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Comment by rcarr | Hacker News Reader

I really wish they'd do this everywhere. In the town I live in there are a lot of houses and shops that are just exceptionally grim to look at. Everything is dilapidated, rotting, grey and pebbledashed. I can't help but think that, even if it's not fixing the root causes of why everything is shit, it would at least make things a bit less miserable and maybe give people a bit of joy and pride again for a pretty low cost. I'm pretty sure they did this exact same thing in a favela or slum somewhere and most of the residents agreed that it substantially improved life in the neighbourhood.

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Meanwhile in Edinburgh there was a lot of drama because one of the residents painted their door - and apparently that didn't suit the conservative area!

She finally managed to keep a pink door though:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-662...

My god, it isn't even a gaudy pink, that's incredibly mild.

True, but the article stated she started off with bright pink. Still not a crime, though.

No one said it was a crime.

If the parent commenter is British then the use of “it’s not a crime” is an idiom and usually not to be taken literally. Basically a short hand for “not a big deal, shouldn’t have a ramifications for them”.

How am I supposed to know the parent commenter's nationality?

The parent comment also opined on a scenario in which the person's actions (paint, then ask permission) landed them an official letter and threat of fine, which seems like "a big deal" to some people.

You’re not supposed to know that - I’m just guessing by the use of that phrase tbh. I was just trying to be helpful and explain a cultural difference that might explain the use of a word that hadn’t been used before.

The final one is, and was approved. If you scroll down you'll see the original pink and green she tried, both of which were more gaudy in nature.

That green one looks like it was a duck you to the complainant.

*conservation area

Just wait until the area gentrifies a little more and all of the houses get rendered, painted pure white, black UPVC windows put in and the whole front garden turned into an asphalt car park.

In Bristol the gentrification ends up with murals on houses... http://gagegraphics.co.uk/portfolio/page/2/

Well, you can have dilapidated and colourful.

I was going to come here to say, why aren't more places more colourful. In this day in age though, it is obvious: everything is manufactured and manufactured finishes typically offer limited options for colour. It's not like we live in the days of wood, or even steel, that had to be regularly repainted to protect it from the elements.

I live in Japan and over here pretty much every small city and town is like you describe. But the saddest thing is that even brand new houses are incredibly ugly. Like seriously, who in their sane mind paints a house in black?

As you say, a bit of color would not fix the underlying problems, but it would make life a bit more enjoyable.

A house near me has just had full black cladding put on their house, but opted to keep their white PVC windows and door.

It’s on a 100 year old estate with cherry blossoms in every garden, and completely detracts from the area.

I believe in Sydney Australia a dark roofs are not legal due to the environmental factors of increased air conditioning https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/09/plan-...

I am not sure how the law is in my home country, Spain, but being a hot country, nobody is so stupid as to build a black house. Which is another funny thing, Japan is also a very hot country.

I wish we would get rid of all the horrible, depressing brutalist architecture that blights London such as the Barbican, South Bank Centre etc.

I actually like those examples.

During the lockdowns the Barbican was a nice area to walk through

There are far worse buildings on the South bank of the Thames, I walk it a lot - the IBK building + ITV studios, the weird brutalist buildings near Blackfriars bridge are pretty ugly (the new '1 blackfriars' is built in the shape of a massive sarcophagus/ coffin from some angles).

There's the weird concrete pub on the others side which is pretty ugly too.

On the other hand I think those are fantastic. The Barbican is my favourite building/complex in the city. Much nicer than any of the dozens of glass boxes.

I like some aspects of it - the greenery, the glasshouses, the fact that you have flats and theatres etc intermingled. I just don't like the unending slabs of grey. It's so depressing.

It's pretty hard where there is actual laws telling people their hose must "fit in" i.e. look as boring as neighbour's

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