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Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

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Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#291

Post by kiba »

tsunamifury wrote: post #252
ben-schaaf wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we liked living together we wouldn’t be so car centric It's entirely the other way around, car centric planning results in less community. It's much easier to be angry at the other 2t metal boxes than at your fellow human being. American cities used to be just like European cities: designed for walking, mixed use developments, small shops, public transportation everywhere. It's only after the delusion of the car…

You know I used to believe that for many years and I’ve come to the conclusion that this is just a “bike-city” circle jerk scapegoating Robert Moses in order to ignore our deeper problem: Americans don’t like each-other. We would have built better cities if we wanted carless communities. But we didn’t and still don’t. We want this. This is what we like. We are a sick people. And it isn’t Robert Moses and GMs fault, t…

This is inaccurate.

The GM conspiracy bought streetcar companies to replace them with buses, not to eliminate public transportation.

The reality is that streetcar companies were already unprofitable, killed by infrastructure cars and poor urban planning. So it was already easy for GM to buy these companies.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#292

Post by throwawayboise »

acdha wrote: post #285
tsunamifury wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know I used to believe that for many years and I’ve come to the conclusion that this is just a “bike-city” circle jerk scapegoating Robert Moses in order to ignore our deeper problem: Americans don’t like each-other. We would have built better cities if we wanted carless communities. But we didn’t and still don’t. We want this. This is what we like. We are a sick people. And it isn’t Robert Moses and GMs fault, t…

> Americans don’t like each-other. Specifically white Americans want to avoid living with brown Americans. Once segregation was no longer law, it launched a wave of destruction for public infrastructure: pools, schools, transit, even things like sidewalks all became things to oppose if they had to be shared.

It's more than that. Jews, Asians (individually, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, etc), Italians, Polish, Irish, Arabic ... all segregated into their own neighborhoods. The "melting pot" was never really real. We are a nation of immigrants that never really got along with one another except when common interests were threatened.

I don't know that it's uniquely American thing either, I think this happens anywhere that different cultures come together. Humans are deeply tribal.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#293

Post by leicapowerball »

deltaonefour wrote: post #4

I thought about getting a job there as a dev. However certain things like culture, low pay, the language, and making new friends has held me back. I really loved the city when I visited a couple years back. Does anyone live in Japan as a dev and not really know how to speak japanese? How has the experience been?

I worked there for two years as an engineer for a multinational without speaking Japanese. The primary language of my team was english so the workdays were fine. I eventually was able to speak enough broken Japanese to order at restaurants, cafes, etc but anything beyond that was impossible for me. I know there are a few companies (Google, Facebook) that are hiring engineers in Japan where English is the primary language used. I have heard that there are also some native Japanese companies, like Mercari, where a significant amount of English is used as well.

I found that not speaking Japanese was not that big of a deal especially if you live in central Tokyo or one of the suburbs that have a lot of expats. Most businesses that you would likely frequent will have english menus or speak enough broken english to get by. I had a few health problems while I was out there and there are several clinics that have native english support.

The thing I found the most difficult about Japan is making Japanese friends. You will always be an outsider and in general Japanese folks just have different expectations when it comes to "work" friends vs "real" friends. You might think you're super close to a colleague from work but in reality you're a total stranger. It's not uncommon to not even know if someone is married or not. On the other hand if you're okay with having mostly expat friends, the community is very welcoming.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#294

Post by zdragnar »

throwaway2331 wrote: post #219
zdragnar wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would think so, but we still get plenty. What used to be a nice, safe neighborhood near uptown no longer is. Leave your car doors unlocked if you park on the street overnight, or else you'll find the windows broken by morning by kids looking for stuff to steal (happened to a coworker, the one night her husband forgot to not lock the doors). In the last two years, theft of catalytic converters from cars, as well a…

Do you live in the PNW? Because that sounds a lot like the PNW. The northern east coast is what I believe the GP was referring to. We don't really have homeless people. I've honestly never seen a homeless person before, until I left. Neither has anyone tried to "get something" out of me, until I went down south or out west. I think it's cultural. The people who had moved out West were those that weren't necessarily s…

nope, upper midewest here. it's been nearly 200 years since the first major non-native settlements were founded here, primarily fur trading, logging and farming. Needless to say, culture has changed rather drastically since then. lots of northern european immigrants in the mix, plus more recently refugee communities from vietnam, somolia and central america.

"grifters, drifters and outcasts" really doesn't describe us at all.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#295

Post by throwawayboise »

tsunamifury wrote: post #235
pakitan wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s pretty easy to understand when you realize Americans don’t like eachother. As a general rule, people don't like each other. In places where people live close to one another it's not because they like it but out of some kind of combination between inertia and necessity.

When I go to France or England or India (city centers and countryside) people may not Love each-other but they seem to generally be ok with being together and cooperating a bit more. In America it’s a whole new level. Except for a few idyllic small towns and suburbs that are actually economically and racially exclusionary that seem to have a faux-community.

