Suburbs that don't Suck - Streetcar Suburbs (Riverdale, Toronto)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it in zoning, density and housing threads as an illustration of the missing middle between city center and car-dependent sprawl.
What it is
Not Just Bikes explains that car-dependent suburbs are not the only option, using Toronto's Riverdale as an example of a pre-war streetcar suburb. These walkable neighborhoods are popular but are now effectively illegal to build.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2021 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends benrbray · 2021-08 · on “Why are so many knowledge workers quitting?”
There is something in between NYC and an American-style suburb. I encourage you to take a look at Not Just Bikes [1,2]: [1] [this video] [2] [LINK]
Recommends goda90 · 2021-12 · on “Opposition to High Density Development”
Not Just Bikes has a recent video[0] talking about the lack of middle ground for suburbs in North America. I think a big problem is that laws as they are prevent variety. Either everything must be single family homes with huge setbacks and wide roads, or it is doomed to be bought up by large apartment developers. Is it a threat to your ability to have a yard and two car garage if the house next door is a duplex and the end of the block has a corner store with a couple apartments above it? No, but the laws make it so that only your yard and two car garage can exist in your neighborhood regardless. [0] [this video]
Recommends adameasterling · 2021-12 · on “Opposition to High Density Development”
> Relative to single family homes, apartments are viewed as decreasing property values, increasing crime rates, lowering school quality, increasing traffic, and decreasing desirability. The problem is most cities only allow two kinds of development: Low density or high density. We're missing the middle! [LINK] I've really enjoyed these two YouTube channels on the subject. "Oh the Urbanity" has a great video on Montreal's "missing middle" [LINK] And "Not Just Bikes" discusses a "missing middle" neighborhood in Toronto: [this video]
Cites screye · 2021-05 · on “The end of the pandemic is near”
I know you meant the car centric anecdote to be an analogy and not the point itself, but I must nitpick. Public transportation/buses/subways are honestly quite convenient even if you are wrangling 3 kids around. The problem is that public transportation in the US at its best (NYC, Boston) is still a far-cry from actually 'good' public transportation systems. In many places kids as young as 11 are able to independently navigate the city without the parents help when public transportation is well built. If anything, car dependence means that kids take 5 more years (16) before they can be independant and parents will often struggle to meet diverging needs of 3 children when the car is a single
Cites andbberger · 2021-10 · on “Is nuclear power our best bet against climate change?”
Do you like having to drive everywhere, to shops with massive parking lots? Or having stroads not safe for your kids to play on where cars blast past at 40mph? Have you been to places where they do density right? Paris comes to mind, as does the urban centers of the Netherlands. Not everyone wants to live in the city, that's cool. But even inherently low density suburbs in the US suck. We used to have walkable streetcar suburbs [0], then the car came along and fucked everything up. [0] [this video]
Cites brailsafe · 2021-10 · on “Why can't we build nice neighborhoods anymore?”
Yep, you're absolutely right. The parent's youtube suggestion has a video on this too, called streetcar suburbs. [this video]
Cites danielvaughn · 2021-11 · on “The Stroad”
It's true. The Not Just Bikes channel has a video on walkable neighborhoods in the US. They're all massively expensive because of the high quality of life. edit: here it is - [this video]
Cites nemothekid · 2021-12 · on “Opposition to High Density Development”
> I'm not going to sugar coat it, public schooling is terrible in most dense large cities in America. I don't see how this is relevant to housing, unless you also believe public schooling worldwide is terrible in most dense cities. It's a uniquely American problem that public schooling is terrible in all but the most elite of zip codes. Rural schools suffer the same problem too, and it has little to do with housing (except for, surprisingly, Texas, which allocates funding for schools at the state level). In short, in the US, school quality is not a function of density; it's a function of funding; and in the US school funding is primarily allocated from property taxes. > BTW, I would love to