Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Decade 3094 days ago
We should collectively redefine what we are trying to preserve. You recognize that increasing density allows more people to live there without encroaching on the wilderness. As a bonus, increasing density also makes walkable neighborhoods more viable, so more people can live without cars.

But many voters believe what we should preserve is the single-family home, built environment that some developer created long ago. Then the number of people per unit of land is restricted: homes near economic activity become playthings of the rich, and any new home that is affordable is taking away wildlife habitat and farmland.

In short, their stance is understandable, but it is sociopathic.

https://www.sfhac.org
1 comments
sliverstorm 3094 days ago
But many voters believe what we should preserve is the single-family home, built environment

Do you believe this is an honest characterization of their core goal? Is the opposition's number one goal simply to oppose multifamily property? Like, "God ordained that no two families should live in a single structure"? Or is it about property valuation changes, or building height, or street parking, or land use, or decreasing number of (semi-permanent) owners and increasing number of (temporary) renters, or...?

link
Decade 3093 days ago
> But many voters believe what we should preserve is the single-family home, built environment

> Do you believe this is an honest characterization of their core goal?

Yes. I can quote Rothstein about racist motivations[0] or Marohn about short-sighted financial recklessness,[1] but I believe more people have nostalgia than malice. Even if they deploy structural racism and racist rhetoric.

Most people become set in their ways very quickly, and have difficulty imagining what is good other than what they thought was good when they were young. By now, you cannot find a native-born American who grew up in a time before cars became supreme. Most Americans don’t even remember a time before the Suburban Experiment.[2]

So, yes, people will bring up building heights, and respecting the neighborhood, and traffic, and parking über alles, but I think the main motivation is that they can’t imagine someone else can have a good life that is a benefit to the community other than the life that they think is a good life.

[0] https://smile.amazon.com/Color-Law-Forgotten-Government-Segr...

[1] https://www.strongtowns.org

[2] https://www.strongtowns.org/curbside-chat-1/2015/12/14/ameri...

link