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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   29197 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 31, 2023

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There is more availability of dense neighborhoods than there is demand for them. Yes, many of those dense neighborhoods are not particularly nice, but my not-particularly-nice sprawling suburb has more demand to live in it than supply of housing. The fact of the matter is that most people have a revealed preference for less density.

There is more availability of dense neighborhoods than there is demand for them.

And that's why you can get an apartment in a major metropolis downtown for $50k.

"Downtown" and "dense neighborhoods" are different things. In my city, downtown is a bunch 30 story office buildings, a stadium and some restaurants. It's pretty much empty by 6pm on weekdays. If we're talking about dense, walkable neighborhoods in major cities then yeah you can definitely do that.

Here's a whole house for $40k: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1421-Granville-Pl-Saint-Louis-MO-63112/2966082_zpid/

This isn't even a dense neighborhood. It's a bunch of detached houses and empty lots. Not exactly a slam dunk argument.

It's densely packed houses without big yards, 10 minute walk to a grocery store or restaurants. Of course there's always going to be some reason why it doesn't count.

If you think that a place where 25%-50% of each block is empty is dense I don't know what to tell you. I guess there will always be some ghetto that needs to be passed off as a dense area to advance the argument.

A village of 100 people is also highly walkable to all available amenities but it's not dense.

It’s a dense neighborhood that happens to be empty because no one wants to live there, because the supply of dense walkable neighborhoods exceeds the demand.

Americans really do be thinking that density is when half the block is empty.

Half the block is empty because no one wants to live there and you can say that’s because it’s a shithole, but shithole neighborhoods in Atlanta which aren’t walkable have no difficulty filling up. The fact of the matter is that Americans don’t want dense walkable neighborhoods. They want to spread out.

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