Looking to buy a $1 million house? Don't forget to make sure your neighborhood has sidewalks and speed limits.
In a video from TikToker Tash in the House (@tashcoug), Tash walks around her parents' "exurb" neighborhood in Hollister, California. An exurb is a neighborhood outside of an urban city and even further beyond the suburbs, typically occupied by very wealthy families. Tash explains the lack of traffic-calming elements and states, "They don't really discourage anything."
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These "traffic-calming elements" that Tash describes include things like sidewalks, speed limits, apt speed bumps, protected bike lanes, and more. Without these elements, there is a lack of safety from traffic violence and discouragement from using transportation other than cars.
Yet despite the lack of safety measures, the neighborhood remains pricey, with houses costing $1 million. Tash makes an excellent point at the end of her video, explaining how it is important to build more affordable homes in urban cities rather than building expensive homes outside of cities that result in suburban sprawl.
Suburban sprawl is unfortunately quite detrimental to the environment. In a research report published in Nature focusing on the consequences of suburban sprawl, lead researchers concluded that the negative impacts include, "air pollution resulting from automobile dependency, water pollution … the loss or disruption of environmentally sensitive areas, such as critical natural habitats … reductions in open space, increased flood risks, and overall reductions in quality of life."
Considering these impacts, it makes sense to instead support the construction of affordable and healthy homes and neighborhoods in existing urban areas. Examples of supporting both the environment and urban housing include transforming parking lots for malls into green spaces and housing, and transforming an old airport into a green, walkable community.
Projects like these are called "new urbanism," which seeks to shift cities into more sustainable and accessible places to live by focusing on walkability, green spaces, small business support, and affordable housing, as per the Congress for the New Urbanism.
Commenters on Tash's TikTok shared their disbelief in the prices people pay for homes despite neighborhoods lacking basic safety and accessibility elements.
"Literally my worst nightmare," commented one user.
"Hollister was not made with people in mind. I lived there when I was young, and we had to drive to the nearest park!" added another user.
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