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TwilitFox t1_jbz0p97 wrote

Reply to comment by Jonas_Venture_Sr in 1664 New Amsterdam becomes New York, English warships in the harbor. Looking S on Broadway from the Wall. wwwsavingny.com for reconstructions, 3/15 NYC Fire Museum Opening by Impressive_Run_6557

That's interesting, truly. But in this modern world with unprecedented technology it seems rather chimplike to not fix the unnatural monstrosity that is NYC. Plus, cars were given far too much dominion, vastly more than actual human residents. Gee, I wonder if oligarchs got rich off of these decisions at the sake of society and the planet and all around safe, pleasant neighborhoods.

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Jonas_Venture_Sr t1_jbz1ubp wrote

Believe it or not, the personnel vehicle was essentially decided as the main method of transportation, because people were sick of dealing with the railroad oligarchs.

I think the US gets too much shit for its reliance on personal cars. If you were a middle income American in the early 20th century, the car would make too much sense not to adopt it. Today, we can clearly see the problems which that decision made, but at the time, it was a no brainer. If city overpopulation and climate change were not a thing, then the personal vehicle would have no criticism.

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TwilitFox t1_jbz48wr wrote

Well, regardless of past bad decisions, we now have the technology to do the right thing and unpave every other street, creating something the rest of the world calls "neighborhoods", and "necessary" for being "healthy" and "human". Maybe we should unpave 2/3rds of the streets, and modernize public transportation. And ban unnecessary things like commuting for the 90% of jobs that can be done from home or the beach. At some point we have to evolve and learn how to use technology for the benefit of society, without using that as an excuse for perpetuating unnecessary destruction for profits sake. But I'm an optimist, which seems to offend a lot of people on here. Peace ye soulless zombies.

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