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> he obviously wants to destroy our way of life. Uh huh... "our way of life" that really only came into existence after WWII. Strong Towns focuses a lot on ho
by davidw 9y ago
> he obviously wants to destroy our way of life.
Uh huh... "our way of life" that really only came into existence after WWII. Strong Towns focuses a lot on how cities used to be in the US, and points to that as a pretty good model. They grew incrementally, both up, in, and out. They mostly grew thanks to local, smaller efforts rather than mega projects.
- emodendroket 9y agoWell one could just as easily respond that even into the 1920s half of Americans lived in rural areas if recency makes a way of life somehow made-up.
- davidw 9y agoNo one is against people living in rural areas; people who want that are welcome to it. The focus is more on suburbs, which are more of a recent invention, especially the US-style ones where no one can live without a car and all the subsidies that accompany them. Realistically, not everyone is going to live in some dense urban core, and there'd be a gradation from that to rural, like there always has been. The point is that should probably be a bit more natural curve, rather than having tons of burbs that don't really pay for themselves, long term.
- emodendroket 9y agoHmm. So people would live inside some sort of "sub-urban" environment, which wasn't quite rural, but not exactly urban either.
- davidw 9y agoSome people would, sure. You'd expect that in a free market, right? Part of the point of all this is that the market we have now is very, very far from free: vast areas of our cities are zoned exclusively for single family homes. https://bendyimby.com/2016/10/04/what-to-build-where/ https://bendyimby.com/2016/10/04/what-to-build-where/
- emodendroket 9y agoWho says the market is the best way to zone areas? How would you feel if you owned a house and someone opened a pig farm next door?
- davidw 9y agoI don't think that's very realistic in many cases - they could sell the land for a lot more money for housing. But in any event: a few hard-core libertarians would like to completely throw out zoning, but most people just want to bring it back in line with things that are actual nuisances - or bring back actual nuisance laws in some cases. We've gone from legit things like trying to keep factories away from houses and schools to people losing their marbles about a duplex being built in their neighborhood. It's gone way too far. As to why markets are generally a good way of solving complex problems with lots of moving parts, I did mention that in the article.