3 ms·

It's fiscally unsustainable if more people want to live there than there are housing units, and prices climb forever. Having denser housing in some places does

It's fiscally unsustainable if more people want to live there than there are housing units, and prices climb forever. Having denser housing in some places does not mean replacing all housing with high density. There are a lot of density options between single-family home suburbs and high-rise towers. Look up "missing middle" housing. The biggest offenders are actual urban areas that should be cities but try to act like suburbs. Let cities be dense, and it will actually take some pressure off of the suburbs. People who work in cities end up living in suburbs even if they don't want to, and then commute in every day and clog up the roads. Most US major cities are still well below major European cities on residential density. If you want rural to remain rural and suburbs to remain suburbs, then let town centers and metro cities fill in density for those who want to live there.

lotsoweiners 3y ago
> The biggest offenders are actual urban areas that should be cities but try to act like suburbs. Got an example?
- stetrain 3y ago
  https://www.stockingblue.com/article/1008/eu-and-us-cities-by-population-density-of-urban-area/ https://www.stockingblue.com/article/1008/eu-and-us-cities-b... US cities are generally fairly low density. That pushes more people to the suburbs, or low density suburb-like development at the edge of the city, driving up prices there and adding commuter traffic that the city pays to handle. If people want to live in the suburbs that's fine, but given housing prices in most cities I think there is greater demand than supply for residential there.
- stetrain 3y ago
  If you'd like a specific example: https://www.sparefoot.com/moving/city-guides/4385319-visualizing-atlantas-population-density/ https://www.sparefoot.com/moving/city-guides/4385319-visuali... Really any city that you can think of that's surrounded by a spaghetti tangle of highways full of commuters every morning and evening, which is most of them in the US.

lotsoweiners 3y ago

> The biggest offenders are actual urban areas that should be cities but try to act like suburbs. Got an example?

stetrain 3y ago
https://www.stockingblue.com/article/1008/eu-and-us-cities-by-population-density-of-urban-area/ https://www.stockingblue.com/article/1008/eu-and-us-cities-b... US cities are generally fairly low density. That pushes more people to the suburbs, or low density suburb-like development at the edge of the city, driving up prices there and adding commuter traffic that the city pays to handle. If people want to live in the suburbs that's fine, but given housing prices in most cities I think there is greater demand than supply for residential there.
stetrain 3y ago
If you'd like a specific example: https://www.sparefoot.com/moving/city-guides/4385319-visualizing-atlantas-population-density/ https://www.sparefoot.com/moving/city-guides/4385319-visuali... Really any city that you can think of that's surrounded by a spaghetti tangle of highways full of commuters every morning and evening, which is most of them in the US.