News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Too many Americans live in places built for cars – not for human connection. Parent comment

Re:Too many Americans live in places built for cars – not fo... by bobthepanda on Thursday August 25, 2022 @01:41PM (#32597217)
Sometimes, people are looking for small and boring, like some parents who are raising kids and are no longer partying every weekend. (There are also pros and cons to raising children in cities; growing up in NYC I got a free transit pass in middle school and was able to take myself to places like the Met and the Guggenheim pretty effortlessly, and you certainly can't get amenities like those everywhere.)

There's nothing wrong with small and boring, the major issue is that generally the overwhelming majority of US housing stock and zoning laws are geared towards picket-fence suburbia, to the detriment of people who don't necessarily want that. Plenty of people certainly want that, but it's probably not anywhere near like 90% of people in the US.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Too many Americans live in places built for cars – not fo... by TheCoelacanth on Thursday August 25, 2022 @02:21PM (#32597833)
Nothing wrong with small and boring, but even boring suburbs should have a grocery store within walking distance of most houses, which they mostly don't in the US.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Too many Americans live in places built for cars – not fo... by Taylor_OD on Friday August 26, 2022 @11:26AM (#32608751)
Really? What do you call walking distance? Most suburbs I've spent time in will have a grocery store in driving distance (~5 miles away) but that isnt really walking distance if you are trying to carry any significant amount of groceries or trying to make the trip in less than 2 hours.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Too many Americans live in places built for cars – not fo... by Ar-Curunir on Thursday August 25, 2022 @04:03PM (#32599260)
The majority of the world raises their children in densely populated and compact cities. It’s not about partying, it’s about social exposure.

I grew up in a dense city outside the US, and even as a not-particularly-social child, I still had plenty of friends I played with and hung out with, and also had tons of interaction with adults. Meanwhile I’ve seen my cousins grow up in suburbs over the past 10 years, and they interact with maybe 3 non-family members outside of school, because everything is like a 15 minute walk away through winding suburb streets. That kind of isolation is not healthy at all.

[ Parent | on HN ]