Affordability is a really important part that is not talked about enough. Walkable cities are better for people and the environment but they need to be affordable for it to matter.
Walkability generally means higher density and higher density means lower cost. The only reason why walkable places are generally less affordable right now is that they are scarce. If everywhere was walkable that wouldn’t be a problem.
That does sound like a great model. Reading between the lines gets at what I was insinuating, too. Vienna built a lot of housing in good places. If walkable cities are expensive, it’s because they’re in high demand. We can lower the cost by making more of them.
Absolutely, much more housing is definitely needed. Not-for-profit housing already exists in the US, but there’s very little of it. Not-for-profit housing units fill up very fast because they are usually less expensive, and once in the units, tenants tend to want to stay. This leads to long waiting lists for the limited Not-for-profit housing that already exists. Much, much more must be built. Changing restrictive zoning laws should help this, but I think federal and state governments are going to have to get involved as well, providing financing or subsidizing financing for Not-for-profit housing organizations to build or acquire properties.
Affordability is a really important part that is not talked about enough. Walkable cities are better for people and the environment but they need to be affordable for it to matter.
Walkability generally means higher density and higher density means lower cost. The only reason why walkable places are generally less affordable right now is that they are scarce. If everywhere was walkable that wouldn’t be a problem.
If only the law of supply and demand had some guidance to offer us on how to make walkable areas of cities more affordable…
I think Vienna has a great model to follow for making housing more affordable.
That does sound like a great model. Reading between the lines gets at what I was insinuating, too. Vienna built a lot of housing in good places. If walkable cities are expensive, it’s because they’re in high demand. We can lower the cost by making more of them.
Absolutely, much more housing is definitely needed. Not-for-profit housing already exists in the US, but there’s very little of it. Not-for-profit housing units fill up very fast because they are usually less expensive, and once in the units, tenants tend to want to stay. This leads to long waiting lists for the limited Not-for-profit housing that already exists. Much, much more must be built. Changing restrictive zoning laws should help this, but I think federal and state governments are going to have to get involved as well, providing financing or subsidizing financing for Not-for-profit housing organizations to build or acquire properties.