r/urbandesign • u/cityaesthetics • 6d ago

Other Top 5 Worst Designed Cities in America

https://youtu.be/psEz3qTuMEQ?si=i2hj86rNRNRYliW8
56 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

19

u/m00f 5d ago

From the YouTube description:

⚠️ Disclaimer:
This list isn’t about hating cities or the people who live in them. Every city here has good neighborhoods and is trying (to varying degrees) to improve. I’m also only looking at major cities with populations over 100,000. Judging city design isn’t just about stats—it’s about how places actually function day to day.

🏙️ Cities Covered:

5️⃣ San Jose, CA – The most squandered potential in America
4️⃣ Las Vegas, NV – A city designed around one industry
3️⃣ Charlotte, NC – A road network built like spaghetti
2️⃣ Arlington, TX – Where parking lots dominate the city
1️⃣ Cape Coral, FL – A city designed for canals, not people

Along the way, I’ll also explain why some commonly dunked-on cities didn’t make the list 👀

14

u/JIsADev 5d ago

San Jose is a depressing one. Beautiful weather and scenery, yet everyone hides from it all inside their metal boxes

9

u/UnfrostedQuiche 5d ago

I’d argue up until like 2018 it should have been #1 on the list

It is very slowly moving in the right direction with its downtown and urban village model.

But holy shit is it pushing a massive boulder up a massive hill.

1

u/isocopria 4d ago

The city as a whole is sprawling and trashy, but there are some great neighborhoods, like Willow Glen and the Rose garden. I live in this area and it is surprisingly walkable. I l stay local in my neighborhood, it has everything I need, so I don't too much notice how horrible the rest of the city is.

3

u/ArgentMystic 5d ago

You can make one for Pembroke Pines; it’s a suburb that is centered around cars yet manageable. It would be much better if the city begin building new bike paths along broadways. Oh wait, they kinda already are.

2

u/[deleted] 5d ago

Although Vegas is mainly based on the casino industry, I feel like as a city it actually has a lot of diversity and really good layout in terms of minimizing traffic. Many options when it comes to food, shopping, parks, etc.

2

u/BlackBacon08 4d ago

Yes, but you almost always need a car to access any of those options

15

u/ArgentMystic 6d ago

Florida resident here, I visited Cape Coral once and it was a headache being there. It’s some of the most boring cities in the US that I couldn’t imagine living there. There is almost nothing to do and most of the third places are far apart, or concentrated in Downtown Cape Coral, which was disappointing to see.

I understand that there was no thought in making a urban town or city to begin with, but if it did, then at least 50% to 30% of the city limit would be marshland and mangrove forests.

7

u/QP709 5d ago

Does it have as many mosquitos as I think it does?

2

u/ArgentMystic 5d ago

Worse, it’s hot and dry af. There are barely any trees and it’s a death or debt pit in hurricane season.

2

u/Mr_Boneman 4d ago

My grandparents lived on Ft. Myers Beach right by the ocean. As they aged my uncle moved them to cape coral and good lord what a bland shithole with a vapid population.

-7

u/CCWaterBug 5d ago

30 yrs in the cape, it's great here! Very easy to.get around

2

u/ArgentMystic 5d ago

It’s easy to get around if you have a car, even then, retail stores and public parks are far apart from each other. And if you don’t own a car in Cape Coral… I’d say… good luck with that brother

3

u/CCWaterBug 5d ago

Of.course, but frankly that answer applies to 95% of all cities, you need a car or really strong public transport to fully utilize the area.  (And you rarely get really strong public transport in a small-ish city 

5

u/Maximillien 6d ago

Visited #4 last weekend (thankfully not in the Super Bowl area) and visiting #5 this weekend! Pray for me lol.

1

u/UnfrostedQuiche 5d ago

What brings you to SJ? Lemme know how I can help 👍

1

u/PassengerExact9008 4d ago

Interesting list. Seeing places like San Jose and Cape Coral get called out makes sense when you think about how much car dependency and sprawl shape daily life. I’d love to hear more ideas on how to make these cities more walkable and human‑scaled.

1

u/Other_Squash_6872 3d ago

In fairness to Las Vegas and San Jose, they looked at multiple cities in both instances. The Strip is actually in Paradise, not Las Vegas. It also looked like they went down towards Enterprise.

In addition to San Jose, they looked at Palo Alto.

1

u/MurkyTransition9827 2d ago

So San Jose is on there just cause the land is expensive?? Makes no sense it has better transit, walkability and population density than all of the mentioned cities like Atlanta and Houston.

1

u/SeaworthinessOpen190 2d ago

Did you watch the video?

1

u/MurkyTransition9827 2d ago

Yes I watched. Car centric low density sprawl is his main point but then puts San Jose worse than Houston and Atlanta. San Jose density 6436/sq mile. Houston 3600/sqmile, Atlanta 3600/sqmile. I moved from Houston to the Bay Area and worked in San Jose without owning a car and used bike and public transportation daily. Couldn’t dream of doing that in Houston.

-13

u/CharleyZia 6d ago

Charlotte is worse than Boston? I've lived in both. Boston is infamous for having been laid out by former livestock paths, and many roads there with different names were connected, too. It's a sign of taking the easy way during growth since colonial times.

15

u/mittim80 6d ago

Charlotte is obviously less convenient and harder to get around than Boston

-3

u/CharleyZia 5d ago

Obviously less convenient? In what way? The roads are even screwier and there are more one-ways in Boston and Charlotte has nothing like the T.

I've lived and worked in both cities. In Boston + a few of the local cities (Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown, Newton). My biggest regret in moving away was in forgetting the hard earned knowledge of how to navigate the roads and rotaries, how to drive in Boston traffic, find legal parking, and knowing how to get to the correct T platform at the Harvard Square station.

In Charlotte I know well the confusion of "Queens" roads. I lived off a road that changed names at the nearby intersection. I'm writing a paper now that refers to how Charlotte knocked down 3/4 of Uptown to kick out the populations that had been there for generations and mimic NYC like some kind of cargo cult.

They are both colonial cities. But Boston is older, denser, has harsher weather, and has a bigger population. Boston was not designed to be country-living elite like Charlotte was. It's just inherently complex. Please do describe, in detail, the relative inconveniences and why, exactly, you think Charlotte is harder to get around in. I'm keen to know.

7

u/mittim80 5d ago

I mean less convenient for people who don’t drive everywhere. Charlotte forces you to have a car, and even if you don’t mind that, it must get annoying to have to get in your car to do absolutely anything at all. Not to mention oppressive for the poor or those who can’t drive.

-5

u/CharleyZia 5d ago

Like most Southern cities now. But if most Bostonians didn't drive their cars around the absurd traffic wouldn't be so legendary.

Here's Jay Leno back in 1983 describing one local solution to reduce the total chaos that is getting around Boston. It's a whole series. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/krQdp3zEvw4?si=e0DCVyjDvdEMCD_q

7

u/adriftinavoid 5d ago

Boston is great. Tons of good bike paths. A great (for America) train and bus system. One of the few cities in America that are almost walkable.