[CanSpice]

This is a bit false. It assumes that the cost of living is driven solely by housing. There have been numerous studies done that show that the total cost of living doesn't change much between city and suburbs. Housing costs are higher in the city, but they're largely balanced out by lower transportation costs and house upkeep costs (apartments are cheaper to heat/cool than houses, for example).

[davidw]

Here you go:

"A cheap home isn’t affordable if it comes with high transportation costs."

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/06/the-problem-with-how-...

[ryandrake]

My transportation costs (including the purchase price of the car, all gas and maintenance) are an order of magnitude less than the home price delta between where I currently live and where I'd have to live in order to give up my car.

[closeparen]

This cannot be stressed enough. Too many people on HN seem baffled by car culture, or think it's some kind of conspiracy, but the answer is right here. Savings on land prices for getting far from the center are massive, the costs of manufactured goods like cars are tiny, and the solution that urbanism offers is is only to raise the price on the latter.

[TheCoelacanth]

> the solution that urbanism offers is is only to raise the price on the latter

The solution that urbanism offers is to stop massively subsidizing the latter. Let car culture live or die on its own merits, not because of government subsidies.

[closeparen]

Without a corresponding subsidy to lower the cost of urban living, most people will be worse off (maybe the rich in urban centers will save more in taxes than they lose in mobility, doubtful anyone else will).

Subsidizing infrastructure that increases quality of life and lowers cost of living is kind of the point of government.

[TheCoelacanth]

The intrinsic cost of urban living is much less than the intrinsic cost living in car focused suburbs. It is only more expensive now because of an under supply of urban areas caused by decades of subsidization of car focused suburbs. The ROI of spending on urban infrastructure is much higher than spending on car focused suburban development.

[davidw]

Cars are part and parcel of modern life and they won't be going away any time soon, and I don't think more than a few extremists really want that anyway.

What a lot of people do is to rebalance things so we have more of a 'right tool for the job' culture in the US. Cars for some things, bikes or walking for closer trips (enabled by legalizing things like corner stores or neighborhood barbers again), public transportation for other things.

[wbl]

Go tell that to the 40% of New Yonkers without cars.