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Comment by Tade0 | Hacker News Reader

> That's not a law of nature. It's a result of deliberate choices made by city governments to restrict the supply of housing over the last few decades

Is it even possible to build new housing when the population density is already at 20k people per square kilometre, like in the cities mentioned?

> Also the fact that it's so expensive and people keep moving there shows that it's an attractive way to live.

Did you consider that not everyone has a choice in the matter and the alternative is often unemployment? There's a trend towards urbanization because people move to where the jobs are. That alone doesn't make any place more livable.

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If you have that kind of density, you can build out and each part of the city is like its own mini city that is perfectly reasonable to live in. If you need to go to another mini city you can bike or jump on public transport.

In Berlin these are refereed to as Kiez for example.

Very large cities don't really have a city center as such, or at least not for most people. And you can have reasonably priced apartments or townhouses in a well connected Kiez that has everything you need to live.

> Did you consider that not everyone has a choice in the matter and the alternative is often unemployment?

And about far more often its the case that people would prefer to live in the city but are forced to live some-where on the far edge and then having to buy a car to drive into the city.

This is what the real problem with the kind of low-density city surrounded by sprawl. The actual city centers are tiny to non existent and lots of cars.

> Is it even possible to build new housing when the population density is already at 20k people per square kilometre, like in the cities mentioned?

Absolutely. The most expensive parts of Manhattan have tons of 3-4 story townhomes that would become 12+ stories practically overnight if the zoning allowed it. Not to mention all the single-family detached homes near subway, PATH, and LIRR stations nearby.

> There's a trend towards urbanization because people move to where the jobs are.

Look at how many people stayed in or moved into NYC after their jobs became fully remote in the last 2 years. It's a lot.

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