Quote:
Originally Posted by Agent Orange
Higher densities means more amenities, business and services to walk to. It means public transportation can become more robust. The land underneath your house would be worth more. You would have the satisfaction of knowing your neighborhood is addressing climate change and freeing people from expensive, exhausting commutes.
Economic status? No. You don’t know anything about my economic status besides the fact that I choose to rent. My point was that protecting miles and miles of tree lined streets is short sighted because it benefits a limited group of people for a short period of time, however we need to also consider future residents. Or people who currently have to live in a place like Thornton and endure a grueling commute, but who would be have a much higher quality of life if housing were built for them closer to work.
I don’t think the world owes me a downtown condo. It’s quite simple: I desire to live in a complete neighborhood, which in most of the world is just a normal neighborhood. I think being able to walk for most of your trips shouldn’t be a luxury. It's healthy, humane, pleasant, connects you to your community, and allows one to have a small carbon footprint. And it's how humans have lived throughout the world for most of history. In most of America, the only places that you could call complete are neighborhoods which were built prior to about the 1910s. Until major change comes to our zoning scheme in Denver, there is a fixed area of the city where this is possible. I think we need to change that by allowing complete neighborhoods throughout the city. And I think this will lead to less displacement of low income and vulnerable communities than the status quo of keeping homes in complete neighborhoods scarce.
This recent article touches on some of the hypocrisy of the current conversation about development in Denver: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/o...AUjxfO3bQIZnK8
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An enthusiastic YAAAS to all of this.
I am Eastern European. Not the "my parents moved here when I was 1" kind, but the "I was born and raised in Slovakia, and I moved stateside at the age of 20" kind. While I have a soft spot in my heart for Communist Brutalism because of couple of architecturally amazing and immensely interesting buildings, you won't hear me defend the Communists for what they've done to our cities.
They destroyed historical neighborhoods and they build some horrible low-cost buildings. But man, did they manage to address growth, create walkable neighborhoods (out of necessity, they could not produce enough cars), and build cities around public transportation.
Just take a look at Košice, a city of 60,000 people in 1950 which grew to 202,000 in just 30 years. I have lived there for years, never requiring a car. Every housing estate (regardless if we're talking about commie blocks, smaller 5 story buildings, or detached homes) had shopping, bars, schools, and other amenities within walking distance, while providing public transit connection to the employment centers.
I miss the European lifestyle. Living by Buckley in Aurora is far from perfect, but I can walk to multiple schools, 2 shopping centers are located within a 20 minute walk, I am relatively close to breweries, etc. It's not the European urban experience, that's for sure, but give me a tram running up and down Illiff or Mississippi that would connect to the R line and you'd be pretty close...