Lots of people who want to live in suburbs have in fact visited or even lived in large, dense cities. They're well aware of the tradeoffs.

I agree, and I think even the folks who are against that would actually end up enjoying it more. But people hate change, especially when it means changing something that has been that way for generations at this point. My main point though is that people who think this is about money are simply wrong. Trying to argue numbers with these folks will not move them an inch. It has everything to do with emotion.

> I agree, and I think even the folks who are against that would actually end up enjoying it more

That's a pretty remarkable belief. Many of us happy suburbanites have lived in large dense cities in our younger days. We are not ignorant of the joys of city living, we've just changed priorities.

The neighborhoods I have in mind here aren't "true suburbs" but rather "pre-war suburbs" that are already fairly dense. Think west SF, Fremont/Ballard in Seattle, etc.

Barcalona is a terrible place to live due to mass tourism that the intenet has enabled.

Yup I hear nobody goes there anymore because its so popular.

Tourists go. That doesn’t mean it’s a good place to live.

The extreme example is of course Venice.

People who think it's wonderful to live in a place where every block is 4-story apartments should feel free to move to such a place.

That place doesn’t practically exist in most of the US.

It doesn't exist in most of Spain/Catalonia either; it's in a few of the largest cities.

Even in small cities in Spain, central areas are high density with three or four storey mix residential buildings.

I chose a random small city in northern Catalonia called Vielha and viewed it on Goggle Maps, there they are. They look different to Eixanple apartment buildings, but they are there in the centre. Population less than 6k.

Chose another, Gironella, a bit further south; population around 4k. One less floor on the multi family apartment buildings in the old centre, and a much higher ratio of SFDs to MFDs in the settlement as a whole, but still there.

How many should I sample to convince you?

If the yardstick moves to "three or four story residential buildings are present" from "every block is 4-story apartments", three story apartments/multi-families can be found in many cities around the US as well.

They’re multi family apartment buildings. Rather like those in the Eichample, but with a different exterior style, and of course without the famous block chamfer.