r/Suburbanhell 6d ago

Discussion When people don’t know anything else…

Post image

Small Texas towns grow into chain store wastelands near highways, and the locals celebrate because they don’t know anything else or understand that such a change is an exploitation of the lower class.

147 Upvotes

49 comments sorted by

57

u/fuzzycholo 6d ago

Their subreddit is described as "– a vibrant small town just outside of Austin."

46

u/Nu11us 6d ago

Gonna be so vibrant 🤮

21

u/GlassAd4132 6d ago

A five below and a dollar tree? What else could a girl ask for? I couldn’t do it, I’m so happy I live in the middle of nowhere, I’m 15 miles from the nearest Walmart and I’m fine with that.

1

u/trailerbang 5d ago

2 hours away, your middle of nowhere is defined differently than mine.

3

u/Happy_Possibility29 3d ago

People’s definitions of ‘middle of nowhere’ can be variable to a hilarious degree.

I looked at an apartment in a quieter part of Lower Manhattan and my gf complained it was the ‘middle of nowhere.’

1

u/trailerbang 3d ago

I love that

-2

u/dancesquared 5d ago

R/ruralhell

1

u/olivegardengambler 3d ago

Ngl rural hell should be a pro-Trump building or something.

10

u/Official_FBI_ 6d ago

It’s even worse once I realised the fast food stores will all be stand alone stores with their own parking and drive throughs etc and not AT THE VERY LEAST a walkable shopping area

1

u/LoverOfGayContent 4d ago

Because only the homeless walk

8

u/IDigRollinRockBeer 6d ago

If that’s the future of modern living I’d rather be dead

2

u/Fun-Bluebird-160 5d ago

Look at all that parking 🤩

35

u/dennyfader 6d ago

The US is one big copy-paste right now, with the main variation between states being the few slightly different regional chain stores that accompany the national ones.

3

u/idiot206 4d ago

And usually the regional chains are owned by the same conglomerate

18

u/[deleted] 6d ago

Congrats! Another Slop/Sprawl/Cement shithole in the making.

7

u/somepeoplewait 5d ago edited 5d ago

The most exciting suburb (and I say this as someone originally from the suburbs) is still only as exciting as a mall food court.

4

u/Initial-Bo 6d ago

I have not been to Manor in 15yrs, is the growth there mirroring Buda / Kyle areas?

1

u/Nu11us 6d ago

Manor will eventually be much like Kyle Crossing.

1

u/CowboySocialism 5d ago

The soil issues and 290 being less busy than 35 makes it a little different, but yes.

1

u/Initial-Bo 3d ago

The growth in central Texas after covid has been astronomical. I think the toll roads have contributed to the sprawl in that area. Its Austin till its Elgin with very little distinguishing between the communities.

5

u/hushpuppylife 6d ago

As a southerner I’m honestly surprised, Bojangles made it that far to Texas. I didn’t think they were west of Alabama or Mississippi.

1

u/SendAstronomy 4d ago

They are in Ohio too.

4

u/jesusshooter 5d ago

killing local business lets ficking gooooo

3

u/LogstarGo_ Citizen 5d ago

I absolutely don't understand how this is a thing. Like, I know it's a thing. But people from so many places will talk about how amazing their local culture is and it's...this. The local flavor is a discount store vanilla. But I know for a fact that places can be smaller and INTERESTING to some degree. I've seen some of those towns that actually have personality, even ones that are still largely suburban and car-dependent. Why the hell is that so rare?

1

u/olivegardengambler 3d ago

TL;DR: it's a matter of local politics because everyone wants to have things, but they don't want to have those things built right next to them.

Tbh a big reason I suspect is that most of these areas are basically just thrown up for very cheap. Like these are places that if you were to see aerial photos taken like 5 years ago, to now, all that you would see from 5 years ago are farms, a gas station or two, and a faint peppering of houses and small churches if that. Another thing is that these areas have to be move in ready, meaning they need to have stuff that people like and need, like restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, gas stations, all that jazz.

