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Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

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Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#21

Post by vkou »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

The suburbs don't actually present a solution to this. There is no more nature in them than there is in any other urban environment. It's all manicured lawns and endless pavement, and you can't even walk to a park, because getting anywhere requires hopping into a car.

If you want to see nature, you have to live way out in the boonies, on at a minimum, two-acre lots. If everyone lived like that, we'd all have two-hour commutes on twenty-lane highways.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#22

Post by aiyen »

ahartmetz wrote: post #15
throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

I live in Berlin, which contains many trees and parks. One of the nicest quarters of Berlin is Gartenstadt (garden city) Frohnau, which feels like houses in the forest - at decent density. So it doesn't have to be either city or nature. But I'm afraid that current cost structures and short-term thinking make another Gartenstadt very unlikely. Well. It may be that this kind of place only really works as a suburb. It d…

Same for the Netherlands. Urban cities integrated with nature. Large parks that can be easily biked to. It’s a great balance. It’s harder to have the best of both worlds in the United States though.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#23

Post by NumberWangMan »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

To give a different perspective, I enjoyed the parks much more living in London than I do now, living in a sprawling suburb in the Dallas metroplex. In London I could walk to the park in 5 minutes. Here I'm lucky that it's only about a 7 minute walk, but the walk to and from is much less pleasant, having to cut through alleys and paths that were clearly an afterthought, while the park itself feels much more urban/artificial than the ones in London did.

(To be fair, London has great parks)

Density can coexist with ample green space. Remember that you don't need anything like Manhattan density to make things walkable. In my book, suburbs are only a problem to the degree that their design forces driving on residents. My vision for a perfect city has plenty of parks.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#24

Post by adenozine »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #2

Wouldn’t be an NPR blog post without bringing up colonialism, and sure enough, there it is.

Wouldn't be a HN comment without a hand-waving dismissal of an incredibly nuanced and historically complex topic due to a perceived inconvenience of frequent observation.

If there was any light where your head is, you'd see your last meal.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#25

Post by jltsiren »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

When I've lived in a dense city, there have always been large natural areas within walking distance. The ideal is something like 1/2 of the land as lots, 1/3 as parks, and 1/6 for streets and other paved areas. "Parks" includes both developed urban parks and larger forested/coastal areas with wide walking trails. The trade-off is that there is not much space for ground-level parking, and most people commuting from outside the city must use public transport.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#26

Post by aix1 »

tjr225 wrote: post #11
throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

You’re presenting a false dichotomy. There are plenty of dense places with incredible nature within just an hours drive. In the USA, Maybe not so much outside of the West Coast of the USA however. Personally, living in a city close to nature(seattle area) has been the best thing for me so far in my life; I have spent a stupid amount of money making it happen but wouldn’t trade it for anything. On the flip side it’s n…

Yes, this is absolutely a false dichotomy. I live in Zurich, with access to varied nature (hills, lake, river) all within a 15 minutes' walk and lots of stunning scenery easily accessible by train.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#27

Post by radicality »

0des wrote: post #12

Nature has an allure, whether it is a window by your desk, or plants in your office. This year I made a resolution to add more plants to my office and home, and slowly both are filling up with various ferns and mosses and other indoor plants. The relaxing effects of being able to walk over to the garden shelf and have my thoughts to myself while I inspect them is something you don't get to enjoy often. If you find yo…

Any resources you can recommend to learn more about house plants / how to choose them / how to care for them? So far I have a snake plant and an orchid but want to get more.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#28

Post by throwaway894345 »

tjr225 wrote: post #11
throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

You’re presenting a false dichotomy. There are plenty of dense places with incredible nature within just an hours drive. In the USA, Maybe not so much outside of the West Coast of the USA however. Personally, living in a city close to nature(seattle area) has been the best thing for me so far in my life; I have spent a stupid amount of money making it happen but wouldn’t trade it for anything. On the flip side it’s n…

Yeah, I didn’t mean to frame it as a dichotomy, but it was a HN comment so I didn’t explore the full depth of nuance, and it was scoped to the US. Yes, some places are dense while still allowing some access to nature.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#29

Post by evancox100 »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

The more you let people build up, the more ground can be left as green space. No one is against park.

Land area/space in general is not scarce. What is scarce is land area near job centers (or more broadly, near where people want to spend their time outside the home.) The more you spread people out, the more car dependent the city, necessitating more roads and parking lots.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#30

Post by throwaway894345 »

NumberWangMan wrote: post #23
throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

To give a different perspective, I enjoyed the parks much more living in London than I do now, living in a sprawling suburb in the Dallas metroplex. In London I could walk to the park in 5 minutes. Here I'm lucky that it's only about a 7 minute walk, but the walk to and from is much less pleasant, having to cut through alleys and paths that were clearly an afterthought, while the park itself feels much more urban/art…

When I was talking about nature, I wasn’t thinking about city parks, but rather proper forests and mountains. City parks don’t do it for me—I need to get away from the cars and crowds. But to your point, yes, there are lots of cities with great city parks for those who are content with that sort of thing.
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