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> anti-social lifestyle decreases face to face contact and increases barrier to connect with others This cannot be overstated enough. My pet theory is that th
by phil21 7y ago
> anti-social lifestyle decreases face to face contact and increases barrier to connect with others
This cannot be overstated enough. My pet theory is that the suburbification of America led to our current division and political strife. You cannot expect great results when those with the most combined political power and wealth in the nation sequester themselves individually away from others and even each other. This ends up with anti-social people driving social policy for the nation. And it shows.
The older I get, watching the first generation fully raised in "suburban culture" seems to be a lesson in watching the threads of a society break down in real time. It's amazing to me that within 2-3 generations we completely blew up the notion of extended families and close-knit community taking care of each other.
That said...
> If I could vote to make these neighborhoods illegal, I would.
I'm not quite willing to go that far. I would simply make zoning them illegal. If an area is desirable enough to toss up a giant single family home next door to a few 3 flats - so be it. But I should be just as allowed to come buy that place, tear it down, and toss a small apartment building in it's place. Additionally I'd be in favor of laws that make it illegal (or exceedingly difficult) to require setbacks/minimum parking/etc. for most areas.
Basically I'd like to see a legal framework that brings us back to "natural" incremental city development vs. this BS planned crap that never works. The only cities in the world people marvel at (at least in western societies) are those that predated zoning law.
Choice and freedom are a beautiful thing. The problem now is there is little choice due to subsidy and zoning laws.
- dougmwne 7y ago> I would simply make zoning them illegal. Sorry, yes that's exactly what I meant and we're in total agreement. There's no way I'd advocate tearing these neighborhoods down, only make it illegal to continue to protect their zoning, just like this new law in Oregon. I think that's a super solution, and I'd happily vote for it in my own state.
- souprock 7y agoIt somewhat works in Japan because you can't register a car without having a dedicated parking space. In the US, an apartment complex in an ordinary suburban neighborhood would swipe all the on-street parking and probably people's lawns as well. Those home owners expect nearly exclusive use of the street parking for their guests.
- hellisothers 7y agoI found the opposite to be true, we lived in the South Bay in denser townhomes and everyone was very anti-social. Now that we’ve moved to the east bay to a SFH area the neighbors are more invested in the neighborhood and we have far more social interactions. We’re also a 10 minute walk to great shops/bars/doughnuts. The options aren’t burbs or dense urban housing, you can have SFH in an urban area.
- PunksATawnyFill 7y agoTranslation: You’re a developer shill.