Instead, I live in a smallish (30k pop) town in England with no tower blocks, just normal 70-100 year old English housing. However, I'm only about 10 minutes away from the shops by foot, and even less by bike.
You must recognize that it is possible for low density areas (single family homes) to have short walks to grocery stores, since you are living that.
Urban sprawl is a different problem and housing density isn't the cause or solution.
tom66, since you use the term nimby, would you consider yourself a magtyby: me and government taking your back yard?
Not in favour, and have never stated the government should repossess private property.
When I say magtyby, you take 'back yard' literally as their privately owned back yard?
But when you say nimby, 'back yard' means neighborhood?
If local citizens pay tax dollars to create local zoning laws, I think we could consider those laws to be their property. At the least, those laws impact the value of their private property.
Instead, I live in a smallish (30k pop) town in England with no tower blocks, just normal 70-100 year old English housing. However, I'm only about 10 minutes away from the shops by foot, and even less by bike.
You must recognize that it is possible for low density areas (single family homes) to have short walks to grocery stores, since you are living that.
Urban sprawl is a different problem and housing density isn't the cause or solution.
Increasing density MIGHT slow your ponzi scheme but that's not the only option. It'd be better to end the ponzi scheme. We have rapidly improving technology, our city planners should be able to live within their means in nearly any density of city. I think that is an easier task in cities with lower density.
Aren't you getting annoyed at politicians that are elected by citizens around you doing things that (presumably) the citizens ultimately approve of, or at least don't hate enough to vote against it? That's also a pillar of the US, and indeed any democracy. Though the US does have some wonky democratic standards, like gerrymandering, these tend to favour the more conservative candidate as they benefit the rural areas more. So I'm failing to see the problem here, other than it's happening a bit too slowly, as people aren't aware of the issues.
Instead, I live in a smallish (30k pop) town in England with no tower blocks, just normal 70-100 year old English housing. However, I'm only about 10 minutes away from the shops by foot, and even less by bike.
You must recognize that it is possible for low density areas (single family homes) to have short walks to grocery stores, since you are living that.
Urban sprawl is a different problem and housing density isn't the cause or solution.
I can walk 10 minutes from my suburban development into areas zoned for commercial and other areas zoned for multifamily homes. It's not like it is a 50 mile drive through endless miles of houses, things are just divided up into different areas with different purposes rather than all mixed together. It's perfectly logical and I see no benefit in mixing it all together.
I can walk 10 minutes from my suburban development into areas zoned for commercial and other areas zoned for multifamily homes. It's not like it is a 50 mile drive through endless miles of houses, things are just divided up into different areas with different purposes rather than all mixed together. It's perfectly logical and I see no benefit in mixing it all together.
You know what IS a Ponzi scheme? Relying on infinite growth in a world of finite resources. Pack people in more and more and more tightly and then what? There is only so far that you can go, the population is still rapidly growing, the planet isn't getting any bigger. Increased density is just kicking the can down the road at the expense of everyone that hates density, the only solution is reduced population.
Well those areas you are saying we can't have are the only areas I'm willing to live in, and this is an issue I'm willing to go to any lengths to fight for. It amounts to driving me out of my home, and it is a very serious issue. I would support violence if necessary to overthrow anyone that tries to force this on me.
Are those commercially zoned areas useful things for you? For instance, somewhere to shop, a gym, medical clinics? Or is it just random warehouses and industry? Obviously, I don't know exactly where you live James - so what I say may not exactly apply. But, in general, suburban SFH zoning for miles and miles is a bad thing, and it's not solved by just having some token commercial use thrown in here or there, it needs to be actually planned resources that people want to use. There are good examples of suburbia (there's nothing wrong in general with the concept of a suburban area!), I've linked a few, but many aren't well implemented and that's what needs to improve.
Are those commercially zoned areas useful things for you? For instance, somewhere to shop, a gym, medical clinics? Or is it just random warehouses and industry? Obviously, I don't know exactly where you live James - so what I say may not exactly apply. But, in general, suburban SFH zoning for miles and miles is a bad thing, and it's not solved by just having some token commercial use thrown in here or there, it needs to be actually planned resources that people want to use. There are good examples of suburbia (there's nothing wrong in general with the concept of a suburban area!), I've linked a few, but many aren't well implemented and that's what needs to improve.
Judge for yourself, this is about a 15 minute walk from my house.
https://goo.gl/maps/cJdXg5omJuk4sVPc7
Most of the businesses are of zero interest to me but pretty much everything I need is around. I mostly work from home, rarely eat out and do the bulk of my shopping online though so the commercial areas are much less relevant than they used to be, most weeks I don't leave my neighborhood unless I need to get groceries.
