(1/?)Tray really hit on something here. Let's explore this w/ a Historian Thread abt how the very physical structure of the places we live affects our lives, including our mental health. Cuz there is a lot of overlap w/ this & our "epidemic of loneliness" mental health crisis. https://twitter.com/YeehawSineae/status/1282759019468337156

(2/?)Plenty of mental health issues have plagued ppl since industrialization took off, but one thing that most ppl didn't suffer from was loneliness. For a while, most ppl generally lived in crowded tenement buildings, lived w/ extended fam, lived near coworkers, etc.

(3/?)During this time pretty much everyone went to downtown areas to hangout w/ ppl. Ofc consumerist places were still the most prominent part of much of public life, but there were still parks, townhalls, etc. Then suburbanization & the rise of the car happened after WW2.

(4/?)A lot of ppl think suburbanization just meant "ppl live in nicer houses now", but suburbanization & the related forces that made it possible (which affect ppl not living in the suburbs as well) have RIPPED a lot of our social fabric apart. Let's delve into some examples.

(5/?)At its most base lvl, suburbs changed family structures so that instead of having ext families live together (either in the same apt or at least in the same neighborhoods), now nuclear families lived as their own distinct unit, often not even very close to their ext fam.

(6/?)Many of us have been taught that 1950s suburbia was the last big bastion of "traditional" family values, but there was nothing traditional about it at all. Check out any advertisement from the 50s & you'll see how much it was advertised as a "new, modern" way of living.

(7/?)So we have nuclear families proliferating. But then we also have ppl not living by their coworkers the same way, either. As cars became easier to obtain w/ post-WW2 prosperity, the suburbs were built at the edge of cities. They were built w/ the assumption ppl would commute.

(8/?)So now you have ppl living away from the cities, more disconnected from coworkers & ext fam than before. And yet it goes even deeper, cuz suburbs almost never have communal spaces. The thought was that most ppl would be indoors w/ their families during their free time.

(9/?)Btw, I should pause here & say this was a nightmare for many ppl, but ESPECIALLY women. They stayed home all day, often getting no contact beyond their families. HUMANS ARE NOT BUILT FOR THAT. Many women created stuff like social clubs, but those who didn't or couldn't

(10/?)suffered IMMENSE mental health issues that is only starting to get some recognition in the scholarship. But many ppl in general suffered from this newly isolated social structure, but they couldn't speak up due to the pressures of conformity- don't wanna be called a commie!

(11/?)Anyway, as ppl in the suburbs suffered dissolving social cohesion, funding for cities began to emaciate. Especially as shopping malls catering to suburbs arose, meaning now ppl in the suburbs could go there instead of downtown for shopping & socialization.

(12/?)Cities increasingly began to be associated w/ ppl of color & poor ppl, meaning the privatization of, say, a public park no longer affected everyone, but just the ppl nearby. Affluent white ppl had the suburbs. So who cares if we sell off public land to a fucking Walmart?

(13/?)And so it was that our social cohesion got stripped away. Ppl in the suburbs were comfortable but in a place built for social decay, while cities decayed financially. There was no longer any immediate incentive for suburbanites to care what happened in cities.

(14/?)This is also, btw, why the "tax payer revolution"/conservative backlash to New Deal liberalism started in the 70s/80s. With affluent white ppl isolated in the suburbs, they no longer felt connection to ppl in the cities. sO wHy aRe mY tAx dOlLaRs gOiNg tO tHeM?!?!

(15/?)Since then, neoliberalism (or global capitalism, or corporate capitalism, whatever you wanna call it) has continued to strip away public land while the forces of social cohesion continue to dissolve. For my money, the only thing that really seems to be able to stop it is

(16/?)the fact that, as the post-WW2 economy continues to dry up, pretty much all young ppl are now living w/ roommates, living closer to cities, & starting to build a new class consciousness & social cohesion based on the world we find ourselves in. Hence our support for Bernie.

(17/?)This is also why, despite the steep set of challenges we face, I actually lean optimistic about the future. Our material conditions are changing in a way that makes us (millennials & zoomers) more open to solidarity in a way not dissimilar from our great-grandparents.

(18/?)We just cannot repeat the same mistake of allowing prosperity to make us distant & disconnected, or else the same loop could play itself out. Luckily, I know that (oddly enough) a lot of urban planners have learned this & are generally pretty left.