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Plug a good channel related to this called Not Just Bikes on YouTube. He does a great job tearing apart North American urban planning and housing and compares i

by erentz 5y ago

Plug a good channel related to this called Not Just Bikes on YouTube. He does a great job tearing apart North American urban planning and housing and compares it to examples where the author currently lives in Europe. I want to be able to live in places like that but I’m stuck in the US. Here is an example where he also compares new planning to how we used to do it. These old compact suburbs that have become expensive because they’re incredibly desirable. Yet we don’t build like that now. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MWsGBRdK2N0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MWsGBRdK2N0

stevenicr 5y ago
Any idea what the historical price of sidewalks was? My search engine foo isn't turning up much before 2007. I've been wondering how the nice sidewalk / walking / biking places I've enjoyed were built.. was it super cheap in the 80s and skyrocketed since? I've gone down the rabbit hole of semi-current pricing for sidewalks being built and road expansion in this mid-size city - and it's just dumb that a sidewalk install can easily cost a million dollars for a block or two for example. I can't imagine building neighborhoods today that mimic what I miss from the past in another state - but there's no way it cost that much to build back then either I'm fairly certain.
- dotandgtfo 5y ago
  On my phone so can't check but this may be covered by the aforementioned Not just bikes youtube series on Strong Towns, I strongly recommend checking it out. IIRC the initial price of building roads and sidewalks was invested by the federal government at favorable terms on the condition that maintenance was covered by the municipal government. This worked great for the first 20-30 years until maintenance costs started to increase greatly towards the end of life of the infrastructure. The central theme of this series is that municipalities and towns have entered a debt trap and are relying on future growth to cover historical infrastructure debt. My explanation may be wrong, inaccurate, or not relevant for your question so I'd recommend checking out his videos if this seems interesting.

by erentz 5y ago

stevenicr 5y ago

Any idea what the historical price of sidewalks was? My search engine foo isn't turning up much before 2007. I've been wondering how the nice sidewalk / walking / biking places I've enjoyed were built.. was it super cheap in the 80s and skyrocketed since? I've gone down the rabbit hole of semi-current pricing for sidewalks being built and road expansion in this mid-size city - and it's just dumb that a sidewalk install can easily cost a million dollars for a block or two for example. I can't imagine building neighborhoods today that mimic what I miss from the past in another state - but there's no way it cost that much to build back then either I'm fairly certain.

dotandgtfo 5y ago
On my phone so can't check but this may be covered by the aforementioned Not just bikes youtube series on Strong Towns, I strongly recommend checking it out. IIRC the initial price of building roads and sidewalks was invested by the federal government at favorable terms on the condition that maintenance was covered by the municipal government. This worked great for the first 20-30 years until maintenance costs started to increase greatly towards the end of life of the infrastructure. The central theme of this series is that municipalities and towns have entered a debt trap and are relying on future growth to cover historical infrastructure debt. My explanation may be wrong, inaccurate, or not relevant for your question so I'd recommend checking out his videos if this seems interesting.