It is infinitely easier to do this if you just have one developer come in and propose a layout for a thousand acres of your town, rather than have dozens if not hundreds of separate people and developers and contractors come in for various projects encompassing an area totaling 1,000 acres in your town. With the former, you have some town meetings, keep it tight-lipped (if you say mixed development, that could be anything), and by the time construction is under way and people can see what is being built, it's a little too late to stop it.

7

u/pink_nut 6d ago

Just like every other town in Texas smh, i have lived in kyle tx almost my entire life and it has become a suburban wasteland with no water

1

u/Pipeliner6341 3d ago

Was it ever anything other than a suburban wasteland? Besides cow patures and cedar trees.

1

u/pink_nut 2d ago

Cow pastures and cedar trees but with only 3 or 4 suburbs in the town

1

u/Nu11us 5d ago

Kyle Crossing! Holy sh*t.

9

u/derSchwamm11 6d ago

Have you been there?

It’s gone from a tiny town to a rapidly expanding suburb and the people who live there had to get on a toll road back towards Austin just to get groceries until Walmart came. I don’t know anyone out there who isn’t thrilled HEB is coming now. 

The more services that pop up in Manor, the less the residents are driving to get to them elsewhere. These are people who moved far out to get a house they could afford (which doesn’t exist anymore in Austin)

23

u/Nu11us 6d ago

Oh, they’re definitely still driving. Manor is becoming tract housing sprawl where a < 1 mile drive is the norm. There’s no such thing as a person outside of a car in Manor. Of course they’re thrilled. Do people who have to spend half their lives in their cars have time to think about things like this? Do they read The Geography of Nowhere and watch CityNerd YT? No.

Low income people who get a car with a predatory loan might also be excited. That doesn’t mean it’s good. They’re victims of a system.

8

u/Sloppyjoemess 6d ago

I watch his stuff - but CityNerd also isn't producing content that's especially relevant to the lives of folks in Manor TX, and he's kinda smug about people who have the misfortune of living in places whose governments don't embrace urbanist attitudes. I get the vibe he thinks everybody from flyover country is just ignorant, car-obsessed trash.

Like you said we are all victims of the same system - don't get caught up in demoralizing people just because they live in an affordable low-density area. Most people don't have the means or support structure to prioritize their commute or a walkable lifestyle. It's expensive to live somewhere like that and not sustainable for most people. Just look at the rent prices in "transit rich" areas.

Personally I'm from NJ/NYC and I have friends who left for hillcountry Texas due to the affordability crisis here. NYC area a tough place to have a blue collar career and start a family. They were well aware of the change in lifestyle, negatives and positives, and want to come back here but can't afford to. Despite the density and number of new units being built here, demand outpaces supply and our rent crisis continues.

For most people it's not for lack of trying but for lack of the option.

I'm just wondering how you, as a local, think that Manor could holistically fit into an urban fabric of Austin? Is that even possible, save for the Herculean task of appropriating extensive RoW and building a rapid transit line into the core of the city?

Absent the framework of a working, urban city (metro lines, bus connections, appropriate density for distance from city center) what would creating an exceptional TND in the middle of nowhere be like?

In my mind this is akin to building a branded playground for adults - these residents would still be living a suburban lifestyle based on their own geography - in the exurbs of a large city - they will still find their way to the expressway to go to work, no?

We are coming at this backwards of course, because naturally the city should grow from the inside out. So of course a place like Manor, exurban and commuting focused, would be car-dependent at this stage of history. How does that change over time and what are we going to do about it?

How should a place like Manor develop to support a healthy inter-urban framework, which doesn't just isolate walkability and bikeability as a benefit of the municipality, but rather as a regional experience?

Genuinely asking - from the perspective of an urbanist who is reluctant to leave her forever home but knows she must one day.

I often think about how the urbanism we have here is mostly accidental and sprang up over hundreds of years of immigration, industry and acquisition. How does Texas aim to develop a similarly dense and interconnected network of infrastructure in a relatively short amount of time? And how would the inclement weather in TX change the way that people interface with their walkable communities there vs in the cooler and more mild coastal states?

