Let's Shame the Awful Land Use of America's Ten Worst State Capitals
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- It's amazing the different philosophies states demonstrate when choosing how and where to site their seats of government. Some have smaller footprints, with fewer offices co-located and less associated infrastructure; some take up large swaths of land, locating every possible state agency together in one place with enormous parking lots and stroads facilitating all the generated travel demand. Some are located in small cities, some in the largest city in the state, practically downtown. The upshot is, you see a LOT of different land use outcomes.
Today we're looking at the ten worst -- state capitals that have the most deleterious impacts on the cities they occupy. As always, this particular bottom ten list is a trojan horse for talking about all the good and bad impacts land use and transportation decisions have on the places we live -- this time, decisions being made directly by the governments of 50 states.
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In defense of capital building lawns: it creates a natural place to protest visibly in front of the capital building, but they don't serve much purpose outside of that.
I think that all capitals should have a small lawn for that reason, but alot overdo iy. Like for alot of these states a little courtyard would suffice
Makes sense, but seems like a double edged sword: it also has the consequence of making protests separated (and therefore more ignorable) from other people going about their business in the city.
It's a very important purpose! But can scale with population. (By the time you fill some of these malls with protestors something is extraordinarily wrong.)
Ohio Capitol in Columbus has a nice square of grass surrounded by a decent city (if I remember correctly).
Great place to set up a tent too
I think it is important to remember that Sacramento used to be home of the second largest Chinatown in the United States, until it was torn down in order for California to build the Capitol Mall and surrounding administrative buildings that stretch out in front of the state Capitol to the Tower Bridge. They tore down a thriving community to build...a lawn.
The state of California being horribly racist to East Asians what’s new
Holy shit
The California State Capital Grounds is pretty nice. The lawn that run downs the road to the west of capitol building is pretty weird, though. I wish they'd at least plant some trees on it.
Came here to say this also displaced as a sizable black population in the area as well.
@@fixpacifica They keep that area clear to hold events. I don't think it's a wise use of that space, but that's why they don't do anything else with it.
"Blast radius of parking lots"...that made me laugh.
'Impact crater' was just as funny.
Even funnier when you know the ICBM missiles silos were in that area. It was estimated that it would only take 6 minutes to die in Jeff City if there were a nuclear strike.... guess that isn't funny.
Hey, look on the bright side… oh, damn, I’m blind now.
I got a good laugh out of that line, too.
Hm.....I wonder if that will change as less and less suburbanites own cars and rely on ride-sharing services, rentals, public transit, and robotaxis?
The parking moats are unforgivable, but I will make a case for capitals being in the middle of cities and having lawns: the citizens need to have access to their representatives to protest/petition them. One thing we often see in authoritarian states is governments building their capitals far from the population center so they don't have to worry about protests/coups from the citizens.
These capitals are mostly pretty damn far from their state’s population centers, and the manicured lawns aren’t great for protests: you can throw in a ton of people there without filling up the place or bothering anyone of importance.
(In fact, most authoritarian states love having their capitals in small cities with large, low buildings surrounded by big plazas and lawns.
The core for most U.S. cities and especially capitals has been mostly office budings without housing or even nighttime entertainment uses. And then the surrounding residential became abandoned with suburbanization. So the reality has become that the capital is not typcially in a populated area.
A few commenters have already pointed out the other purpose of those lawns regarding protests: It gives them a place to protest that is visible but not disruptive. The protesters can camp there and wave their signs, and get some news coverage, without blocking roads of obstructing business activity. It keeps the protests 'civil' and reduces their impact.
Gotta love when they add an equal amount of parking surface for grass around the capitol
Gotta give the bugs a place to park their cars.
When most of those capitols were built, they would've had acres of grass around them on all sides. Most of the cities built up around the capitols hemming them in. A lot of that acreage around the capitols ended up used for different govt. depts. until only a little was left. The same type of thing happened to the small hospital in the city that I live in. I've seen pictures of it spanning the years. Originally, it was also built essentially in the middle of nowhere with a lot of land around it and currently it has buildings on all sides and can't expand outwards if it wanted to. It had to turn a parking lot into a parking garage to accommodate the physicians, patients, and visitors. If the hospital needs to expand, it can only go upwards.
Hey, the Stop the Steal people who come in from the hinterlands gotta park somewhere
@@CityNerd Each patch of grass has its own House representative.
I'd say Madison, Wisconsin should make an honorable mention list. I've been there twice for meetings (not in the state capital) and it's amazing how compact and walkable it is, and the capital building itself still stands out without taking up too much space. It probably also helps that it is a college town and on an isthmus.
I was bored and randomly rated all 50 capitals and I tied Annapolis with Madison I dont think I can choose whats better
The square around the Capitol is also very active with farmers' markets, summer concerts, art fairs, etc. And it is the terminus of State Street which is just a fun place from morning to late at night.
Also, WisDOT HQ isn't located anywhere near the capital.
Double also, most transit routes use the square as a sort of transfer point.
I agree, but I didn't wanna go long on honorable mentions because I may well come back and do a ten best video. (It's what the topic suggester wanted in the first place, after all!)
Here I am in the comments just to make sure Madison gets the love it deserves ❤
As an Arizonan, it frustrates me so much to see our state capitol surrounded by so much asphalt. Think of all the things we could put there. What’s interesting is that it’s in stark contrast to the dense, transit-oriented development taking place in downtown Phoenix. Maybe the state government doesn’t want that same progress to extend to their neck of the woods.
I'm pretty sure once the light rail is complete through there that area will be too valuable to stay as is.
Honestly I think there’s so much potential wasted around the entire valley due to the massive parking lots and countless strip malls. I know Glendale and much of Phoenix are very sparsely populated. Mesa to a lesser extent these days, but still not great.
