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What if they think that every family having a nice house makes their neighborhood great? Why is being able to walk to a dozen restaurants the only thing that ma

What if they think that every family having a nice house makes their neighborhood great? Why is being able to walk to a dozen restaurants the only thing that makes a neighborhood good? Is it possible that people do in fact know what they want, and you are being condescending by assuming that they are too stupid to not know their own wants and desires? Stop with the conspiracy theory that people disagree with you because they are brainwashed or uncultured.

bluGill 5y ago
Every family having a nice house is one of the things that make a neighborhood great. Walking to a dozen restaurants is another such thing. We can continue making this list until it has several thousand items (maybe even millions?). In the end you cannot have everything on the list, so you compromise. I did not say people are stupid. More like people are creatures of habit and often fail to realize how a change they could make would cascade into making things better. That is they are more likely to be pessimistic and see the downsides. People know what they want when given the existing choices. Frankly the existing choices for dense city living suck for most people (bad schools and they can't afford as much space are big ones), so it is no surprise that people choose suburbs: it is the best choice. The real question is can we reform the dense urban areas so that people will decide they want it over suburbs?
- quantumwannabe 5y ago
  You are still assuming that people who want to live in suburbs are heathens who just need to be shown the light. You aren't even considering that they just don't like density.
  - bluGill 5y ago
    I'm saying people are more complex than that. Thet don't hate density, given their options density isn't the best life for them. I'm further saying that dense areas have made themselves unappealing and given some changes many suburban people would prefer density. There are advantages to density, and advantages to rural living, but yiur cannot have both at the same time.

bluGill 5y ago

Every family having a nice house is one of the things that make a neighborhood great. Walking to a dozen restaurants is another such thing. We can continue making this list until it has several thousand items (maybe even millions?). In the end you cannot have everything on the list, so you compromise. I did not say people are stupid. More like people are creatures of habit and often fail to realize how a change they could make would cascade into making things better. That is they are more likely to be pessimistic and see the downsides. People know what they want when given the existing choices. Frankly the existing choices for dense city living suck for most people (bad schools and they can't afford as much space are big ones), so it is no surprise that people choose suburbs: it is the best choice. The real question is can we reform the dense urban areas so that people will decide they want it over suburbs?

quantumwannabe 5y ago
You are still assuming that people who want to live in suburbs are heathens who just need to be shown the light. You aren't even considering that they just don't like density.
- bluGill 5y ago
  I'm saying people are more complex than that. Thet don't hate density, given their options density isn't the best life for them. I'm further saying that dense areas have made themselves unappealing and given some changes many suburban people would prefer density. There are advantages to density, and advantages to rural living, but yiur cannot have both at the same time.