Those quaint European neighborhoods, towns and villages are all also racially and culturally homogenous. And where that is changing, there is animosity and discord.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#296

Post by embedder »

echelon wrote: post #278
freshpots wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suburban land is cheaper to buy but far more expensive to service (water, electricity, roads, etc.) and maintain. https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-02/inside-th... Cities are subsidizing your excessive consumption and land use not the other way around.

> Cities are subsidizing your excessive consumption and land use not the other way around. You're making value judgments about me, and they're not even factual. I happen to live in the city. I just see the value of suburbs and the incredible waste, inequality, and ineptitude of cities. Servicing suburbs isn't expensive. With wind and solar, they'll grow even cheaper. Suburbs often have their own municipal water suppl…

With wind and solar, everything grows cheaper. Single family homes are irrefutably less efficient than denser multi-family homes.

https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2014-03/documents/lo...

I won’t disagree with your comments on noise and pollution, because those are real factors, but you are 100% moving goalposts now.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#297

Post by throwawayboise »

ripe wrote: post #157
danielrpa wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does the US need to have traditional cities? I grew up in a high density city overseas and I can see the appeal of both types of city. I personally prefer low density, car centric cities (obviously we need to finish solving the emissions problem from cars, but that's separate).

Forget about the emissions issue, I just hate driving and having to depend on its supporting infrastructure (repair shops, gas stations, insurance...) for my day-to-day needs. I live in a US suburb. Can't even get a sandwich or buy milk or see someone without strapping myself into my fucking car. This is no way to live. If I could, I'd give up ever having to drive again in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, here we have few…

> If I could, I'd give up ever having to drive again in a heartbeat.

Try it. I lived in Chicago years ago, where cars are expensive and inconvenient to own, at least by American standards. I would walk to the grocery store, which was about 4 blocks I guess, about a 10-15 minute walk. So your shop is limited to what you can carry back, so you have to shop every day or every other day, with the walk there, the shop, and the walk home taking the better part of an hour. Every other day or so. And on the way you are accosted by at least one street person asking for money, and with your hands full of grocery bags you feel a bit defenseless. And then there were the rainy days. And the cold days. Not fun walking 10-15 minutes at 6 degrees F with a 20mph wind in your face.

It had its charms, but overall it sucked. I prefer my rural house and easy weekly shop with a car now.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#298

Post by thehappypm »

addicted wrote: post #191
danielrpa wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does the US need to have traditional cities? I grew up in a high density city overseas and I can see the appeal of both types of city. I personally prefer low density, car centric cities (obviously we need to finish solving the emissions problem from cars, but that's separate).

Putting all preferences aside, American suburban living is fiscally unsustainable and supported by massive borrowing. That’s one major reason American infrastructure is so bad. Towns have to balance their books, and that means they cannot afford to maintain their infrastructure until the federal government, which is not legally required to balance its books, borrows a ton of money to give away for basic infrastructur…

I don’t think this makes much sense. It’s mostly big cities like Chicago or Boston (still dealing with Big Dig debt) with trouble financing themselves, suburbia seems to do very well financing itself with its property tax base.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#299

Post by thehappypm »

freshpots wrote: post #276
echelon wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> American suburban living is fiscally unsustainable and supported by massive borrowing. These are city dweller opinions, and they're not going to change continued suburban and rural development. Suburbanites shouldn't have to pay for city subway and potholes. Those are city problems. Suburban and rural land is cheaper, the air is less polluted, and the low crime environments are ideal for raising families. If people…

Suburban land is cheaper to buy but far more expensive to service (water, electricity, roads, etc.) and maintain. https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-02/inside-th... Cities are subsidizing your excessive consumption and land use not the other way around.

Is this really true though? Every infrastructure project in cities seems to cost billions of dollars (Boston’s Green Line Extension, New York’s 2nd Avenue Subway). It would take quite a lot of suburban road, gas, electric etc infrastructure to add up to anything close to that.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#300

Post by snakeboy »

tsunamifury wrote: post #262
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that for a series of reasons, during the 20th century the US built a lot of infrastructure that allows a lot (not all!) people to get further away from each other than is typical in Europe (probably elsewhere too, but I have no experience other than the US & Europe). Neighbors on a street in London don't love but do tolerate each other, and deal with the implications of close proximity and shared…

I agree. If we liked each-other a bit more tho that force wouldn’t be there. I’ll quote the American classic “elbow room” as soft proof. https://youtu.be/aHVx4nqgMPQ

Wow, I had never seen that before. What a bizarre video with a forced tie-in of the whole manifest destiny idea with lunar missions (1976).

It seems to completely ignore the reality of communities and society (and history, for that matter) for an unquestioning expansion of our domain, all wrapped up in this patronizing metaphor about needing "elbow room".

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