[ocman]

Originally Posted by Yuri

This mere discussion we're having here and the posted article itself show how denser NYC/NY MSA could become. What stop it of being denser, to build much more, is legislation, lobbies, selfish anti-urban bigoted people.

What has happened to big world-class cities like London, New York are horrible. Regular housing there has become luxury item. Whereas average income there are twice, three times higher (PPP) than metropolises on middle-income countries, housing is like 10x more expensive. That's not sustainable or desirable.

I welcomed @muppet here in São Paulo from London in December and even though we've discussed this subject several times before, visiting friends around on central São Paulo, it's crazy to compare on the ground what regular young people can afford down here and it's impossible to afford in London. And SP is perceived as an expensive city to live.

I know there are other factors on playing (e.g. foreign money poured on real estate), but what London/New York can do about it is to build more, to make easier to build all kinds of housing. It's the only possible answer. To register: even though São Paulo population is not growing fast (on the last census grew slower than both London and New York for the first time), it's building like crazy. It updated zoning 10 years ago and areas that haven't seen new constructions for decades have now new highrises popping up in literally every corner.

Cities are seriously letting society down. How many more big cities are just going to price everyone out because they encourage more conditions that uphold hurdle for building residential units and providing for a growing population? We need large cities to provide a good example of living for all income levels, yet so many are failing at that.