Earlier quoted context omitted.
>just so they can have some big McMansion in the exurbs with a giant lawn they have to spend hours maintaining every weekend. What other options provide good public schools, homes that are pleasant to be inside, and a clean/safe/well-functioning environment? I hate sprawl and fast-casual architecture as much as the next guy, but it is the only thing that can grow at scale under our economic and political reality. Alt…
>What other options provide good public schools, homes that are pleasant to be inside, and a clean/safe/well-functioning environment? Try traveling to Europe or Japan sometime. They have dense cities with nice homes, great public schools, and a clean and safe environment. Japan in particular has basically zero crime. Cities in Europe are walkable and bikeable, and it's commonplace to have residential units on top of…
Most people shop for housing where there job and family are; international migration is a big deal. Japan is very hard to immigrate to if you lack Japanese ancestry.
>Continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity
>Then you need to change the laws.
Land use policy is made by a small, elite, politically active subset of incumbents. People looking for a place to live, and choosing the best of the available options for their circumstances, are not to blame for the abysmal nature of the available options. This is the whole problem. Market demand has little to no influence on what can be built. It's inappropriate to look down on people for moving to suburbia. The scorn is rightly placed with activists and politicians for crippling our cities so badly that suburbia manages to be better.
>Here in the DC area, it's extremely common.
The data say 32 minutes [0]. This is high compared to the national 25, but no, 1-2 hours is not the norm even there.
[0] https://wtop.com/traffic/2017/04/dc-area-has-2nd-longest-ave...