You talk a lot about what "needs to improve" but you fail to consider anyone's needs except for your own. You seem to have difficulty grasping that not everyone has the same view of utopia that you have in your head. Miles of single family homes might not be ideal for someone that wants to go out all the time, but it wouldn't be the problem it would have been 20 years ago anyway. I can order virtually anything I need online, and the stuff that is impractical to order I can go out and get on a combined shopping trip. In many ways I see downtown shopping centers as obsolete, I have fond memories of going to malls and such when I was a kid but I don't remember the last time I bought something from a store in one. "Random warehouses and industry" are useful if you happen to be one of the people working at those businesses.
I can walk 10 minutes from my suburban development into areas zoned for commercial and other areas zoned for multifamily homes. It's not like it is a 50 mile drive through endless miles of houses, things are just divided up into different areas with different purposes rather than all mixed together. It's perfectly logical and I see no benefit in mixing it all together.
Are those commercially zoned areas useful things for you? For instance, somewhere to shop, a gym, medical clinics?
Or is it just random warehouses and industry?
Miles of single family homes might not be ideal for someone that wants to go out all the time, but it wouldn't be the problem it would have been 20 years ago anyway. I can order virtually anything I need online, and the stuff that is impractical to order I can go out and get on a combined shopping trip. In many ways I see downtown shopping centers as obsolete, I have fond memories of going to malls and such when I was a kid but I don't remember the last time I bought something from a store in one. "Random warehouses and industry" are useful if you happen to be one of the people working at those businesses.
We get a lot of stuff delivered, but for food the local grocery services are useless. It's often the case that you get products substituted just to complete the order, so for instance you order toothpaste but they're out, so they give you a toilet roll instead. And the fruit and veg is usually just randomly selected, so plenty of bruised and inadequate produce. So for now we do shop in person, but that requires a car because you need to carry the shopping home otherwise. There are some services that let you pick your products out at the store then get it delivered a few hours later (so in theory you can walk to and back from the store), but they're not available around here.
If she has reasons to prefer a certain neighborhood and you couldn’t talk her out of them, I and 200 other internet literal strangers probably won’t either.
As an outsider, this doesn’t totally add up in the sense of matching my view of reality, but it’s Fran’s view of reality that guides her, not ours.
That's not terrible, but still rather car dominant (look at how much space is dedicated to parking as compared to the buildings!) But, better than nothing, I suppose.
I think that, outside the context of dating, no one is going to care that Fran is trans. Maybe dating is better in the city; I have no idea, but in daily life, I literally could not care less and I have to think 99.9+% of people are the same. To the extent that the 0.1% represent a problem, those problems seem worse, not better, in a high-density neighborhood.
If she has reasons to prefer a certain neighborhood and you couldn’t talk her out of them, I and 200 other internet literal strangers probably won’t either.
As an outsider, this doesn’t totally add up in the sense of matching my view of reality, but it’s Fran’s view of reality that guides her, not ours.
Heck I didn't even know she was trans until it came up in this thread, it's just not something I care about. I think it's highly likely she could walk around any city or town in the nation and 99.9% of people wouldn't know and most people that did know wouldn't care.
Unfortunately she has mentioned time and time again that's the #1 thing that she is concerned about and that it drives all her decisions in relation to all these moves. She has talked about it at length in many of the Franlab eviction/moving videos.
While I can understand your anger at the fact that the development plan has been changed and your immediate living environment may change, in the long run it is a normal process. If this wasn't exactly what kept happening, there would be no development and America would still look the same as it did 100 years ago. And also that your house was built and now stands there, has possibly once annoyed someone.
To call false/inconvenient decisions "dictatorship" and to use force of arms to 'correct' a (from your point of view) wrong government direction is never okay. You should not even think about it.... this is a very dangerous path!! For changing such things is what courts and elections are for. Period.
(Using arms for 'correcting' inconveniences is, by the way, rather the view of a dictator - think about that)
Unfortunately she has mentioned time and time again that's the #1 thing that she is concerned about and that it drives all her decisions in relation to all these moves. She has talked about it at length in many of the Franlab eviction/moving videos.
Which is weird because if you asked me for a list of the most LGBT friendly parts of the USA, Philly wouldn't be in the top 10, or top 20, it would not even come to mind as a part of the country to even suggest. Is there some secret underground trans culture in Philly that is somehow unique to that area?
This whole thing is annoying because it creates a sort of divide by zero error in my brain. It doesn't add up, the logic doesn't make sense.