Hacker News Reader

Comment by Victerius | Hacker News Reader

In order to have neighborhoods where cars are not required, you need density. That means fewer single family homes and more apartments. Many Americans have underdeveloped social skills and don't want to be/live near other people.

Fortunately, in a country of 330M people, it is impossible for every household to be kings of their little kingdom, as house prices are teaching us.

And, yes, I attribute the desire of some to go out of their way to avoid the company of others entirely on underdeveloped social skills. We are humans, not wild beasts, and we should not shun our fellow humans.

View on HN

> In order to have neighborhoods where cars are not required, you need density. That means fewer single family homes and more apartments.

Yes but not in the way you’re describing. Apartments would be part of the single family home neighborhood. Which is good. People who are single for example can live in the community and meet people. Which brings me to the next point:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/37/9b/26/379b266652e0a2013c0c...

> Many Americans have underdeveloped social skills and don't want to be/live near other people.

Right. Because we choose to live in suburbs and make it so we are this way. We could just, ya know, not do this? It’s like saying well I’m not using Google because Ask Jeeves has conditioned me to use a crappy search engine. Well… just stop then?

I'd like to see some sources on the reason for having underdeveloped social skills. Sure, exposure to situations is necessary to an extent. You still have shy urbanites as well as kind/inviting rural people. I would venture a guess that much of it is culture based (eg southern hospitality, NYC has a reputation for being gruff/big personalities, etc)

I don’t even know that we do have “underdeveloped social skills” if I’m being truthful. But if we do I think “how we live” is probably a good starting point since so many people are just cooped up all day.

Many Americans have noisy and inconsiderate neighbors.

I hated every apartment I ever lived in. Dear god, why do apartments allow dogs?

Or music at 3am. Or anything.

When I bought my first house, the first thing I noticed was the silence. I could finally relax.

HOAs get a lot of hate, but they were the only recourse I had against neighbors who became hostile when I tried talking to them politely about their 24/7 barking dog in the adjacent lawn.

It’s weird how socially acceptable it is to have a pet noisemaker in your backyard, and how socially unacceptable it is to have an issue with it.

Why can't that problem be something that local governments fix with actual laws? Why do we need organizations that have most of the power of a government, but none of the accountability or checks and balances?

My friend said that when he lived in Brisbane, the police will actually come out with a volume meter and log the noise, talk to the dog owners, and ultimately take action if nothing is done.

https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/community-and-safety/pets-an...

I doubt most would characterize the actions of US police as "accountable."

Regardless, police don't handle noise complaints where I live. Presumably they don't want to bother with the paperwork.

Yea until spring time. Then it’s endless lawn mowers, leaf blowers, drag racing, dirt bikes, and all sorts of other loud noises. Can’t keep the windows open because it’s too loud.

There's a fairly simple solution to the issue of excessive noise from neighbours in apartments: have rules for when noise can be made and when noise cannot be made, and enforce them with fines/eviction.

Also building the apartments properly. It's amazing how good sound insulation can be, if whoever constructs the apartments bothers to put it in.

Evicting people for not paying rent has become a political issue. There's no way you'd ever get away with evicting people for not keeping their dog from barking at the wrong times.

If you can't prevent your dog from disturbing other people, then maybe don't get a dog.

I attribute the desire to go out of their way to spend more money just to live in a cramped box among strangers to be overdeveloped social neurosis. Humans lived for millions of years in large open spaces, owned land de facto, and had ample space (think kilometers) for themselves or their children to run around outside.

If you want to live in a box and own nothing, go ahead. I can't imagine going back to living on less than 8k sq meters. The growing population is a virus encroaching on man's ability to own his kingdom, not something to be applauded and smiled about.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com