Hacker News Reader

Comment by kortilla | Hacker News Reader

> I'll counter this - the majority of the people in the US want to live somewhere and get around in the least difficult method

No they don’t. People consistently give up better commutes for more space.

> It's very nearsighted to think our model is the penultimate in structuring society. Plenty of people are happy, fulfilled, and productive living in apartments & townhouses while taking trains to work.

100% agree. But Americans want houses more than a public train ride. Figure out how to solve the issue of living in shoeboxes with people still getting space to have a personal garden, a wood shop, etc and you’ll be onto something.

View on HN

> People consistently give up better commutes for more space.

That's a sign there ought to be larger units with better soundproofing in multi-family buildings.

Developers don't really build these and when they do, the prices are unbelievable so it's back to the suburbs for anyone looking to have kids.

You can’t really raise a kid in the city without private school. Large school districts are super inefficient and have to spend lots of money to bring up kids from broken families. High quality schools cheat that problem by excluding poor families through expensive real estate thereby increasing the number of resources per student. It’s not fair but that’s how the game is played

Community gardens and wood shops? I get that Americans like their property private and would even guard it with a rifle, but it could be a solution.

Many suburban churches and organizations run community gardens, but it's rare to see in cities because of how much space it requires.

We have shared wood/etc shops, even in small towns. "Makerspace" is one common name for them. Major issues include: storage, tool quality/maintenance, limited hours, staffing, high cost, clashing personalities.

In either case, you'd likely need to drive to get to them. Some apartment complexes have shared gyms, but most of my landlords have been pathologically worried about insurance risks. I'm not sure they would be eager to go along with installing a communal lathe. As for gardens, I once lived somewhere that had small tin beds on the roof, but the landlord rented them out for $300/mo each...there were people who paid to use them, but I thought it was a ridiculous ask for a couple sqft of soil.

Makerspaces only work well when there’s a strong sense of community among the members. It’s all too easy to fall to tragedy of the commons - people not putting things back where they found them, cleaning up for themselves, etc. there’s only so much you can do with cameras and surveillance. Ultimately you need things like events that bring people together and help them learn from each other for people to see it any other way than “shitty version of a personal workspace”.

> Americans like their property private and would even guard it with a rifle

There's a reason we call our abode our own "neck of the woods" :)

20 year wait list on the community garden.

Wood shops are pretty expensive but not crazy so. The quality of the tools leaves a lot to be desired though

Reply on news.ycombinator.com