This is the fallout of remote working, entire downtowns are now ghost towns.
They’re no longer central business districts. They’re centers of innovation, of entertainment, of recreation,” he said. “The faster places realize that, the better.”
It really does feel like it is the 1970s all over again where downtowns were ignored, abandoned, and urban decay set in.
It’s more complicated than just diversifying the businesses. It’s upper middle class vs everyone below them. Families can’t live in a one bedroom, one bath. People who cook the affordable, cultural food can’t afford to keep a restaurant in the city. Right now in Seattle, it’s even too expensive to live 45 minutes out for the service industry. We have to rethink who the city is for. Vibrancy comes with all types of people, do the techy people even really want to live there after the initial shininess since it’s so sterile? Not sure, would love to see some studies on it. If you want a quiet, boring, rich place where it’s “hard to find good help,” go the techy city route. It’s like trying to have fun and go drinking on a Microsoft campus.
That is a result of cities deciding to only build large family dwellings in the suburbs and keeping urban apartments small. That really does need to change.
I think that’s one piece of the puzzle, but affordable areas is another. You have to also have great infrastructure to back it up like trains, light rail, etc. if you’re going to have it be crazy expensive. Greedy developers and short-sighted politicians that are bought by the greedy developers have messed up quite a few cities.
As families leave city population goes down, which in turn means less people in the cities, which mean “less need” to develop transit. It’s a vicious cycle that we need to break.
Absolutely it’s almost next to impossible to find a 3-4 bedroom unit in the city. Somehow cities and developers have forgotten that cities need families.
Instead urban sprawl is kicking in amd families are leaving cities.
So you meet new people? Are there different types of bars and do you ship people in? I can’t even imagine the type of bubble that would be. Not my thing but you do you.
I find it’s a more complex issue which we (humans) have created ourselves. This problem is very prevalent in north America for example.
If you look at most downtown cores, there is a shortage of family sized homes, what I mean here is 3 bedroom and 4 bedroom homes that allow a family to grown and remian in a city center.
Most new build condos are designed as bachelor’s/1 bedroom plus den/2 bedroom with rarely anything bigger. Generally these units have a second bedroom with no window.
The reason for this is north america fire codes. I provided a link below that talks about how in north america it’s more expensive for developers to build 3 and 4 bedroom units as the square footage required is more then what is typically require in European countries for example. Typical 20-30% more, and this is because of north america condos requiring large long corridors down the center between units. This is not common in other parts of the world.
What happens here is as couples want to start a family, they have no choice but to move out into the suburbs. In the suburbs developers build townhomes or single family homes, which causes urban sprawl.
This drains cities of families that would potentially have more money and energy to spend in improving their neighborhoods. And would allow cities to become more family centered.
The pandemic was no help, but IMO it was not the cause, instead it brought to light a issue that is already brewing but most of us have not yet noticed as a issue.
The solution here is we need more mid-rise mixer-use developments in our cities, I mean the buildings that most north america cities lack right now because of zoning requirements. I am talking about buildings 4-8 story building. This would help solve the housing crisis (less families looking for homes in the suburbs), increase density in the city’s, keep families in the cities, increase transit (as more people means more transportation is needed) and keep out cities “alive”.
This is the fallout of remote working, entire downtowns are now ghost towns.
It really does feel like it is the 1970s all over again where downtowns were ignored, abandoned, and urban decay set in.
It’s more complicated than just diversifying the businesses. It’s upper middle class vs everyone below them. Families can’t live in a one bedroom, one bath. People who cook the affordable, cultural food can’t afford to keep a restaurant in the city. Right now in Seattle, it’s even too expensive to live 45 minutes out for the service industry. We have to rethink who the city is for. Vibrancy comes with all types of people, do the techy people even really want to live there after the initial shininess since it’s so sterile? Not sure, would love to see some studies on it. If you want a quiet, boring, rich place where it’s “hard to find good help,” go the techy city route. It’s like trying to have fun and go drinking on a Microsoft campus.
That is a result of cities deciding to only build large family dwellings in the suburbs and keeping urban apartments small. That really does need to change.
I think that’s one piece of the puzzle, but affordable areas is another. You have to also have great infrastructure to back it up like trains, light rail, etc. if you’re going to have it be crazy expensive. Greedy developers and short-sighted politicians that are bought by the greedy developers have messed up quite a few cities.
As families leave city population goes down, which in turn means less people in the cities, which mean “less need” to develop transit. It’s a vicious cycle that we need to break.
Absolutely it’s almost next to impossible to find a 3-4 bedroom unit in the city. Somehow cities and developers have forgotten that cities need families.
Instead urban sprawl is kicking in amd families are leaving cities.
Buddy, you can definitely have fun and go drinking on a Microsoft campus, trust me.
So you meet new people? Are there different types of bars and do you ship people in? I can’t even imagine the type of bubble that would be. Not my thing but you do you.
I find it’s a more complex issue which we (humans) have created ourselves. This problem is very prevalent in north America for example.
If you look at most downtown cores, there is a shortage of family sized homes, what I mean here is 3 bedroom and 4 bedroom homes that allow a family to grown and remian in a city center.
Most new build condos are designed as bachelor’s/1 bedroom plus den/2 bedroom with rarely anything bigger. Generally these units have a second bedroom with no window.
The reason for this is north america fire codes. I provided a link below that talks about how in north america it’s more expensive for developers to build 3 and 4 bedroom units as the square footage required is more then what is typically require in European countries for example. Typical 20-30% more, and this is because of north america condos requiring large long corridors down the center between units. This is not common in other parts of the world.
What happens here is as couples want to start a family, they have no choice but to move out into the suburbs. In the suburbs developers build townhomes or single family homes, which causes urban sprawl.
This drains cities of families that would potentially have more money and energy to spend in improving their neighborhoods. And would allow cities to become more family centered.
The pandemic was no help, but IMO it was not the cause, instead it brought to light a issue that is already brewing but most of us have not yet noticed as a issue.
The solution here is we need more mid-rise mixer-use developments in our cities, I mean the buildings that most north america cities lack right now because of zoning requirements. I am talking about buildings 4-8 story building. This would help solve the housing crisis (less families looking for homes in the suburbs), increase density in the city’s, keep families in the cities, increase transit (as more people means more transportation is needed) and keep out cities “alive”.
Here is the link to the article. https://www.centerforbuilding.org/blog/we-we-cant-build-family-sized-apartments-in-north-america