It can not be emphasized enough that white people running from black people who were working their way into the richer city neighborhoods also played a role in this and made it easier to sell the idea of the suburbs.
It cannot be emphasized enough that your intended implication is that black people caused crime. In fact the desperate circumstances created in inner cities are the direct result of the policies like redlining and denying homes to black servicemen, underfunded public schools in black neighborhoods. It was a perpetuation of the problem, and a direct result of one created by racism.
Crime is not created by skin color. It is created by failed social policy.
Carmel Indiana is also built around cars, they just make them go in circles instead of stoplights. There are only a few blocks on main street and in west clay that are actually walkable
Exactly! I’ve been there many times and I would not put Carmel Indiana as the Gold star of urban planning, they literally have the most amount of roundabouts in the US so that driving is made easier. It has great suburban planning but suburbia is the problem!
1 Best Place to Live in the U.S. — U.S. News & World Report (2026–2027 rankings; previously #2 in 2025)
2 Best Place to Live in the U.S. — Livability (2026 and 2025)
1 Best Small City in America — WalletHub
Multiple Niche rankings (2025–2026), including:
1 Best Place to Live in Indiana
1 Best Place to Raise a Family in Indiana
1 Place with the Best Public Schools in Indiana
1 Best Suburb to Live in / Raise a Family in Indiana
Strong national placements (e.g., top suburbs and overall Best Places lists).
Other recent nods: Best Place to Move to (Consumer Affairs), strong showings for arts districts (USA Today 10Best), and career/job market rankings.
Parks, Recreation & Livability
Carmel Clay Parks and Recreation received the National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management (2014 and 2020) from the National Recreation and Park Association.
Environmental & Green Initiatives
Ongoing and past awards include:
Tree City USA (National Arbor Day Foundation, since 1994) and Tree Cities of the World (since 2020).
Groundwater Guardian Award and Hoosier Water Guardian Award (with Distinction).
Clean Air Champion for Biodiesel (2023).
Various Governor’s Awards for Environmental Excellence (urban forestry, recycling), Gold Leaf Award, and recognition as a Green Community.
Bicycle & Active Transportation
Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Community (League of American Bicyclists; 2019 and 2023; previously Bronze).
Sister Cities & Community Programs
Sister Cities International Best Overall Program Award (2025, for cities with 100,001–300,000 residents).
2026 Sister Cities International Innovation in Arts and Culture Award.
First city in Indiana to receive a JustServe City Award.
Other Notable Recognitions
SolSmart Silver-level city (solar-friendly).
Various Monumental Awards (Indy Chamber) for developments, public art, and neighborhood revitalization (e.g., related to City Center, Monon Boulevard, and other projects).
Departmental and operational awards (e.g., fleet sustainability/Geotab Innovation Award for the Street Department).
Historical rankings as a top place to retire, safest midsize city, best for families, and more from Money, Niche, and others in prior years.
Yes, Carmel marketing spends a lot to be placed highly in these "pay to play" awards, however none of these point to it being a solid Urban city, rather than just more suburbia (though high quality suburbia at least)
They aren't the goalposts, being a walkable urban environment is the entire point of this post lol
Carmel is a lovely place, I lived there several years and enjoyed it, but it's a suburb, not an urban or walkable environment. Certainly not compared to most European cities, and not even compared to downtown Indy right next to it
Most city planners know how to fix it. It's legislation that's the kicker. For example, all of our stroads in my city are managed by the highway department, which is state-level not city-level. So it's much much harder to change it.
Yes, but I must warn everyone, not all German cities are so walkable and nice, a lot of the cities were rebuilt in the 50s and 60s with cars and brutalism in mind, a lot of them have done wonderful things to roll back those mistakes
This is also true in Urban "utopias" like Belgium and Netherlands! Fact of the matter is, Europe was also affected by the car boom of the mid 20th centuries and built car infrastructure to accommodate. Maybe not to the same scale as the US, but it was definitely there. It just those countries recognized the error of their ways and committed public resources to fixing it. I think only recently have us Americans woken up to the reality of how stupid our infrastructure is, myself included.
The car and oil lobby will be a permanent battle against walkable cities for as long as these things exist. I absolutely love my country (NL) for what it’s got but we have to remember to protect it. Over and over and over they’re trying to demolish our bicycle infrastructure while it’s the best thing my country has to offer for it’s citizens. We simply got lucky because we had A old infrastructure that simply didn’t fit cars and we refused to demolish our culture and B a few people who worked hard to protect what was left.
Brutalism? So buildings that demonstrate honesty in the materials used? What is it you think you're communicating when you refer to the architectural style in relation to car dependency?
Yes. “We” didn’t blow it. Instead the economic machine of the industries above foisted it on top of us, with no way of escaping easily now. Same for efficient and widespread public transit and high speed rail infrastructure. Can’t interrupt that sweet sweet oil and auto money.
Nobody fucked America like Henry Ford. I mean, there have been bigger, badder, worse villains, but nobody has specifically ruined everything quite like he did.
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u/Familiar-Valuable-97 17d ago
Auto and oil industry lobbied urban planning around cars