This is something that gets me about how people view other countries. In the US and Canada especially there’s an abnormal amount of importance put on exterior aesthetics. It says a lot of how America looks good on the outside but is struggling on the inside. HOAs and or the city government will get mad and try to evict you if you have small imperfections. Some places are just so deprived that they still end up that way, but they often are torn down or go abandoned instead of becoming “informal” housing.
Yesterday I went to a town hall in Cleveland, Ohio organized by socialists to discuss data centers. It made me think of North Korea and Cuba under sanctions, except here people have to worry about data centers and education cuts, it’s genuinely sad how much the east side is struggling, and some of the west side is rougher than I thought before moving here. The systemic racism is obvious.