Comment by cyberax
11 hours ago
> We all want no traffic, and lots of parking, so low density please, but that creates housing shortages and limits the usefulness of public transport.
Sigh. Democracy is going to hang itself with the bike lanes and public transit, isn't it?
Density increases and ubiquitous transit result in HIGHER levels of housing shortages. Just ask France.
I'm pretty sure you just said "If you make a place nicer to live, then more people will want to live there, so we should stop making places nicer to live."
Anyway, nobody who has ever been to a major French city believes that they've tried to increase core density. They famously have building height restrictions all over the place. Pretty much the entire city of Paris caps out at 7 stories.
>Pretty much the entire city of Paris caps out at 7 stories.
And despite that, Paris is one of the densest cities in the world, and an incredibly pleasant place to live. This should be a good lesson to everyone that "high density" does not have to be synonymous with reams of skyscrapers.
Paris actually isn't that dense compared to some US cities. NYC for example has far more people in the same space as Paris. Not that that is a goal to shoot for but there you go. That being said, at the moment Paris isn't a very nice place to be with all the smoke and looting and all.
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Supply and demand. If you don’t want to increase supply, then you can reduce prices by turning the city into the kind of place that nobody wants to live in.
AKA the gunshots theory of rent control. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/firing-gunshots-to-keep-rent-...
I repeated the same argument here many times. But the reality is that density creates a vicious cycle of price increases. Higher density provides easier access to talent for companies, so they concentrate in urban cores. This in turn results in the only desirable jobs (and housing) being within the commute distance from the cores. So more people move in, resulting in even greater advantage for companies. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Think about this: EVERY large European city now has a "housing crisis". And nice cities just a couple of hours from them have housing that is essentially free. In Japan it's often _literally_ free.
Want an example of a city that doesn't have a housing crisis and is comparable in population to Paris or Berlin? Houston, TX.
Houston, TX has a housing crisis. https://abc13.com/post/more-half-houston-renters-struggle-ho...
They aren't building enough rental housing so rents are going through the roof.
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You're still just saying "If you make a place nicer to live, then more people will want to live there."
Density is not the thing making the prices go up. Local supply lagging behind local demand is what does that. Your two choices are either build more or make living there less desirable compared to somewhere else. There's no third choice.
> nice cities just a couple of hours from them have housing that is essentially free
If nobody wants to live there then tautologically people have decided that they aren't nice.
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Please elaborate on how having more housing increases housing scarcity
> Density increases and ubiquitous transit result in HIGHER levels of housing shortages.
Density doesn’t cause housing shortage. A housing shortage creates motivation to increase density.
> Density increases and ubiquitous transit result in HIGHER levels of housing shortages.
Wow, that's a new one
Not really. Urbanists admit it, they just don't like to talk about it.
Hell, there are even consulting companies that provide guidance on how to upzone the city to squeeze most taxes out of new density.
that seems like complete BS claim. What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence
increased density and transit increases demand for that area. high demand != shortage.
What are you suggesting exactly? low density and car-dependency is the solution to our housing problems?
> high demand != shortage.
Yes, it just means higher costs.
again, higher costs != shortage. It just means "desirable"
Just build more of the thing that people want!
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