Re:Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
by metargz on Saturday January 20, 2018 @02:40AM
(#16192516)
The kind of challenges you face in a city surely depends on its size. NYC is very big. Fortunately, Madrid is smaller, cheaper and its public transit system is incredible for the size of the city, so you'd probably find it more manageable.
Back when I lived in a far more suburban city I was able to play golf with friends, go hiking, and take road trips to see places and people. Restaurants were much more affordable and I rarely needed a reservation, stores weren't completely swarmed with people during the times I could visit them (which makes buying everything online easier). Everyone had a washer and dryer. People invited friends over for BBQs in their backyards. On weekends it was actually faster to go places than on weekdays, so I could visit people who lived in faraway parts of town and it was no big deal (in NYC I barely get to see my friends in Queens, it takes forever to get there). After dealing with so many people and broken down subways a lot of days I'm just tired and want to go home, so I end up just being home a lot.
Now, there are a lot of reasons I like living in NYC and choose to do so, but there are serious trade offs to living in a very dense environment and there are some awesome things about living in a low density environment.