4 ms·

You're touching on another important issue. Zoning that mandates homes be built away from jobs and businesses means that more density causes drastic increases

You're touching on another important issue. Zoning that mandates homes be built away from jobs and businesses means that more density causes drastic increases in traffic. But allowing mixed use development gives people an option to cut their commutes to almost zero, if they choose, letting the density scale a lot better than if everyone has to drive. Since most modern work is not noisy, polluting industry, the major benefit of separating residences from work has mostly gone away. But we're still suffering the costs of this form of zoning. It would be non-trivial to intentionally come up with a more wasteful way to structure our cities and towns. Another thing to think about is that if we could allow denser, mixed used development in all the suburbs, there wouldn't be so much pressure on housing in the dense urban core of cities. If just 10% of houses in suburbs turned into duplexes, that would mean a 10% increase in housing, and it would be hard to even notice. But again, we also need more intermingling of commerce and residences, to cut down on traffic.

andrew_roof 6y ago
Perhaps bordering on conspiracy, but I wonder how much influence the motoring lobby has on urban design and lackluster public transit investment? With the demise of trams in the 1960s in many places due to lobbying, the General Motors streetcar conspiracy to buy up public transit networks in the United States, and well known connections between motoring lobbying and governments, this wouldn't surprise me. I'm sure there are other vested interests here, but motoring/transit is certainly one that comes to mind.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  > wonder how much influence the motoring lobby It actually was a vast, national conspiracy including the oil companies.
Retric 6y ago
You end up with dense urban centers just based on the relative value of commercial vs residential square footage. An office space in NYC is often above 20/sf/month that’s the equivalent of renting a 500sf apartment at over 10,000$/month. The only way to get true mixed use zoning in ultra dense urban areas is to mandate it. Consider from a companies perspective they want easy access to employees and other business. The dense urban core offers both, so many companies are willing to pay a premium.

andrew_roof 6y ago

Perhaps bordering on conspiracy, but I wonder how much influence the motoring lobby has on urban design and lackluster public transit investment? With the demise of trams in the 1960s in many places due to lobbying, the General Motors streetcar conspiracy to buy up public transit networks in the United States, and well known connections between motoring lobbying and governments, this wouldn't surprise me. I'm sure there are other vested interests here, but motoring/transit is certainly one that comes to mind.

redis_mlc 6y ago
> wonder how much influence the motoring lobby It actually was a vast, national conspiracy including the oil companies.

Retric 6y ago

You end up with dense urban centers just based on the relative value of commercial vs residential square footage. An office space in NYC is often above 20/sf/month that’s the equivalent of renting a 500sf apartment at over 10,000$/month. The only way to get true mixed use zoning in ultra dense urban areas is to mandate it. Consider from a companies perspective they want easy access to employees and other business. The dense urban core offers both, so many companies are willing to pay a premium.