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Old 03-13-2017, 08:38 PM
 
28,107 posts, read 63,421,262 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by primusinterpares View Post
The previous tenant in my apartment is a doctor. The nice thing here are the mixed-use buildings. A single or multiple apartments can be repurposed as a place of business. A dentist or doctor can have his/her private practice literally next door on the hallway from where they live. That's a good commute!

Many people luck out with housing. More than half the city live in public/social housing. It doesn't carry the connotation of a slum. The income threshold is quite high - easy to get in. Once you're already in, even if your income rise, you don't have to vacate! Also, the contract rights can be passed to immediate family members. Thirdly, there is really tight control on rent increases. What this means is for natives whose grand grandparents qualified for this program when it was started in the 1920s, 30s...they inherited rental rights to apartments for peanuts!!!--1/5th of free market rates!!!

The bad part on public.holiday is that it falls on dates, not days. A holiday that coincides with Sunday on a particular year does not roll over into Monday. So fewer than 13 days is the reality.

Salzkammergut.....Beautiful place. Dream retirement.
I very much enjoy the culture of Vienna but always happy to return home to the mountains and lakes.

I do find a car is essential except when in Vienna where my car is more of a problem... just like San Francisco is for many.

The landlord/tenant relationship is much different from say Austria to the SF Bay Area...

In a city like San Francisco there are many requirements on a residential landlord and in Austria it is more like renting commercial property in San Francisco...

All of my friends in Vienna paint the insides of their apartments, pay for and install the kitchens and floors... one laughed when I said the she should let the Landlord know the water heater is leaking and she said it is her responsibility and not the property owner...

It simply would not be possible to advertise and apartment for rent in San Francisco without a functional kitchen in place.

I asked what does your landlord do... she said the outside and roof is about it... even the inside hallways are cleaned by residents on a schedule...
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Old 03-14-2017, 12:35 AM
 
6,438 posts, read 6,873,283 times
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A lot of European suburbs are soul-crushing too. It's not really fair to compare the best part of Paris (Boul Mich in the picture above) with a boring American suburb.
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Old 03-15-2017, 06:24 AM
 
Location: USA
6,230 posts, read 6,891,571 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katarina Witt View Post
Really! See this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ion_attainment

We're way higher than Austria, and ahead of Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland (close), France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland (close), Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway (close), Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (close), and the UK (close). The only European country ahead of us is Luxembourg, a country of 543,000 people, a little smaller than Wyoming. In many European countries, the decision about college is made by the schools at age 10 or so.
Yes, that's because college is largely subsidized by the state in most European countries. They don't want to waste resources sending a student to a university who is not capable of doing university level coursework. Here in the US we have this "university for all" mentality, even to the point where professors are forced to "dumb down" the course work to cater to students who should not even be there.
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Old 03-15-2017, 09:22 AM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,244,119 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by s1alker View Post
Yes, that's because college is largely subsidized by the state in most European countries. They don't want to waste resources sending a student to a university who is not capable of doing university level coursework. Here in the US we have this "university for all" mentality, even to the point where professors are forced to "dumb down" the course work to cater to students who should not even be there.
I agree with the part in bold. I was responding to your post stating that Europeans are "educated" and therefore more erudite and don't want kids. Do note we have more college graduates as well. This is not the ed forum.
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Old 03-15-2017, 10:52 AM
 
Location: Finland
24,144 posts, read 24,671,124 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nei View Post
Half of Austrian housing units are detached homes, presumably with some yard? There are huge diffferences between European countries, it's silly to talk about a "European model". One commonality is cities have a dense core, very pedestrian oriented (usually with rather narrow streets). How big those are and how typical they are of a resident differs



Housing statistics - Statistics Explained
Yes indeed. A large chunk of Europeans live in detached houses, but I think the difference is that they are usually in the vicinity of pockets of more dense development, like apartment blocks. This allows for more services, like commercial services and public transport. Pedestrian walkways and bike lanes are everywhere, so even if you live behind those hedges, you're never far to the nearest bus stop, grocery store or school. If you are lucky enough to live in a detached house near the centre, in smaller cities is quite possible to bike without effort to your business in the centre whatever that is.

And the bike-friendliness especially in Northern Europe is not only some Green Party hippie-communist-hipster propaganda. In my city, Turku, which is very bike-friendly city a poll conducted in February showed that 96% of the asked wanted the city to improve the bike infrastructure. 86% were satisfied or happy with the current conditions. Another study showed that 63% of the adult population bikes at least once a week.
Of course, we are 190k people within city limits, so if you're comparing to Houston it's naturally apples vs oranges.
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Old 03-16-2017, 01:35 AM
 
642 posts, read 1,109,922 times
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The whole single-use zoning is what bothers me the most about modern suburban development. That and the amount of wasted land from massive surface parking lots.

For example, here is a newer commercial district, also referred to as a "town center" in NW Albuquerque:



The only outdoor pedestrian activity going on here is in the parking lots.
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Old 03-16-2017, 08:49 AM
 
Location: Land of the Free
6,549 posts, read 6,596,232 times
Reputation: 7385
A lot of the same whining we've been hearing since the 80s and 90s. Fake downtowns with mixed uses, like the appalling Reston Town Center, aren't much better, they're just malls with no roofs and condos next door.

Community precedes any good suburb. One of the biggest differences I've found between Northern VA and Northern CA is the walkable little downtowns that exist all over the Bay Area. Northern Virginia doesn't have this outside of very close-in places like Arlington and Alexandria that were once part of DC. The difference between the two isn't "planning", but the fact that San Mateo and Walnut Creek were actually towns pre-WW2, not just farming communities that were transformed into subdivisions. Many of Boston's suburbs are like this as well.

Most suburbs will remain boring, but this is what a lot of people want.
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Old 03-16-2017, 09:04 AM
 
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,156 posts, read 80,258,802 times
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Our Sammamish Town Center (boundaries in blue) will probably end up built out more, but is currently what I consider to be much more appropriate and desirable than the NW Albuquerque example. Note the green, forested and grass areas.
Attached Thumbnails
A European immigrant moves to USA and explains why he believes US suburbia is soul crushing (article)-tnctr.png  
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Old 03-16-2017, 09:23 AM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,244,119 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140 View Post
Our Sammamish Town Center (boundaries in blue) will probably end up built out more, but is currently what I consider to be much more appropriate and desirable than the NW Albuquerque example. Note the green, forested and grass areas.
"Appropriate"! Such a loaded word.

Of course Sammamish is greener than Albuquerque! Albuquerque is in the desert!

I don't like these "Town Centers" either, just sayin'.
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Old 06-01-2017, 03:32 PM
 
Location: NJ
31,771 posts, read 40,491,712 times
Reputation: 24590
Quote:
Originally Posted by phoenixmike11 View Post
Interesting article on a immigrant moving to USA and desrcibing why he finds suburbs in the USA so depressing

https://qz.com/698928/why-suburbia-sucks/
guy seems like a real miserable person
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