In my free time I’ve been playing a bit of Project Zomboid recently and stumbling 'round the McMansions of KY’s various towns has made me think about how inherently hostile suburban infrastructure is.
Like, until you can get a car in working order, travel out of and through the suburbs is slow and tiring. Prepare to take days out of your travel time as you run down empty roads, hop fences, and do all sorts of other things I hear gets you shot in the US. As the power goes off and perishables begin rapidly decomposing, you are trapped in a maze-like prison of mankind’s making (its occupants only marginally less hostile than a real-life suburb). Seeds are scarce and the only greenery is the copy-paste lawns surrounding you in every direction. If you’ve thought ahead you’ve stockpiled your tinned goods, otherwise prepare for a long hike through a world not built for man but instead the machines that they convinced themselves would make their lives easier.
Accurate. The burbs are anti-culture, a culture designed to corrode all interpersonal connections and make community impossible. Lawns are a conspiracy to eat up free timeandyou can’t opt out bc the state will leverage fines against you if your grass is too high. By deisgn there are no third places or places to congregate and meet neighbors. The siege mentality of burbanoids means kids can’t even walk around outside - for one, the only place to walk is the streets. For two the burbs are so anti-human that a ten year old outside alone is viewed as abberant; the child must be neglected and in danger, no one would allow a child outside alone! Apps like nextdoor allow the worst people in the world to coordinate in calling down state violence on random passersbye. It’s an cruel, hateful structure that breeds madness and malice.
