Ah...
Finally.
We made it to the suburbs.
Now, this is the American Dream.
Beep-beep! Heads up, Dad!
Oh-ho, little Donovan!
Are you drunk?
Dad, will you play catch with me?
Oh, I'd love to, buddy,
but your old man's gotta mow the lawn.
Hashtag# Suburb Problems!
We'll play after.
Shouldn't take too long.
Oh, come on, you piece of Shinola!
Oh, heck! Every time I come out...
Okay, calm down, Ron.
Little bit of hard work never hurt anybody.
After all, it's worth it to live here
in the nice, safe suburbs.
No, it isn't!
Holy canary! A talking bush?
Aah... the suburbs may seem like the American Dream,
but in reality, they're an American nightmare.
Hey, you ruined my topiary!
Yup, 'cause I'm Adam Conover
and this is "Adam Ruins Everything."
Oh! Ugh.
Corrected & Synced by Bakugan
Oh, come on, start for old Ron, ya bucket of bolts.
I gotta mow the lawn.
Ah, yes, the good, old-fashioned American lawn.
We mow them, we water them.
On average, Americans spend 70 hours a year
and a total of nine billion gallons of water a day
maintaining them.
BUT HERE'S A QUESTION-why?
Um... why what?
Why do you do it?
Uh... easy, bush boy.
You gotta have lawns... they're natural.
Actually, they're not.
If your lawn was natural, it would look like this.
This untended meadow
is a diverse ecosystem of native plants and animals.
It may be less organized,
but it requires zero maintenance,
unlike...
this thing.
Okay, so it's not natural.
But the lawn is American, like my flag.
Nope, it's imported, like your car.
Almost all lawn grass in America
is actually native to Africa, Europe and Asia.
It wasn't made in the USA?
But I thought this was freedom grass.
Try "lack of freedom" grass.
Getting all that imported grass to thrive
in a non-native environment
means you have to do a ton of work.
You gotta pump it full of fertilizer...
water it like crazy...
spray it with pesticides and herbicides
so it can compete with native bugs and plants...
and then, when it finally grows,
for some reason you mow it all down again.
Dad... gummit!
Ohh...
So, why the H-E- double-frickin'-hockey-sticks
do I put myself through this?
it's because a bunch of crusty old Brits
were obsessed with paintings.
What?
Way back in the schmancy-pants 1500s,
British aristocrats became obsessed
with emulating the fantastical, dreamlike lawns
they'd seen in Renaissance art.
Servants...
transform the grounds into an expanse of green,
like my favorite painting.
Dumb, fancy Europeans and their dumb, fancy fads.
Well, in the 1800s, those fads made their way
to dumb, fancy America.
American landscape designers like Frank J. Scott
were so taken with these European lawns,
they created weird and arbitrary rules for their care
and thrust them upon the public.
My heavens!
Those bulbs are exposed, you naughty boy!
It was even common for wealthy women
to form gardening clubs
that would travel to poor neighborhoods
and pressure them to keep their lawns in line.
Listen up, poors!
Turn your dirt into grass fast
or you'll have to answer... to the gardening club!
Ugh... I hate when rich jerks
try to tell me what to do.
It's my house! I can do what I want!
Unfortunately, ya can't.
What?
After World War II,
with the advent of mass-produced suburbs,
lawns were put in place
before houses were even sold,
so those homeowners had no choice.
Here's your keys.
And here's your irritating obligation.
Enjoy.
And in some suburbs, like Levittown,
residents were actually required
to mow their lawns once a week.
This is going to be you... every Sunday... like church.
Fast-forward to the present day...
and the lawn has become so ingrained in suburban life
that if you don't properly maintain one,
your neighbors will hate you.
Listen up, neighbor.
You're driving down my property values.
Now get your filthy lawn in shape
or you'll have to answer to the homeowners association!
Many towns and homeowners associations
even have strict rules
about what you can and can't do
with your lawn.
Those who don't comply
can be fined and even jailed.
There he is, officer, the lawn criminal.
