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Comment by golemotron | Hacker News Reader

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golemotron·

There's plenty of space in the US. Grow wide, not dense. It's good policy.

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What you are saying is, "convert farmland to housing and highways."

It's an inefficient use of space, it socially isolates us, and it has devastating ecological consequences.

Suddenly, all non-urban space in the US becomes farmland.

Show me land on the periphery of an urban center that's large enough to meaningfully expand housing that isn't farmland, rangeland, forestry, or a protected habitat/important ecological preserve.

I'll wait, take your time.

Yes, legislative capture and over-zealous zoning are real problems.

So no, you can't find any?

It's your straw man, not mine. Tell me what you find.

"There's plenty of space, grow wide."

"That land is in use already."

"Lololol strawman! No u!"

Alright, sure.

How is growing wide good policy?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink

covering more and more land in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impervious_surface is not a good idea either

Generally solved by incentivizing large lush green lawns for single family housing in large tracts. The lawns have the added benefit of capturing carbon and increasing air quality.

Mandating one 18-hole golf course for every 2K people in municipalities would also create positive offsets to impervious surface and add to the benefit.

incentivizing lush greens in California? I don't live there, but the last thing I heard from there was quite the opposite

urban sprawl is both economically and ecologically unsustainable

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