Downtown Mesa is okay, but fairly narrow. Downtown Chandler is a bit nicer to navigate on food (in my opinion). Downtown Gilbert has so much potential, I’d absolutely love a charming trolley down the center of it (partially to reduce traffic, partially to add to the atmosphere). Just generally try to shift multi-story parking from within the area to just outside, with frequent trolleys.
As we all know Phoenix has a giant homeless problem. We all know why. When people argue that we should bus the homeless across Phoenix and Tucson to the State Capitol; the thing is they're already there. All the state legislatures do is just turn on Adams st to get to the freeway so they can get out of there.
@@garcjr lately there are police trucks stationed on the street entrances blocking the homeless from walking onto Jefferson. I'm guessing they can't bear the thought of seeing them on their morning commute.
Yeah, I was pretty snarky on PHX in this video, but I do like some of what I'm seeing downtown and in Tempe. I talked a but about Tempe in a recent video...suburbs, maybe?
As someone who lives in Illinois, the Chicago area, I find it kind of ironic how Illinois has one of the least walkable capital cities in the United States, yet has one of the most walkable major cities in the United States. I mean, Chicago and Springfield are very different. I’m not kidding when I say Springfield is literally one giant parking lot with a couple of buildings here and there. Meanwhile, Madison, Wisconsin, in the state north of Illinois has literally one of the most walkable capital cities in the US
AGREE WITH THAT!!
I lived in Austin for college 2018-2022 and coming from a DFW suburb it seemed like heaven on Earth. It has a lot more accessible green spaces (the trail around the river, greenbelt, zilker, pease park, shoal creek greenbelt etc.) The landscape is really interesting and unique because it’s very hilly/green
and the surrounding hill country is home to the best state parks in Texas. There is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to public transit but the bus system works well enough and you can exist within the city without a car. Yes I-35 and Mopac are hellscapes. It is a cool place to live in terms of a great music, arts, and food scene but that’s just being squashed everyday with absurd costs of living.
Well, wait a year or two. That might resolve itself.
I’m pretty sure they want to bulldoze through it by putting a highway directly in the middle
@@jasminewilliams1673 You're about 60 years too late with that comment. Interstate 35 goes right through the center of the city. You could have seen that for yourself if you had taken two seconds to look it up on Google Maps. But they are moving forward with a plan to update I-35 with tolled access lanes, and possibly even covering it through part of downtown.
Totally agree with everything you said, brynn
@@texaswunderkind Which will only make the traffic worse. They need to boost our public transit by an absurd amount. 183 needs a train line, not toll lanes!
In the US, it's often pretty easy to find a state's government complex on the map. In Europe I find, it often becomes pretty hard, as government buildings tend to be scattered throughout the city and pretty well integrated into the urban fabric, not least because government agencies often just took over already existing and semi-representative-looking buildings.
a lot of our cities were built around being the capital, especially in the midwest. many cities didn’t exist before becoming capitals, such as jefferson city on here
@@UserName-ts3sp That's for sure a factor. When many European capitals were build, the modern concept of a capital didn't even really exist.
A big contributor is probably in how a city grew, an old city (respectable city pre car, so boston counts even if its a baby by European standards) is likely to not have a major impact crater of the complex because its simply too expensive to tear down a large section of the city core to make a complex, especially one thats 50% grass or parkinglot, and instead existing buildings and whatever other available space is used for the purpose of government buildings.
In contrast younger cities get planned around the car, and some have effectively 0 geographic constraints so they have infinite space to expand into so nothing is ever dense enough to stop the impact crater of the government administration's parkinglot expansion. (And its even worse for a city that is a planned capital, because then they litterally just found a field and started building with nothing in the way)
Most things eventually circle back to being economics. (In a 1000year old European city its expensive to completely redevelop but lots of fancy historical buildings are ripe for moving into; a brand new city in the Great Plains with litterally nothing around for miles has no choice but to build from scratch and nothing stopping them from making a bunch of highways and parkinglots when they do)
@@jasonreed7522 Boston is about the closest thing the US has to an old city in the European sense.
US states often have a state capital that was a planned development far away from the biggest population center, maybe to mollify rural people who didn't want the city folk running things. I think that anti-urban attitude is also what drives the pattern of development. In the case of Boston, I guess the state government has continuity with the old Massachusetts Bay Colony going back to the Boston Puritans, so it makes some sense that the capital would still be where it always was.
@@MattMcIrvin They moved the capitol a few blocks to the new State House- in 1798. O W Holmes wrote, in 1858, “Boston state house is the hub of the solar system; you couldn’t pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation stretched out like a crowbar.” A useful orienting landmark for the antebellum Bostonian, at least.
Former St. Paul and Des Moines Resident here:
1. Minnesota's Capitol is super strange because, as you said, it's boxed in by strips of highway and is very isolated. I've protested there, and it's almost impossible to get to, especially without a car.
2. Please give Des Moines more attention on this channel! Surprisingly walkable, inexpensive, stellar housing, food scene punches above its weight.
3. Annapolis, Maryland has a beautiful capitol, very ingrained in the city. Obviously because it was built before cars, but I hope it makes it into your future video about good state capitol campuses!
The MN state capital used to have multiple bus lines with several stops right in front of building and in the capital grounds itself. Upwards of 20 buses stopped at them every hour. But the planners decided that buses didn't belong on the capital grounds so rerouted them all. When they built the light rail they laid the tracks behind the capital, off of the grounds. So much for the people's house.
Annapolis is beautiful, but try to get there (or to many of the widely scattered agency offices) without a car and you have the same problems as many of these other cities.
It's a complication of the strategy of locating a capital in a smallish centralized town.
"I've protested there, and it's almost impossible to get to, especially without a car."
