[jmward01]

One problem in development is we keep trying to think big 'build a lot of homes at once'. That creates the suburbs which, long term, is very unhealthy for a city and its residents (and unfair to the core which ends up paying for their services). We need to push for smaller development, but more of it. It is a lr for cities. When you hear 'redevelopment' it generally means too big of a step is being attempted. It is too often a make or break, and too often that just means break so you get nothing bus held up development, and even when it does happen it is too much and you likely overshot in many ways and undershot in many more. Then, years down the line all those houses age out at the same time and their infra ages out at the same time leading to a sudden problem for the city. Smaller projects lead to a diverse and healthy city. You want to make homes cheaper? Publish, and maintain, pre-approved plans for homes and ADUs, but make sure the plans meet city density needs. Give incentives to clear out brownfill. Encourage development in ways that improve the health of a city and you will get healthier cities.

[Swizec]

> 'build a lot of homes at once'. That creates the suburbs which

What a silly American way of thinking. Build a lot of homes at once creates high rise neighborhoods. We've had these in Europe since the 60's, they are great. Asia has taken it to the extreme in recent decades.

A couple high rises give you a few hundred residential units in a completely walkable neighborhood.

Here's an example from Ljubljana, built between 1977 and 1987. Houses 18,000+ people on 150 acres. https://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nove_Fu%C5%BEine

Here's a more sciency source. Over 3000 residential high rises were been built in Europe in the 2010's

https://www.alexandrinepress.co.uk/built-environment/high-ri...

Another fun example: The tallest skyscraper in Europe will have 260 apartments and 107,000+ sqft of communal space https://www.domusweb.it/en/news/gallery/2025/09/26/benidorm-...

[jmward01]

What a silly dismissal. Of course you can build apartment buildings and increased density options in some cities and not take too big of a step. I'm a fan of that in the right sized cities. Go for it, if the city can handle it as a small step. Some cities however that one project would take up the next couple years of anticipated growth and would therefor likely be too big of a step. The point is the step size relative to the city, not an arbitrary count. I am advocating for cities encouraging many smaller steps, compared to their size, instead of trying to build all the housing in one big development all at once. But to get to your point about high-rises, those can also be city killers and emphasize my point. Many cities have 'redeveloped' poor neighborhoods into high-rises to 'make enough low income housing available' all at once. This type of development was bad because it often achieved its goal, all low income housing needed was created at once in one place leading to massive problems. So, yeah, high-rises can be great, or terrible. It depends on the city and the way they are implemented.

[opsnooperfax]

The US is not completely centrally planned by a politburo, and suburban sprawl is not a conspiracy of diabolical powers that be. Given the choice, many people with the means will pay a premium and spend hours every day commuting to not have to live in The city they work. Why? There are uncomfortable answers. You can’t make maximizing harm to a segment of the population a policy goal and expect them to stay.

[jmward01]

I am all for people being able to pay a premium to get the burbs. The problem is they don't actually pay the premium. Their service costs are often not covered by the taxes and direct fees assessed. Consider water and sewer. I pay the same amount for water and sewer as the sprawl house built out in R1 on the edge of town but my house is on major city services that cost a fraction to maintain, per house, as that house on the edge. I am subsidizing them. And I do it for their roads. And their parks. And every service they use because them and 5 other people suck 20x the resources but pay the same as me. And it makes me mad. So, yeah, pay your fair share to live in sprawl and I will be happy, force me to pay your taxes and imply I'm a communist and I get a little less polite.