Suburban sprawl is inherently unsustainable and the only reason we continue to build it is because the wealthy have a vested interest in it as the automotive dependence and atomization it creates directly lead to corporate profits at the expense of community and human health

Did you know that you can fit a 15 story high-rise apartment tower with over 100 units in the same area as 6 shot gun houses or 2 modern suburban homes because of this we have evidence that the housing crisis is intentional and worsening as we continue to keep zoning laws and refuse to build up density in our cities

Suburban development is not inherently bad in and of itself, streetcar suburbs are proof of that, the issue is with modern american style suburbs and R1 zoning which leads to the over dependence on cars as it leads to naturally unwalkable environments which are devoid of natural life, and 3rd places for people to socialize leading to the development of destinations like shopping malls, a hell in and of themselves, to fill the gaps created by our intentional bad design with over consumerism. There is a reason that the first shopping malls developed in suburban America in the 50s before that shopping was done on main and high streets which are not designed nearly as much to get you to spend money compared to malls as they are a place that exists outside of consumerism alone, people live on a main street, it's a part of a town, nobody lives in the malls

Here is me ranting about Robert Moses for several paragraphs

Did you know that General Motors is a major cause of the public transit woes in much of the country, when automobiles first started to take off in the 40s, streetcar companies began to struggle and instead of them being bought by cities and run at a loss as a public service, they were bought up by car companies like GM who later went on to tear out the tracks, and shut down the companies, they did this so people would have to buy a car instead of travel by streetcar. This loss of the American streetcar systems alongside the interstate Highways are 2 of the main causes of suburbanisation in the later half of the 20th century as automobiles don't produce the same density created by streetcars

Now I know that you don't care but did you know that for a brief period of time between 1974 and 1987 the US government ran a nationalized worker owned freight rail company called Conrail after the collapse of the Penn Central Railroad and it probably could have been expanded to serve all freight in the US but was privatized and bought by Norfolk Southern and CSX in the 80s instead of being invested in and expanded

I am scared of driving