That almost sounds intentional; keep the dirty plebeian protesters away from the upper echelons of government, they don't have time to deal with the rabble. I realize that's a very cynical view, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be true when they designed that complex, even if only subconsciously. And it's a very bad thing for a center of political power to be physically isolated from the people, our representatives are already socioeconomically isolated from the people.
there are 3 bus lines that run right next to the capital wdym?
for saint paul btw
What I like about this video is that you deliver a fantastic amount of information and opinion without wasting your time with any charisma or likeability.
Phoenix is pure dystopia. I was born there and currently trying to leave this hell hole
One off story, my brother in law forgot he had his camping pocket knife while we were visiting the state capitol building of Texas. He asked the security guy if it was ok that he had it or if they could hold it for him.
The security guard with his body armor and AR-15 just laughed and said it’s fine.
That was the most texas experience I’ve ever had
A security guard with an AR-15 is already the most Texas thing ever!
He wasn’t even using it professionally, AR-15 and body armor is just a fashion choice.
"The Texas state legislature is a malevolent force..."
Truer words have seldom been spoken.
I saw the title and was like, "Oh boy! A video about Springfield, IL!"
Louisiana wasn't mentioned but here's some information anyway about how it became the tallest capitol building: By the 1920s, the Old State Capitol (built in the 1850s) was starting to show its age and proving to be too small for the expanding state government. When Huey Long was elected, seized upon the idea of using a new capitol as a way to symbolize the end of the "political domination of Louisiana's traditional social and economic elite" in the state. He noticed Nebraska was constructing a new tall capitol building at the same time at 400 feet tall, and decided to copy the skyscraper concept instead and made sure the new capitol would be taller at 450 feet tall. Both of these were completed the same year in 1932.
Yeah, Baton Rouge is a super interesting one. Not nearly as impressive as the Ryugyong Hotel, of course, AKA the world's finest skyscraper
Louisiana’s state Capitol is awesome. I used to be a legislative aide to former state Senator and President pro tem Gerald Long, a great nephew of Huey. It’s a beautiful and ornate building, especially the interior.
Another Huey Long W
And eventually would be shot to death in the hallway near his office.
@@Lalo5812 It has an interesting art deco themed interior and exterior design. It has an observation level in the tower. The mark the spot where Huey Long was shot and have an exhibit about it. There is also an interesting neighborhood adjacent to it of 'shotgun' and duplex 'shotguns' and other style homes, mainly built in the later 1800's.
I’m glad you mentioned Raleigh, NC. The city truly has potential but it will take decades to dig itself out of the car-dependency issues it’s created for itself… over the past several decades. The planned BRT is not enough! Even Durham right next door is more walkable, and that’s the city with the bad rep for crime. I’ve always enjoyed Durham more than Raleigh.
Either way, now I live in Europe & my city hall & other gov’t buildings-to include state gov’t buildings-are in the middle of a pedestrian zone. The nearest parking lot is a 10min walk away, sub-surface, and not exactly cheap. All this in a city that doesn’t even have great public transit.
I’ve lived in both Durham and Raleigh, and Raleigh is hopeless. Durham was clearly built with human proportions somewhat in mind, but Raleigh is 100% completely built for cars. And I mean even the densest part of downtown. Supersized buildings, supersized parking decks, supersized streets. What would be a 10 minute walk to the grocery store in Durham could easily be 45 minutes in Raleigh.
Plus downtown Raleigh is kinda barren culture wise, a single block in Asheville is more fun and interesting than most of Raleigh lol
I find all the North Carolina cities really interesting -- I'll have to visit soon!
@@CityNerd the Amtrak service between Raleigh & Charlotte is surprisingly good! I definitely recommend waiting for the Charlotte station rebuild to be complete before taking the train again though. It’s currently ongoing to my knowledge & the station will be perfectly located in Uptown and connected to the LRT when complete.
Durham is a hidden gem. It’s small and doesn’t have MAJOR projects planned other than the CRT, but the city swore off any future highway expansion, other than maybe dedicated bus lanes. I respect that. Sometimes not doing something, is doing something. And Durham’s downtown is totally underrated & full of character. If you do visit, don’t leave without having been to the Sarah P. Duke Garden!
@@maximsarian1664 Your comment is not well considered. I walk 3 minutes to grocery stores in Raleigh. Raleigh is great, outside of the government building sector.
@@davidborkovec3516 I also live in one of the walkable areas of Raleigh - there are a few, and it's nice where it exists. CityNerd's prior video dishonorable mention of Raleigh about a lack of sidewalks, even inside 440 is valid though. Also to the other comments - the Raleigh-Charlotte train service is good, but only twice daily connections to the Northeast Corridor is decidedly behind the times. Also, LRT around the triangle would be nice but with the current regressive state government there will be no assistance, making it harder to fund.
I give Austin points for putting a lot of government offices underground, underneath that long mall. The offices are cool too, much nice stone & marble. The alternative would have been to put a bunch of buildings above ground and then you lose all the green space.
Out of the capitals mentioned in this, I've only been to Trenton, and I wholeheartedly agree. While it has the advantage of being on the Northeast Corridor and served by SEPTA, Amtrak, and NJ Transit trains, as well as NJ Transit's River Line, it can't make up for the rest of the place. Trenton's waterfront has potential and yet, it's eaten up by a highway, and that's besides the Trenton Freeway that rips right through the middle of Trenton.
Albany does a good job with making the capitol grounds walkable thanks to underground parking, but the Empire State Plaza, Albany's excuse of a skyline is just....why? They really saw what Brasília did with their government buildings and were like "Wow, this is the greatest capital ever designed, let's copy it!" It displaced thousands during construction! And that's not mentioning the fact Albany's waterfront has Interstate 787 as well as parking garages and lots next to said highway. Also, there's another set of government buildings by SUNY and it's completely surrounded by a ring road and parking lots.