Arrest this... grasshole.
Okay, okay! I'm mowing!
The result is, if you wanna live in the suburbs,
you are forced to waste time, money and water
keeping up a foreign plant species
that has no business being here.
It was just a European fad that got outta control.
Ugh! Ohh!
Oh, I hate this stupid thing!
Oh! Oh!
Oh, Ron is back.
Dad to Mission Control, over.
Uh, this is Mission Control.
You are cleared to mow.
See? Huh?
Even a little elbow grease is worth it
to live in this nice, safe cul-de-sac.
Mmm. Actually, cul-de-sacs are very unsafe...
and inefficient.
But... I'll tell you about it after your chores.
I liked you better when you were a bush.
Ah... well...
took all morning to mow this yard,
but who had fun doing it?
This guy.
Now to move the van and sweep the old driveway.
A clean sweep.
Vroom-vroom!
Come back here, Lorraine Hamilton.
Vroom!
Hey, pal, are you drunk again?
I'm racing with my friend, Lorraine Hamilton.
Vroom...!
Of course you are.
He is so creative with his imaginary friends.
Well, that's a cul-de-sac life.
No safer place for a growing boy and his dad.
Actually...
when it comes to traffic, cul-de-sacs are unsafe.
Did you know that traffic fatalities
are 270% more likely in cul-de-sacs
than in grid streets?
Oh, that's a bunch of bull.
Oh! Little Donovan!
Are you all right?
Oh, oh... I am so sorry I constantly joked
you were a drunk child.
That's okay. Bye!
How did this happen?
Well, maybe it happened because cul-de-sacs lull you
into a false sense of security,
where the difference
between sidewalk, street and driveway are blurred.
That makes drivers less attentive,
thus more accidents.
Holy crow!
Don't worry. He's just one of the sketch characters
from our show.
In fact, the design of cul-de-sac suburbs
is bad for you on nearly every level.
Come on!
In a dense grid system, you can walk from place to place.
But the complex, maze-like design
of cul-de-sac neighborhoods
positions just about every destination farther away,
making walking practically impossible,
which means you need your car to get just about anywhere.
This pattern of disorderly, far-flung,
low-density neighborhoods
is known as suburban sprawl.
I feel trapped.
Yeah, you should.
Being dependent on cars means more isolation, more accidents,
and absurdly long commutes.
Ugh, I hate my commute.
You gotta listen to boring podcasts
to pass the time,
and I don't care if Adnan did it.
Come on.
Uh, boredom is the least of your worries.
People with lengthy car commutes
suffer from disproportionate levels of stress and pain,
obesity, and are even 40% likelier to get a divorce.
A study in Sweden even found that people who live
more than 31 miles from work actually die sooner.
Holy moley, she was hit!
Oh, she's just a sketch character on our show.
Literally. She's a sketch.
Well, at least we got sunshine and green grass,
unlike the dirty city.
Actually, when it comes to pollution,
sprawl is much worse.
One study found
that suburbanites have carbon footprints
up to four times larger than city dwellers.
And not only is sprawl bad for your health and the planet,
it costs us a ton of money.
Since homes here are so spread out,
the suburban tax base doesn't raise enough money
to pay for its own infrastructure.
Meanwhile, denser cities
generate ten times as much tax money per acre.
As a result, they often have to create special programs
just to keep nearby suburbs afloat.
In fact, compared to cities, suburban sprawl costs
in excess of one trillion dollars per year.
But I don't wanna live on some government teat!
The suburbs are supposed to represent freedom, dadgummit!
Actually, the suburbs
systematically foster dependency.
Oh. This is Dr. Richard Jackson,
a pediatrician and a professor of environmental health science
at UCLA.
Ron, research shows
that the design of the suburbs
dramatically reduces our freedom
to be physically active.
The cul-de-sac may be great when your son's three or four,
but as he gets older
and needs to increase his autonomy,
he will be unable to go anywhere
without a parent driving him.
That means he won't be able to explore on his own
and develop the skills he needs
to become an independent adult.
