[firasd]

Good insight. I suspect that some American hesitation about "density" and "apartment buildings" is based on specific history from the 20th century and 'white flight' era. Do people from other countries really fear and disdain apartment buildings the same way? I don't...

Related, interesting quote from someone talking to Jane Jacobs: http://www.citylab.com/design/2016/05/happy-100th-birthday-j...

New, high-rise public housing surrounded by pretty but functionless lawns had erased the formerly dense mix of retail, institutional and residential uses. She learned about what was lost from settlement house workers and tenants.

As one resident told her: “Nobody cared what we wanted when they built this place. They threw our houses down and pushed us here and pushed our friends somewhere else. We don’t have a place around here to get a cup of coffee or a newspaper even... But the big men come and look at that grass and say, ‘Isn’t it wonderful! Now the poor have everything.’”

[jwdunne]

In Salford, we had a regeneration project that replaced all the rundown terraced housing, from Salford's industrial era, with high rises.

Due to the collapse of industry round here, deprivation and crime shot through the roof (to the point Latvia recommended its citizens not visit this city in particular).

The high rises have become synonymous with that crime and deprivation. No one wants them at their back yard because of who typically lives in them, not because of the aesthetics.

In fact, they have recently had a makeover and now look great. Unfortunately, the same people still live there.

[conjectures]

Home, sweet home.

I moved south, the weather and opportunities are better. But then I probably fall into most of the boxes outlined in the article.

However, the planning laws in the UK put brakes on growth down here. Having been in in Tokyo and London it's obvious why accommodation is cheaper (by about 50% [1]) in Japan than the UK: they build up and dense.

I think the argument of the article is more about the character of the places people move _to_ rather than the places they move _from_. Where cities are very expensive, it's too hard to get a toehold in the economy as someone new to the area/just starting out.

We need to get over the mistakes of the 50s and 60s and accept that if we want affordable housing for the masses we need higher, denser accommodation.

Unfortunately what we get is low density out-of-town box houses that aren't connected to any infrastructure. If we get much at all. Where there is development in the cities, it seems to be too little to shift prices.

[1] http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...