Albany's skyline is just ugh when driving in from 87 south. There is nothing exciting about it except the Egg which frankly isn't exciting at all. The waterfront has so much potential as does the area around the greyhound station (which in the 30 years I've been traveling in and out of it, the only thing that has changed is the TV sets on the benches were removed) also has huge potential, especially given its proximity to the Hudson
Building on your Chicago segment of this video, you should do a video about "cities most cursed by their state governments" (cough - Philadelphia, St Louis)
There’s a reason lots of KC folks live in KCKS and not KCMO.
Number 1 is Detroit for obvious reasons.
I'm surprised Albany doesn't make the list. The Empire State Plaza and the highways through downtown leading to it were a multibillion-dollar vanity project that bulldozed minority neighborhoods, cut the high-density downtown area off from the residential parts of the city and the city's waterfront, and left much of Albany as a near-ghost town. The aesthetic I get from that plaza is "this is where a young adult dystopian movie government would host military parades".
St Paul destroyed a good bit of their urban fabric even before the construction of i94 cutting through downtown, when they wiped out a large neighborhood to accommodate the large lawn and sprawl of the capitol seen today. Previously, the capitol complex took up much less space and was integrated into a dense neighborhood, but that was all destroyed with City Beautiful concepts.
One small nuance about St. Paul is that the interstate was built after the capital was there (obviously), but that cut off downtown St. Paul from the capital and all of the business that brings to the downtown economy
As a brit, I see nothing wrong with government buildings in the centers of cities... It makes getting to them by train and bus a lot easier. Surrounding said buildings with an ocean of car parks... That however makes this look not like a city centre but instead an edge of town business park which suffers from good motorway access and no transit access...
Cool to see Sacramento, California mentioned in an overall positive light.
Living there, well, there's still a lot of room for improvement. Expanding the light rail to reach the airport would be a great start...
@@stevecooper7883 I think they plan to extend the green line through Natomas and eventually to the airport. The question is when however! lol.
I drove (don't shoot me) through Sacramento a couple months ago, and while I was hunting for parking (again, don't shoot me; I live in Oakland and was driving to Tahoe), I looked to my right and, BOOM, there was the state capitol, meshed pretty seamlessly into the urban fabric. I was pleasantly surprised. Other parts of Sacramento pleasantly surprised me too. It's not great, and the summer daytime temps are killer, but definitely trying!
Don't you wish the Capitol Corridor would run up to Tahoe? It would be killer. I absolutely love loading my bike onto the train and visiting your neck of the woods to escape the heat in the summer.
Midtown Sac is really cool actually. I like it a lot
@@MrEmptyKay That has been a dream for the longest time! There are even some rumblings about exploring this concept now. All they would need to do for that is to extend the Cap Corr to Truckee. There already are three big ski resorts that would be within Uberable and Shuttleable distance from the Truckee Amtrak station.
Unfortunately, the freight railroads are completely intent on not allowing Amtrak anywhere near Donner pass. So this will take a while, if it ever happens. But the California Zephyr does offer daily service and at least some of the resorts have shuttles from Truckee. So some people actually do take the train for ski trips to Tahoe. It's actually faster than driving in winter Tahoe traffic.
@@MrEmptyKay 100% would love the CC to run to Tahoe. The Zephyr absolutely doesn't cut it.
I've actually been to the state capitol in Austin, and it has good vibes. The green area was quite heavily used. There was a lot of activity around there, it's more like a lovely park with government buildings you can visit.
While as a whole the city is hardly a paragon of enlightened urbanism, this is one thing I think Columbus, Ohio does right. The statehouse takes up a single block right in the middle of downtown. It's surrounded by high-rise office buildings, condo towers, theaters, and a few hotels and restaurants - the other government buildings are within walking distance but not really right next door (for instance, the state supreme court is two blocks away on Front Street). It's situated on the southeast corner of High Street and Broad Street, which is the center of the street grid and the main transfer nexus of the city bus network. The lawn is nicely sized but not enormous, and on a nice day is a very pleasant spot to eat lunch or people-watch. The biggest knock against the area is that there's not a whole lot going on once you go more than three blocks or so east of High Street or west of the Scioto River, but that's basically the case everywhere in the city and not limited to downtown.
On the other hand, I've been to Madison and have to agree with the other commenters; that theirs has to be the gold standard as to how to integrate a capitol building into the public space.
Nice to see the brief mention of Boston as a state capital that isn't really like this (for all its faults). Instead of a Capitol Mall, we just have the State House next to Boston Common, a general-purpose park that the public actually use. The government buildings mostly blend into the landscape of Beacon Hill, and the most malign bit of government development is probably City Hall Plaza which is not the state's fault at all.
Nailed it. Springfield is legitimately awful -- but downstate Illinois is like a separate country with a separate culture and politics than the population center of Cook and Lake counties. The other capitals, like Phoenix and Austin, are exactly the malevolent, soul-destroying places you'd expect to be the seats of their backward, benighted state governments.
The Capitol building in Sacramento is indeed beautiful. You can even rent out the lawns for your wedding. If you're in the area, I highly recommend making time to go on the tour.
I recently moved from Connecticut to Phoenix, and I’m already thinking about going back to CT 😂 that should tell you what you need to know.
At last: something Georgia's not at the bottom of the list for. Ours even has a MARTA station. I do wish the state would replace the abandoned World of Coke building with a nice mid-or high-rise office building, though.
I lived in Metro Atlanta for 18 years and share your relief. Despite the problems there’s a lot of great stuff going on ITP and the Capitol is a bit of an oasis
Speaking more on Phoenix, the sprawl there is absolutely the worst in the country, and to a point that I don't understand the city at all. Who would want to move to a place where it's unlivable for half the year due to heat, then drive an hour and a half through traffic-filled highways to get food that's worse than in neighboring New Mexico? I honestly don't see any upsides to the town beside the winter weather.