Well, I can just keep driving him, then.
Once I'm back from my endless commute.
Well, one day your roles will be reversed.
At some point, you'll be too old to drive,
turning your house into a prison.
If I can't drive, how will I live?
There isn't even a grocery store in walking distance!
And so, even after little Donovan moves away,
he'll still be tied to this cul-de-sac...
to help you.
No! Go live your own life!
At that point, you'll be reliant on others
to keep you alive.
By 2035, over 50 million Americans
will be facing that same dilemma,
many who don't even have a family to help them.
And, unfortunately,
we don't have an easy or affordable way to fix it.
The fact is, the design of the suburbs actually makes you
less independent, less healthy and less safe.
Little Donovan, no! Get out of the street!
Come on, chalky bush boy, take me back.
I'm gonna break the record!
Time me, Lorraine Hamilton!
Ooh!
Stop! Little Donovan!
Lorraine Hamilton! No!
Lorraine Hamilton was real?
Oh, my God, you were right.
The suburbs are nothing but an isolating hell-scape
filled with constant car crashes.
Well, we did exaggerate the car crashes a little
for comedic effect.
But... this place will still give little Donovan
a better life. Know why?
Because of the schools. Huh? Huh?
The suburbs have the best schools
and there's no downside to that.
Actually, suburban schools have a ton of downsides,
but... I'll tell you about it in a second.
We should reallyan schools help Lorraine. Downsides,
Oh, yeah, good idea.
Here you go, pal.
Bologna sandwich and milk.
I know you wanted whiskey, but we're all out, you lush.
Drunk kid reference, oh...
it's fun again.
Dad, can we play catch?
Oh, not until you finish your homework.
We moved to the suburbs
so you could go to a good school,
and apparently that is
the only solid, unruinable reason to be here.
Uh, not quite.
Oh, no.
You're right.
Schools are often better in the suburbs.
But have you ever wondered why they're better?
better facilities, better teachers,
more funding.
Right.
And how did your school get those advantages?
I don't know.
We're just in a good community, I guess.
And which groups of people get to live
in this community?
Wait, y... you're not saying this is a white thing, are you?
It... it's not so white here, look!
Bad example.
Ignore sweater dog people.
A tote bag full of kale. You're killing me, lady!
Okay, maybe... this neighborhood is mostly to... completely to...
insufferably white,
but that, that's just the way things are here.
It doesn't mean we're racist.
I'm sure you're not, Ron.
But the fact that so many suburbs are mostly white
is no accident.
It's the result of decades of racist federal policy
that affect us to this day. Look!
Hooray! Games!
What the heck kinda game is this?
It's Settlers of the Suburbs, redlining edition.
Cool!
Little Donovan, you be green.
Ron, you're red.
All right, red, just like the name.
Looks like I've got the advantage.
No. You don't.
See, in the 1930s, as part of the New Deal,
FDR created loan programs
to help Americans finance their homes.
But, to decide who got those loans,
the government created color-coded maps
in which green neighborhoods were good
and red neighborhoods were bad.
This practice became known as redlining.
Because of these policies,
if you lived in the green neighborhoods,
it was super easy to get a home loan.
All right, I can buy property!
But the folks in the red areas?
No loans were available.
I can barely afford rent with this.
It's no fair.
The red areas are screwed.
Yeah, they were.
And do you know why some areas were designated as red?
No, but I can guess.
Those were the neighborhoods
where African Americans and other minorities lived,
and redlining systematically prevented them
from getting home loans.
Well, I know what I'll do.
Just take my little guy
and put him in the green neighborhood.
Sorry! That's against the rules.
Early suburb developers like William Levitt instituted
explicitly racist policies.
And the federal government itself encouraged developers
to discriminate.
The result of these policies
is that from 1934 through 1968, a whopping 98% of home loans
were given to white families.
Yes...!
O-okay, this, this is not fair.
I did not get to pick what color I was
when I started.
Yeah. No one does.
And this advantage compounded over time.
The families in the green... or white... neighborhoods
were able to purchase homes and accrue wealth.
