By: Diane Benjamin
The title is the real article headline.
If you want to read this story you have to jump through their hoops to do it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2024/walkable-neighborhoods-suburban-sprawl-pollution/?tid=wa_hardregwall_auth
The story was written by an immigrant from New Delhi. A few excerpts:
People, however, do not live according to the preferences of planners. Pew Research Center recently asked 5,079 American adults whether they would prefer to live in a community where the houses are smaller and closer to each other but schools, stores and restaurants are within walking distance — in other words, a 15-minute neighborhood — or where the houses are larger and farther apart but schools, stores and restaurants are several miles away — in other words, sprawl.
Most people, it turned out, preferred sprawl. The only demographic groups in which majorities were willing to give up the larger house for the walkable neighborhood were the young, highly educated and Democratic-leaning.
A survey is one way to measure people’s preferences. Another way is to observe how they spend their money. As Seibert’s experience shows, real estate prices are often much higher in 15-minute neighborhoods than in sprawl. That suggests that there are plenty of homes in the suburbs but an undersupply of housing in walkable neighborhoods relative to demand.
This market inefficiency could be resolved by building more walkable neighborhoods. Yet doing so is easier said than done.
For one thing, many U.S. cities were designed for cars. Zoomed out, car-oriented cities all look about the same on the map: dense downtowns surrounded by sprawl with arterial highways dissecting areas where walkable neighborhoods might otherwise be built.
Other cities have sought to rezone neighborhoods reserved for single-family homes so that denser housing can be built. Residents sometimes object to these changes, arguing that duplexes and apartments will bring more traffic or otherwise change their communities for the worse.
But as cities across the country confront housing shortages, empty office buildings and public safety concerns, 15-minute neighborhoods could offer a way back to urban vitality. Plus, if walkable neighborhoods were more common, they would probably become cheaper. Then, my wife and I wouldn’t have to choose between living in a neighborhood such as Clarendon and having enough space to store a tricycle.
City planners don’t take into account what people actually want. People don’t want to live in dense housing developments.
Add this article: https://www.canadianarchitect.com/reimagining-urban-leadership/
Planners are frustrated when their plans aren’t enacted. It shouldn’t be a surprise when people don’t want what they plan.
Good article. I recall at city council meetings when Renner was Mayor they routinely spoke about the millennials and planning for them and a disregard for everyone else. And once again the more the planners plan the More they get things wrong.
Millennials and younger Gen Xers have been leaving the cities in favor of sprawl by the thousands for the past ten years.
How many people in Normal don’t want gas stoves? Planners don’t care
Imposing solutions to non-existent problems through social regulations will create massive problems with no solutions. The problem is compounded when politicians are involved because politicians will never admit they got it wrong.
Packing people into smaller and smaller spaces to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will create a dystopic world.
For the most part, community and urban planners are political Socialists. There are a few exceptions but rare. A convention or a training session with a ballroom full of them is like attending a Communist Party rally.
Socialism- aka “Human Factors” projects and management (aka How can I “reimagine” spending all the tax $ we stole? (5 min cities) Hooray