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Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse
That's true when people are presenting stats as if they're important for their own sake since stats are really only important for what they represent or correlate with. But in my case it was my experience with these areas that made me draw my initial conclusions about them and I only mentioned the stats to show that it wasn't just a matter of perception and that there are tangible differences at play. At its core, urban design is about human experience. People's ability to enjoy urban spaces and to live their lives in a high quality, fulfilling way. But its hard to talk about these things solely in terms of feelings and experience since if the person your speaking to hasn't experienced the same thing themselves, it's very hard to convey - particularly if they're skeptical. So they tend to need something tangible and quantifiable.
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There is really nothing wrong with the stats and the data can be interesting and beautifully presented (e.g., in a map). I do think it has narrow applicability, like it might tell you how much farmland otherwise might have been gobbled up by an alternate development style. Often the data quality is not there but people think numbers imply sound reasoning. The correlation with urbanism is maybe 0.2, not 0.9. At very high densities (Hong Kong) it gets interesting too but we mostly don't have this in Canada.
I think the "stats battle" on SSP is often kind of pathological and just that compelling. I often talk about my experiences in places I've visited. Sometimes I get a bunch of semi-relevant stats back because somebody doesn't like what may be a pretty basic on-the-ground observation. Maybe it's better just to agree to disagree in such cases or disregard an undesirable perspective. SSP used to have much better actual discussion.
It's a wider phenomenon in society with social media factoids or very superficial Wikipedia or AI-generated content that sits atop a scientistic neoliberal culture where people disregard human experience unless numbers are attached. The YIMBY movement suffers from this. It's not all bad, but it's got core flaws in its values.
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