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I live in a tiny apartment and I can't recommend it for anyone. I desperately need some space for living and storage. At least I have my own front door so I can

by exDM69 10y ago

I live in a tiny apartment and I can't recommend it for anyone. I desperately need some space for living and storage. At least I have my own front door so I can step outside if I need to stretch my legs. I find it strange that small houses are being promoted to somehow solve the housing shortages in cities while they're really space inefficient. I guess renovating "maid's apartments" and attics is somewhat reasonable, given that these are in coveted areas and targetted at young people with a vivid social life in the city. Everything points at urbanization being a ongoing trend, but affordable housing seems to be a problem worldwide. I'd gladly move out of the city to have some space for myself but unfortunately the jobs tend to be in cities and remote work is still relatively rare.

Cthulhu_ 10y ago
It's the employers' fault, TBF. Especially in the rich Bay Area, the big companies could, instead of trying to cram everyone in a very expensive campus building, build smaller offices all over the county, state, even country. There's little reason why Facebook's thousands of engineers should be in the same building, while they could do their day-to-day job closer to where they live or would want to live. The US is big enough for everyone to live comfortably, for houses to be affordable and spacious (and houses in the suburbs generally are far more spacious than e.g. European suburbs), for people to live where they work and have a reasonable commute, etc.
falcolas 10y ago
In Japan at least, the trick is to not "live" in the space, but in the city itself. The apartment is for sleeping and getting ready; the living takes place elsewhere. I'm not sure other cities are optimized for this form of living, though.
ajmurmann 10y ago
I don't understand why we can't build up? I wish building regulations for cities were the opposite from what they are right now and only permit buildings over a certain height (20+ stories as a starting point?) so that we aren't wasting space. In SF I often times hear earthquakes as the reason (not fully buying that because there are many tall buildings in earthquake areas including SF). It probably all comes down to NIMBYs.
- micaksica 10y ago
  > It probably all comes down to NIMBYs. It comes down to housing being the primary investment vehicle for most Americans; downward pressures on housing prices are fought by everyone possible.
  - neverminder 10y ago
    Not only Americans. London is bursting at it's seams even worse.

by exDM69 10y ago

Cthulhu_ 10y ago

It's the employers' fault, TBF. Especially in the rich Bay Area, the big companies could, instead of trying to cram everyone in a very expensive campus building, build smaller offices all over the county, state, even country. There's little reason why Facebook's thousands of engineers should be in the same building, while they could do their day-to-day job closer to where they live or would want to live. The US is big enough for everyone to live comfortably, for houses to be affordable and spacious (and houses in the suburbs generally are far more spacious than e.g. European suburbs), for people to live where they work and have a reasonable commute, etc.

falcolas 10y ago

In Japan at least, the trick is to not "live" in the space, but in the city itself. The apartment is for sleeping and getting ready; the living takes place elsewhere. I'm not sure other cities are optimized for this form of living, though.

ajmurmann 10y ago

I don't understand why we can't build up? I wish building regulations for cities were the opposite from what they are right now and only permit buildings over a certain height (20+ stories as a starting point?) so that we aren't wasting space. In SF I often times hear earthquakes as the reason (not fully buying that because there are many tall buildings in earthquake areas including SF). It probably all comes down to NIMBYs.

micaksica 10y ago
> It probably all comes down to NIMBYs. It comes down to housing being the primary investment vehicle for most Americans; downward pressures on housing prices are fought by everyone possible.
- neverminder 10y ago
  Not only Americans. London is bursting at it's seams even worse.