The market went up!
I can sell my house and buy a bigger one!
Whereas the people in the red neighborhoods
got none of those opportunities.
I can't afford property.
I'm behind on my electric bill.
In the green neighborhoods, the influx of new wealth
attracted new businesses.
Whoa... we got an organic grocery!
Which caused property values to go up.
Which meant white families could sell their homes
and send their kids to college.
They grow up so fast.
Passing down their wealth and advantages
to future generations.
Meanwhile, the red neighborhoods
had far less ability to build wealth
and many remained trapped in poverty.
This game is rigged!
Yeah, it was.
That's why laws were eventually passed
that made most of these discriminatory practices...
illegal.
Ah! Ha, great! Ha!
Finally, I can move, and...
I don't have enough money.
Exactly.
Without wealth, families in the red neighborhoods
couldn't afford to move up,
keeping these communities separated by race.
Today, 70 years after Levittown was created,
it's still less than one percent black.
Ha-ha! I may be dead,
but the effect of my racism lives on.
And if the neighborhoods are segregated,
that means the schools are too.
What? It...
No, no, that, that, that can't be true.
We ended school segregation back in the '60s.
Sorry, Ron, but I'm afraid that's not true.
Ron, this is Nikole Hannah-Jones.
She's a New York Times investigative reporter
who covers civil rights issues,
including school and housing segregation.
Nikole, would you mind telling Ron
what most people get wrong about segregation?
People tend to think of segregation
as an archaic term for Jim Crow policies
that led to the civil rights movement.
But the truth is that black children
are more segregated in schools now
than at any time since the 1970s.
And in the U.S.,
schools are largely funded by property taxes.
Since property values in the white neighborhoods
are so much higher,
their schools get way more money to spend on things
like facilities, teachers and supplies.
On the other hand,
predominantly black and Latino schools
are massively underfunded.
They're less likely to have A.P. science and math courses,
and they're the least likely
to have experienced and qualified teachers.
The truth is, little Donovan doesn't just go
to the best school.
He goes to a segregated school.
Oh, no, no, no.
This is a direct result
of decades of redlining policies
enacted by our own government to build the suburbs.
Highways that were built
to make access to the suburbs easier for white Americans
were often run right through
black middle-class neighborhoods,
destroying them.
People in the past were the worst.
It's not just the past.
Banks still regularly charge black home buyers
higher rates on loans than they do white home buyers,
even when they have the same credit.
Worst of all, black and Latino home seekers
still experience four million incidents
of illegal housing discrimination every year.
But... I mean, I didn't do any of that stuff.
I, I'm not racist
and I worked hard to get this house.
Of course.
But without realizing it, you've also gotten a leg up
from America's history of racist housing policies.
The suburb you live in
was built on a foundation of segregation,
and we can't close our eyes to that.
You know what?
I don't think I want to raise little Donovan
in a place like this.
Well, don't despair.
There are things you can do that...
No, no, no, save your breath, okay?
Go pack your things, buddy.
I'm selling this house.
Oh, man, this is why nobody finishes board games.
Hello, everyone!
We're here on set on "Adam Ruins Everything"
with Nikole Hannah-Jones
because I have way more questions
about housing and school segregation in America.
So, this topic is such a stunning one
because I grew up,
like I think a lot of kids my age did in America,
being told that we ended segregation,
but American society is not as integrated
as the story that we tell ourselves,
and, I mean, why do you think that is?
Well, one, I think,
often when we hear about segregation,
we think of this as a Southern phenomenon,
as something that happened way back then
and happened way down there.
But the truth is,
the most segregated parts of the country
have long been in the North.
The difference is, in the South,
because often black people lived quite intimately
with white Americans,
then you would have laws that would say
you couldn't go to this swimming pool,
you couldn't go to this school.
In the North, you can keep your neighborhood white,
then you can keep your swimming pools
and your libraries and your restaurants white
because there are no black people living in proximity.
You don't have to have a rule that says,
"No black kids can swim in this pool or go to this school,"
because there just are none in the area
because that's how things have been engineered.
