| > This isn't the gotcha you think it is. It's an entirely separate cultural issue. Well, yeah. It's called: shitty densification. > If you had read the article in question you posted, it mentions the fact that there are multiple cheaper apartments nearby that aren't as trendy due to age. In other words: they are even shittier. > "Houses in Japan typically decrease in value over time until they are worthless — the cultural legacy of post-World War II construction and shifting building codes — with only the land retaining value. Owners feel little incentive to maintain an aging house, and buyers often seek to demolish them and start fresh. But that can be expensive." Again, you're looking at symptoms. Tokyo is basically being rebuilt all the time, mostly as a result of corrupt wheeling-and-dealing by real estate developers. But the countryside and smaller cities stay empty and decaying. > Efficient? Have you lived in Houston or Austin? Yes, I have. I hated the climate and the (lack of) nature around it, but loved the city. And yes, Houston is much more efficient than a similarly sized NYC in pretty much all categories: commute time, cost of housing, income inequality (0.48 GINI index vs 0.56 for NYC), infrastructure spending per capita, number of municipal employees per capita, etc. > Because I did. For 5 years. It was a nightmare getting to anywhere because it's a sea of paved-over bullshit with zero avenues to get anywhere outside of using a car. And why is that bad? Cars enable more efficient cities. They are objectively far superior to transit for several fundamental reasons. |
Then we're done here I guess. You live in an entirely different reality that just isn't true. There's no point to continuing this argument.