[kjkjadksj]

I see this a lot in socal especially in the san fernando valley. Neighborhood like sherwood forest with 2-10 million homes or more. Nearby offerings comprised of a run down strip mall with a smoke shop, liqour store, coin laundry, nail bar. It is sort of bewildering. Like why isn’t there an upscale restaurant? Seems the people in these neighborhoods are content to drive 20+ mins away for the sort of stuff they actually use at this income level. Or maybe their whole life is delivered to their door by this point.

[jerlam]

The personal automobile is the cause for most of these problems. The US gutted many of its cities by widening streets and removing public transport, and newer cities are simply not built to any comparable density because they are built with the car as the primary mode of transportation.

[kjkjadksj]

At least in LA transit was never really removed. The streetcar system evolved into a bus network that is far more comprehensive today than the streetcar system ever was. What changed was really income levels. Already by the 1920s streetcar systems were in decline as the used car market started kicking into gear and making a direct transport option affordable to most all working people. To this day it is still highly affordable to have a car. There are used car lots advertising $0 down $50/mo financing with merely holding a job at all being enough to qualify for that financing. "Tu trabajo es tu credito" painted on the walls.

Other places you see more transit use usually come with significant cost barriers to driving for most of the working population. In nyc this includes bridge tolls and paying for parking.

[HeinzStuckeIt]

Is that a new thing, though? Or could it go back decades to a time when Americans didn’t feel their country was decaying? Already in the 1960s Los Angeles was depicted as immense sprawl where people drove long distances for everything.

[kjkjadksj]

I'm not sure when it started per say. I just think its really odd how you have this pocket of very high income people and no one is bothering trying to cater to that demographic, but instead to the demographic that cleans their house or mows their yard. E.g. the flats of beverly hills fill with taco trucks during the work day specifically for the housecleaners and landscapers to get their lunch. Maybe this high income class of people just puts on very low demand for goods and services relative to lower income classes of people.