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Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

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Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#361

Post by tekknik »

stronglikedan wrote: post #31
wtp1saac wrote: post #4

Strong Towns has called a good amount of attention to the mandatory parking requirements in many cities (and shockingly, many downtowns). Thankfully, it seems a fair number of cities are removing such restrictions, but hopefully it becomes more widespread. In general I hope the US can urbanize, the older I get the more I realize it’s not really enjoyable living in this country. I don’t think I want hyper dense, but h…

The US is urbanized...if you want it. There are plenty of places where people that enjoy living in urban areas can do so. However, to me, that sounds like an unenjoyable hellscape. Been there, done that. The beauty of the US is that people have choices, and aren't pigeonholed into someone else's idea of "enjoyable".

> The beauty of the US is that people have choices, and aren't pigeonholed into someone else's idea of "enjoyable".

For now, not to long ago the left seemed adamant about forcing everyone into sprawling concrete jungles. I give it a few more years at most before they’re back at it pushing to cancel cars and force people to move to high rises.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#362

Post by tekknik »

nerdkid93 wrote: post #331
dheera wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention safe urban areas. Most US urban areas are relatively high crime, and even if you don't encounter actual crime you are made to feel unsafe by a bunch of drug addicts in hoodies who yell racial slurs and other creepy dudes who approach you unsolicited, in contrast to urban areas of e.g. East Asia which tend to be extremely safe. Boston is about the only city in the US that I feel mildly safe walking arou…

> relatively high crime You mention crime in regards to safety within a city, but there is a study floating around Twitter that factors in traffic fatalities in suburban and rural areas, and the dangers of cars make suburbs and rural areas MORE dangerous that urban areas! Take a look at this article detailing urban vs rural deaths: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-rural-a...

well that’s clearly flawed. i certainly don’t buy SF being safer than literally any rural area.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#363

Post by tekknik »

marssaxman wrote: post #323
trimethylpurine wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the downvoters, nice of you to hope I'm wrong but unfortunately: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-w... Honestly who is downvoting this anyway? Do you work for big contractors or just like unaffordable housing as long as it's condensed? Evil much?

I did not downvote your comment but I certainly thought about it; between your contemptuous attitude toward people whose preferences differ from your own, and the way your ire over the scandal you're alluding to has blinded you to basic principles of economics, your remark added more noise than signal to the discussion.

> between your contemptuous attitude toward people whose preferences differ from your own

it would be great if everybody on HN felt the same, unfortunately this is quite commonplace. read threads on any EV post for instance.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#364

Post by tekknik »

trimethylpurine wrote: post #348
mlsu wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is entirely unrelated to the presence or lack of housing in urban areas. If anything, a monopolistic landlord would like to expand and build more apartments, to extract a higher volume of above-market rent.

You appear to be paraphrasing me. Did you get a bunch of downvotes? Or was this not related to my comment?

You shouldn’t worry about downvotes on HN, many here are biased and are looking for reconfirmation of their beliefs rather than discourse.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#365

Post by tekknik »

shiroiuma wrote: post #206
HEmanZ wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have experience living in any variety of urban areas in first world countries outside of the US? Have you been to many cities in the US? I don’t think you can possibly have done either of these and still think the US has any urbanism. And literally all most moderate urbanists ask for is “please lower regulations so that the free market can build what some of us want and I can actually have a choice.”

>Do you have experience living in any variety of urban areas in first world countries outside of the US? The vast, vast majority of Americans have never even been outside the US (except maybe to Canada, and possibly Mexican tourist spots), let alone lived outside the US in a first-world country, and this includes the OP and most people on HN. It's why reading comments on urbanism on forums like this is both entertain…

> The vast, vast majority of Americans have never even been outside the US (except maybe to Canada, and possibly Mexican tourist spots)

That sounds made up on the spot, and borderline xenophobic. Data please.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#366

Post by tekknik »

jhbadger wrote: post #298
sebastos wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Americans on hackernews have never been outside of the US? That strikes me as a near impossibility. Evidence?

