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Such an outmoded idea — when will the effort to build utopia stop? https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-the-luster-is-fading-on-once-vaunted-smart-cities https:/
by happytiger 3y ago
Such an outmoded idea — when will the effort to build utopia stop?
https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-the-luster-is-fading-on-once-vaunted-smart-cities https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-the-luster-is-fading-on-o...
Health care. Living wage. Alternative transport. Small affordable homes.
Please stop trying to build Disneyland and just focus on reducing regulation and corruption happen and letting innovation happen in existing cities.
- conradfr 3y agoRefactoring vs rewrite ;) But this time, we'll get it right!
- johnnyworker 3y agoThat just sums up the hubris of it all perfectly. Someone who didn't even write the first version and couldn't possibly, doesn't understand it and couldn't possibly, is going to go for the "rewrite".
- Maken 3y agoBecause that would not be Their Vision™.
- glimshe 3y agoI agree with you in principle, but these things cost way, way more than their Disneyland...
- HumblyTossed 3y agoUS is the richest nation in the world. Also, one of the last major nations in the world to NOT have any of those things.
- ghiculescu 3y agoThere isn’t much evidence that existing cities want innovation.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoThis, there are literally thousands of comments on HN saying so and so, similar to the parent, but I've never got the impression on the ground in real city suburbs that even half the voting population would desire such 'innovations'. And that's across quite a lot of cities in the US and Canada. Most families who can afford to are willing to pay a huge premium in order to not share walls with a neighbour, even if it's only a few feet of grass and adds a longer commute. Whereas most of the opposing sentiments I can only find as talk by random accounts online... and not in actual behaviour.
- q1w2 3y agoDemocracies are great for preventing tyranny, but they are terrible at reform. Reform often comes from a smaller group of people pioneering a solution among a smaller more willing population, thus demonstrating to the majority that such solutions work. Democracies are, by definition, ruling by the median intelligence of the group, thus cherry picking a smaller set of the population, you can advance more complex ideas and solutions - hence efforts such as in OP's article.
- happytiger 3y agoThat’s quite a salient point and raises interesting questions.
- conception 3y agoI’ll toss out that I’d say the main reason people don’t like to share walls is poor construction makes it so you can hear everything through the walls. This can be easily mitigated but isn’t because money.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoThere's also the legal aspect along with the loss of some degree of freedom and flexibility. These are pretty huge downsides even if perfectly built walls became common.
- WeylandYutani 3y agoUtopia in Dutch culture is a mixed city were people of different income levels and cultural backgrounds live together. This ofcourse goes against the natural inclination of rich people. But it keeps society from splintering into the haves and have nots.
- GracefullyBlind 3y agoI am not sure about the "different cultural backgrounds" part, at least when it comes to non Dutch traditional backgrounds (e.g. Middle Eastern immigrants)
- cpursley 3y agoNobody does city and infrastructure planning better than the Dutch.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago> This of course goes against the natural inclination of rich people. I don't think that's true at all. If there are no poor people nearby, you can't have any servants.
- pasttense01 3y agoThe servants simply commute from several miles away; they are NOT next door neighbors. [and live-in servants have declined massively.]
- thaumasiotes 3y ago> and live-in servants have declined massively This is not true everywhere. Where it is true, it is because supply has dried up as the general run of the population decides it has better options, not because demand is down.
- AlchemistCamp 3y agoHow much technological progress does a utopian Dutch city have?
- more_corn 3y agoThe dream of making society better. Such an outmoded idea. I mean a dense, transit connected, walkable urban setting is such a fever dream. Everyone who tries to improve things should be shut down.
- happytiger 3y agoWhoosh.