The heat is dry and not at all "unlivable" compared to winter weather cities. It's a massive backoffice for Northern California so there's decent jobs and it won't have a perpetual housing crisis compared to California because it's very pro-growth.
The triangle made by downtowns Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale is reasonably decent--i lived in downtown Phoenix before it boomed and the suburbs and sprawl didn't concern me really and I ate plenty well...not sure what you're talking about driving for an hour and a half because you clearly did it wrong when you were there. I am definitely a cold weather person so I had to move but it has way more going on than say San Jose or most of OC or a lot of other areas its size, especially with a recently well-financed public transportation system.
It won’t have a massive housing crisis because the demand isn’t that high. CA has made many policy mistakes, sure. But a lot of other places skate by with bad policy because it’s just not that desirable to live there.
For a second there, I thought Springfield IL was going to somehow get overlooked. Silly me....
Lol, I’m a girl. But what is gender, anyway? Thanks for featuring my suggested topic. I’m so happy, I’m watching the video a minute at a time to draw out the excitement. Cheers :)
Gender does not equal to sex. Gender could be anything you choose to identify as.
@@cipher01gay
Not surprised to see any mention for why Phoenix is so bad besides the size of parking lots and political dumbness. But for anyone else who is looking for more nuanced context as to why this area and the rest of Phoenix rely on parking lots has to do with the composition of the ground. Phoenix's ground is extremely hard to excavate it's pretty much a hard clay/bedrock only meters below the surface. One evidence of this is the lack of basements across Phoenix - you would think that in a sunny, desert area you might rely on the ground for passive cooling, but it's so expensive for home builders to do so that it is rare and only occurs in some areas where it is geologically more easy to do. Why does the ground matter? To build parking structures, you need deep, strong foundations. This is also another reason why Phoenix is so sprawling in terms of low-density homes, and why not a lot of high-density is built as the city continues to grow.
“This week I’m just going on vibes”
Yes
It's amaze me over and over again. How horrible bad cities in the USA are designed. 4-5 parking garages around a state capital building? Parking lots all over... HORROR. The designers had all brain damage when they sit behind the drawing board. And those highways all over... sigh. Poor people.
I'm pretty sure the history is closely tied with urban renewal. Center cities in the US were terrible places to live after WW2 up until somewhat recently.
This cranky old Phoenix resident thanks you for expressing so well my frustrations with this place. The aerial shots of endless "blast radius" parking lots really make an impression. I've seen how thoughtful urban planning can work and I love this place, but it is a mess. 😂
I am from Springfield Illinois, and I already had the sinking sensation that we'd be on this list, I didn't know it would be that bad. Then again , I did grow up in a lifestyle not different from the average child in a car dependent suburb. During my teenage years I used to walk and bike by the capital building numerous times for both school and leisure and I can confirm that parking is rather excessive here. This was before I was orange-pilled. And the thing is, the area is connected fairly well with sidewalks, in a grid layout, so it has a lot of potential to become a great mid-size city. This is heightened with the many historic sites there, and of course, everything Lincoln. My brother says that we don't need to do anything the urbanist channels suggest because of our size and proximity to the countryside, preferring that we add more lanes, with no regards to induced demand, but I disagree. We can do much better than this. There are Strong Towns murals in the downtown that I have taken pictures of. If there is one thing going for the town right now, it's that there is a major railway improvement project going on that will make Amtrak routes better suited for High-Speed rail. I do however wish the original rail were to be repurposed into a tram line with transit-oriented development, and I'd say they should either change their mind from their current plan, or make the best with what they can out of making it into a bike trail. Someday I would like to share this video with the Illinois Times or a similar local group to help spread awareness. Anybody else from the Springfield area reading this is welcome to do the same. As much as this video hit me CityNerd, I will still stay subscribed, because these videos are important. Thanks for your input, and I'll see you in the next video.
As a fellow resident of Springfield, IL, I truthfully am surprised we weren't ranked as the worst on this list. If it wasn't for the weather Phoenix deals with during their summers (and having to through acres of blast furnace heat to get to their Capitol Campus), we would...and SHOULD...be the worst offender of the bunch. We (as Springfield residents) deserve better than the reputation of being the resort city for Chicago politicians (and Chicago politics). Add to that the laissez faire approach our past and current Springfield government have been implementing during my 50+ years here (and I'm sure much longer than that), allowing prominent buildings in the downtown area NOT tied to Lincoln to lay vacant and rot to condemnation. If there is anything promising in the near future for our capitol city, it is that an election is coming up in the next couple of weeks! Send a message with your vote that requires fresh voices at City Hall! The message that we need to save and preserve what we can of our city's identity while we still have one to save!
I always find myself surprised when one of your video ends; not because it left anything important unsaid, but because I'm always left wanting more. Great work.
Those phoenix legislators probably get their brains baked by the urban heat island effect right outside the office honestly. Gotdang 130 degree asphalt
About the California Capitol in Sacramento: a lot of those "office buildings" near the capitol building are actually parking garages. Like, 10-story parking garages. I live next to one of them, and it's twice as tall as my downtown apartment building, all parking.
State capitals are usually whack compared to the actual important cities in the state
Except when they actually align, like Boston, Denver, Atlanta, and Honolulu.
"How to enjoy breakfast tacos in Austin: Fly to Austin. Rent a car. Drive to San Antonio. Enjoy breakfast tacos."
I would love a bottom ten DOT list, but also top ten! I give my own state DOT a lot of shit because I see a lot of the positive change around happening at the city level in spite of the the streets owned by the state DOT. Who's doing it right out there?
This is sort of blue dot in red sea issue. Most DOTs are broken into geographic districts. Those in areas around urban areas are more attentive to multimodal issues, while the rural are car-centric. If you want to break by states, look at more progressive states (Pacific NW, New England) and areas where they are retrofitting 90s development (North Carolina, Virginia). As an engineer in a state 'caught in the middle' those are the states we borrow from if our design manuals don't cover what we're looking for.
