[negrit]

> Americans have big garages to stockpile supplies

No they don't. No one in NYC, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, ... have big garages to stockpile supplies and most of the US lives in those big cities with apartments without garages.

In the suburbs they do but that's a minority of the population.

[majormajor]

There are more Americans in suburbs and rural area than in "small apartment urban" areas. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/demographic-and-e...

> About 46 million Americans live in the nation’s rural counties, 175 million in its suburbs and small metros and about 98 million in its urban core counties.

> As a group, the population in rural counties grew 3% since 2000, less than their 8% growth in the 1990s. Urban county population rose 13% since 2000 and the population in suburban and small metro counties went up 16%, growth rates somewhat higher than in the 1990s.

It's hidden in plain sight: you mention "Boston, San Fransisco, and Seattle" in the same breath as NYC, but numbers-wise those are all pretty small and you're leaving out not only their suburbs but also the LA, Chicago, DFW and Houston areas which all have considerable amounts of suburbs and single family living, and hold almost 40M people alone...

[kelnos]

And hell, a decent portion of SF at least land-wise is covered in single-family homes and duplexes, many (most?) of which are decently spacious and have garages. Even in cities, Americans tend to have more space than equivalently-situated Europeans.

[Alex3917]

Most of NYC is probably covered in single family homes, not sure that's really relevant though.

[negrit]

Common most of the houses in outer richmond, sunset, ingleside, ... have multiple in-law units and converted garages. The cost of living is too expensive in those cities.

[misiti3780]

That is correct, but most people dont live in cities here. As of 2010, the top 10 cities had 24MM:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_populous_cities_i...

People in the suburbs do have big garages (think long island vs manhattan)

[dx034]

How does a garage help? Many people living in urban areas in Europe have a basement. And even those who don't shouldn't have issues storing 2 weeks worth of food in their houses or apartments. Fridge space is probably the only restriction for that.

[rojondo]

Majority of US population lives in the suburbs. Roughly 30% live in urban areas and many of them would have garages or basements. For example, my town is considered urban and all the houses have garages.

https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/11/data-most-american-neig...

https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/demographic-and-e...

[trimbo]

> No one in NYC, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, ... have big garages to stockpile supplies

I think most of San Francisco by area is zoned "RH-" (Residential Housing), and most of that RH- area is RH-1 or RH-1D (single family). Most of the homes in those regions have lots of space.

We're not just talking about Zuck's mansion either, plenty of homes in the Sunset or other West SF areas that have that kind of room.

[Gibbon1]

Friend of mine went on a walkabout. Camping in his van and decided to live off just what was in his food bin. Basically a short half full rubber maid container. Lasted him three weeks.

[negrit]

Plenty of houses in outer richmond, sunset, ingleside, ... have multiple in-law units and converted garages. The cost of living is too expensive.