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Comment by kube-system | Hacker News Reader

> Carrying things home from the hardware store is not conducive activity with my e-bike. Large item purchases, blah blah blah. If I were to rent a car suitable each time, I could just pay the monthly car payment

Do you have on-demand car sharing in your city? Like Zipcar or similar? You could go on a heck of a lot of hardware store trips in one of these cars for the price of a car payment + parking + insurance + taxes + maintenance.

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> Do you have on-demand car sharing in your city? Like Zipcar or similar? You could go on a heck of a lot of hardware store trips in one of these cars for the price of a car payment + parking + insurance + taxes + maintenance.

I think you're replying to the wrong person. I do use Zipcar on the rare occasion that I need a car. It's way cheaper than car ownership (not even including parking).

On the chance they were meaning to reply to me, no, I don't think a Zipcar is going to help me carry sheets of plywood or other similar large items. However, I'm not familiar with Zipcar, so I just took a look. Near me, there's a Kia Soul or a Toyota Prius. Nope, neither of those helpful for my needs. I'll continue with the "hey buddy...got another sixer-request", although, some requests become cases.

Yeah, I replied to the wrong person. Anyway, I don't see many people buying full sheets of plywood in dense cities, but if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't be going to my neighborhood hardware store with a Zipcar, because it doesn't have a lumber yard. I'd go to the Home Depot a few miles away, and I'd use their rental truck.

that's yet another reason city dwelling in a multi-tenant building is just not conducive for many people. I couldn't imagine not being able to work on projects. Of course, having the desire/inclination of having that kind of hobby is probably something a city slicker just isn't going to do. I have wood working and machine working tools that I'm just going to lean towards not being allowed by whatever building rules.

I love how those not wanting the city life is just looked down upon by those that are. But that's okay, I think those that live in the city are kind of just weird for similarly petty things

I've lived both lifestyles; it goes both ways. I like metal working and wrenching on cars, which was easy to do in my suburban garage, but I also like riding a bike to run my errands, walking to the bar, and regularly going to highly specialized meetups, which is easier to do in a city. There's no one lifestyle that's perfect for everything.

There's nothing inherently incompatible with living an a walkable community and participating in hobbies like woodworking. For example, after just a few minutes of searching, here's the first listing I found of a condo in a building that includes an expansive workshop among other amenities. (See photo 52.) This is in a location with a 92 walk and bike score, and a 78 transit score.[0] If that's not to your liking, here's another with a modest woodworking shop.[1] It seems like practically every luxury tower in the city has workshops among their fitness centers, pools, roof terraces, etc.[2][3] Minneapolis too cold? How about Seattle?[4]

[0] https://www.redfin.com/MN/Minneapolis/1235-Yale-Pl-55403/uni...

[1] https://www.redfin.com/MN/Minneapolis/1920-S-1st-St-55454/un...

[2] https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/222-2nd-St...

[3] https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/100-3rd-Av...

[4] https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1420-E-Pine-St-UNIT-E310-...

> There's nothing inherently incompatible with living an a walkable community and participating in hobbies like woodworking.

Okay, so there are 10 buildings (out of several thousand) with woodworking in Minneapolis, but how many of them also support what my spouse likes to do?

This is a case where you don't want it in the building, which gets us to the "there's not enough space within a 5 minute walk for a wide range of `want to do's."

This is a case where I do want my woodworking or hobbies in the building, but I probably don't want your woodworking or other noisy/dusty hobbies in the building. Having a basement where I can tinker and a garage where I can do projects and car repairs and having that directly on my property where I can empty the rag bin, turn off the lights, and come back to it tomorrow or four weeks from now is exactly what I wanted (and why I'm not living in a denser part of the city).

Yeah but in a decent suburban house you can have most all of those things available to you 24/7 on your own property without anyone bothering you, trying to make small talk, reserve equipment etc. I’m sure that works for some people but I like the ability to use my “amenities “ 24/7 on my terms.

I find this kind of false dichotomy to be unimaginative. Nobody said you couldn't work on projects in this circumstance. Other commenters have shown this already.

And if this was true, why would it have to be? We shouldn't lock ourselves into that kind of world. There's no reason that people shouldn't be able to have access to workspaces just because they don't want to live in unsustainable car centric areas.

Okay, so someone has posted links to mythical urban workshops so that you can attempt to live without a car. So, since I'm so unimaginative, riddle me this Batman, how does one go about getting large materials to/from this workshop?

Some people love living in dense housing areas in a city. Others love living with more space in the suburbs or even rural areas. Often members of each group have a difficult time understanding why the other group has the preferences they do.

I've lived in a high-rise in a city and on acres in a rural area. I vastly prefer the latter. Right now, I live on about 1/5 acre in the edge of a proper city, which is a pretty good compromise to get the kids what will benefit them and still have some space and not have neighbors right up my ass every time I turn around.

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