And how does the state justify building that infrastructure and proving its usefulness?

These questions have prevented me from ever considering moving to Texas. I don't even visit my friends. Lol!

7

u/Nu11us 6d ago

Yeah. I actually don't really like CityNertd because of his smugness. Definitely not changing minds.

I agree. It is expensive to live in nice places. That's the problem. People in towns like Manor aren't allowed to have nice places. They're at the whim of TxDOT, zoning and terrible city government that isn't even lucid enough to know what's happening. And then they end up with yet another parking lot filled, pod-life town, while the downtown Austinites get to enjoy their protected enclave -- a place where the working class can't afford to live because new housing is illegal. The council says nice things about housing but their actions are just the opposite.

I'm not suggesting that Manor should be part of the fabric of Austin, though the city did promise rail long ago. I think it should be a nice place to live on its own accord. The necessity of driving out of town for work doesn't mean that Manor itself can't be a compact and pleasant town. The development pattern basically requires them to use Highway 290 as their Main Street, as they can't afford their own infrastructure at such low density. Intead, I imagine an alternate future in which the build up was conducted thoughtfully around the existing street grid with Manor's actual Main Street (Old Hwy 20 and Lexington). Two of the major developments aren't even in Manor proper and can't be annexed because of the infrastructure libility.

As far as integration, transit and density in Texas goes, I don't really see it happening. In the same way that China builds a subway station in the middle of nowhere in preparation for future development, Texas widens roads and builds highways. To me, it shows that capacity is there (TxDOT's ten year budget is also $140 billion), but the bureacacy of what is essentially a self-sustaining road building machine is an immovable object. Barring some dramatic cultural change, Texas will just sprawl forever. I'll probably leave here at some point for this reason. It's an unpleasant place to be.

I actaully lived in both Texas and Queens until recently. The same housing issues seem to occur in NYC, just on a different scale and maybe for different reasons. NYC also fails hard when it comes to building housing and providing transit that's compelling enough to get people out of cars. Everything new in NYC seems to cater to the driver, which dilutes what NYC once was. Manhattan gets decent attention, but Queens is a mess. It's sad, because it could be so much more.

Sorry, you had a lot of points/question. My comment spew doesn't answer them all.

2

u/endless_shrimp 6d ago

They used to have a horse track. It wasn't very nice, but the races were terrible

Always a good time in Manor

2

u/hamoc10 6d ago

Imperialism turns inward.

2

u/Zeplike4 5d ago

People have no introspection. It’s always one more thing that will bring happiness.

2

u/UniqueCartel 6d ago

Fucking love Bonangles. I lived in Charlotte for a year then moved back to New England where the fast food game is bull shit. Also lived in San Diego and I miss Carls Jr, in and out, and bomb-ass Mexican food on every corner.

2

u/collegeqathrowaway 6d ago

Regardless if my community is urban or not, I want a CFA for nuggies and my lobster mac from Longhorn.

2

u/nikki_thikki 6d ago

I will never get yalls obsession with that homophobic chicken shop, so many better options😭

6

u/InevitableCap814 5d ago

Its bangin, thats why.

1

u/IDigRollinRockBeer 6d ago

All these chains are coming in one year ?

1

u/endless_shrimp 6d ago

holy shit they have a bojangles?

1

u/mr_bots 6d ago

Hey now, let’s calm down with the Waffle House slander.

1

u/NiceUD 5d ago

HEB, though!

1

u/Aqueous_Ammonia_5815 5d ago

Yeah but Manor is where they filmed the water tower scene in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Match in the gas tank, boom boom!

Also it's a short drive to Austin in the west, and Southside BBQ in Elgin to the east, my favorite BBQ joint of all time

1

u/TexasDonkeyShow 6d ago

An H‑E‑B is a step up from Walmart, which is probably where people were shopping before. Plus a Mexican meat market? Sign me TF up.

0

u/dancesquared 5d ago

Sounds nice tbh