There are many variations on "living in cities". Some of them involve single-family dwellings and lots of private space. It actually seems to be those models which are most strongly under attack right now.

They're under attack because they make those cities unaffordable to most, they're a cash transfer from immigrants to the emplaced, from the young to the old.

They're under attack because they can't possibly scale.

They're under attack because they take more energy and are more hostile to walking, biking, and transit.

They're under attack because they're not the natural outcome of people expressing preferences in the market, but rather the result of enforced government zoning regulations.

They're under attack because said zoning regulations are social engineering designed to -- in concert with neighborhood-based school district boundaries -- segregate people based on class.

> (single family homes with reasonable space) they make those cities unaffordable, they can't possibly scale, they are more hostile to walking, biking, and transit.

None of that is actually true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGbC5j4pG9w and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv6SbFlZMbU Apartments are great for those who want them, but there's nothing wrong or anti-urban about family housing.

You can easily give everyone (edit: everyone who wants one) their own single-family detached housing (with privacy, and parking), inside a major city, for really cheap. It would still be 100% supportive of walking, biking, and transit, and can scale for at least the next 100 years. I can state this as a simple fact, because it is, it already exists on Earth today.

Wealthier Americans just refuse to let that happen in our own cities. We simply don't build urban housing for families (even in instances where zoning rules do allow it) so families literally can't make that choice. Cities force sprawl, and then complain that decisions must be made to service the sprawl they themselves made.

First off, Japanese SFHs are on incredibly tiny lots compared to how zoning works in most American cities.

But the bigger issue with your argument here is that much more of Japanese residential land in major cities is used for multi-family housing than single-family. I'm not saying we should not allow single-family homes to exist. I'm saying zoning currently allocates far too much land exclusively for them. Tokyo is a pretty terrible counter-example for that.

It's the same thing with cars. Nothing wrong with driving, American cities just make them hyper-dominant rather than one option among several.

How is a nearly 7-1 average housing cost to median income considered cheap? I'm pretty sure that's the ratios these cities that admit there's a problem are dealing with and you're saying this is the ideal.

It doesn't help your argument either when the video itself admits pop growth in Japan is so low that housing isn't considered a good investment.

“Everyone”? The first video you linked shows that the specific neighborhood in Tokyo is filled with low-rise and mid-rise apartment buildings.

"Everyone" meaning everyone who wants one.

The average family making average wages in Tokyo, can afford a brand new detached home inside central Tokyo.

The same is not true in any of the top 50 cities in the US. Even the smaller unpopular cities, even the cities that have slower population growth than Tokyo, or have cheaper land than Tokyo.

What exactly do you mean by "central Tokyo" here? I'm fairly sure the average family cannot buy a detached house in Ginza for example.

"The 23 special wards that make up the core and most populated portion of Tokyo" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_wards_of_Tokyo

You should watch the videos linked above, it explains all of this in simple but detailed language.

While it's laudable that people can afford detached housing in the extended metro area, I think calling the special wards "central Tokyo" is a bit of a stretch. (Especially given that they reach the border of Tokyo prefecture to the north and east.)

But in any case, as far as I can see your vision doesn't even conflict with the urbanists. They want the dense urban cores and excellent public transport that allows Tokyo's suburbs to exist. Where they are hostile to suburbs, it's where they are enforced by zoning and are getting in the way of density in places where it makes sense and making single family dwellings more expensive in the process.

Indeed many would argue that the success of cities in Japan can be largely attributed to their laxer zoning laws, which is one of the primary things urbanists argue for.

And that's why New York city is so affordable?

Would it be more affordable if it had only two stories of housing everywhere instead of up to 40?

NYC isn't affordable because housing growth can't keep up with population growth.

If East Queens and Long Island looked like South Brooklyn (incl subway access) rather than like Westchester, NYC would be a lot more affordable.

The problem was that Robert Moses built highways at a crucial turning point for greenfield development in NYC, and it's gonna take a lot of effort to reverse these changes.

Some cities have this nice feature where there are enough studio and 1-bedroom apartments available in low-rise and mid-rise apartment buildings that all the people who want to live in small apartments can afford to, pushing down pricing of all housing including the 4-bedroom single-family houses, and the duplexes, etc.

Other cities are zoned to only allow single-family houses on most of their lots, and don’t have enough small apartments, so instead all of the people who want to live in studio apartments end up stuck splitting the rent 3 ways so they can afford to sleep in the dining room of what used to be a single-family house. Due to rent control people living with roommates get locked into their slightly awkward housing situations, and can’t afford to move in with a partner, trade up for a larger space to start a family, or even move when they have a falling out with the roommates. Now the rent price of single family houses goes up to whatever 3 or 4 full-time junior programmer salaries can pay for, all of the families with parents working less lucrative careers can no longer afford the city, and only the richest can afford to ever buy houses.