Calling it now. TxDOT #1 worst DOT. I have interacted with them through work. Texas does Texas things, and the DOT is no exception.
Caltrans is by far #1, they have a big pool of multimodal funding available and actually take climate initiatives fairly seriously.
MassDot is really good at bike infrastructure
Florida DOT is at the bottom, they take joy in murdering people
@@alpacarama21 while TxDot is horrible, I can’t help but respect how efficiently they build. Sure what they build is an atrocity but boy do they know how to take on massive projects and scale up complex infrastructure.
MoDOT alone could take up a bunch of spots on the worst list. Complete idiocy on a massive scale.
- Spend most of their money on stroads and unneeded four lane roads that no one uses.
- Completely ignore rural and urban areas.
- Bridges there are all rotting down yet MoDOT usually refuses to do anything about any of it.
Not to mention that is one of the states without compulsory drivers Ed so driving there is taking your life into your hands.
I've worked in the Minnesota state capitol area a lot. It is a lot more walkable than you realize, partly because the office buildings are tall -- The Transportation Building is 9 stories, at least -- and most buildings are connected by tunnels so one can avoid the cold during winters. The Sears parking lot is important for state office workers, because Sears used to, probably still does, rent their lot for parking. The area has a LRT line connecting downtown St. Paul with Minneapolis, and also the busiest bus line in the city runs along the curved street n front of the Capitol, Constitution Avenue. Finally, the area is a popular place for city activities including events during the St. Paul Winter Carnival and Taste of Minnesota. Many times I've attended concerts or watched fireworks at the State Capitol. None of that shows up on Google Earth, especially the tunnels or the festivals, although you could have looked at the important transit connections. But this is one of the liveliest areas in the Twin Cities. Also, before the area was redeveloped, the Capitol was surrounded by dilapidated wooden buildings. It was almost a slum before the 1950s. That's one reason I-94/35E were pushed through the area.
This is what I needed today. A break from educational podcasts. The dry humour is great
Feel like Albany NY needs at least a dishonorable mention1. Nelson Rockefeller built the 98 acre Empire Plaza in the '60s to house large parts of the state government on a giangantic stone plinth, separating it from a lot of the city and disrupting the street network. Even worse, they tore down 1,200 buildings to make the plaza and displaced thousands of residents.
Oklahoma City looks like one of those photos of Hiroshima where only a couple of buildings are left standing.
keep in mind that was just the capitol area not the OKC cbd which is built up and very dense.
It sucks that YT takes a cut of the cash people are sending to a vlogger.
Madison WI has a great capital that needs to recognition. It's the focal point of the town in many ways, in a good way. Restaurants, businesses, and museums right around it. And no parking moats.
It's funny, but I think Atlanta, the city in the middle of highways and with ridiculous suburban sprawl, actually does a decent job with their state capital building. But also, Tallahassee FL - not bad, compared to the rest of FL!
Yea they decided to build a highway in front of it instead of a lawn
Geez, the two Capitals that I know, Ottawa and Québec are really dense when compared to that.
Should I make the case for Austin, or for Texas?
I live in Austin because it's not a blasted, exurban hellscape like Houston (Metro Houston is 1.25 times larger than Wales; when I visit my family in Southwest Houston, hitting the edge of Houston means i still have a third of my trip left on a good day), El Paso (even less dense, somehow), or Dallas, and it has better job opportunities in my field than San Antonio. I can get around on my eBike just fine, and public transportation is at least moving in the right direction.
I live in Texas rather than somewhere else because I believe that it can be made better. I was raised here; it's my home, and I want it to become a better place.
And if all the people who care about smart urban design, functioning government, civil liberties, etc, leave the state for the same handful of coastal cities, the only people who remain are the assholes and those who have no other option. C.f. Mississippi or Florida.
So Austin is great... compared to the option of living in any other city in Texas? I have only visited once as a tourist many years ago, but it was definitely in the top 1 of places in Texas i visited. I had fun, at least. 😁
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 Definitely better than Houston and Dallas, arguably better than San Antonio depending on what you're looking for and what you care about.
I had to double-check your figure. Seriously, wtf? Bigger than a country... My brain can't process that much sprawl, so I tend to assume they're being 'generous' with including everything remotely nearby.
Sorry to say but this is not an exaggeration. It’s insane but Texas is not a sane place unfortunately.
City nerd doesn't go too deep with this but I do it for a living...Austin has some of the least diverse neighborhoods when compared to Dallas, Houston, El Paso, or San Antonio. This is especially true on measures of SES and Race. When it does accomplish diversity it is heavily skewed by racial diversity but tends to still be predominantly white. Compare this with all other cities of comparable or larger size and u get a picture of ATX as white and upper class that should terrify even those with minor concerns of the shape of urban spaces. BTW I'm from SATX, lived in ATX for grad school, and currently live in SATX.
I love your dig at Texas “where the government is actively hostile toward you.”
I believe there was a missed opportunity to discuss the intersections of racism and classicism inherent in the car-centric design and small town placement of state capitals. The harder it is to get there, the harder it is to participate in the democratic process. Being from Louisiana, I know the capital was moved to Baton Rouge specifically to recapture political power from black New Orleans during Reconstruction and reinstall white supremacy. While outside of the US, you can also see these direct thought processes in the placement of Egypt's new capital in an effort to squash any attempt at another Arab-spring-like movement.
