3 ms·
...among other things: years of not building enough housing, plus cost disease on the prices of housing construction, plus Airbnb eating into housing supply, pl
by ajkjk 3y ago
...among other things: years of not building enough housing, plus cost disease on the prices of housing construction, plus Airbnb eating into housing supply, plus most new development being in unwalkable subdevelopments or sterile 5-over-1s* so that the demand for anything walkable gets blown through the roof. I think that's the list?
Edit: oops, how could I forget anti-development zoning and Nimbyist development codes that prevent private solutions?
* I would love to know the actual name, or a good derogatory name, for that type of apartment; they're not all 5-over-1s after all. The real problem is the lifelessness, and that the ground-floor businesses, when they do exist, tend to be depressing and corporate, such that people don't want to pick them over older construction that is better integrated with neighborhoods.
- Hansenq 3y agoThese are called double-loaded corridors, which are basically buildings required by North American fire codes to have two accessible interior stairwells for each unit. Unfortunately due to architectural constraints, this means that all new buildings built in the past few decades have interior "hotel-like" corridors and exterior flat, boxy frames. North America is the only country that requires this type of fire construction--most other countries allow one interior staircase and an exterior staircase out of a window (like a ladder). Without this requirement, you're able to build buildings that are shaped differently, have windows in multiple directions, better support 3/4/5 bedroom condos, and are cheaper. There's a movement to harmonize our fire codes with international standards; you can read more here: https://www.centerforbuilding.org/blog/we-we-cant-build-family-sized-apartments-in-north-america https://www.centerforbuilding.org/blog/we-we-cant-build-fami...