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Comment by JustAnotherPat | Hacker News Reader

those apartment blocks look like something you'd see out of the USSR.

is it good or bad thing?

Definitely bad. That's exactly the type of image I would use as a current home/land owner of a neighborhood to discourage urbanization and building more housing. "See what our neighborhood could become!!" /s

Even the residents don't like them:

>>“There isn’t much design inspiration. They’re just stacked up,” said Park In-seok, an architecture professor at Myongji University. He described a paradox in which the apartments are mocked for their appearance but coveted for their convenience. “Almost everybody hates the apartment,” Park said. “But everybody wants to live in one.”

It's funny, I thought I would hate those too, but after a recent visit to Ukraine, the "suburbs" that consist of those apartment highrises with lots of greenspace in between have their charms. You get the open spaces, you get the tons of small commerce, you get the public transit to city center and elsewhere, and you get local and larger community. I thought I would hate it, but it's pretty damn awesome.

>“But everybody wants to live in one.”

This was the part that I didn't understand until I experienced it. If they were more visually appealing from the outside, and in the stairways, people may stop hating them.

I was thinking the exact same thing. In my suburban part of the east bay area, the nearest real parks are about a 45 minute walk away, through bland boring suburban streets, the nearest schools would require a car to reach, the closest supermarket is about a 20 minute walk away and there's essentially zero public transit (slow buses about once an hour).

The small town my wife is from in the North Caucasus region of Russia has green everywhere. It also has schools, kindergartens, small grocery stores and parks within ~5-10 min walking distance of pretty much the entire city and public transit everywhere, roughly one bus per route every 5 minutes.

Sure the buildings are arguably uglier but the area as a whole is beautiful and far more livable.

I dated a Korean who grew up in one of those Seoul suburbs (newer and nicer than the drab ones in the photos, but similarly composed of skyscrapers), which I also visited myself. She loves it and prefers it there. It's extremely convenient. Everything is walkable - restaurants, parks, stores, etc. You don't need a car, and mass transit is fantastic. 20-30 minutes by subway to Gangnam (14 miles away) for 3000 won ($2.65).

I grew up in the American suburbs and now live in Manhattan. I hate American suburbs with a passion. Inconvenient, car-dependent, and isolating. NYC is great, but the apartments here are old and terrible by modern standards (not to mention the decrepit subway).

The problem is that America seems to care more about aesthetic appearance than actual living conditions. I don't think anyone will disagree with you that those Soviet-style blocks of identical apartments are ugly from the outside, but I'd rather live in a modern high-rise than some shitty 100 year old 5 story tenement walkup, or some giant house in the suburbs where I can't get anywhere without a car.

I think most people would find it ugly and would much prefer the high-rises of New York, or even certain parts of Hong Kong.

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