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Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

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Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#181

Post by Fishysoup »

neuronic wrote: post #130
Fishysoup wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been my experience with Germany / Switzerland as well. Very punishment-based

Yes, it's called social responsibility. Vauban is very special and strange even for German eyes. But one thing is abundantly clear among many German communities: The egocentric individualism where all the problems you produce are offloaded to some ephemeral society funded by taxes you don't want to pay is not sustainable unless you exploit external communities around you.

Right. If your job as a Phillip Morris or Nestle exec (both headquartered in Switzerland) makes people's lives a lot worse in some other part of the world but you don't leave your garbage bin out before 8pm the day before it's collected, then you're a model citizen.

Conversely if you need to do laundry in your apartment building on a holiday because you're a single parent, that's an outrage. The person leaving all the racist and xenophobic notes about respecting local traditions is a model citizen.

Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#182

Post by Fishysoup »

fluffy87 wrote: post #100
michaelscott wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand what parent is saying and this Freiburg example is a good one: there are going to be situations and times (such as the birth of a newborn) where following strictly to the rules (you have a limited amount of trash to dispose) just isn't viable or even possible. Anything that deviates from the norm and established rules, even slightly, is at least frowned upon and at most results in a fine or some other ma…

No you are wrong. People living there have had children or have children. Everybody knows when making an exception is ok or not, or when the allocated trash associated to a household must be increase. The assumption that people living there are intolerant of babies and families is false.

That's a ridiculous system. "Everybody knows when it's ok to have more baby diapers in the trash" as a temporary hallway pass is a symptom of a failed mindset.

Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#183

Post by newyankee »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4
tannhaeuser wrote: post #2

Freiburg is a super nice place as long as you've got disposable income to spend to live in one of the preferred quarters, like Wiehre, Herdern, etc. If you don't, then like in many south-German cities (located in mountain valleys where space is scarce), you're living in a place without any green in sight (ok Freiburg's Stühlinger is quite green, and still affordable, though I'm guessing it's been getting more expensi…

I live in Austria and it's the same. Houses in the urban forests are really picturesque and a marker for high quality of life but unless you're a 10%er millionaire they're out of reach. Everyone else is cramped in concrete blocks but of course, that's rarely shown in photos or articles.

10 m or 100k ?

Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#184

Post by pvorb »

Meandering wrote: post #156
pvorb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's unreasonable to fear nuclear accidents, as history has shown us.

Of course it isn't. The issue is that the majority of fear against nuclear comes from nuclear weapons and improper management. People have erroneously thought that nuclear power technology is similar to nuclear weapon technology when they meltdown. The reality is that a meltdown isn't even close to a nuclear chain reaction. Chernobyl was an example of poor management and Fukushima was an example of poor design. These…

> The issue is that the majority of fear against nuclear comes from nuclear weapons and improper management.

But aren't these valid sources of fear?

War is still a thing and Uranium enrichment can be used for both nuclear power plants as well as nuclear weapons.

Improper management is something that is hard to control. Usually the people who live nearby a nuclear power plant have absolutely no insight into how the plant is managed. So why should they be confident in everything being fine. Human error is inevitable and has led to numerous accidents. Why shouldn't this happen again?

Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#185

Post by pvorb »

Baeocystin wrote: post #21
pvorb wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there's more to it than the death toll. If something goes bad this would turn a large area into a wasteland, that will be uninhabitable for thousands of years. And how would you prevent future civilizations from opening nuclear waste deposits that should not be opened? I think it's just too complex and we should look for simpler alternives.

>And how would you prevent future civilizations from opening nuclear waste deposits that should not be opened? A depot where the waste is beats the heck out what we're doing now, which is spewing waste directly into the atmosphere, which effects everywhere.

That's a valid point. Power from fossil fuels is not better. Accidents happen far more often (tankers sinking and spilling millions of liters of oil into the sea), but somehow people seem to fear fossil fuel energy a lot less.

Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#186

Post by Meandering »

pvorb wrote: post #184
Meandering wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it isn't. The issue is that the majority of fear against nuclear comes from nuclear weapons and improper management. People have erroneously thought that nuclear power technology is similar to nuclear weapon technology when they meltdown. The reality is that a meltdown isn't even close to a nuclear chain reaction. Chernobyl was an example of poor management and Fukushima was an example of poor design. These…

> The issue is that the majority of fear against nuclear comes from nuclear weapons and improper management. But aren't these valid sources of fear? War is still a thing and Uranium enrichment can be used for both nuclear power plants as well as nuclear weapons. Improper management is something that is hard to control. Usually the people who live nearby a nuclear power plant have absolutely no insight into how the pl…

Absolutely, healthy fear is beyond valid. It's the fear from ignorance that I was referencing. A nuclear meltdown is not an explosion. It's literal a meltdown where the material burns through containment... there is no explosion. The fear of nuclear has prevented investment which could of resulted in far safer technologies entering the market. Technologies like Molten Salt Reactors that have passive meltdown protection[1] and thorium reactors[2] which utilized a material that can't be weaponized through enrichment. A passive safety feature in the Fukushima plant could have prevented that catastrophe.

People have a right to not approve of nuclear. I'm only saying that the technology is heavily repressed due to an uneducated public. The truth is that renewable energy will never be as cost effective as gas or oil for base load energy. Nuclear is a clear and viable option for the energy portfolio. It's a shame to see a completely valid option ignored because of unchecked fear.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_nuclear_safety

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power

Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#187

Post by perl4ever »

prox wrote: post #55
woodpanel wrote: post #43

Apparently, owning a car is the easiest way to commit social suicide in Vauban — That is the spirit unfortunately. Unfortunately, because once you allow to degrade strangers/neighbors in public for something malign like that, it doesn’t stop there. Because of this Vauban is not always admired, rather sometimes regarded as tax payer funded dystopia for upper class people to live in. E.g. your amount of thrash you can…

I think such behaviour is ok, but that’s because I feel that is what it means to be socially invested. But I also recognize that for other countries this might seem restrictive or weird (as in why would you do that?) In practice, and I currently live in a socially cohesive neighborhood, in practice it is just very laidback and it’s about helping eachother out and live and let live.

It sounds similar to what's known as an Home Owner Associations in the US. It seems very widespread on the internet for people to complain about HOAs. There's the superficial hatred, and then there's people who will tell you about the history and who seem to have deeper reasons for their dislike.

Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#188

Post by tluyben2 »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4
tannhaeuser wrote: post #2

Freiburg is a super nice place as long as you've got disposable income to spend to live in one of the preferred quarters, like Wiehre, Herdern, etc. If you don't, then like in many south-German cities (located in mountain valleys where space is scarce), you're living in a place without any green in sight (ok Freiburg's Stühlinger is quite green, and still affordable, though I'm guessing it's been getting more expensi…

I live in Austria and it's the same. Houses in the urban forests are really picturesque and a marker for high quality of life but unless you're a 10%er millionaire they're out of reach. Everyone else is cramped in concrete blocks but of course, that's rarely shown in photos or articles.

Just clicking around on real estate sites, large houses with gardens in nature seem to be rather cheap there. Maybe you are in another region but with mortgage % low, the prices like [0][1][2] are far from needing to be a millionaire.

[0] https://en.arkadia.com/eden-t67035189/ [1] https://en.arkadia.com/eden-t67126374/ [2] https://en.arkadia.com/eden-t66305759/

Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#189

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

tluyben2 wrote: post #188
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Austria and it's the same. Houses in the urban forests are really picturesque and a marker for high quality of life but unless you're a 10%er millionaire they're out of reach. Everyone else is cramped in concrete blocks but of course, that's rarely shown in photos or articles.

Just clicking around on real estate sites, large houses with gardens in nature seem to be rather cheap there. Maybe you are in another region but with mortgage % low, the prices like [0][1][2] are far from needing to be a millionaire. [0] https://en.arkadia.com/eden-t67035189/ [1] https://en.arkadia.com/eden-t67126374/ [2] https://en.arkadia.com/eden-t66305759/

Of course prices of old houses in need of maintenance, far away from the nearest city, in regions with little to no jobs, next to the border with Eastern European countries, will be cheap.

Nobody wants to live there.

Try looking at homes in the suburbs of desirable cities with jobs and see 10x prices.

If we're just looking for random homes on the internet you can find better deals in villages in southern Europe but there's always at least one catch why cheap homes are cheap.

Re: Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

#190

Post by brailsafe »

raindropm wrote: post #34
brailsafe wrote: post #29

Also home to SmashingMagazine. Attended their conference there in 2012, and I left with a very positive impression of the city.

Didn't know they're based in Germany. Several years ago it is THE web I need to check everyday haha.

It was one of the first sites I used even when I was learning the basics of Illustrator and InDesign techniques about 12 years ago. I still get their newsletter and check the site every so often, particularly when it comes to CSS techniques (as well as css-tricks).
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