Interesting -- maybe I won't miss the opportunity next time I talk about state capitals! It was impossible to overlook the confederate monuments in Montgomery, but it's hard to figure out how to acknowledge that without it completely disrupting the flow of my critically important vibes-based top ten list
Why do people make up ideas to make every single issue about race? It's like you think every time we make a decision, the first thing that is decoded on is how can we hurt black people by doing something? News flash, sometimes people make choices based on a multitude of issues. If I choose to spend $300,000 on a house in the suburbs, thinking about how my housing comfort and quietness of a neighborhood is impacted or impacting black people is nowhere in my decision making process. Some of us like the suburbs, but people like you need to feel righteous and morally superior because you want to live in a building with 500 other people
Don, because sometimes race literally *was* the reason such a decision was made. Some people are legitimately that spiteful. American history is full of examples of it.
Why so defensive about something you had nothing to do with?
@@donkraemer50 Even if all you're doing is deciding what's comfortable and affordable for you, with nothing racist about your thought process, your decisions are likely being guided by zoning and transportation and urban renewal policies laid down decades ago that often had explicitly racist motivations. You can see the outlines of "good" and "bad" neighborhoods all across America laid down in redlining policies in the mid-20th-century US that were openly and proudly racist.
okc got interchanges for the capitol building lol
Deep sigh of relief after Indianapolis avoided the list. The state government is finally getting around to redeveloping a massive block large surface lot for the State Archives, which is currently located on the edge of the city.
Austinite here! I'm very hopeful for our future especially since project connect (light rail project) passed with something like a 60/40 margin in 2020. I'm disappointed with the progress that's happened so far but I really do see the possibility for Austin to urbanize, and light rail along the two densest corridors in the city is a very inspiring project. Unfortunately there are two other projects happening/about to happen that we did not vote for. 183 (major north south freeway) is getting widened from 3 lanes each way to 6 lanes each way. - the worst part is that these lanes are going in what was a continuous grass median that would've been an excellent commuter rail ROW. The other project is the i35 expansion which f-ing blows. Our bus network is pretty OK with routes like the 803 801 and 20 running every 10 minutes and our single commuter rail line is also OK given that it only cost $100m to build a 20 mile long line (of course along old freight track). The success of the westcampus upzoning over the past decade or so is a sign of what's possible here in austin, and we have a fantastic network of urban trails in the city proper.
What do you think about the different proposed plans for the light rail project? I got polled on it by a transit employee recently and am curious what they’ll end up doing/when it will happen.
@@bhopcsgo7172 im pissed that they parred the project down but alternative 4: partial elevated, 29th to oltorf and yellow jacket is the best compromise between coverage and grade separation
I'm living for your shady comments about these capital cities! Thanks for the great vid!
Honestly, Austin's capitol is not so bad. It's fairly compact, there are lots of sidewalks that cut across the land so it's much less of an impediment to pedestrian traffic than it is to cars, and unlike most of the examples in this video, it's not ringed by a wasteland of single level parking lots. The one truly crazy thing about it, which I was surprised was not mentioned, was their used to be a law that none of the buildings in Austin could be taller than the capitol building.
As a native Texan who finally escaped, I guffawed when you said the state government is actively hostile and malevolent. You took the words out of my mouth!
Madison is just about the nicest capital area that I know of. I have an office a couple of blocks from the capital, can walk through it to cut a 1/2 block off my lunchtime walk. Most of the other state buildings fade into the background.
I think the cherry on top for the the Oklahoma state capitol is the oil derrick in the capitol lawn that was actively drilling for oil until 1986 and still has the Phillips 66 logo on it
The logo is tacky but Oklahoma can't/shouldn't hide what it is, just the same as Colorado has a gold plated roof for it's dome (nobody's calling CO tacky).
Wake up babe, new City Nerd video just dropped
Don't tell her she can just set her alarm for 10am on Wednesdays.
Yay Phoenix!!! We topped another list!
I love when I hear urbanites complain about pubic green spaces around otherwise densely packed areas. "Oh they want to be the Capitol Mall", that's it bulldoze Central Park and build more skyscrapers.
Appreciate the shade on Missouri DOT 😂
6 being Austin is ridiculous. Austin is literally the most walkable city in the entire state.
Maybe of the big cities...but Galveston (the east end of the city) gives it a run for the money, despite the unfortunate aspects of Seawall Boulevard.
I’m so happy Sacramento was mentioned!! I have lived here close to a decade and the downtown/midtown urban core, aka “the grid”, is fantastic! A lot of relatively new state office buildings have been constructed since the 90’s to increase density and mix pretty well with the neighborhood. It is also extremely walkable and bike friendly. For being such a car-centric, suburban-sprawl city, it’s great to have an arguably good central core
There was an extremely ambitious plan in the mid-century to completely gut the core and create what would have been the worst on this list (think dozens of city blocks demolished) but luckily it never came to fruition.
As an Atlanta resident, I hold my breath every time I see a worst-something top 10. Just happy to not be included in this one!
We made several of the best top 10 lists! Mostly thanks to MARTA directly connecting to the airport.
This is the first video I've seen from this channel and I literally laughed out loud multiple times. Well done!
Every American state capital:
-Neoclassical mini-U.S Capitol building
-Dozen mid-rise ‘60s office buildings
-30 surface parking lots
I can’t believe they recreated the state house from the Last of Us in real life in Boston that’s so cool 🙃
OKC was shockingly bad... Where do those people go to lunch? Forgetting the job itself, the work environment must be pretty horrible, it's basically an office park on the outskirts of town
There aren't many eating places near the Capitol. There are a few decent ones west of I-235 on 23rd Street but it's mostly some sprawled out fast food places, a few that are about a mile north of the Capitol.
@@aaronholcomb237 walking 15min for lunch, and 15min back (1mile) is doable, but still pretty insane if you consider you are in a city and in an area with thousands of office workers
You picked a lot of your capitals solely based on politics and the politicians in the buildings. There's way worse captal buildings than austin texas or Nashville. It's kind of a dumb and dishonest metric to use, in my opinion. State captals like Nevada, Michigan, or New Mexico are much worse and surrounded by acres of parking lots.
