3 ms·
> There are benefits to density as well, as most people who live in a city will attest. Anybody that lives in a city that can attest to the benefits of density
by pacala 10y ago
> There are benefits to density as well, as most people who live in a city will attest.
Anybody that lives in a city that can attest to the benefits of density? Living in Seattle with kids, can't think of any.
- oftenwrong 10y agoHow about being able to walk to places?
- Kadin 10y agoMake a list of the reasons why you live in Seattle and not in rural Wyoming, and you'll have your answer. :) Typically it's "jobs", followed distantly by everything else, to include things like walkability, cultural attractions, food and dining, ease of visiting friends and family, etc. It varies by person, but the benefits obviously exist or nobody would live in cities. Maybe none of those are the benefits of density qua density, but they are hard to achieve without the density. (I mean, I would love to live somewhere with a great tech job market, walkable neighborhoods with bars and restaurants, delivery food at 2AM, and where nobody except my friends and I live there. But of course that's impossible. The density is a precondition for everything else.)
- pacala 10y agoYou are absolutely right. We live in Seattle because it was the smallest / least dense city where both me and my wife could find work relevant to our skills. Across the lake, in the Redmond area, there are plenty of jobs and even less density, but we landed in Seattle before we knew any better about the local geography. The density axis goes from lots-of-breathing-room-but-no-jobs to suffocating-and-jobs-that-barely-afford-a-box, with lots of tradeoff points in the middle. I fail to see how density is a positive in itself, or that more density is a always a net positive. As for walkability, it is seriously overrated. Most people are not rich enough to live in walking distance of their jobs. If we could make everyone move in walking distance of job, then most likely we wouldn't need density. Next, you get overpriced shops in walking distance. I'll do groceries at Costco, thank you very much. Parks are more likely to come by in less dense areas. The major benefit I see is that one can safely party within walking distance, and even that benefit is eroded by Uber :) [FWIW, I lived in a couple "walkable" European cities in a previous life. Slogging through cold rain for basic necessities, oh the memories.]
- antisthenes 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City#History