4 ms·

Yes many people love big dense cities like NY, which is why they live there. The problem is when people love low density cities and make it a great place to li

by rb808 7y ago

Yes many people love big dense cities like NY, which is why they live there. The problem is when people love low density cities and make it a great place to live. Then new people want to change it into denser cities with everyone living in apartments. Who should win out?

throwawaysea 7y ago
This is exactly the problem. Lots of people love low or medium density cities because they make great places to live. And then other people who want the same thing start moving there, not asking what made it great in the first place. When lots of people do that, the prices go up and then the newcomers demand that they be accommodated at whatever price they want. Also the hate against rent control here is myopic. Rent control is meant to protect those incumbents who were a part of the community prior to rapid growth / increase in prices. It allows low supply (protection of quality of life) to work without displacing incumbents when faced with rapid growth. Now we can argue about how effective specific implementations if rent control are, but a lot of folks misconstrue the underlying goals.
SolaceQuantum 7y ago
"The problem is when people love low density cities and make it a great place to live. Then new people want to change it into denser cities with everyone living in apartments. Who should win out?" How related is this question to the gentrification of poor neighbourhoods and cities? If we go historically, the newcomers with new money always win out via (often violent) eviction. See: The People's History Podcast regarding Boston's government-supported gentrification of its public housing. I feel that if we would take the stand to be against sparse neighbourhoods being changed into dense cities due to increased population, we should also protect and support low-income neighbourhoods and public housing from gentrifying construction projects and income-related displacement. But broadly the latter is often viewed as a sad but inevitable phenomenon, and therefore I don't know why that same logic shouldn't apply to increasingly dense cities.

by rb808 7y ago

throwawaysea 7y ago

This is exactly the problem. Lots of people love low or medium density cities because they make great places to live. And then other people who want the same thing start moving there, not asking what made it great in the first place. When lots of people do that, the prices go up and then the newcomers demand that they be accommodated at whatever price they want. Also the hate against rent control here is myopic. Rent control is meant to protect those incumbents who were a part of the community prior to rapid growth / increase in prices. It allows low supply (protection of quality of life) to work without displacing incumbents when faced with rapid growth. Now we can argue about how effective specific implementations if rent control are, but a lot of folks misconstrue the underlying goals.

SolaceQuantum 7y ago

"The problem is when people love low density cities and make it a great place to live. Then new people want to change it into denser cities with everyone living in apartments. Who should win out?" How related is this question to the gentrification of poor neighbourhoods and cities? If we go historically, the newcomers with new money always win out via (often violent) eviction. See: The People's History Podcast regarding Boston's government-supported gentrification of its public housing. I feel that if we would take the stand to be against sparse neighbourhoods being changed into dense cities due to increased population, we should also protect and support low-income neighbourhoods and public housing from gentrifying construction projects and income-related displacement. But broadly the latter is often viewed as a sad but inevitable phenomenon, and therefore I don't know why that same logic shouldn't apply to increasingly dense cities.