<story><title>Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy</title><url>https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/highway-interchange-houston-same-size-city-italy/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maxsilver</author><text>Obviously they haven&amp;#x27;t, and they remain great options for people wealthy enough to afford Parisian Townhouses.&lt;p&gt;But unless you somehow gift me one million dollars USD or more (and the same to every single person I know), none of us are going to be able to afford to live anywhere in Paris that actually has close access to all of those things you&amp;#x27;ve described, with the living situation described above.&lt;p&gt;If we&amp;#x27;re magically exceptionally lucky, at best we might get like one or two.</text></item><item><author>ebg13</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;no way to go anywhere (no parking, no meaningful transport, because &amp;#x27;everything we&amp;#x27;d let you have is a short walk away&amp;#x27;)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s news to me that the Paris Bus, Tram, Metro, RER, SNCF, Velib, and the venerable scooter have all suddenly vanished.</text></item><item><author>maxsilver</author><text>&amp;gt; Would you feel &amp;quot;stacked on top of each other&amp;quot; in a Parisian townhouse with a magnificent shared courtyard, 12 foot ceilings, and everything you could possibly want a short walk or subway ride away?&lt;p&gt;No, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t feel &amp;quot;stacked on top of each other&amp;quot; if I were a &lt;i&gt;multi-millionaire&lt;/i&gt; in Paris.&lt;p&gt;But, in the real world, your talking about putting families into 600sqft (at very best) boxes, with audible neighbors on every side of the unit, and no way to go anywhere (no parking, no meaningful transport, because &amp;#x27;everything we&amp;#x27;d let you have is a short walk away&amp;#x27;)&lt;p&gt;If you actually do what you&amp;#x27;ve described, and give everyone their own townhouse, you&amp;#x27;ve just reinvented the modern suburb. Because that&amp;#x27;s what modern suburbs look like, everyone in a townhouse, or a townhouse with some small strips of yard around it.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; but there are many different ways to live in a dense city&lt;p&gt;Sure, but only if you are fantastically wealthy.</text></item><item><author>crispyambulance</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  &amp;gt;  assumption that _everyone wants to be stacked on top of each other_
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
It&amp;#x27;s also an assumption that everyone wants to begin and end every trip, no matter how trivial, with a parking spot. It&amp;#x27;s an assumption that people will want to drive in traffic for 20 minutes minimum to get to a supermarket, do anything with their kids, or anything outside their property line.&lt;p&gt;The notion of &amp;quot;stacked on top of each other&amp;quot; has unpleasant connotations, but there are many different ways to live in a dense city. Would you feel &amp;quot;stacked on top of each other&amp;quot; in a Parisian townhouse with a magnificent shared courtyard, 12 foot ceilings, and everything you could possibly want a short walk or subway ride away?</text></item><item><author>exabrial</author><text>The elephant in the room is the assumption that _everyone wants to be stacked on top of each other_.&lt;p&gt;I do agree that designing cities around cars has ruined a lot of nice places though.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brmgb</author><text>&amp;gt; But unless you somehow gift me one million dollars USD or more (and the same to every single person I know), none of us are going to be able to afford to live anywhere in Paris that actually has close access to all of those things you&amp;#x27;ve described, with the living situation described above.&lt;p&gt;Have you ever set foot in a European city ?
I currently live in Paris. Bus, metro and Vélib&amp;#x27; are three minutes away and I am not a millionaire. It all costs me 38 euros a month for unlimited journeys.&lt;p&gt;I could afford to start a family here. Two affluent people can rent 750 square feet in Paris. I could even probably buy if I accepted to be in debt for thirty years.</text></comment>
<story><title>Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy</title><url>https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/highway-interchange-houston-same-size-city-italy/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maxsilver</author><text>Obviously they haven&amp;#x27;t, and they remain great options for people wealthy enough to afford Parisian Townhouses.&lt;p&gt;But unless you somehow gift me one million dollars USD or more (and the same to every single person I know), none of us are going to be able to afford to live anywhere in Paris that actually has close access to all of those things you&amp;#x27;ve described, with the living situation described above.&lt;p&gt;If we&amp;#x27;re magically exceptionally lucky, at best we might get like one or two.</text></item><item><author>ebg13</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;no way to go anywhere (no parking, no meaningful transport, because &amp;#x27;everything we&amp;#x27;d let you have is a short walk away&amp;#x27;)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s news to me that the Paris Bus, Tram, Metro, RER, SNCF, Velib, and the venerable scooter have all suddenly vanished.</text></item><item><author>maxsilver</author><text>&amp;gt; Would you feel &amp;quot;stacked on top of each other&amp;quot; in a Parisian townhouse with a magnificent shared courtyard, 12 foot ceilings, and everything you could possibly want a short walk or subway ride away?&lt;p&gt;No, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t feel &amp;quot;stacked on top of each other&amp;quot; if I were a &lt;i&gt;multi-millionaire&lt;/i&gt; in Paris.&lt;p&gt;But, in the real world, your talking about putting families into 600sqft (at very best) boxes, with audible neighbors on every side of the unit, and no way to go anywhere (no parking, no meaningful transport, because &amp;#x27;everything we&amp;#x27;d let you have is a short walk away&amp;#x27;)&lt;p&gt;If you actually do what you&amp;#x27;ve described, and give everyone their own townhouse, you&amp;#x27;ve just reinvented the modern suburb. Because that&amp;#x27;s what modern suburbs look like, everyone in a townhouse, or a townhouse with some small strips of yard around it.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; but there are many different ways to live in a dense city&lt;p&gt;Sure, but only if you are fantastically wealthy.</text></item><item><author>crispyambulance</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  &amp;gt;  assumption that _everyone wants to be stacked on top of each other_
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
It&amp;#x27;s also an assumption that everyone wants to begin and end every trip, no matter how trivial, with a parking spot. It&amp;#x27;s an assumption that people will want to drive in traffic for 20 minutes minimum to get to a supermarket, do anything with their kids, or anything outside their property line.&lt;p&gt;The notion of &amp;quot;stacked on top of each other&amp;quot; has unpleasant connotations, but there are many different ways to live in a dense city. Would you feel &amp;quot;stacked on top of each other&amp;quot; in a Parisian townhouse with a magnificent shared courtyard, 12 foot ceilings, and everything you could possibly want a short walk or subway ride away?</text></item><item><author>exabrial</author><text>The elephant in the room is the assumption that _everyone wants to be stacked on top of each other_.&lt;p&gt;I do agree that designing cities around cars has ruined a lot of nice places though.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sudosysgen</author><text>Scooters, the RER, the SNCF, the bus, the Vélib and the metro, are very cheap and service even poor parts of Paris and the Banlieue pretty well.</text></comment>