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0 pointsjoshl325323y ago0 comments

You can argue against someone's opinion, but you shouldn't degrade their intellect to make your point.

There's a growing demand for mid-density mixed-use land because younger generations cannot afford SFHs, more incline to take public transportation, more things to do, pub/bars/live music than SFH with backyards that caters more to families with kids.

Urban sprawl happened for many decades because of cheap and abundance of land, less population so gridlocks are not as big of a deal. But now it's very hard to change the zoning or land-use to increase the density because of NIMBYs, even for suburbs that are within miles from downtown core.

So yeah, try to understand instead of just attacking them as "without brains".

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pessimizer3y ago

> There's a growing demand for mid-density mixed-use land because younger generations cannot afford SFHs, more incline to take public transportation, more things to do, pub/bars/live music than SFH with backyards that caters more to families with kids.

These are only unmet demands limited to a few cities that young wealthy educated surburbanites flocked to as a group, thereby making them very expensive. Instead of detailing my unremarkable life, apartment, and neighborhood in Chicago. I'll just say that not everybody has to live in SF, Seattle, Austin, or whatever the next desirable place is. If you can't afford it, there are other places available. It isn't like there aren't tech jobs in Chicago, or remote.

Apocryphon3y ago

> I'll just say that not everybody has to live in SF, Seattle, Austin, or whatever the next desirable place is.

That's easy to say, but prior to the pandemic and the sudden shift to WFH, the trend was flying in the face of this droll advice. Tech hubs are consolidating. But since then, we've seen transplants buy up housing in other markets and simply spread the same issues of traffic and housing prices there too, as we've seen in markets like Phoenix, Boise, Salt Lake City, (though admittedly some of these are starting to fall). Take people out of Austin and they just end up flooding Nashville, or Raleigh, or Charlotte. New Yorkers are resettling in Philadelphia. Peter Thiel says Florida real estate prices are comparable to California now. And so on.

kolanos3y ago

For reference, Belgium is roughly the size of Maryland, which is the 42nd largest U.S. state (out of 50). The U.S. is big and is mostly empty.

newaccount20213y ago

My issue with the StrongTowns set is they only want homes built for the use-case thirty-one year-old single office workers. They can't imagine anything else and they are quick to denigrate people who want a yard and a driveway as knuckle-dragging apes being duped by oil companies and SUV manufacturers.

Closely related are the people who ask over and over again why everyone in the US can't ride bikes like they do in Belgium. I'll tell you why - my backyard is bigger than Belgium. But don't worry, once the typical HN reader hits 65 you will see a sharp decline in the suggestions that everyone ride bikes everywhere.

Some of us want: a yard. A garage. Space between us and a neighbor. Enough room for a family of four.

I absolutely don't see the StrongTowns model as an unassailable good - I have no desire to share a wall with my neighbors.

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