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Comment by blackeyeblitzar | Hacker News Reader

Yep, I don’t understand why we need to crowd into a few big cities. It’s better to spread the economy out, if only for resiliency. Instead we upzone and pack people in like rats, in concrete canyons with little breathing room, and take away environments that have healthier situations like single family homes.

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Public transport simply does not work at low densities, and improves with density. Car based societies are, almost by definition, not walkable. Dense, walkable cities are cheaper, healthier, prettier, greener, and more productive.

There are problems that come with density, like crime, but there are solutions to that other than low density. I encourage you to explore life in Asian cities, especially SE China or Singapore, to see how great low crime, high density cities can really be.

Suburbs and rural areas are economic death but they happen. Single family homes cost more and lead to perverse incentives like not wanting housing prices to crater which prevents affordable housing to be built which leads to homelessness. There's no reason a city needs to be a parking lot but while rural and suburban areas persist they all but have to be to accommodate the micro plastic noise and air pollution death machines we call automobiles.

We shouldn't want suburbs (white flight) or rural (incestuous wide beating) areas to exist. Nor should we design cities for cars.

Some people love city life, like me. The idea of everything only a few subway stops or even a walk away. So many opportunities and things to discover.

I wither away in small provincial towns (I've spent more than 10 years living in one so I know)

Cities are not for everyone but there's definitely an interest in them. Ps I don't have a family so I don't need a family home.

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