Car-free walkable net-zero neighborhood opens in city of Tempe, AZ | Hacker News Reader

Car-free walkable net-zero neighborhood opens in city of Tempe, AZ

12news.com

17 pointswalterbell7 comments

This is vaguely laudable, but I can't think of a place in the US less hospitable to outdoor activities than a Phoenix suburb.

At first glance[0], the campus is shiny but severely lacking in shade (except the buildings themselves) and especially trees.

I wish them good luck; they're going to need it.

[0] https://culdesac.com/

It appears that they have planted some saplings, which could grow to large, leafy canopy trees, given enough decades.

Keep in mind that this is a brand-new development, and they started by razing derelict SFHs to bare earth. You cannot simply plant fully-grown shade trees.

However, this is already an oasis of shade and civilization in a concrete urban jungle. If anyone exits the property to walk to the post office, or to where they parked their car, they'll find a dearth of shade trees. There are a few Palo Verdes, but the most shade can be found next to a traffic signal, really.

Phoenix suburbs have pretty great weather (in my opinion) for about 6 months of the year and wouldn’t really consider it worse than having to walk around Chicago suburbs in winter. My biggest concern would be: is the grocery store, restaurants, etc that they advertise as onsite guaranteed? Could these businesses go out of business and then not be replaced for a year? That would really kill the appeal of living somewhere like this.

> wouldn’t really consider it worse than having to walk around Chicago suburbs in winter.

I've never understood this. Properly clothed, a cold winter is far more bearable than a hot summer, in my opinion.

Maybe it's just personal preference, but I feel like people have an overreaction/over-aversion to cold, because they associate hot climate with vacation.

If you don’t like being outside in the cold, they are broadly equivalent. These folks aren’t going out in the proper clothes, they are just not going out.

Humidity is the more important, or limiting, factor in most of these conversations.

Yeah that is a personal preference and I certainly don't disagree that proper clothing can make cold winter feel much better. Then again, I'll spend 3 hours straight outside in 110+ afternoons in Phoenix working in my backyard and it doesn't bother me too much since I stay hydrated, sunscreened, and may jump in the pool on occasion if necessary. The big difference to me is that warm climates don't have the other non-temperature things that get in the way when you are on foot. I'm talking about snow, icy sidewalks etc.

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