[endymi0n]

Why back up my claims if you do it for me? :)

> Housing units, population, jobs, and desirability of the area is what drives housing unit prices.

Well, if anything is driving up population density, it's increasing the number of inhabitants per square meter, just like skyscrapers do.

The real strawman here is "But these cities still aren't building to the pace of their population growth."

If they were, what good does it do for anyone? It's putting more gasoline to the fire instead of letting it burn out. Any effect from building more housing has only short-term positive (and long-time negative) effects on gentrification if the original desirability of the area doesn't change.

The only proven ways to decrease desirability of the area are getting rid of the original jobs (like Detroit) or increasing prices to so absurd levels that people seriously question if they should go there (London, Bay Area).

[ido]

Well we don't want to actually reduce the desirability of the city...that the city is growing is a good thing. And Berlin is actually sorrounded by a lot of empty space.

You can build high density (4-8 stories not skyscrapers) apartment buildings to house a million more people (and required infrastructure) around berlin and there will still be plenty of space to continue growing.

Do you think that if the supply of new apartment suddenly increased dramatically it will have no effect on rents rising?

[stale2002]

Why would you want to decrease desirability?

Basically your argument is that skyscrapers make cities TOO AWESOME.

I don't care if you don't like concrete jungles. If prices go up because of skyscrapers, you are being outvoted! Let the market decide.

Skyscrapers are a double benefit. They make the city more awesome AND allow more people to share in that awesomeness, via density.