I just love your unabashed judgement of these armpit land use areas! Your sarcasm brings me joy
It doesn't help that most of the area surrounding the Arizona capitol is run down
I am happy that my hometowm of Des Moines finally got picked on. I feel honored.
Our Capital park has always been a deadzone, what it is used for in the off hours is a parking lot overflow for conventions, sport events, and the Iowa State Fair. They essentially turn it into a giant park and ride since the car dependant suburbanites have no other way to get to downtown lol. People park there and get a bus service to whatever event is going on.
@CityNerd Topic suggestion: convention centers. Orlando, Singapore Expo, Amsterdam RAI, Atlanta (World Congress Center and Cobb Galeria), Mississauga International Centre are all sprawling buildings/complexes with huge surface parking lots and/or parking garages. Others, like Montreal (Place Bonaventure and even Place de Congres) and Phoenix are more compact. London ExCel is large, but at least it's on the DLR line.
I've never actually seen overhead imagery of Springfield, my home state capital, and WOOF... so much surface parking lots. It's such a shame.
Not surprised OKC is on the list. It also has a working oil well.
I was waiting on Springfield, Illinois we don’t like our capital either 😂😂
I'm a former (and possibly future) Austinite, Austin is my favorite city so far, and to your commentary I say: yikes...
Other Austinites have defended Austin, but I'll say this: Austin offers a ton of culture and activities, much more than pretty much any other U.S. city its size or smaller. The offerings of Austin are exceeded by only a few cities much larger in both land area and population, some of which are still seeing snow in May. Indeed, when the Austin haters are asked for an alternative, they usually say to move to some podunk town in the middle of nowhere (so they're really just anti-city) or they name Dallas and Houston, cities that are 1.5 and 2.5 times the population.
Yes, the CapMetro transit system needs a lot of work (which is why I proudly voted for Project Connect in 2020) but it's actually pretty decent for what it is: for $2.50 you have unlimited access to almost the entire bus system for a 24-hour period, and at least within the core part of Austin you can get to most places through it. And it's kinda odd that you would be blasting Austin of all cities when it's one of the more compact and less sprawling cities of its population class.
As for the capitol complex itself, the superblock isn't that big, and I would say it actually integrates well with the surrounding urban landscape. It's very accessible off of not only Congress Avenue, which is where most visitors will be coming from, but also Guadalupe and Lavaca Streets just to the west, where the most amount of transit runs. It sits right where the central business district is petering out anyway so it doesn't massively interfere with land use and development, and it gets its own government office district while being in close proximity to the university and its orbit just north.
Man this list really makes me appreciate Queens Park, the Ontario provincial parliament building in Toronto. The building itself and the area around it is really nice!
I was here for you dragging Texas and Alabama, and while I’m hurt as an Illinoisan that you roasted us, I can’t say that you’re wrong 😂
Austin should no be on this list whatsoever. Three of the four sides of the capital complex are extremely walkable, green, connected, and full of residential units. Not to mention the brand new capital mall and the coherence between downtown, capital complex, and UT Austin. Bit if a misplacement IMO
Austin was a weird inclusion. It is the best? Nah. But I don't think it's a top-10 worst pick.
As an independent contractor journalist, I worked in more than one state capital, and there is a utilitarian mindset there. Officer holders in the executive branch come and go, as do most of their staffs. They are the ones who decide these layouts and building designs, and long term aesthetics are not of much concern to them, as their hearts, and soon enough their feet are almost always going to be in other areas of the state.
If you're looking to wash your retinas of these atrocities, there are some good ones north of the 49th parallel (sort of): Victoria, Toronto, and Quebec all have solid provincial capital setups, complete with decent or better transit access.
Agreed. Halifax and Charlottetown both also are very good. Honestly with Halifax it is frankly difficult to find Province House even when you are trying to find it.
I concur - especially re Victoria.
Victoria could use better Harbour connection by means of street closures.
I loved Austin when I lived there years ago. But the Texas state legislature would come to Austin and enjoy the wonderful, progressive city while they were making horrible laws which directly hurt the residents of Austin. Bizarre.
The question is, what's the more racist use of land: highways or confederate monuments?
Personally I'd say the former, highways have a much more profound impact on people's lives and communities.
What you talking about. Highways decimated many thriving neighborhoods all over the country, probly more white than black.
"...blast radius of parking lots and unpleasant architecture. .." Yep.
I like Lincoln, NE. Yeah, there's some parking lots around, but it's right on the edge of downtown and the interior residential areas of the city. The "Mall" connects the capitol directly to the University of Nebraska and is a nice pedestrian park through the city.
It looks like a well planned downtown from an aerial view on Google maps, until you realize that half of the “buildings” are just parking garages
@@gumbyshrimp2606 , yeah, parts do feel a bit sparse, especially by the Capitol, but it is generally a nice place and the garages are legitimately all full on Husker game days... Lol. Thankfully they're starting to cut parking minimums on new builds. There's a development downtown by the university that's like 8 floors of parking garage and three of housing. It would be insane and the opposite in most spaces. Haha. But in terms of municipal buildings, Lincoln still does pretty well, I'd say. The courthouse and Capitol are very dense!
I live in Austin and it's so strange. The city government isn't too bad and actually is significantly expanding the existing light rail system soon, which should be pretty good. The state government though is indeed trash.
that light rail thing is called project connect. Its not going to do anything for those who live in the northern and western suburbs. Also its proposed and it hasnt aucctually happened yet. Thank god i left austin for SF.
Respecting politicians? Super cringe.
The coolest thing about Sacramento was when the Tour of California had two stages that finished at the state capital, shutting down the area to cars for two days, it was AMAZING for a former bike nerd like me
thoughts on Vermont state capital? IMO it’s pretty nice