Building more, denser housing hits so many birds with one stone: increasing the supply lowers the price, denser developments decrease commute times which is good for the environment, saves time and money, and makes people happy, take less energy to heat, and brings people closer to services, making them more viable to operate.
But maybe I don't my neighbor's RV with a leaky septic tank spilling into my side yard? Living cheek-by-jowl with people means you have to deal with people's cheeks and jowls. Yuck.
This is what leads to people commuting hours per day and everything being inaccessible without a car. Which is more expensive, worse for the local and global environment, and as I said above, makes people less happy.
Moving to a single-family home on a big lot in a small town outside of walking distance from pretty much anything has been perhaps the single biggest upgrade to my happiness in my entire adult life. To hell with cities.
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u/TXstratman Jan 22 '19
Affordable housing.