this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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I would literally kill myself if I ever had to live in apartments again. I have severe social anxiety and agoraphobia and general anxiety. I started hallucinating when I lived in apartments (but never before or since). I became paranoid of people. There was never any solitude. Plus right now there's no way to get around apartments without landlords (though I understand ideally there might be ways around this, it's not likely to happen any time soon). When I lived in an apartment I considered just being homeless and hiding in the woods (and stupidly, isn't legal).
We sure could stand to make more stores and businesses into high rises though. I live near Detroit (but not IN Detroit) and going down our streets it's just a ridiculous waste of space. How many tire shops do we even need? Why does every business need its own lot with so much space around it? Everything being more "mall" style would waste less space.
There's a great point in here about 'business density'. Shops and restaurants would benefit from higher density in world less populated by cars.
Another important idea here is that higher population density requirements should build in protections for residents' mental well-being: Sound proofing, minimum square footage per person requirements, ceiling heights, green spaces, and convenient access to goods and services. People aren't meant to live in cages.
The vast majority of people do not have any sort of medical need for a house. This does not contribute to the conversation.
That's not really true though, most people are much happier in a house and have far fewer sources of stress in their life. Also high density housing is an awfull place to bring up kids, that's the exact reason London is knocking down all the old tower blocks like elephant and castle, all the studies showed it was a horrible place to live for everyone there.
I know you want this solution to work because no one likes American suburbia but it doesn't have to be a choice between two types of hell, there are actually good options like European suburbs with local shops, bus and cycle routes to pedestrianised shopping areas and lots of green spaces.
Studies actually show that medium density low rises allow for more housing and are more ecologically efficient than supposedly high-density high rises. I was surprised, but the models are irrefutable. It's mainly due to the structural footprint of large buildings.
So that's my ideal. Paris, not Manhattan. Side benefit is it just looks nicer and feels better.
You mean the rich areas of Paris? Not banlieue 93
I'm sure New York has areas similar to Montmartre where only rich people can afford to live, and areas like Seine Saint Denis where they cram all the poor people in awful environments which result in criminality and cyclical poverty
Um...yes? Idk much about Paris geography but who gives a fuck, you understand what I'm saying.
You might have a point but you're being an insensitive ass and it's definitely possible that there are under-researched/discussed potential mental health side effects to apartments / city living. There is certainly a conversation to be had.
Sure, but it is not this discussion and bringing it up is derailing.
How is it "not this discussion"? The general topic is about peoples' housing/aparment preferences and Rukmer's concerns are perfectly valid.
No, because it's such a small number of people it's not worth changing the whole of society for. Obviously, people with disabilities will be accommodated for. This one person having agoraphobia doesn't change the fact that society-wide we should be striving for more dense housing.
We literally change every building we touch to make “reasonable accommodations” for people who have handicaps.
Yes? What is your point?