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Well in a well-designed city, you could just walk to all those things. From my house in Berkeley, CA, daycare is about 400 meters from my house. There are two f

Well in a well-designed city, you could just walk to all those things. From my house in Berkeley, CA, daycare is about 400 meters from my house. There are two fields of soccer-ing size, one about 10 minutes away and one 25 minutes by foot. The grocery store is a 4 minute walk, my hairdresser is a 1 minute walk, CVS is a 3 minute walk. I also have an amazing park with play structures, basketball courts, tennis courts, large gracy field, a creek, picnic areas, and such about a 1 minute walk away. I can bike to work in 20 minutes. This could be everywhere in the US. There's nothing special about where I live except that it's development predates the automobile.

balfirevic 3y ago
> There's nothing special about where I live except that it's development predates the automobile. Seems like there is, and it's that it's very rich? Because something like this: > an amazing park with play structures, basketball courts, tennis courts, large gracy field, a creek, picnic areas, and such about a 1 minute walk away. doesn't exist in the entirety of my city, which also predates cars. Also, do you mean a detached house when you say "from my house"? How many customers within 5-10 minute walking distance does (for example) hairdresser serve in such place?
- danny_codes 3y ago
  > doesn't exist in the entirety of my city, which also predates cars. Really? You have no parks in your entire city? How is that possible? I don't think that's a wealth problem, sounds more like a governance problem to me. I live in a quadplex on a mixed-density Street. I'd guess there's a 1000 housing units within a 5-10 minutes walk. I'm sure people come from further away as well though.
lelanthran 3y ago
> Well in a well-designed city, you could just walk to all those things. You may call it well-designed, but I think that all those close amenities you are enjoying is a side-effect of high-density living for high-income people. After all, no matter how well you design a place, that (for example) hairdresser still needs enough people who can afford the service to live within walking distance so that it can turn a profit. I think it's less a case of "How do we design this city so that everything is no more than a 25m walk away?" and more a case of "High density population with lots of money attracts businesses to the area". > There's nothing special about where I live except that it's development predates the automobile. That's true for most places.
- danny_codes 3y ago
  > That's true for most places. Sorry I wasn't specific enough. Predates the automobile AND (mostly) wasn't destroyed for the automobile. Lots of America was built before cars but was subsequently destroyed for cars. Those areas aren't what I was referring to.

balfirevic 3y ago

> There's nothing special about where I live except that it's development predates the automobile. Seems like there is, and it's that it's very rich? Because something like this: > an amazing park with play structures, basketball courts, tennis courts, large gracy field, a creek, picnic areas, and such about a 1 minute walk away. doesn't exist in the entirety of my city, which also predates cars. Also, do you mean a detached house when you say "from my house"? How many customers within 5-10 minute walking distance does (for example) hairdresser serve in such place?

danny_codes 3y ago
> doesn't exist in the entirety of my city, which also predates cars. Really? You have no parks in your entire city? How is that possible? I don't think that's a wealth problem, sounds more like a governance problem to me. I live in a quadplex on a mixed-density Street. I'd guess there's a 1000 housing units within a 5-10 minutes walk. I'm sure people come from further away as well though.

lelanthran 3y ago

> Well in a well-designed city, you could just walk to all those things. You may call it well-designed, but I think that all those close amenities you are enjoying is a side-effect of high-density living for high-income people. After all, no matter how well you design a place, that (for example) hairdresser still needs enough people who can afford the service to live within walking distance so that it can turn a profit. I think it's less a case of "How do we design this city so that everything is no more than a 25m walk away?" and more a case of "High density population with lots of money attracts businesses to the area". > There's nothing special about where I live except that it's development predates the automobile. That's true for most places.

danny_codes 3y ago
> That's true for most places. Sorry I wasn't specific enough. Predates the automobile AND (mostly) wasn't destroyed for the automobile. Lots of America was built before cars but was subsequently destroyed for cars. Those areas aren't what I was referring to.