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What you're saying isn't true for Europe, actually. It's true that in Tokyo you can live far from the center of Tokyo and still have a lively neighborhood aroun

What you're saying isn't true for Europe, actually. It's true that in Tokyo you can live far from the center of Tokyo and still have a lively neighborhood around the station, and reliable train to commute to the inner-Yamanote area. You still suffer if you need to commute because the trains are packed at peak time (station staff literally pushing people in so the doors can close). In Paris however, you either live in Paris itself (roughly the size of the Yamanote line) but it's crazy expensive especially if you have kids and need a bigger appartment, or you live in the suburbs that are mostly just housing and train (RER & Transilien) is unreliable. If you want to live in the "15-minutes neighborhood" with everything, but can't afford to live inside Paris or down town of a big metropolis, you need to move to a middle-size city but then getting a job in your area is more difficult.

pimterry 6y ago
It may not be for Paris, but in my experience it is for most Spanish cities - there's usually a clear centre of course, but also many small self-contained walkable neighbourhoods distributed throughout the city. It'd be interesting to find a good metric to be able to compare cities and explore this.
- ganzsz 6y ago
  Same here in most Dutch cities, I myself don't live near the city centre but still have a self contained neighbourhood with a ton of schools shops and other facilities. And the public transport is good enough to be able to reach the entire metropolitan area for a job. Would be a nice research if someone could test different cities and neighbourhoods indeed.
- jsinai 6y ago
  Would say London is a very good example of this as well, provided you're within the M25 (still a massive area though)
wasdfff 6y ago
This is why its so ironic to me that people celebrate europe, nyc, etc as some dense model for the world, when they too arent building to meet supply and refusing to upzone while local leaders benefit from their property assets exponentially rising in price, same as a suburban US city with the only high rises being offices.

pimterry 6y ago

It may not be for Paris, but in my experience it is for most Spanish cities - there's usually a clear centre of course, but also many small self-contained walkable neighbourhoods distributed throughout the city. It'd be interesting to find a good metric to be able to compare cities and explore this.

ganzsz 6y ago
Same here in most Dutch cities, I myself don't live near the city centre but still have a self contained neighbourhood with a ton of schools shops and other facilities. And the public transport is good enough to be able to reach the entire metropolitan area for a job. Would be a nice research if someone could test different cities and neighbourhoods indeed.
jsinai 6y ago
Would say London is a very good example of this as well, provided you're within the M25 (still a massive area though)

wasdfff 6y ago

This is why its so ironic to me that people celebrate europe, nyc, etc as some dense model for the world, when they too arent building to meet supply and refusing to upzone while local leaders benefit from their property assets exponentially rising in price, same as a suburban US city with the only high rises being offices.