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Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

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Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our ruling class is extremely moralizing. They aren't relativist at all. They only seem that way to you because their morality isn't identical to yours (though they are genealogically related)

Okay sure. I don't buy that theory at all. The ruling class uses morals as a way to control society while having few themselves. Just look at the behavior of the Saudi royals.

I'm talking about our own PMC, not the Saudis. This comment from the recent Facebook "whistleblower" sums up this flavor of moral sentiment pretty well:

> “I don’t know why it went down,” Haugen said. “But I know that for more than five hours, Facebook wasn’t used to deepen divides, destabilize democracies and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies.”

It's the sort of warmed-over end of history liberalism you see in Ivy League schools, NGOs, corporate HR departments, the UN, etc. It includes wokism but it extends much further than that. It is not becoming more relativist, it is supremely confident about what is good and what is bad, what is sacred, profane, taboo, etc. In fact, its conception of the sacred just seems to be getting larger each year. It has most of the elements of a religion at this point, and will probably have more in the future. I think Yang's "Successor ideology" is a good term for it because it also lacks a lot of the features of historical liberalism.

In any case, we are hardly ruled by libertines.

Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often see urbanists and young people fantasize about life in car free mega cities. Having lived that life for years I can’t imagine why. A lot of cities that are beautiful and attractive also have room for cars. I would even argue it is a big part of what makes those cities attractive. There’s no substitute for the point to point on demand fast transportation that cars offer. In cities that aren’t overbuilt, it mak…

Even famously “mass transit unfriendly” cities can be fit for a car-free lifestyle if you work at it. But I suspect a huge part of it is visiting Europe or Asia as a tourist and enjoying being without a car. But they didn’t actually live there.

Even my relatives in Germany who live in a very public transport friendly city still own two cars.

Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#143
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just see standard developments - anything more specific? Heh found a trailer park.

To me a place like hidden glen north is odd. It's a tract surrounded by soundwalls and has few exits from the development, whereas in normal developments you have intersections with all streets. This kind of development follows the thoroughfare model where smaller streets feed larger streets which feed boulevards/expressways which feed freeways. They are built in such a way the actual city neighborhood is disconnecte…

I’ve seen some of those in Arizona - but even though there was one way in and out for cars there were multiple walking paths.

Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#144
post #122
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Detached makes sense, you need to airgap for noise

Bricks vs. timber, perhaps? I do realise the general answer is about availability of materials and both work. But ceteris paribus, talking about noise, the prospect of a timber terrace does seem.. unappealing? IME (in the UK) noise comes through windows, not (external, including to an attached neighbour) walls. Modern 'partition' (those between rooms within a dwelling) walls aren't brick, but typically between semis…

My 42sq m German apartment had concrete walls. So quiet. In Boston, I have stick walls, but the building is built in such a way it's not too bad.

I've lived in some very loud stick built buildings though. Americans seem to love to put multi family housing on 5 lane roads.

Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#145

As the article hinted at the simple answer is Car Dependency. Suburbs are regulated and built to accommodate cars now and not people. The topic is explored thouroughly on the 'Not Just Bikes' youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes which uses information from urban planning group 'Strong Towns' https://www.strongtowns.org/ .

There is not faster to way to discredit oneself than to offer a pat, single variable explanation. As others point out, Americans like and want to transport themselves by car. Let's accept this, work with it, and build around it instead of lusting after a minority defined Utopia.

Well said. Another angle is the race angle. Most people advocating for lesser cars are young, healthy, rich and white. Healthy enough to not use cars and rich enough to live near work.

https://theconversation.com/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-cycl...

The group that talks about systemic racism is perpetuating it.

Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#146

We can and we are! I’m the CEO of Culdesac. Our vision is to build the first car-free city in the US, starting with the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US. That’s Culdesac Tempe, a 1000-resident neighborhood that is under construction now. Residents move in next year. Join our waitlist at culdesac.com. If you want to visit in the meantime, drop me a note. We have something exciting happening on…

So FYI, this is really off-putting. You've got a few sentences that I might be interested in (but not really, there's nothing about how this is actually going to solve the problems except for "if you build it they will come"), and 4x that amount of CTA and social media spam.

I'd much rather read a substantive comment about how your neighborhood is going to solve the challenges of being car-free, how it's going to interface with the rest of Tempe, etc. Directly on here, not just a link to your website and definitely not via a Medium or AMP link. A couple of links for further reading would be plenty.

Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#147

We can and we are! I’m the CEO of Culdesac. Our vision is to build the first car-free city in the US, starting with the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US. That’s Culdesac Tempe, a 1000-resident neighborhood that is under construction now. Residents move in next year. Join our waitlist at culdesac.com. If you want to visit in the meantime, drop me a note. We have something exciting happening on…

> Our vision is to build the first car-free city in the US

What if I like my car, and the ability to easily travel outside the city limits that comes along with it?

Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#148
post #14

I've seen some reasonably beautiful, middle class neighborhoods that were designed as recently as the early 1970's, but nothing since then. And while there are many aspects of modern interior design that I appreciate, floorplans tend to be universally terrible for anything designed since then as well. I have yet to walk into a (non-custom) home that was built since the year 2000 that I would ever want to live in.

The floor plan thing is real. A 1960s-1970s split level will have 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a huge living room, a good size dining room, and a kitchen, all around 1800sqft. Or, you can buy a new 2500 sqft home that has the same, plus a walk in closet in the master. Heck I've seen plenty of 3000sqft 3 bedroom homes! It is insane. Sure these new floor plans have 2 dining rooms, a breakfast nook, a living room, and a f…

I just bought a 1600 sq ft home and it's honestly too small cause both me and my wife want our PC gamer setups so we have a dedicated room for that but then I need an office too so we end up hanging out all day in literally the smallest room in the house.

I'll be doing a major remodel to address this among other issues. But yea if we had a game room or a loft or something similar it would be a lot better.

The appraisal came in with the lot being 600k and the home itself is only 350k.

Half an acre though.

Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#149

We can and we are! I’m the CEO of Culdesac. Our vision is to build the first car-free city in the US, starting with the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US. That’s Culdesac Tempe, a 1000-resident neighborhood that is under construction now. Residents move in next year. Join our waitlist at culdesac.com. If you want to visit in the meantime, drop me a note. We have something exciting happening on…

> Our vision is to build the first car-free city in the US What if I like my car, and the ability to easily travel outside the city limits that comes along with it?

you don't have to move there, its not a personal attack on you.

Re: Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?

#150

As the article hinted at the simple answer is Car Dependency. Suburbs are regulated and built to accommodate cars now and not people. The topic is explored thouroughly on the 'Not Just Bikes' youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes which uses information from urban planning group 'Strong Towns' https://www.strongtowns.org/ .

There is not faster to way to discredit oneself than to offer a pat, single variable explanation. As others point out, Americans like and want to transport themselves by car. Let's accept this, work with it, and build around it instead of lusting after a minority defined Utopia.

Wrong.

I tried to find the tweet, but it was succinctly put ~"it's said people in Los Angeles love their cars, but people in LA have no choice but to own a car, it's not love, it is necessity".

In every city that has made a concerted effort to accommodate all modes of transport, driving as a percentage has gone down. "build it and they will come" is better suited to transport than it ever was to SaaS.

It is easy to conclude that people don't "want" to drive.

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