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Another fallacy the anti-urbanist crowd makes is in assuming the urbanists want every place to look like Hong Kong.
One of the nicest classic small towns in the country was the creation of two of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Of course, I'm talking about Seaside, Fla., the town that's so picture-postcard perfect in its appearance that it played the role of a massive stage set in the movie "The Truman Show."
And while there are those who would rather every urban area look like Manhattan, there are many who argue for more density without moving everyone into a skyscraper. Simple changes in existing zoning, like allowing accessory apartments on single-family house lots or changing the zoning to allow muitl-unit small apartment buildings, can increase density too: a block of single-family houses doubles in density when they all get granny flats or in-law apartments built within them or on their lots.
(As I type this, I have in my mind's eye a picture of a late-1940s rowhouse block in a Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood up the road from me. The rowhouses on this block are divided into four blocks of rows, and at the ends of each block, you will find a four-unit apartment house, same number of stories and dimensions as the others on the block. Of course, the apartments have less interior space than the houses, but they offer options that allow single individuals, young couples starting out, or older residents downsizing to continue to live on that block. Were every rowhouse in between these turned into a duplex, you'd get almost double the density of dwelling units without making the block any more densely built.)
Simply outlawing mandatory single-family residential districts, as Minneapolis has done, is a start.
Yup, urbanity comes in many forms, even in rural America. The idyllic, classic American Main St. is urban. My city (Somerville, MA) is one of the densest in United States (over 18,000 per square mile). This is a typical street. Not Manhattan or Hong Kong by a long shot, but dense, walkable, and very livable. COVID-19 isn't going to change that.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Originally Posted by lrfox
Yup, urbanity comes in many forms, even in rural America. The idyllic, classic American Main St. is urban. My city (Somerville, MA) is one of the densest in United States (over 18,000 per square mile). This is a typical street. Not Manhattan or Hong Kong by a long shot, but dense, walkable, and very livable. COVID-19 isn't going to change that.
Likewise, people like us that bought in a place with a much lower density (2,500/Sq Mile)did so for many reasons other than a potential pandemic. People just never thought about something like this virus in selecting a home before. Still, it's good to see that with 65,000 residents we had only 18 positive tests to date, no deaths.
Puhlease. New York was in serious decline and financial jeopardy before coronavirus. Now local government has an excuse for cover.
As noted by Kotkin,
In the long run, the extraordinary concentration of COVID-19 cases in New York threatens an economy and a social fabric that were already unraveling before the outbreak began. The city’s job growth rate has slowed and was slated to decline further, noted the New York City Independent Budget Office. Critically, New York’s performance in such high wage fields as business services, finance, and tech was weakening compared to other American metros. Half of all the city’s condos built since 2015 lie unsold as oligarchs, drug lords, celebrities, and others lose interest in luxury real estate now that cash, much of it from China, is drying up.
But it’s not just the ultrarich who are heading to the exits. Even before the virus hit, large urban centers like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago were losing population; over 90% of all population growth since 2010 had taken place in the suburbs or exurbs. Even millennials, as demonstrated in a Heartland Forward report, are moving away from the supposed “magnets” of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, to the sprawling cities and towns in the middle of the country.
One thing high density cities offer is no shortage of urbanists looking for ways to extract more money from residents/property owners in order to fund their bankrupt lifestyle https://www.citylab.com/transportati...ricing/579262/
Not sure what Walker refers to by "the city" - the legal entity, the people, the infrastructure, something else? He can tout the "virtues" of New York and there will likely be people with short memories, no prior experience, no choice, or who are unaware of alternatives deciding to move there or to stay. They can wade through flesh crushing density, take pride in their lack of private space, relish their overshared public space, brag about their $100 billion deferred transit maintenance and failing transit system, recognize their high susceptibility to pandemics, and pay ever increasing taxes for such perks. But there's nothing wrong with others criticizing the "paradigm" that urbanists want to impose on those others.
Can you please show proof showing that NYC was in serious decline before the coronavirus. The people work the most to say usually show the smallest amount of facts.
Please also respond with numbers right away and not more small talk.
It is a matter of frequency of contact with others and the availability of a personal space zone. The suburbs and exurbs provide much easier social distancing. I shop in stores that are nowhere near as crowded as city streets and public transportation and even then I am only in those stores for a half hour or less. In the city I would have hours of contact each day with potentially infected people rather than just minutes per week in the low density suburbs and exurbs.
Of course it is worth mentioning that cities would be safe from many pandemics if we permanently restricted intercontinental travel. The internet can replace most business travel and personal travel is generally an unnecessary luxury.
The rates of the disease don’t mirror the dentist cities list. But I guess since NYC is number one on the list it’s easy to just make that point.
San Fran and LA are much more dense than Detroit and NOLA yet Detroit and NOLA have higher rates.
Before modern medicine no city anywhere in the world exceeded around a population of 1 million residents. This was due to cities being more ideal for transmission of germs. Pandemics would come through every century and wipe out 1/3 of the urban population.
I think Main St level density does not create more pandemic prone environment but Manhattan dense absolutely does.
Funny cause Manhattan has second to least cases in NYC. Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens have much more cases and are all less dense than Manhattan.
Hell yeah, at least now people will realize that living on top of each other isn't really a great idea when it comes to public health..
With respect to owning a car and not using public transportation, with the predictions that people will gravitate towards electric cars in the next 20 years, the carbon footprint is greatly reduced too.. There is nothing wrong with owning a house with a yard and having a car and being able to drive to any place you want..
Well you can’t do that in all cities so let’s stick to being realistic. Because I don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars to park my car or have to circle the block for hours looking for parking will passing parking spaces dedicated to trucks making deliveries.
And how about Dallas or Houston or any other city? There are plenty of car oriented cities in this country are doing fine..
Houston and Dallas have horrible traffic try again.
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