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I’ll add one more: there is a strong preference in a large percentage of the population for suburban and rural style homes and light business areas. We build a
by api 5y ago
I’ll add one more: there is a strong preference in a large percentage of the population for suburban and rural style homes and light business areas. We build a ton of that and often very quickly. We are very good at building that type of landscape.
The HN crowd tends not to be the target market for this though so it gets criticized and downplayed here.
There has been a shift toward urbanism in the last 25 years though, and prices exploding in the cities show that the market is lagging in satisfying that demand.
- almost_usual 5y agoCOVID has definitely slowed down urbanization.
- _dain_ 5y ago> there is a strong preference in a large percentage of the population for suburban and rural style homes and light business areas. We build a ton of that and often very quickly. Because that's the only thing you can build. The zoning regulations don't let anything else happen easily. You can't reason from this that this is what people actually prefer.
- sokoloff 5y agoYou can't reason that that's what most people prefer, but it likewise seems clear that if most people in some town/city did prefer something else, the zoning laws would be changed.
- BlargMcLarg 5y agoIn a world where there is little to no friction and no incentives to prolong the changing of those laws, yes. Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in. Even something as simple as wanting to change it but seeing the immense amount of effort to try and get it noticed is enough to dissuade most people from trying.
- _dain_ 5y agoNo, that isn't clear at all. Bad and unpopular laws can remain on the books for a long time if there is a politically powerful minority who benefits from them. Also it might just be that most people don't even know about the problem.
- api 5y agoThere's a huge generational divide here. When Gen-X and younger people get control of city governments you'll see this shift.
- imtringued 5y agoCalifornia changed zoning laws recently...
- whimsicalism 5y agoAmong young white people, this perception has shifted dramatically over the last 15 years. I was born and raised in a city, never before have so many young white people wanted to move here.
- coliveira 5y agoOne needs to consider, however, why people prefer this kind of homes in the US, compared to most countries. It is probably because life is so hard and expensive on most American cities. And I say this as somebody from another country, where cities are livable and provide lots of advantages -- something that we associate in the US only to New York City and its high associated costs.
- technobabbler 5y agoJust putting in a quiet vote for Chicago, that most underrated and magnificent of American cities. If you don't mind the risk of getting murdered once in a while, the city is affordable, beautiful, walkable, full of great food and good people, and has arguably one of the country's best public transit systems. It also has household garbage collection, unlike NYC's trash mountains. It reminds me a lot of the great metropolises outside the country. It really makes other US cities like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, etc. seem like quaint little backwater neighborhoods. Most of those have become little more than traffic-ridden strip malls, preserving a tiny downtown district but everywhere else is mostly just a bunch of drive-up destinations with little pedestrian activity and not much liveliness. Chicago's neighborhoods are still super vibrant and full of festivals, and even in the deep snow of winter people will bustle on the sidewalks and converge on the fun pubs and music venues and such. I've never seen anything else like that in the US. But, yes, walk a few blocks in the wrong direction and you'll soon be dead. Despite that, millions make it their home. It's an amazing place to live.