[opportune]

Dense suburbs are only "outlawed" because certain places, usually at the municipality level, zone the buildings that way. You know it is also "outlawed" for most European cities to build too high vertically too right?

Also, it varies from city to city (and within cities). Although most of the 20-35 crowd probably would prefer a denser city, old people prefer owning homes with lawns, so they wouldn't even want to live in that kind of place to begin with.

[davidw]

You can get a place with a lawn in Europe, too; you just have to pay for it, or live further out.

It's very difficult to find a place like our house in Italy in the US: we could walk to schools, grocery stories, pastry shops, our doctor, cafes, pizza place, a few barbers and a tram stop to go downtown.

And that's in a suburb of a mid-size city (about 300K).

[brians]

I live in a place like that in Lexington, Mass. I commute by bicycle (or wimp out and drive in bad weather) about 8 miles. Two groceries, the elementary school, three preschools, an amazing cookie shop, three pizza places, and a fantastic Chinese place are walkable. Oh, and two dentists and an eye doctor, plus your selection of churches. A bus line runs from there, every 15 minutes in rush hour, to the terminus of a subway line. Oh, and a public library.

Now, it’s not perfect: the T breaks down all the time due to criminal underinvestment, my bike commute is noticeably faster than driving through the traffic, the mass transit schedule is such that any route with multiple transfers is insane.

But I’m going to guess that the Italian and Dutch versions of this aren’t perfect either; it’s a matter of deciding which flaws to live with.

[ocschwar]

Zoning codes in the US are mostly copies of zoning code templates published decades ago, so even though every single place has its own, it's a little-modified version of what everyone else has.

Even dense US towns are zoned against density. Somerville, Massachusetts had a rude awakening 5 years ago when they discovered the entire city is in violation of the zoning code. Every single home is out of compliance for one reason or another.

[harryh]

old people prefer owning homes with lawns

That's fine, but why do old people need it legally mandated that everyone has to do that?

[PhasmaFelis]

> You know it is also "outlawed" for most European cities to build too high vertically too right?

What's the justification for that?

[adrianN]

Dark streets mostly. Also the length of ladders that Fire engines have.