High Cost of being poor.

[Drake Tungsten]

Are they abandoning their ... children?

I do every time I move.

[rah]

He's my hero.

[Maniac]

Put more succinctly, there are few real city centers nowadays.

That's a somewhat confusing statement for me.
I remember some American Apolytoner recently laughed at a European Apolytoner for calling a 100000 population town a city, because American 'cities' were much bigger.
(yeah I know there's a difference between some big cities and the so-called 'suburban' areas)

Anyway, Belgium does not have any big cities US-style, yet overall the country has one one of the highest population densities in the world. So I guess you could consider the whole of Belgium one big spread-out city.

[Drake Tungsten]

I remember some American Apolytoner recently laughed at a European Apolytoner for calling a 100000 population town a city, because American 'cities' were much bigger.

That was me and they are.

BTW, the Welsh aren't even human, let alone "European".

[DarkCloud]

American cities are gigantic suburbs.

Examples are Phoenix, Houston, and Dallas. Dallas/Fort-Worth is gigantic, over 50km across and around 40km tall. But it only has about 3-5 million people in the metro area, I believe (Slowwhand can likely confirm).

I remember some American Apolytoner recently laughed at a European Apolytoner for calling a 100000 population town a city, because American 'cities' were much bigger.

Wait until you run into someone from China. I was talking on the phone with a recent Chinese business visa holder who was very upset that the city where she was working in America was so small... But the city's population was over 750K and the metro area was around 3 million (!).

[Ben Kenobi]

I second DarkCloud's problems, I've had to abandon quite a bit of stuff on a move, down to what I could carry, about two bags or so. Not having a car makes moves very difficult, and yes, that includes pots and pans.

My roomate has all that stuff, but it easily filled his truck.

[Dis]

yes supermarkets are along bus routes. I don't know what kind of cities you guys live in

We do have a decent bus system where I live (but it's pricey- almost cheaper to own a car). Simply hop on the bus, go down the street a few miles, buy your groceries. Come back. Like I mentioned before I'm not sure how practical it is to carry 10 or 15 bags on a bus. They are heavy! and other people might steal them. I suppose you'd have to shop for a few days at a time (I tend to shop for 2 or 3 weeks at least lol).

It's sad they closed the vons on H street and Owens in North Las Vegas (poor black neighborhood). But there are options. You take the lake mead bus down to Jones and shop at the Albertson's there. Many people take convenience over cheaper prices, however.

And pots and pans? Please. It's laziness and ignorance. Plain and Simple. If a single white male such as myself can prepare my own food, anyone can.

[Ben Kenobi]

But since it requires actual effort using your legs and not just your fingers for games and texting, it has recently fallen out of favor with the laziest generation ever raised.

Well, where I grew up it's about 5 miles to the nearest convenience store and about 30 to the nearest grocery store.

But then not all of us grew up in a city.

[DaShi]

American cities are gigantic suburbs.
Wait until you run into someone from China. I was talking on the phone with a recent Chinese business visa holder who was very upset that the city where she was working in America was so small... But the city's population was over 750K and the metro area was around 3 million (!).

I hope she didn't kill herself or anyone else over it.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Fool, you just put yourself on her secret hit list!

Lalalalala, I don't know Dashi, he's not like my online acquaintance or anything... lalalalala...

[Dinner]

Being unfamiliar with the US I cannot say if this is true or you're just making excuses. Regardless, my comment stands in the case of DarkCloud. He could cut his travel time down from 30 to 5 minutes.

Does that mean by the way that in a big city like New York for instance there isn't a single supermarket in a five kilometer radius of wherever you live??

New York was developed prior to WW2 and so it's made to a human scale so walking or riding a bike will work very well there. There problem comes with the suburbs (some are so far out they're now called ex-urbs) which are all made after WW2 on the expectation that everyone living there has a car. Sure, you can ride a bike 8-10 miles to buy groceries and lug them back (hopefully you only bought a couple of bags and not more though typically an American will buy more because we tend to buy lots but shop less frequently) 8-10 miles, but, let's face reality most people are going to drive a car because they don't want to take an hour just in transit.

[Dinner]

Why aren't there any bus routes from the cities that go to those huge supermarkets with low food prices? They can't be THAT from from the cities, can they?

Bus's have a huge social stigma. Poor people ride buses and we don't want to be like poor people or, in fact, sit next to poor people and while we're at it red blooded Americans are extremely selfish and don't want to pay taxes to help dirty poor people. Especially since they might not be white, no doubt are already on welfare, and paying icky things like bus routes only encourages more poor people to move there which no one wants.

You laugh, hell I laugh at that, but that pretty much is a Republican argument against mass transit. Yes, Republicans are stupid.

[Dinner]

I can go to any thrift store this second and fully outfit a kitchen for close to free. And the idea that poor people can't move their cookware around is patently ridiculous. Are they abandoning their clothing too? Their children?

Remember if you don't have a car moving stuff becomes a whole bigger problem.

[Dinner]

Put more succinctly, there are few real city centers nowadays.

There certainly haven't been any built since 1945 which I can think of. The cities which do have city centers were all built prior to 1945 but even those, barring a few special places which didn't have land to expand nearby (NYC and San Fran come to mind), now have a huge ring of suburbs & ex-urbs surrounding the old small city core.

[Kuciwalker]

Bus's have a huge social stigma.

What?