Quote:
Originally Posted by Kumdogmillionaire
And yet it is also this building style that leads to these cities have astronomical housing prices since it leads to running out space quickly and then rampant NIMBY-ism(San Fran is the best example in the US). If Chicago wants to avoid this they will allow high rises to be built in many areas. Your obsession with Europe blinds you from its faults. Chicago ain't perfect, but those places aren't either.
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Not every European city has astronomical housing prices, and it's a fallacy to assume that a midrise housing form generates high prices. NYC has obviously allowed highrises in many parts of the city and keeps opening up more areas, yet their prices are also astronomical. Likewise, Prague has miles of beautiful midrise buildings but isn't expensive. The highrise building style originated as a response to scarcity of land, but arguably Chicago has no such scarcity. The only reason to build highrise is to maximize the utilization of amenities like lake views, costly transit stations and parks, etc... back in the days of river shipping it was a serious pain in the ass to cross the river, so literally nobody wanted to open their office outside the Loop, hence a scarcity.
Prices are set by supply and demand, if the city of Chicago opened a vast inland territory to midrise development it would take decades or centuries to build out all of that capacity, assuming current demand levels.