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CA just did this. Now you get more Apartments, which means more crime. These things have consequences. Almost all of our local crime comes from existing Apartment buildings. Either that or the homeless. They still aren't affordable for most. But hey, you can rent a box near the beach for 2500 a month.
Eliminate section 8 entirely. No tenants paying $50/month while the government picks up the other $2500. I mentioned in another thread that when you combine diversity plus drug use you get crime. Subsidized housing is a third factor that adds to crime. Give people something for nothing, and you tend to get disorder. Humans need to work for their bread. If we had no subsidized housing, and people's homes went into foreclosure and they were kicked out and the homes resold within months of missing payments, instead of years, I guarantee you there would be less crime, and the inner cities of America's blue cities would be in substantially better shape.
And yet both nominally and proportionally there are several times more Western Europeans living in the US than the other way around. Same general thing with Canadians.
Not sure what that has to do with the price of tea in China.
What, building neighborhoods for people, not cars? Not going to happen as long as the fossil fuel industry and automakers keep politicians on short leash.
yes, we're not building density because the oil and auto industry has control over politicians at the local level.
When I was a kid, we rode bikes and sought out vacant lots and the woods so that we could hang out without each others parents watching us. Now I am forty years removed from childhood and I admit I don't know what children of today want. Is it really mixed use development or are adults using children as a guise for getting what they want?
Last edited by AtkinsonDan; 06-16-2022 at 10:46 AM..
Then why does it work in the Netherlands? Where elementary schools are filled with bicycle racks with all the kids riding side by side to school, and crossing villages on bike to meet kids in neighboring towns to skateboard or play soccer or go to a choir practice after school and/or weekends? I mean this is a gold standard for not just happy kids but 2 working parents who can’t afford to pay for nanny care, childcare , camps, daycares , and in the Netherlands this is liberating and kids are not stuck in a house.
You might say is this safe? Very low crime and it’s that kids are all outside in large numbers and there’s enough people traffic along the same pathways that there’s lots of eyes on the kids. The other thing making Netherlands safer is bikes replacing cars leading to much fewer crossings of pedestrians into high speed traffic and paths mostly overpass highways or tunnel beneath them
A whole bunch of things add to European affordability
1) You don’t need a car or car insurance
2) Childcare costs replaced with independence of movement for kids at a younger age
3) Housing units and sizes are smaller BECAUSE the general outdoors is a bigger component of living
4) Very low cost for heat and A/C (this is partly climate more temperate in Europe with less humidity). A/C is the largest component of Electricity bill
5) Wi-Fi hotspots much more abundant and even private Wi-Fi is cheaper per month as are phone data plans …. Only the apple iPhone is around the same price everywhere but that’s a one-time cost and you can go with older used smart phones just fine
6) Medical care is taxed automatically and you pay very little if any for medical bills
7) Much cheaper out of pocket tuition for higher education.
If this isn’t enough, you also have much more generous paid parental leave for newborns
It works in the Netherlands because it's the Netherlands; that's their culture. Same reason something similar works in China.
But what does that have to do with the USA? We have an entirely different culture here. Stop trying to force the USA to adopt other culture's way of living.
Go live in Amsterdam if you like it so much.
Americans work hard for the American Dream, which is to be able to afford to live where you want, not where you're forced to. Most don't want to live in a small box crammed in with others. But those that do, do. They live in cities. We already have those.
Your "people of all races/cultures live together in harmony void of socio-economic friction" is fantasy.
This entire premise sounds like a theoretical exercise in a college course on social planning. It won't work in reality.
Or Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen. Rather nice places, actually.
I'm spending the workweek in Las Vegas (for my sins). Endless sprawl of cookie-cutter beige houses, all alike. No stores, no cafes or restaurants, nothing but boring suburbia for miles. It's about the most depressing thing there is. But the cars are well taken care of, with multi-lane roads everywhere.
and those you mentioned are MAJOR CITIES...and many of those have what the OP describes in option A (Paris has high crime in the downtown area, not considered to be safe for anyone walking ALONE)
"downtown is dangerous to ever leave kids alone, car accidents are a big risk for kids failing to look both ways, kids can’t travel anywhere without mom or dad basically, childcare is very expensive with 2 parents working, kids stay inside get fat and watch YouTube and TV bored"
meanwhile my suburban village is like option B
Option B: Your home is walk/bike distance from school and items you need are storefronts blocks down the sidewalk, your friends live on the same street, kids commute to field hockey, park activities , and school by bike pedestrian-friendly paths and park bikes at school, it’s perfectly safe, perfectly normal kids can hang out with other kids and it’s high volume of people biking same paths so whereabouts of kids are consistent
Not sure what that has to do with the price of tea in China.
The logic is simple. If it sucks so badly here and Western Europe is so great why do so many more Western Euros. decide to live here than the reverse?
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