The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry | Climate Town (feat. @NotJustBikes)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite it as an entertaining but well-sourced explainer on US zoning and housing costs whenever those topics come up.
What it is
A snarky, comedic video essay from Climate Town, with a guest appearance by Not Just Bikes, arguing that American suburban sprawl and single-family zoning are financially and environmentally unsustainable. It covers how zoning rules shape housing and what viewers can do locally, such as attending zoning meetings.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2022 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec kelvin0 · 2022-04 · on “California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers”
A funny, yet very well researched video on that exact same topic of Zoning nonsense. Entertaining AND informative. [this video]
Recommends fayten · 2022-03 · on “Americans do not want to return to urban living”
There are quite a few factors, I'd encourage checking out the following videos by Not Just Bikes and Climate Towns that cover a broad range of city planning and zoning in the US. Strong Towns Play List by Not Just Bikes (This heavily covers city planning issues in the US): [LINK] The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry by Climate Towns (This covers zoning): [this video] How The Auto Industry Carjacked The American Dream (This covers the auto industries impact on US cities.): [LINK] Dutch Cities are Better for the Climate (and my sanity) by Not Just Bikes (Not super relevant to zoning, but it's part 1 of The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry so I figured I'd link it.): [LINK] These are pretty snarky,
Recommends fayten · 2025-09 · on “Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"”
This depends on how you define ROI. Car infrastructure and lack of density reduces tax revenue for cities and strains infrastructure. There are other human benefits to reducing car traffic and use in favor of public transportation: * Reduces air pollution * Noise pollution * Allows a focus on human centric urban planning * Allows for higher density commercial and residential increasing tax revenue * Reduces pedestrian traffic injury Well done video essays: Parking minimums [LINK] Noise pollution [LINK] Infrastructure strain [LINK] More on Infrastructure and Sprawl [this video] Articles: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] Climate town videos are all well researched and provide an enormous amount of follow-up co
Cites tenacious_tuna · 2022-05 · on “Historic fertilizer crunch threatens food security”
I'm hopping on a plane in a minute, but I'll do my best to at least start an example :) The real question is "what do you mean by 'it works fine'?" To me, the effects of suburban living are such that we don't treat people as people unless they're shrouded in a big rolling box of metal. Of course it'll vary from person to person and family to family. I think urban environments offer children much more freedom than corresponding suburban environments, while being safer. There's much more mobility and access to things outside of the house, which I'd argue significantly enriches childhood experience and leads to more adaptable adults. As an adult, I'm overjoyed by the ease with which I can get t
Cites maerF0x0 · 2022-11 · on “U.S. government to backstop mortgages above $1M for the first time”
If AirBnb truly made the market prices go up, then beyond short term shocks it's more of city hall's (and NIMBYism) fault that new supply couldn't come to market (such as rezoning) . America has a massive zoning issue that is causing all kinds of pain and suffering to lower middle class and below. [this video] [LINK]
Cites __MatrixMan__ · 2023-01 · on “Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness”
It's an issue with the zoning laws. Back when it became illegal to ban black people from your neighborhood the next best thing was to ban the kind of housing that black people could afford. So the only place where it's legal to put the kind of housing that addresses the problem is in the city centers which were already established and therefore out of scope for the zoning restrictions. (more on this: [this video] )
Cites CapstanRoller · 2023-11 · on “The US Housing Market Has Become an Impossible Mess”
This is due to zoning laws. Many people desperately want smaller housing, but it's effectively illegal everywhere in the USA. The only alternative is to buy rural land and try to get creative with the law (e.g. your tiny home on an existing rusted old trailer frame is considered a "remodel", etc) or simply build a small cabin and hope no one from the government comes to bulldoze it. Even success here means you're stuck far away from jobs, infrastructure, etc. Existing small houses are priced as high (or higher) than new-build McMansions. See also: "missing middle" [this video]
Cites k99x55 · 2024-05 · on “Measuring the impact of zoning on housing in a city”
The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in Most of North America : [LINK] The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry | Climate Town (feat. Not Just Bikes) : [this video]