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And yet we see this huge push in the intelligentsia for how cities “increase creativity” and promote value “x y and z” and how “we should be like China and buil
by Bucephalus355 8y ago
And yet we see this huge push in the intelligentsia for how cities “increase creativity” and promote value “x y and z” and how “we should be like China and build planned mega cities”.
Cities that are very walkable and have a thriving downtown / mixed business areas can be a ton of fun and very good, but it’s very hard to ever make that affordable, and basically impossible to do in America which has large space demands and associates home ownership with the American Dream.
If anything, I see the intellgientsia pushing it because they have been captured by the global rich (see Steven Pinker) and the super rich love cities (again we all do) and they want more of them to play in as well as a huge domestic servant / labor force bought of with a modicum of UBI for the time being.
- mertd 8y agoWhy is is hard to make affordable? Not every urban core needs to be Manhattan. Look at smaller European cities.
- zanny 8y agoYou make cities affordable by unrestricting building height way beyond the "projected" demand for residential construction in the core. Then as dense, cheap residential fills up you will see the natural build out of more of it. Keeping space to grow / build public transit and infrastructure is also critical. That doesn't mean overbuild now, it means don't try to stop it when the time comes.
- francisofascii 8y agoIsn't a more compact/walkable town/city more affordable from a construction/materials standpoint? I think these walkable places are not affordable because there are so few of them, so are in high demand.
- notfromhere 8y agoBuilding cities is more efficient and cheaper that low-density suburbia. The problem we have is speculation and rent-seeking in RE has really made housing unaffordable in many cities.