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Nobody wants this. The old pro-growthers already have their houses; they are the Boomers that the Millennials and Zoomers hate. They tend to be NIMBY (though they are not BANANA - build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone). The Millennials are pro-urban, environmentalist and anti-sprawl, and don't see how this keeps them from getting houses; at best they want to build dense multiplexes for other people to move into so they can get a house. Many ARE BANANA, in effect. The Zoomers just see what the Boomers have and want it right now, especially if it means sending great-grandma to a home.
If you try to build, the Millennials will scream about corrupt developers and also demand "affordable housing" instead. Nobody wants to develop this and the old Boomers don't want affordable housing anywhere near them.
(Gen X, as usual, doesn't count)
Apartments are houses!
Around the world, people live in apartments, have children in them, and sustain rich communities inside of them. I fail to understand why apartments are antithetical to housing ? Its a uniquely American (anglo) obsession. I grew up in a residential apartment building in India, and it was great ! A neighborhood must have narrow-enough (safe) streets, few cars and enough parks. That's all you need to make it friendly towards children. Suburban Culs-de-sac achieve this by limiting car entry and making everyone have their own park in their own house. But nothing about dense apartments stops a community from achieving the same things.
In the US, NIMBYs have made it difficult to build apartments. So apartments can only be built in undesirable places (eg:highways) or loud places for singles (city downtowns). In their working years, Americans are forced to live in either shitty or lifeless apartments. Inevitably, they hate apartments, and move into houses as soon as they can afford it. Once they buy houses, they become NIMBYs, keeping apartments shitty and lifeless. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.
I randomly chose a bunch of suburbs and residential neighborhoods of peer cities to the US. Random Paris suburb, Geneva, Istanbul ourskirts, Mumbai, Bangkok outskirts. What about these places is hostile to families ?
Even in the US itself. Brooklyn, Queens, SF or Seattle have great example of apartment-dominant residential neighborhoods that are still desirable for families and accessible from public transportation.
Yes, some millenials have gotten radicalized into doomerist (managed decline) and communist (subsidize demand) beliefs. They're loud, but very much a minority. The majority just want to live in a nice apartment in a neighborhood they like.
No, apartments are pods, in the "live in the pod and eat the bugs" sense. With a few exceptions for the ultra-rich, they're small, dark, cramped, noisy spaces that you can only enter and leave by passing by multiple other neighbors, at which point you are not in your outdoor space (which you don't have) but out on the street.
And why aren't you still there?
I now live in NYC, in an even smaller (personal preference, I can afford bigger) apartment. So.....clearly I like it.
Idk if you're rage-baiting or sincere. There is no way you actually believe that about apartments. You're describing a prison, not an apartment.
Apartments have better sunlight and ventilation than SFHs because they sit higher up. An apartment is only as noisy as the cars on the street below. Live by the highway, suffer from noise. Live on a side-street, and it is quiet.
Engaging with your neighbors is as optional as engaging with suburban neighbors. You may see them once in a while, but that's about it. In my current apartment, I don't know their names and barely see them. In previous apartments, we were of similar age groups and became friends. If you buy a condo, you're expected to vet your neighbors like you'd vet your suburban neighbors. You can choose your own adventure.
Apartments can have patios or balconies. The building usually has a shared rooftop and a shared back-yard. I don't get the obsession with large private outdoors. The whole point of staying in apartment is to be in a dense city where one can walk to whichever amenity they want. Want to play a sport -> walk to the sports ground. Want serenity -> walk to the local garden. want to play with your dog -> walk to the local park. As a bonus, all of them are better maintained than anything I could manage on my own.
This is emphatically not the case for every NYC apartment I've ever been in. The dismal, exclusively artificial lighting and contant stench of foul, artificial scents are the two biggest reasons I would cite for never wanting to live there. I married a NYer, and the time I spent either visiting her or with her visiting family were just horrid on that regard.
Have you ever actually spent time in a decent house on a decent lot with actual trees? This might be a "fish doesn't know what water is" situation. I've literally come home from day trips to NYC blowing black snot.
Yes. I've lived in rural and suburban areas. Sunlight was worse. There was nothing to do. I hated it. I'll give you this. The air was cleaner in the rural town. But, the suburb didn't breathe better than NYC.
NYC is large. Times Square, Harlem and Hell's Kitchen suck balls. NYC proper has the same population as Arizona. It matters where you live. Visitors get a skewed image of NYC because all the hotels and touristy bits are in the most concrete-clad and crowded part of the most crowded city. I sounds like your opinion of NYC is informed by those few neighborhoods.
Once you leave those neighborhoods, NYC quickly becomes livable. The subway remains smelly. But, the streets feel pleasant, or smell of hotdogs and halal carts. Either way, I approve. I haven't visited the Bronx or Staten Island much. But, Brooklyn and Queens have a ton of green spaces. Everyone living North of 50th street in Manhattan can walk to Central Park. If you need more, you can live beside Prospect Park.
That being said, I've heard NYC was worse in the 90s. Maybe things have gotten better since. Even today, Shitty NYC apartments are shitty. But a shitty trailer park home is shitty too. Poverty sucks in general.
This seems crazy to me. Maybe in a choice Manhattan skyrise. Most of my experience was Brooklyn on the 14th floor and sunlight was about as rare as integrity in a congressman. Being high up isn't a boon when all the surrounding buildings are even higher! Most people don't get to live on the top floors.
This I'll give you. For certain categories of "to do", NYC can't be beat.
This I disagree with. I'm a walker; I feel claustrophobic if I can't go for a walk for a few hours every few days. The weeks I spent in Brooklyn felt cramped and dismal, cloying and choking.
Manhattan is marginally nicer. Central Park is fine. But my small town has multiple comparable parks in easy distance, and just walking down the street feels closer to a "green space" than a city. Admittedly, it helps that I'm in what is basically an old colonial suburb, not some Arizona step-and-repeat.
You have multiple 800 acre parks within walking distance of your house? How does that work?
I have one 2000 acre park within walking distance of my house (1.1 miles) and one 400 acre park 3.5 miles away. And another 2000 acre one about 8 miles away that I sometimes bike to and through. Fortunately I also have a car.
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