Good read but I've had the tab open for so long I have a minor fear that I got this from The Core

https://unherd.com/2024/01/why-american-cities-are-squalid/

Very sad.

It is shocking for most Americans to go to foreign countries and see professionals riding buses to work. There are a handful of bus routes in a handful of cities where you can say that in the US (the bus I rode in Chicago was mostly professional people at rush hour), but it's the exception.