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> useless yard My yard is definitely not useless. It is a safe place for my kids to play. It allows my family to garden. I grow fruits and vegetables. I can en

• eesmith 3y ago
  I understand you are content in the way you do things. Just bear in mind that people elsewhere also want the same goals you have, and are happy with different ways to get those goals. You want a safe place for my kids to play. I agree! Many people want that. Your solution is a yard, which you need to maintain, or pay someone to maintain. Others live in housing complex with plenty of yard space, or live close by to parks, where someone else takes care of the grounds. You don't want to deal with crowds, so you don't care if you don't live within walking distance of functional parks in the like. But this also means you're going to be driving your kids around a lot, since they can't walk to the park, or go to school, by themselves. (Even if they take the bus, they are stuck with a specific schedule, giving the less independence of movement.) Which may be fine - I can understand how being in a car for a long time can be more calming for some than being around people for a short time! You like to garden. Some housing complexes have community gardens, because their residents like to garden too. And there are community gardens which, at least in some places have space allotted by city (similar to how public parks work) so don't directly face market pressure and land rentals. I've certainly been in apartment buildings with relatively private outside space where residents could entertain others, play with kids, read a book, work from home, and so on. And with its own private swimming pool, tennis courts, playgrounds, and so on. I've visited https://www.cotaticohousing.org/ https://www.cotaticohousing.org/ , with "cooperative living that combines private residences with extensive common facilities". They have a shared carpentry shop, eating/party area, and two spare guest apartments which can be booked for visitors. My meaning is that there are many ways to get the goals you want, without the specific method you prefer. Others in the US don't have the same crowd concerns you have. Yet for most part, they don't have the ability to live anywhere else, or have any experience to know what those alternatives might be! > The fact that you have to rebuild the city is a pretty big drawback too... If only you were around in the mid-20th century when the urban core of many US cities were torn down to rebuild for cars - maybe we would have more options now. But I guess your point is that since they made a bad decision then we can't change our minds now? > This implies a high density of people. It can also imply a medium density of people.
  • lotsoweiners 3y ago
    I have similar opinions to the post you are replying to and I don’t think you really addressed any of their concerns. We all know community parks and gardens exist and that our own yards need to be maintained. It is worth it to me to be able to grill, play with kids, swim, garden etc in privacy. If we want to go somewhere else or need extra space, we can walk to the park (there are 3 within a 5 minute walk).
    • eesmith 3y ago
      Then I did a poor job of explaining my point. A thesis in the linked-to piece is that certain types of construction don't exist in the US, so people don't know the options even exist. This guides their understanding of what is appropriate. It points out how these design differences are part of a large interwoven set of ideas which extends to how American cities are designed. wunderland followed up on that latter point. I agree with the general thesis, but I think wunderland stated it rudely and disdainfully. I think wunderland also fell into the trap of contrasting "low-density" housing with "high-density", which makes people think of Manhattan skyscrapers, when there are plenty of sorts of medium-density housing that gets what wunderland wants. (I can provide examples if you wish.) In my comment I wanted to highlight that yes, certainly there are many Americans who like "low-density sprawls where everyone has a useless yard" and (correctly!) reject that characterization. Which I think is fine - it's not like Europeans don't have have single-family homes. But there are plenty of other people who do want alternatives, like walkable neighborhoods. These people have many of the same goals - a safe place for kids, somewhere to garden, outdoor semi-private area for entertaining friends, etc. - but don't want what they regard as the clear negatives of living in single-family detached housing. I listed a couple to be clear: yard maintenance, and required chauffeur service for the kids. I've talked to people at that housing co-op in California. They got the idea from Danish housing practices. Making it fit into California housing law was tricky, because unlike in Denmark, the CA laws weren't designed with that in mind. Yet while the people I met there really enjoyed it, I know it's not for everyone. Just like how there are people in Denmark who live in single-family detached houses. Or, I've read stories of people in the US who want to set up a part of town with restricted car traffic (something like Barcelona's car-free superblocks), only to face massive protests from people who want to be able to drive everywhere, and see this as a restriction on their freedom. Not realizing, perhaps, that car-traffic roads restrict the freedom of others, like the freedom for children to play on the streets in front of their home. But we've been sold the myth that "streets are (only) for cars", making it hard to remember that that's not the only thing they are used for. The goal isn't "there should be no cars anywhere" but that "there should some places with cars and some places without." As wunderbar quoted from the article: "From building codes to systems of labor and construction, everything is designed with the detached single-family home in mind: zoning that bans apartments (and density and affordability) over large swaths of urban America." It's hard to see what isn't there. Don't let your enjoyment of your current situation make you blind to how others may want alternatives.