transportation
Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing
Postal Service
Primary Metal Manufacturing
Printing and Related Support Activities
Private Households
Professional and Business Services
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
Publishing Industries
Rail Transportation - passenger rail in cities runs at a loss and is subsidized by vehicles
Real Estate
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing
Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations
Rental and Leasing Services
Repair and Maintenance
Retail Trade
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation
Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities - more of this is relocating outside cities
Service-Providing Industries
Social Assistance
Specialty Trade Contractors
Sporting Goods, Hobby, Book, and Music Stores
Support Activities for Agriculture and Forestry
Support Activities for Mining
Support Activities for Transportation
Telecommunications
Textile Mills
Textile Product Mills
Trade, Transportation, and Utilities
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation - This runs at a loss in cities and has to subsidized by others.
Transportation and Warehousing
Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
Truck Transportation
Utilities
Warehousing and Storage
Waste Management and Remediation Services
Water Transportation
Wholesale Electronic Markets and Agents and Brokers
Wholesale Trade
Wood Product Manufacturing

5 posted on 10/10/2025 9:47:36 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Why Did America Destroy Its Own Cities?

Democrats Always Destroy Everything Civilized Everywhere They Go!

They Just Do, There Is No Why.

6 posted on 10/10/2025 10:02:48 AM PDT by Navy Patriot (President Trump Decisively Won, Celebrate Recivilization!)
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To: nwrep
Land was always more expensive in Europe and workers too poor to afford single family homes outside the cities.

As a consequence, Europe's cities, which got much more populous in the 19th Century, stayed populated with a working population and huge suburbs did not get created after WWII. Immigrants and the poor were shunted into housing estates outside the city core, which is why the most depressed areas around Paris and London are mostly on the periphery.

In Germany they allowed poor immigrant workers and now migrants to cluster in certain neighborhoods, which is why Berlin now has areas that look like American slums. Deindustrialization, easy access to drugs and soaring rents have also given Berlin a large homeless population as well.

European cities lost an lot of their medieval and early modern heritage in the 19th century when a lot of medieval buildings & fortifications were torn down.

7 posted on 10/10/2025 10:13:13 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: All

Ridiculous almost dreamy delusional article!

Two reasons only:

1. Loss of industrial & blue collar jobs;
2. Crime - excuses not consequences for committing crime.


8 posted on 10/10/2025 10:14:20 AM PDT by Reily
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To: T.B. Yoits
On the East Coast and Chicago, there used to be a huge amount of heavy industry. In Chicago, I think what was one of the world's largest collections of steel mills stretched from south of Hyde Park through Gary, Indiana. The southeast shore of Lake Michigan was lit up at night from the coke ovens and blast furnaces running 24/7.

Back when we were a real country.

9 posted on 10/10/2025 10:17:47 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: sauropod

Bkmk


10 posted on 10/10/2025 10:19:48 AM PDT by sauropod
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Democrats have destroyed more cities than nuclear weapons.


11 posted on 10/10/2025 10:21:41 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

From my half-assed quick inspection, it seems that, with some exceptions, when cities grow above 260,000 population (about 87 in the US), they start becoming Leftist hellholes. Among the 87 largest US cities, the vast majority are blue. The only major ones that aren’t reliably deep blue are #20 OKC and #10 JAX. (#5 PHX is about 50-50). And as you go down the list to lower and lower population numbers, there are a bit more that aren’t deep blue... and after #87, they seem to be at least 65-35 GOP. So it is after that population benchmark that the insanity starts to set in, and the crowded rats wants Nanny Government to steal on their behalf and “take care of” them as much as possible.


12 posted on 10/10/2025 10:26:32 AM PDT by Teacher317
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The really ugly cities are those that are a shell of their former selves because the industries they were built around are gone or drastically deprecated.


13 posted on 10/10/2025 10:38:30 AM PDT by Henry Hnyellar
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To: Reily

Yes. Number one reason: crime.


14 posted on 10/10/2025 1:21:33 PM PDT by marron
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

We built suburbs and let the cities go to hell. If we hadn’t done so, people would have had to keep their cities in good shape. But if we hadn’t built the suburbs and encouraged auto transport at the expense of trains, trolleys and trams, the postwar boom wouldn’t have been what it was.


15 posted on 10/10/2025 4:00:10 PM PDT by x
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To: x

The suburbs are even WORSE 😷😖


16 posted on 10/10/2025 4:49:25 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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