We passed laws and said,
"Okay, this is no longer legal,"
but we didn't put any effort
into actually undoing the segregation that we created.
It would require an equal or even greater amount of effort
to undo the segregation
as it took to create it in the first place.
We've never had the will to do that.
It's not like when we passed the Fair Housing law in 1968,
we started over
and we equalized all the housing values.
We just continued with that,
and so those white neighborhoods continued
to, um, see their property values rise,
and black neighborhoods
would see the property values rise as well,
but they started so much further behind.
So, it's not saying that white people
haven't worked for anything,
because clearly, uh, white Americans have worked hard,
but so have black Americans.
They just were disadvantaged.
So, back to schools.
I mean, people seem like they want to integrate schools more,
you know, um, uh, how...
what are the barriers to doing that?
Even in neighborhoods that are integrating,
the schools are not,
and that's kind of the last line in the sand.
White people are afraid
if they put their children into a diverse school,
it's gonna harm their children.
Well, and it's my understanding...
I don't know the research top to bottom...
but it's my understanding
that diverse schools are good for all students.
Is, is that correct?
Absolutely. Um, diverse schools,
for black and Latino children,
ensure that they actually get
the same resources that white children get
in terms of instruction, curriculum,
uh, quality teachers.
For white children,
it actually helps them to be able to think better.
They become better problem solvers.
And you can think about this.
If you work at a business
and everyone grew up exactly the same
and everyone thinks exactly the same,
you all come up with the same answers to problems.
When you are dealing with people
who have different experiences
and have different ways of processing,
then you can find solutions.
Look, clearly, this a huge, huge systemic problem in our society
that's gonna take a long time to fix,
but what can we do on an individual level to address it?
Well, the first thing we can do is actually live our values.
If we say we believe in integration and equality,
that means that we're gonna have to give something up.
You can't, um, say you want equality for all children
but then try to get advantage for your own.
Those two things actually don't work together.
So I think, um, as a country,
we have a lot of soul-searching to do.
Do we, do we really believe
that every child should have the same opportunity?
Because if that's true,
we can't horde all of the opportunity
for our children,
and the same types of children
who have always had the advantage.
Well, thank you so much for being here, Nikole.
Thanks so much for having me.
So, it's got all-new floors
and, and I remodeled the kitchen
based on an episode of "Property Brothers,"
so... anyways, knock yourselves out.
There's all-new cabinets and sinks and... whatever.
Of course, the schools are all racist
and your lawn is a rip-off
and you'll probably kill one of your kids with your car.
Ron, those are all real problems,
but you don't have to leave the suburbs.
There's a better way!
Haven't you done enough already,
you overgrown garden gnome?
I am done listening to you.
Well, maybe you'll listen to Ellen Dunham-Jones,
director of the urban design program at Georgia Tech
and a leading authority on suburban redevelopment.
Ron, the good news is,
now that we're aware of these problems,
communities across the country
are implementing real solutions to fix them.
Like in Atlanta,
where a 22-mile park and transit loop around the city
is connecting its suburban neighborhoods.
or Pleasant Ridge, Ohio,
which revitalized an old Main Street
with new local businesses
by designating it a community entertainment district.
And you can help encourage this
by demanding that your neighborhood
has protected routes,
so every child can get to school safely and independently.
And you can lobby your state government
to make school funding more equitable.
And you can support the integration of students of color
into your local schools.
The fact is, Ron,
you don't have to leave the suburbs.
Instead, you can help to make them better.
I don't wanna move, Dad!
All my friends are here,
like Lorraine Hamilton!
You're right.
This is my community...
and I'm not giving up on it.
All right, you looky-loos, get outta here!
Huh? We are staying.
Come here, little Donovan.
Listen up.
Now, this place, it's got a lot of problems,
but we're gonna work on fixing them...
together.
Okay.
But right now, buddy,
there's only one thing I wanna do.
Little Donovan...
you wanna have a catch?
- Yeah. - Okay.
Maybe I should move.