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Because more and more of us want walkability and all the amenities that come with it. None of my age ~25 friends have plans about moving to the suburbs, but we
by hahaxdxd123 4y ago
Because more and more of us want walkability and all the amenities that come with it. None of my age ~25 friends have plans about moving to the suburbs, but we are disappointed at how NYC rent increases mean we will struggle to afford a nice place in Manhattan.
- chrisseaton 4y agoPeople in the US don’t get there’s a middle way between high-rise megacity and suburban wasteland. In the UK I live in a walkable community of detached homes. There’s villages, towns, dense suburbs of cities. The US used to be famous for small town main streets!
- jahewson 4y agoThere’s some of this on the East coast. But settlement patterns in the US reflect the era in which it was settled. No Roman roads. No Viking villages. No medieval Monasteries or Castles. No stately homes. The U.K. boomed in the Victorian era and is dominated by that kind of housing but the US did not boom until the post-war period so is dominated by car-centric housing. I grew up in an English village that, apart from a handful of Tudor buildings, was entirely Victorian growth. I imagine that had that growth occurred in the 1950s then it would be a very different place. Indeed by the 1990s almost all the shops had closed and we were effectively a suburb of our local town. Here in California they used to have main streets but they ripped them all out in the boom, replacing them with thoughtless concrete modernity. Then those all failed when malls were invented and if you’re lucky your city tore it out and you’ve got some fake 90s interpretation of corporate utopia as your downtown.
- hahaxdxd123 4y agoWe don't get it because it doesn't exist. SF is pretty close tbh but unfortunately it's fairly poorly run.
- itake 4y agoHow do y'all reconcile the air and noise pollution living in cities? I see studies posted on HN about how important sleep is and I've been way more sensitive to noise as I age.
- galangalalgol 4y agoYears and years ago I measured sleep disturbances with a fitbit and found sleeping in foam earplugs reduced my wakings by something like 300%. No answer for air quality. Except is indoor air quality any better in a new suburban house than a new apt in a walkable area?
- itake 4y agore indoor air quality: fair point. I bet new apts have less lead in the paint. That being said, SF is famous for their moldy condos. I've had apt neighbors that smoked cigars, cigs, and weed that crept into my room.
- eikenberry 4y agoWhite noise generators work great.
- itake 4y agoI'm skeptical that white noise would be equal or better to the quiet of suburbia. Especially against high db sounds like firetrucks, helicopters, and trains. Doesn't look like there is much research in this area though.
- pandaman 4y agoIt does nothing for vibrations/infrasound. Ear plugs or a noise machine can only help with the outside noise but, with many Americans preferring to wear hard sole shoes/boots inside, you are likely to be always aware of your upstairs neighbors movements.
- galangalalgol 4y agoApartments are also more efficient to climate control assuming you don't try to make every apartment have windows on multiple sides.
- rufus_foreman 4y ago>> None of my age ~25 friends have plans about moving to the suburbs Oh to be young again.