why are you comparing this to American Cities ?
only idiots live in Cities in America. all the smart people live in suburbs or even further from the city.
go to a nice suburb like Beverly Hills and THEN tell me where you would rather live.
when i first came to America i also, like an idiot, lived in the city.
this is a common mistake immigrants make in America.
no that’s HIS argument, not mine.
you do not understand what Urbanists want. they don’t want Japanese style buildings because they are much more expensive to build than American suburban homes.
Urbanists want precisely the kind of garbage buildings that killed everybody in Turkey because unless the buildings are cheaper than homes Americans already live in - they won’t move.
only way to lower cost is to disregard safety. Urbanists suggest disregarding safety is worth it if it allows them to get people to give up cars.
i hear a lot about urbanists going to europe and talking about their high quality buildings. In the more developed cities of turkey like Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara ig, maybe Bursa, it is like this to. I stayed in a fairly new apartament belonging to someone in my family for a month, i gotta say in terms of quality, it felt solid and better built than american stuff. Just lacking outlets tbh.
i live in an american suburb and you’re right, i enjoy turkish cities far more than american ones (although i’ve only been to sf, Oakland, LA, and San diego. I just do not have enough experience in American cities, although if I go to a University with an urban campus in the future i will then. I do enjoy american centralized AC and height, the lack of smoking in california (except for weed, which stinks about as bad as cigs) and definetely Elavators (man they are small in turkey), but turkey gets points for more affordable places, way cheaper yet high quality transit thats clean, and most noticably safety
for example: look at the door
the wallks are thinner than my fingers
you can’t determine how structurally sound or fire proof a building is just by living in it.
in America we build as cheap as we can while still complying with various building codes of which there are many and they are constantly updated and made more stringent.
American buildings FEEL cheap and ARE cheap but they are at the same time safe because they are built to stringent safety standards in every respect from structural to fire.
to give you an example in Florida alone ( which is just one state ) there are like five different zones that have different building standards because the strength of hurricanes varies in different parts of Florida and everything from walls to roofs to windows and doors has to be made to standard specific to that area, calculated to precise wind loads.
ok fair enough. However I am talking about urbanists who more often talk about europe, especially western europe, rather than turkey. I do not know of any issues with the buildings there, they are built well for their environments, so I do not understand your concern that build more dense places mean building worse
that Turkish door is thick to prevent break-ins by criminals.
in apartment buildings in America doors are metal too.
but in suburban homes the thief can get in through the widow so we use guns for protection instead of a steel door.
Fuck Cars specifically called for abolishing some of American building safety standards in order to reduce the cost of Mid-Rise buildings.
More specifically he was against “double loaded hallways” which means every apartment must have fire exit path through two different stairs such that if one is engulfed in flames people can escape through the other.
Fuck Cars said this fire safety requirement increases cost of building and people will never move from suburbs to Mid-rise buildings unless the cost of Mid-rise buildings can be reduced and the way to do that is to get rid of fire safety regulations.
European buildings are very old on average because Europe is stagnant compared to America. As i said American building standards get more stringent all the time. Typically standards get strengthened every 5 or 10 years or so. European homes are also half the size of American on average. America is just better than Europe.
Isn’t that a testament to their quality? Turkish buildings differ from European buildings, at least they had in recent history, by aging quickly and becoming quite broken down after 20-30 years. if european buildings have survived that long, wouldn’t that make them better? Plus european standards are improving too
being able to stand for a long time isn’t necessarily a sign of quality.
pyramids of Giza are still standing after 4,000 years but does that mean Egyptian buildings were comfortable and safe to live in ?
European buildings are old because Europe is poor and can’t afford to build new ones.
American Suburban Single Family homes are disposable because trends change and for example right now everybody is moving from NY to Florida and from California to Texas … in other words the focus is on building quickly not on making buildings last
what’s the point of making a home last 100 years if the buyer will move out in 5 years.
i have been living in my home for 3 years and i’m already looking to move for example.
that said Manhattan Skyscrapers last a long time … unfortunately the entire Manhattan is now sinking under their weight. you see the problem ?
buildings that last forever aren’t the goal.
the goal is buildings that serve residents well keeping them comfortable and safe.
the goal is also buildings that can be built quickly enough to meet the demand.
the rate of population increase in parts of Florida and Texas is very quick. only buildings built the American way can be built fast enough to satisfy the influx of population from other states. an American house can be built in a week.
Urbanists pretend to care about affordable housing but we already have it.
