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> Although that goes against the current narrative. I am very worried about this new push for 'optimizing living spaces'. Where companies are buying up land en masse and constructing condos/apartments. It's not the way to live!

It's important to remember that different people have different preferences. Having a yard to my partner and I has always been yet another maintenance burden, another one of life's incessant worries to upkeep. My favorite part of our local parks is the ability to go to them and not mow the lawn, not make sure the grass is upkept, not make sure the wind blew something over or whatnot. I have a friend with a large suburban home who is constantly fixing some thing or the other and seems to be forever living in a state of partial brokenness. He loves it, every day is a project for him, but this would drive my partner and I insane. Our neighbors are families and while they can be noisy at times the kids go silent around 9 PM and everything is quiet. My sleep is never disturbed.

It's good that you realized space is helpful for your mental health. But not for everyone. Living in an SFH neighborhood made my partner deeply depressed. The sound of neighbors' conversations gave her a sense of connectedness which improved her mental health drastically. When my grandparents from an urban area in a developing country first visited my parents SFH in the US, they found the area to be incredibly isolating and had a hard time sleeping without the background hum of people around them.

People are different. It's important for us to build housing of all types, so those who desire space have their space and for those who desire close connectedness have it as well. Right now the US has a severe lack in dense housing. Hopefully with time we'll have a more even mix.

I agree to a certain extent, but think I would go crazy living in the suburbs on my own, although I'm not in a city like Paris, I'm in one of the major cities of Switzerland.

Cheap apartments with no sound insulation are not good it's true, more modern, or even much older ones than the ones built in the 60s & 70s are much better. But good thick walls is something I would check first before moving to any apartment.

On the plus side of denser living, I can walk into town, there's plenty of places to socialise, (I was very much surprised at how lively it all is), I have 2 bus routes into town with buses at max 10 mins apart, the main station gives me access to much of the rest of the country.

I don't need a car, haven't owned one for 15 years now, there's a car sharing scheme that has many cars nearby. I use one once or twice a year.

I'm fine if people think they need space, I just don't think that cities should outlaw other options, and sprawling infrastructure should have its costs tied more closely to the users. It's very expensive and unfortunately it's people living in denser areas that foot a large part of the bill.