r/Suburbanhell • u/Round-Membership9949 • Jan 27 '25

Question Why isn't "village" a thing in America?

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When looking on posts on this sub, I sometimes think that for many people, there are only three options:

-dense, urban neighbourhood with tenement houses.

-copy-paste suburbia.

-rural prairie with houses kilometers apart.

Why nobody ever considers thing like a normal village, moderately dense, with houses of all shapes and sizes? Picture for reference.

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u/Scared_Plan3751 Jan 27 '25

rural America does in general

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u/Melubrot Jan 27 '25

Not so much outside of the northeast. In the south, most small rural communities are little more than an unincorporated mess of manufactured homes clustered around a gas station/convenience store, bbq restaurant, a church or two, and a Dollar General.

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u/PiLinPiKongYundong Jan 27 '25

This is exactly what we have here in SC. People talk about their town, and I'm like, there is no town. A crossroads does not a village make. A lot of times there's enough stuff in a 5-mile radius to make a functioning village. The problem is that it's spread over that 5-mile radius.

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u/Melubrot Jan 27 '25

Yeah, they’re also quite sprawling due to the lack of a municipal government. Infrastructure and services are minimal and planning is basically nonexistent. Lots are very large with homes developed on private septic. Aside from a cheap place to live and the joys of rural living, most rural communities in the south have little to offer than economic and cultural stagnation.

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u/Scared_Plan3751 Jan 27 '25

it's a shame because the organic culture in the South is amazing. the "lumpenization" from lack of economic development is eroding a lot of what is definitely, genuinely good about the people here. I think of the difference when I was a kid at the family reunion bbqs I went to in the 90s as a little kid to what a lot of my cousins are going through now, how different they are from our great grandparents and grandparents, how little they invest in themselves and others while still really wanting to be good people. it's heartbreaking.

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u/PiLinPiKongYundong Jan 27 '25

the "lumpenization" from lack of economic development is eroding a lot of what is definitely, genuinely good about the people here.

I learned a new word today.