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One difference between now and Jane Jacobs' time is that you can build housing that poor people need, by allowing the construction of smaller, lower amenity hou

One difference between now and Jane Jacobs' time is that you can build housing that poor people need, by allowing the construction of smaller, lower amenity housing. While you can't build affordable 4 bedroom single family houses at 5 per acre, you can build affordable 700-1000sf 3-4 bedroom apartments at 40-60 per acre. In the case of Culdesac, they removed roads, parking, garages, and lawns. For people that want and can afford those things, there are plenty of options already.

adolph 3y ago
> allowing the construction of smaller, lower amenity housing Never heard of restrictions on minimum house size and amenities. Is this a widespread thing? Would an expression of “smaller, lower amenity housing” be the standard mobile home neighborhood?
- pchristensen 3y ago
  Basically everywhere in the USA (and I believe most of the world) has restrictions on minimum house size, maximum building coverage on the lot, height limits, setbacks from property lines, room sizes, etc, etc, etc. Mobile home parks are one way to have lower cost housing, but far from the only one. They are much less common than in the past, as they are being regulated and bought out of existence.
- bombcar 3y ago
  The restrictions are ones of practicality. There's a "minimum code" house you can build (that has the minimums required wherever possible) and it will be a certain price. But things like utilities, etc will be a "per unit" cost not a "per square foot" cost, but selling the unit is pretty close to "per square foot" so the temptation is to inflate that as best you can to make the per unit costs as minimal as possible. Mobile homes parks are a way to bypass certain slumlord laws; because the slumlord only rents the "land" and the mobile home is owned by the tenant, and lots of slumlord laws don't apply to your own home.
  - adolph 3y ago
    Utilities are a great point. Running water, sewer and electric to a house doesn’t get any cheaper past a minimum threshold that is suitable for a broad range of house sizes.
    - bombcar 3y ago
      The only way to save on utilities is to “bundle” a bunch together as is done with a large apartment building (which often has one or two large commercial utility connections, with their respective costs and maintenance). But for a given building “type” (single family home) the utilities are basically flat rate, with maybe electrical being the only one really increased, at not much cost.
- sn9 3y ago
  Some links if you're interested: https://www.mercatus.org/research/research-papers/do-minimum-lot-size-regulations-limit-housing-supply-texas https://www.mercatus.org/research/research-papers/do-minimum... https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/6/19/do-minimum-lot-size-rules-matter https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/6/19/do-minimum-lot...

adolph 3y ago

> allowing the construction of smaller, lower amenity housing Never heard of restrictions on minimum house size and amenities. Is this a widespread thing? Would an expression of “smaller, lower amenity housing” be the standard mobile home neighborhood?

pchristensen 3y ago
Basically everywhere in the USA (and I believe most of the world) has restrictions on minimum house size, maximum building coverage on the lot, height limits, setbacks from property lines, room sizes, etc, etc, etc. Mobile home parks are one way to have lower cost housing, but far from the only one. They are much less common than in the past, as they are being regulated and bought out of existence.
bombcar 3y ago
The restrictions are ones of practicality. There's a "minimum code" house you can build (that has the minimums required wherever possible) and it will be a certain price. But things like utilities, etc will be a "per unit" cost not a "per square foot" cost, but selling the unit is pretty close to "per square foot" so the temptation is to inflate that as best you can to make the per unit costs as minimal as possible. Mobile homes parks are a way to bypass certain slumlord laws; because the slumlord only rents the "land" and the mobile home is owned by the tenant, and lots of slumlord laws don't apply to your own home.
- adolph 3y ago
  Utilities are a great point. Running water, sewer and electric to a house doesn’t get any cheaper past a minimum threshold that is suitable for a broad range of house sizes.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    The only way to save on utilities is to “bundle” a bunch together as is done with a large apartment building (which often has one or two large commercial utility connections, with their respective costs and maintenance). But for a given building “type” (single family home) the utilities are basically flat rate, with maybe electrical being the only one really increased, at not much cost.
sn9 3y ago
Some links if you're interested: https://www.mercatus.org/research/research-papers/do-minimum-lot-size-regulations-limit-housing-supply-texas https://www.mercatus.org/research/research-papers/do-minimum... https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/6/19/do-minimum-lot-size-rules-matter https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/6/19/do-minimum-lot...