> there's a large population of anti-social or outright criminal people around.

Have you ever been to Germany? one of the safest countries in the world, never had any issue with safety there.

And going back to your main point, yes, your whole argument is loaded and plain false. I grew up in high rises and it is perfectly fine. Usually you find variety of size, between 1 and 4 bedrooms the most common. The outside is actually very kid friendly, with a garden and a plaza where children can play while parents sit in a cafe. Also the newer developers are indeed pretty nice and very desirable, outpricing older ones.

"High rise" doesn't mean not having enough rooms.

On the flip side, we need to allow housing that is not a "forever" home, and in fact there is no housing possible for me that will be suitable for all stages of my life.

> I always wonder if people really want to live in high rises forever or see this as some kind of temporary solution until they find their "real place".

Santa Cruz is a university town. Most people are there temporarily until they graduate and find their real place. Population of 62k, half are students: 20k at UCSC, 10k at Cabrillo College.

That's a fascinating reference point for Germany because I remember moving to Berlin after living in SF and thinking it must be a paradise for people with families. I was in a standard apartment complex, maybe 4 or 5 stories, similar to what most people live in (the super high rises are all downtown in the commercial district) and there was a little park in our complex, another slightly larger one a block down, and an extremely large one a block and a half away. Never felt more safe in my life living there (Mitte neighborhood) and although there were some people rough sleeping in the park occasionally, it was clearly young people and those who chose to do it, not mentally ill like in many US cities. Much more accessible public transportation, good restaurants, friends with kids complained about having to sign up for preschool early but that was the major complaint I heard.

Often it's not a matter of want but need. Of course many (but surely not all) people would _like_ to live in a single family home near a job center, great civil services with well-paying jobs but it's just not going to happen for everyone. So most have to compromise and prioritize.

If you're lucky, doesn't mean you can't have it both ways but it's just not in the cards for everyone. So most people have a choice, good job and maybe slightly higher standard of living in the city or a house further (or far) out with lower chances of good employment.

Also depends on the definition of "high-rise", the ones shown in the article are 5-6 stories and not 20+ soviet- or banlieue-style "blocs". Many nice, safe but not necessarily very cheap parts of Berlin are in that style for example. Plenty of safety and families, just not as much space as a proper SFH.

Singapore does it better than anyone, there's plenty of families that live in high rises there.

The article doesn't really explain what they mean by high-rise, except for saying "up to 12 stories" and showing an image of a typical five-over-one as an example of modern housing. If a six story building is a "typical" high-rise, then I'd argue that that's just the modern variation of the three to five story houses that make up a large portion of Germany's housing stock. They are generally nice to live in just based on being dense enough to attract shops, playgrounds, etc., while avoiding the issues of larger buildings.

Lived in a Seattle high rise for 5 years. Had a roof deck and parents would often bring their kids up for a walk and fresh air.

Keep in mind even in America most places don't have a bedroom for every kid. That's pretty luxury on the whole.

In most dense cities, you just go to the playground with other kids. There's not shady people there at 10am on a Saturday/weekday afternoon.

Sadly, I think the assumption people are having families might be where the mark is missed - look at the global fertility rates.

I’m curious about these. Got a few links to some listings?

> here's a large population of anti-social or outright criminal people around

You're projecting from a short list of American cities. Until Covid, I'd regularly see elementary school-aged kids riding the New York subway unaccompanied. They were better adjusted than the Bay Area's helicoptered teenagers.