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> But America is not South Korea or Singapore. Americans have been running away from dense, vertical design for a century. Those who already prefer sparse, low-
by screye 6y ago
> But America is not South Korea or Singapore. Americans have been running away from dense, vertical design for a century. Those who already prefer sparse, low-slung living will likely use their fear of COVID-19 to entrench their preference.
More like Americans were sold a very particular dream of sparse living by car companies that later solidified with the racist/practical implications of how inner cities were perceived.
Also, it isn't just SK or Singapore. European cities tend to abhor sprawl as well. In some sense, it unique to the US and countries that culturally draw from the same ford-American dream.
> The pandemic will improve suburban life, perhaps in lasting ways
The idea that suburbs are resilient to the pandemic because of the unsustainable lack of shared spaces and inherent isolation is hilarious to me. Historically speaking, this is a once in a century thing. It won't and should not affect how generation defining decisions are made.
Full disclosure, there are very few things I hate as much as American suburbs and urban sprawl.
But, those who dislike dense American cities often seem to dislike things that have nothing to do with the density in the first place. The crime caused by inner cities is a result of white flight and racially driven policing of the last 50 years. The dead looking cityscape of some dense cities are a result of terrible urban planning. (American Urban design is known to be sub-par. Most European cities with similar constraints have implemented better and more practical solutions)
Chasing naive single minded goals such as "more density" or "more bike lanes" is not what freedom from suburbia looks like. Well thought-out urban design ends up being dense, with public transportation infrastructure and bike/walking friendly. But adding any of those things hap-hazardly to an old system that clearly was not designed to support it is stupidity.
Hopefully people understand that it doesn't have to be a choice between thoughtless dense urban development and Suburbia. There are other proven options out there.
- luckylion 6y ago> European cities tend to abhor sprawl as well. In some sense, it unique to the US and countries that culturally draw from the same ford-American dream. That's absolutely not my experience in Germany. If they can afford it, plenty of people move to the edge of the city or a bit outside it. They want access to the city, but they also want a spacious garden and quiet neighbors and don't need to live "in the middle of it" when they have children (or, at least in my peer group, even when they don't have children but are approaching 40).
- angarg12 6y agoIt varies by country, for instance Spain seems more comfortable with density than say England. But leaving personal preferences and anecdotes aside, if we look at the data, Europe definitely prefers density compared to the US: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/World_population_density_1994_-_with_equator.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/World_po...
- luckylion 6y agoI wonder if it's a preference or just that there are fewer options. By US standards, all European countries are high density, e.g. Germany with ~25% of the US population is significantly smaller than California, maybe 5% of the size of the US.
- adventured 6y agoThey're far older concentration processes, which is a factor ignored by other comments about why. The US is still filling in, settling, its vast territory. European territory is mostly settled, the cities are established, their process of forming major new cities is mostly over. In 1940 the Las Vegas metro area had only a couple tens of thousands of people. Now it has 2.25 million - a metro larger than Slovenia, Latvia or Estonia. In 1940 the Austin Texas metro maybe had 100k people, now it's 2.1m. Texas of course has many examples of rapid population expansion metros, as new, large urban or semi-urban areas get created. Utah didn't exist as a state until 1896 and its population has increased over ten fold since then; its population has increased 300 fold in 150 years. In the late 19th century, Phoenix had only several thousand people, now the metro is approaching five million (equivalent to adding an Ireland, Norway, Finland or Denmark). Paris by amusing contrast is of course over two millennia old. European populations have been concentrating into their cities, and emptying their surrounding lands, for far longer than the US has existed.