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I think framing people "staying put" in a solely negative light paints an incomplete picture. I'd bet that the biggest reason people stay put is not anti-social

by cle 2y ago

I think framing people "staying put" in a solely negative light paints an incomplete picture. I'd bet that the biggest reason people stay put is not anti-social but pro-social--tight community, cultural, and family bonds.

bruce511 2y ago
No doubt. As I said, the homing instinct is strong. We build in risky areas because we've lived there all our lives. Perhaps we should build different though to mitigate risk. It's not hard to build a fire-proof house. Or one that's flood resistant. Or hurricane proof...
- baq 2y ago
  Concrete is nice if you don’t want the whole house to burn down, it’s required in some places. Also, some minimum distance between buildings and regulations about what you can plant in the yard. There are folks who’ll say it’s taking away their freedoms and they’re actually right, it’s just we don’t want to pay for an army firefighters for when their respecting their freedoms puts the neighborhood in danger. (I’ve got nothing against firefighters - but if they aren’t needed as much, they can be not firefighters and contribute in a different way.)
throwup238 2y ago
That's definitely the case in Altadena which is a historically minority neighborhood. The cities south of Altadena like Pasadena and South Pasadena were redlined by real estate agents for decades after desegregation, which forced African Americans and Latinos to settle the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains at that wildland-urban boundary. Lots of people lost homes that have been in their families since the 60s and 70s. Who knows? If not for those policies, Pasadena could have been built denser and Altadena could have been miles of flat natural reserve that acts as a large firebreak where firefighters can easily fight the flames before they threaten thousands of structures, with frequent prescribed burns to keep the fuel load down. That's probably the real kind of conversation we should be having of municipalities easing housing restrictions to build denser and the state buying up large swathes of these wildland adjacent communities to create larger breaks between the hills and the houses.

by cle 2y ago

bruce511 2y ago

No doubt. As I said, the homing instinct is strong. We build in risky areas because we've lived there all our lives. Perhaps we should build different though to mitigate risk. It's not hard to build a fire-proof house. Or one that's flood resistant. Or hurricane proof...

baq 2y ago
Concrete is nice if you don’t want the whole house to burn down, it’s required in some places. Also, some minimum distance between buildings and regulations about what you can plant in the yard. There are folks who’ll say it’s taking away their freedoms and they’re actually right, it’s just we don’t want to pay for an army firefighters for when their respecting their freedoms puts the neighborhood in danger. (I’ve got nothing against firefighters - but if they aren’t needed as much, they can be not firefighters and contribute in a different way.)

throwup238 2y ago

That's definitely the case in Altadena which is a historically minority neighborhood. The cities south of Altadena like Pasadena and South Pasadena were redlined by real estate agents for decades after desegregation, which forced African Americans and Latinos to settle the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains at that wildland-urban boundary. Lots of people lost homes that have been in their families since the 60s and 70s. Who knows? If not for those policies, Pasadena could have been built denser and Altadena could have been miles of flat natural reserve that acts as a large firebreak where firefighters can easily fight the flames before they threaten thousands of structures, with frequent prescribed burns to keep the fuel load down. That's probably the real kind of conversation we should be having of municipalities easing housing restrictions to build denser and the state buying up large swathes of these wildland adjacent communities to create larger breaks between the hills and the houses.