Discussion Panel on Single Family Homes and Urbanism
 

Interesting talk. The guest main case is that single family homes are being destroyed in LA, and other major cities such as Dallas. There's an arguement put forth by urbanist that single family homes lead to sprawl. The Host brings up that arguement and also mentions that quality of architecture is important even if there is density. The guest overall arguement is that density is a threat to personaly freedom and that owning a single family home is nessesariy to preserve the family and personal freedom.



http://www.starktruthradio.com/?p=1720

Charles Lincoln has a PhD in Anthropology, History, and Archaeology from Harvard University

Topics include:

Charles’s experience living in London as a child in the 1960’s and an adult in the 1980’s, and Robert’s visit in 2002
Charles’s experiences in New York in the 1980’s and that era in film
The Brownstones of New York and Boston
Art Deco
Mass Transit systems
The demographic transformations of London, New York, and Los Angeles
How mass immigration has led to an increase in the demand for housing in cities
Robert’s recent trip to San Francisco
Chicago’s grid pattern
Dallas, Texas
The revitalization of downtown Los Angeles
How whites are moving back to cities while non-whites are moving to suburbs
How single family homes are being replaced by apartments
Why Charles’s views the single family home as the ideal for autonomy of living
How the increase in apartment living coincides with the decline of families
Whether the key issue is density itself or the quality of architecture
The appeal of urban living and why people are willing to sacrifice living space for that lifestyle
The New Urbanist movement which seeks to recreate walkable communities

Go to Japan and tell me single family homes kill density. Also Japan proves, in many areas, NOT having a sidewalk can be great for small urban roads.

Yes, the Japan model works really well. It just means a typical US suburban house lot would have several houses, and roads would be half the width. And the Japanese are good at not being like US-style douchbags with our loud stereos and barking dogs (actually caring...imagine). And there are a lot fewer cars. I'd honestly love for us to be more like that.

Houston of all places has neighborhoods where, thanks to no zoning, there is considerable density of townhomes and duplexes and small urban houses all built since the 1990s. However I don't consider the lack of sidewalks a benefit there. The streets need upgrading as currently some even have open culverts along the side. And there is a minimal amount of small scale retail in these areas to tie the neighborhood together. Nevertheless, I think its a good model for what city planning should be- lassiez faire at the micro level(organically mixed use, building size represents market demand, the synergy and creativity of districts that emerge naturally) and aggressively planned at the macro level(street layouts, equitable allocation of public services and public facilities in each district, transit networks that are logical at the large scale, etc).

Some might not like how close all the houses are together but I think it has charm and has a positive aesthetic on its own.

I also think there should be more tiny parks and similar features. Cincinnati is doing a good job rebuilding(after urban renewal cleared it all), its Over-the-Rhine area and the area has a legacy of small public parks which cram in a lot, even recreational facilities such as pools or ballfields, into tiny spaces with no parking and no added bloat. NYC has stuff like this too. This is necessary I think to make areas like this appealing to families because urban condos and apartments are almost never kid friendly when it comes to use of amenities. For children to grow and develop they need to socialize and play and exercise but this can't happen in a building hallway or the formal plazas of contemporary planned districts. Likewise old people and working class people who aren't members of fancy gyms would like community "backyards" that are programmed and useable and not just frumpy corporate art pieces.

As for culture and manners, well to me it sounds like that is something that emerges from necessity and not vice versa. People will change their behavior if they see other people not acting like that and feel ashamed. Americans are simply used to living in more spread out places where we can do things that might be annoying in closer quarters.

Yes, but we also have a "play it loud" and "don't care what other people think" culture.

is modern american culture the most self-centered culture in the history of our species?

serious question.

Um Steely, I'm not sure our little angels should have to face a challenging question like that...

(Oh wait, this is about being self-centered, not just helpless resulting from helicopter parenting. But growing up continually indulged is a related theme!)

^ huh?

That was intended to be satire about US culture.

You can't have narrow roads and no sidewalks here. Americans like to drive big vehicles and drive fast. Lots of crashes and dead people here if you made roads narrow and take out sidewalks.

never mind this, when are we going to have an SSP forumer discussion panel?

Maybe that's the stereotype but in my experience Americans don't drive fast, if anything, maybe a bit slowly compared to many other places. I don't think the results would be as bad as you suggest at all.

In Italy the drivers are fast, and in those charming narrow lanes you're required to step to the side because they'll mow you down. But there are relatively few cars. In Houston townhouses, they seem to have two(!) parking spaces each in most cases, and it's not only a lot of cars but nearly 100% garages by frontage. That seems both unpleasant and potentially dangerous, even if cars often drive slowly in response.

Depends. If we're talking about the townhouse driveways there won't be much traffic despite the high car population density, due to the fact that they're functionally like cul-de-sacs. They won't be a significant part of the walking environment either for the same reason. As for the city-owned streets, I see them more as regular streets since the ROW + setbacks are more in line with other American streets. I guess the width of the asphalt is often still below average and sometimes almost as narrow as in Japan but front door to front door is still much more than in Japan.

In three 3 minutes of that interview I could stomach the interviewee came off as a racist nut job.

In Germany too. Just try and jaywalk in Germany. The cars will speed up.

I felt much safer walking in Rome Italy than I do in most US cities. Never been to Germany though.

Happy to see other people point out Japan's success in this space before I even saw this thread.

My wife and I are building a single family house now - in a neighborhood that pushes 65,000 pp sq mile. It's on a tiny lot, will be 4 floors tall including a fully-built out roof deck, and will even have <gasp!> a garage. Not that we own a car, but you gotta think about your future renter targets here.

Our house will be just like the millions of other single family houses in this city. It can work fine, but only if you:

- Accept that a yard is for the suburbs and understand these aren't appropriate for the center of a metropolis (we don't have any open land on our lot, that's what the roof deck / roof garden is for)
- Have plenty of transit options a walkable distance from all single family house neighborhoods
- Don't live in America next to obnoxiously loud American douchbags who take pride in "proclaiming their territory"
- Drive a compact car, and drive it only on occasion for longer trips, as opposed to trying to drive down the block to the supermarket

Believe it or not, more people in Tokyo live in single family houses than in condos or apartments!

It's posts like that that make me want to come visit you, Shawn. ;)

First floor guest bedroom is part of the plan, so we might be able to make that happen! :cheers: