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Europe just seems to go for much more mid-rise high-density neighborhoods compared to the US with skyscrapers in the city center and then sprawling suburbs that
by WJW 2y ago
Europe just seems to go for much more mid-rise high-density neighborhoods compared to the US with skyscrapers in the city center and then sprawling suburbs that are so low-density you can barely get out of them without a car.
- arethuza 2y agoWhat I found most surprising about a lot of US city "downtowns" is how utterly dead they are in the evenings and at weekends.
- fosk 2y agoThey are also dangerous and that’s also a big reason why nobody hangs out there after a certain time. European downtowns are family friendly and actually nice and safe, unlike the US.
- brnt 2y agoI think the comment about Kansas City shows that the big reason nobody hangs out there is that nobody actually lives there. And so since after 18:00 everybody these huge, built-up areas are suddenly available, you create excellent conditions for things that'll keep people from going there. The 'secret' of European downtowns is that they are not uninhabited.
- nervousvarun 2y agoThe answer is crime. It's always crime.
- User23 2y agoThis is why you hear about a housing affordability problem in Washington DC despite a quick search showing dozens of recent sales for 2-3 bedroom apartments for under $100,000. There never was a housing shortage, there’s just a shortage of people willing to live in vibrant urban neighborhoods.
- mtran381 2y agoI think you might need to look closer because the HOA or coop fees are insane.
- ThunderSizzle 2y agoYou say vibrant. I would say crime-ridden and politically charged. Houses that are in bad areas where no one wants to live willingly isn't part of acceptable housing inventory.
- red-iron-pine 2y ago> vibrant urban neighborhoods. is that a euphemism? DC used to lead the nation in murder rate for decades -- the DC basketball team used to be the Washington Bullets, which stopped being ironic and funny after a couple years. There are still DC neighborhoods where the police won't send cops without 3+ cars of backup. DC has gotten much better but is still like #12 or #13 in the US, and it's bad areas are still very bad. The rest of the Fed-Gov areas in the city are locked down hard, but no one lives there, and nearby areas Georgetown or Tenleytown are expensive. Source: from the area, went to AU, had to do background investigations on dudes in SE DC.
- nervousvarun 2y agoI guess one man's "vibrant" is another man's "violent".
- baby 2y agoWith remote work they are dead all the time now
- jagger27 2y agoThe death of the third place is far more important than any impact remote work has had.
- glompers 2y agoThird place is a specific term for those who have not been familiarized: "In sociology, the third place refers to the social surroundings that are separate from the two usual social environments of home ("first place") and the workplace ("second place")." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
- baby 2y agoNot sure i get your point
- jagger27 2y agoIf all that existed in those now dead downtown neighbourhoods were offices then of course they’d be dead with a significant disruption to work. What’s missing are still third places, and probably first places too.