That is still affordability. When cities are expensive you get more for you money in the suburb. A hobby room, home office or cooking space. But the cost of suburbs are inherently expensive. So when cities are affordable you get more for your money in a city. Because you get some space but also better access to things like offices, makerspaces or restaurants.

I don't want to rant to much, but most people don't like woodworking. They even less like doing woodworking on their own. It is something they conclude they should do because they can and don't have many alternatives. I'm sure it is covered somewhere online.

The first point is reasonable enough, but the point still stands you can't find the same size house in the city for the suburb price. Most cities simply don't have more than a handful of spacious houses with big yards.

Your second point is invalid, as you're arguing against his assumptions. It's only possible to argue againt someone's logic, arguing someones assuptions is the same as calling names. I like woodwork and have alternatives.

You don't need the same space. That is the point. Yes, if I lived in a suburb I would also want more space because everything else would be harder to do.

I'm not arguing against their assumption. I said most, that isn't them. This is exactly why I didn't want to elaborate, so I won't.

what if I want the same space? that's the assumption

Man, this almost made me throw up because your post reaks of selfishness and privilege. Anyways, I hope you're at least aware of your extreme privilege.

But there's also a difference between surburbs in Germany vs US: In Germany, there's usually some form of public transport in the suburbs. It might be a little inconvenient at times, but you can live without a car. In many US suburbs, it's flat out impossible to live without a car.

Just wanted to mention that what the OP is asking for is completely achievable in a great urban city.

I live in an ideal mixed-use walkable neighborhood with a 2.5 car garage (that only holds one electric car). Not every house has that nor should it, but we can certainly build those features for those who want them and maintain walkability and good transit practices alongside mixed use.

The problem with the suburbs isn’t the existence of the single family home, the problem is the zoning and design of the homes.

> Man, this almost made me throw up because your post reaks of selfishness and privilege. Anyways, I hope you're at least aware of your extreme privilege.

This doesn’t convince anyone of anything and it doesn’t help us with building better transit and walkable neighborhoods. When you tell someone that what they want is “extreme privilege” and “selfish” you turn them away from the conversation. Instead we should focus on showing them how their lifestyle isn’t actually incompatible with good urban planning and good transit, because it’s not.

The future of American cities isn’t NYC, which I love and adore. We won’t have the density for that and skyscrapers and that level of density have their own problems too. Instead, we should look at mid-sized European cities and towns as a better model. We may have more single family homes and cars, but we can still build at the appropriate level of density and build different types of dwellings to meet people where they are in their life. Today it’s illegal to build an apartment building, coffee shop, restaurant, or small grocery store in the suburban neighborhood and we can’t build small, affordable units for folks either. This creates pricing imbalances and other issues.

If that rather benign comment makes you almost throw up...

Why does everything devolve into a silly argument about privilege. It's boring.

A post explaining the reasoning behind a personal preference for living in the suburbs almost made you throw up?

Your close-mindedness of the opinions that others are allowed to have makes me almost want to throw up.

The person you are responding to isn’t displaying a lack of empathy for people that can’t afford to live in the suburbs. They are explaining the very real and understandable reasoning behind a behind their preference.

That’s not selfish and privileged. That’s a preference.

Look, I understand that the fringe groups you might associate yourself with throw around the word “privilege” as an insult at anyone that does something not inline with the group’s thinking, but it’s just not the insult that you think it is outside of those fringe groups.

That is the thing many young people don’t see until they have a kid and realize how much more difficult urban living is with kids unless you have a lot of money. Cities eat your time when you have kids.

Seems like you would spend an inordinate amount of time chaperoning kids around. Unless of course you can afford a driver.