There are only 160 million US passports in circulation (out of a population of 330 million. So roughly half. Of course HN people tend to be middle class or higher so they'd more likely be in that 50%. But still, the US is huge (roughly the size of Europe (Europe is approximately 10,180,000 sq km, while United States is approximately 9,833,517 sq km). There's plenty of places to go in the US without needing to go else…

> There are only 160 million US passports in circulation (out of a population of 330 million. So roughly half

> vast, vast majority have never left the US

how does 1/2 of the population having a passport equate to the “vast, vast majority” having never traveled? How does this logic connect?

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#367

Post by tekknik »

dns_snek wrote: post #282
aidenn0 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stayed in a hotel in a city recently. I wish the cars were the loudest thing. There was an ice-skating rink blasting music until after midnight and then a jackhammer at 6am. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well.

I get that, there are always going to be outliers, but "cars" are the right answer to the noise pollution question for the vast majority of the population. Construction is a valid one too, but that one is unavoidable except for all the car infrastructure.

I used to travel to SF regularly, including after the removal of cars from market street. Additionally, i stayed on market street because of the ease of access to the offices i needed to go to. if cars are in fact the problem, how come market street is still loud enough today, with no cars, at 2 AM, to bleed enough sound through a double pane window with dense curtains?

cars are not the problem. anybody with any experience in life knows the more stuff and people you cram in a small area, the more noise (an heat for all you climate changers)

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#368

Post by tekknik »

fragmede wrote: post #349
dns_snek wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with this is that it reinforces the notion that you "live" inside and only go outside when you need to get somewhere. How are you ever going to enjoy a nice street-side cup of coffee in peace? Or take a walk around your neighborhood? Or engage in any outdoor social activity? If you allow the outside to be unpleasant, then people are increasingly going to stay inside which has negative societal ramificatio…

I think we can agree that not being woken up by your neighbors drunkenly blasting music at 3am is preferable to the alternative. But people should be able to live their lives and if they want to celebrate a big win at work or whatever, as long as it doesn't bother me, who am I to say they shouldn't at 3am on a Wednesday? Yes the outside needs to be nice as well, but we have to live together, and the best way is for m…

> The outside needs to be nice, but making inside unpleasant doesn't accomplish that.

ignoring the problem outside exacerbates the issue and eventually leads to an undesirable outside. don’t live with broken windows.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#369

Post by tekknik »

erikaww wrote: post #49
stronglikedan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is urbanized...if you want it. There are plenty of places where people that enjoy living in urban areas can do so. However, to me, that sounds like an unenjoyable hellscape. Been there, done that. The beauty of the US is that people have choices, and aren't pigeonholed into someone else's idea of "enjoyable".

I think you got it backwards. Cities now only build these subury sfh highway parking lot hellscapes and ban anything remotely dense So everyone is pigeonholed into something you want

density can be hugely detrimental to climate change if the city isn’t built in a green way, which no US city currently is and will likely not be in your lifetime. under the guise that your desire to live in a highly dense climate wasteland, by 2035 we should require either everybody move away from city centers, or require cities be zero emission.

your decisions are affecting me, isn’t that the norm now?

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#370

Post by trimethylpurine »

tekknik wrote: post #364
trimethylpurine wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to be paraphrasing me. Did you get a bunch of downvotes? Or was this not related to my comment?

You shouldn’t worry about downvotes on HN, many here are biased and are looking for reconfirmation of their beliefs rather than discourse.

I'd like to not worry about it, but it then prevents me from posting. The suggestion is to then stop posting and move on, which I fear allows the washing of dialogue and kindles political approaches that further the damage we're doing to society and the environment through corporate influence. If you, as a developer, feel good about your job helping corporations inflate rent prices, you're not going to look for another job. If you can clearly see that your employer is destroying society, you're very much likely not going to be willing to stick around. Maybe that's doesn't matter in most cases, but clearly big tech employees have influenced government contracts, etc.
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