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Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

economist.com

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Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#401

Post by Dracophoenix »

tkgally wrote: post #384
Dracophoenix wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What got you into Tokyo 40 years ago?

Basically mid-twenties wanderlust. I was planning to stay for maybe a year, supporting myself teaching English, before either going on to another country or returning to the U.S. But as soon as I got here I got a strong urge to learn the language, and I spent the next couple of years studying it intensively. I then starting doing freelance translation work and, over the next few years, gradually settled in both caree…

Did any of your translation work involve anime or video game?

How did you fare after the bubble economy burst in the 90s?

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#402

Post by truffdog »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #367
truffdog wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is referring to 20th century social services meant to fix slums, that wound up making marriage something that could get you kicked out of public housing and on-books work something that could get you kicked off financial support. This is often blamed for making everything worse and contributing to the social disaster zones that were the large public housing projects in northern cities.

Any links or references to share? Does this have a name?

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is a pretty accessible introduction to one of the most notorious public housing disasters in the US. It was available on Netflix at some point.

The name for welfare discouraging marriage is "the marriage penalty", but it's a general policy thing that people still argue about, so I couldn't find anything good about the old AFDC marriage penalties on short notice. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/wedding-bell-blues-marria... does a quick outline in passing.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#403

Post by bjowen »

karterk wrote: post #163
greggman3 wrote: post #141

I love Tokyo but I know lots of Japanese people that love suburban America. They love the space. I quick search suggests the average size house in Tokyo is 66sq meters where as in LA it's 167sq meters or nearly 2.5x larger. And that's just LA. My guess is plenty of other suburbia cities the average is even larger. I lived in Tokyo for 15 years. My last place was 54sq meters. I like there are more options in sizes tha…

Does Japan have a concept of suburbs? Are houses larger on the outskirts of Tokyo?

There’s definitely an aspect of suburbia - eg a lot of Hachioji, although the zoning is a bit different and that’s shaped the way they’ve emerged. It reminds be a bit of the way London has expanded - suburban areas centred on stations of train lines that were laid out in the 60s, with low-rise houses that are larger with modest outdoor areas. Tokyo proper is also smaller than the Tokyo conurbation that includes parts of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures, where the density really starts to fall off and give way to agriculture.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#404

Post by nus07 »

zanny wrote: post #345
VeninVidiaVicii wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Concur totally after living in Sevilla (Spain). US cities - with the exception of New York - are just cookie-cutter strip malls. There’s a fundamental lack of coherence that’s hard to explain.

I've been in Portland the past month and have managed pretty fine on the public transit here. Its also quite affordable. They could do more for sure, but all the bridges and roads that are now public transit only are quite the breath of fresh air.

Portland like mentioned about European cities and towns is also incredibly homogenous culturally and racially by most American standards . Lived there for 6 years as a brown person and glad to have gotten out.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#405

Post by truffdog »

freshpots wrote: post #374
truffdog wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single family sprawl is more cost efficient than dense development when you include regulatory compliance.

What regulatory compliance? Got any studies? Just from a logical perspective, companies don't build skyscrapers/increase density in cities to lose money.

This is a reference to the NIMBY/YIMBY fight, where the YIMBY position is that most non-single-family-home developments, other than the super high end, have been effectively been made illegal through a combination of zoning laws, neighborhood review processes that add extraordinary costs, unreasonable requirements and delays, and other arbitrary veto points.

The best intro points to the argument are probably still https://www.amazon.com/Rent-Too-Damn-High-Matters-ebook/dp/B... or https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gates-Fighting-Housing-America... although neither is free.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#406

Post by wrycoder »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #367
truffdog wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is referring to 20th century social services meant to fix slums, that wound up making marriage something that could get you kicked out of public housing and on-books work something that could get you kicked off financial support. This is often blamed for making everything worse and contributing to the social disaster zones that were the large public housing projects in northern cities.

Any links or references to share? Does this have a name?

It's a big topic. Some entries here:

https://www.city-journal.org/html/black-family-40-years-lies...

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#407

Post by cscurmudgeon »

tsunamifury wrote: post #258
cscurmudgeon wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a shred of data to support Americans hate each other more than other countries? I will even take a buzzfeed poll slapped together in a minute.

Your handle.

Good try. I am not American. I am an Indian citizen who loves the opportunities available in the US than in India.

One of those opportunities was a good PhD education that taught me how to spot bullshit.

So to confirm what is happening here for a neutral observer, are just cooking up things when you say Americans hate each other more.

I would say Europeans hate each other more. They had two world wars centered around Europe in the last century and way too many real secession movements: Brexit, Catalonia etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_separatist_move...

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#408

Post by throwaway2331 »

zdragnar wrote: post #294
throwaway2331 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you live in the PNW? Because that sounds a lot like the PNW. The northern east coast is what I believe the GP was referring to. We don't really have homeless people. I've honestly never seen a homeless person before, until I left. Neither has anyone tried to "get something" out of me, until I went down south or out west. I think it's cultural. The people who had moved out West were those that weren't necessarily s…

nope, upper midewest here. it's been nearly 200 years since the first major non-native settlements were founded here, primarily fur trading, logging and farming. Needless to say, culture has changed rather drastically since then. lots of northern european immigrants in the mix, plus more recently refugee communities from vietnam, somolia and central america. "grifters, drifters and outcasts" really doesn't describe u…

I was wrong.

It seems like I still have many more places to visit.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#409

Post by andi999 »

theli0nheart wrote: post #344
Tiktaalik wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is because the USA has offloaded making all its stuff to China. With this in mind the USA CO2 number is even worse than it first appears.

Are you saying that emissions shouldn't be attributed to the country they're generated in? If so, that's certainly an interesting perspective.

Technically it shdnt. Just imagine you send your oil to another country to produce stuff for you, should the carbon emission for that be counted for country A or B? I think clearly country A. Now what if the oil doesn't come from country A but is bought from the money for the goods from country C. Well, technically you shdnt attribute it to country B. Either A or C.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#410

Post by supertrope »

voidfunc wrote: post #287
syki wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We Americans are a nation of people who spend the vast majority of our waking hours inside. We go from building to building via car isolated from the world and each other. It’s an enormous waste of land and resources since every building has to have its own parking. Most parking lots at stores sit empty most of the time. It’s unhealthy that we walk so little. It’s unhealthy that we interact so little with those aroun…

Seems like most Americans like it this way. You say unhealthy but that is what the market overwhelmingly wants.

A market with federal intervention in the form of implicitly guaranteed 30 year mortgages and toll free highways.
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