Comment by cyberdrunk | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cyberdrunk | Hacker News Reader

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> This is not a problem of houses built that way since the were built pre-car times to allow max light into apartments

Not the case in most of Europe IMO. The apartment buildings were built along very narrow streets to either fit inside perimeter of city walls or (later) because real estate was expensive. Due to narrowness of roads, these apartments are not very well lit and are depressing (you can't see the sky through the window, only the building across the street). Here in Poland, it basically wasn't until central urban planning by communists until we had cities which are livable, car or no car. This is reflected in real estate pries, where apartments in the old, historic buildings can be cheaper (despite often being right in the city centers) than in the (much denser) soviet conglomerates.

> Then came a time we handed over streets to parking spots and some folks driving at 50km/h and faster. Social aspects have been gone.

Even cars at 30 km/h make plenty of noise (when accelerating to that speed). I'm not sure what you mean by "social aspects" of streets?

Social aspects in the sense of that we nowadays use them for cars only. Back in the days people traded on streets, had cafes and social interactions. Kids could play football and learn how to cycle. That's all used up by cars with all the externalities that comes with it such as dirt, noise, wasted space, deaths by accidents and air pollution.

Not to forget: streets were used that way until ~80 years ago. We just can't remember them any different any more.

> Social aspects in the sense of that we nowadays use them for cars only. Back in the days people traded on streets, had cafes and social interactions. Kids could play football and learn how to cycle.

I still see some of that in my dense city with car traffic. Obviously, this now happens on the sidewalk and not on the street itself. The major difference is kids not playing on the more major streets.

> what you mean by "social aspects" of streets?

well the '70s blocks in Poland do have quite some shared greenery, at least the southern part were I've been extensively, but I saw them also up north, even in the outskirts of 'special case' cities that have had their historical centers preserved or restored like Gdansk [1] or Torun [2] - that's what planner can do to encourages a local and social aspect to the local neighbors

but still it doesn't solve working places interconnection in a way that makes walking nor public transit satisfactory.

1 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Danzica,+Polonia/@54.34153...

2 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Toru%C5%84,+Polonia/@53.02...

lol somehow someone with an axe to grind has been following me and downvoting all the posts I make as if that proves anything.

interestingly even factual, sourced post like this were victims to trolling; I though there were protections to anti social behaviour in place, but alas, here we are.

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