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125 points
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Why not prefer apartments in your own town?

Noise. Neighbours being closer.

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80 points

That’s only true if the apartment is a shitty American 5 over 1 stick building. In a modern concrete apartment with concrete internal walls you wouldn’t hear the neighbors.

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63 points
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Exactly. Here in Sweden if you live into a newly built apartement you are basically guranteed grade A sound isolation.

Even older ones usually hold high quality because of renovations.

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-5 points
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33 points

You don’t even need concrete. I’m in a modern building made from mass timber construction, and it’s dead quiet inside my apartment – except for the hum of my AC and the sounds of my cat meowing whenever he wants attention.

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20 points

You’d think living in a building that was built in 2020 would be good enough. But here I am every night cursing my neighbors who stomp around at 11pm

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17 points
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Well, I live in a America and can’t wait to get out of apartments. I’ve moved a lot in my life and have a lower middle class income. I’ve never found an apartment or condo where I didn’t have to deal with hearing neighbors yelling, stomping, talking outside my front door in the hallway, opening sliding doors, listening to music, etc. Only twice, when I lived with a friend in their house, did I feel like I had any peace or privacy.

Sure, there would be lawns mowed and all that, but I’d take that over the things I’ve heard and worried about my neighbors having heard.

If I could have real privacy in an apartment I could afford I’d continue to rent, assuming I don’t get priced out of the market completely at this rate.

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13 points

The entire reason your prices out is that there aren’t enough apartments though.

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2 points
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Oh so you’re also going to rebuild all apartment buildings in the US now? Lol

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1 point

I wish you were right

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-1 points
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We lived in a concrete apartment, couldn’t hear the neighbors in their apartments but could in the hallways, and smell everything too, could hear the cars revving outside, and had to put up with the weekly (if not more often) fire alarm at 2am which meant evacuating the building. And no space for anything, no hobbies that might generate noise. Also have to deal with STRATA, hope you didnt want to put anything on your balcony cause they didn’t want that, hope you can wait 12 months for the leaking ceiling to be fixed thats dripping and growing mould.

Also it cost a fortune to heat or cool the place, we’re in a bigger place now that costs 1/2 as much to heat/cool

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-5 points
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Neighbours will still be closer in apartments.

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10 points

Take it from someone who is autistic, highly introverted and has only lived in apartments in my adult life: you do not ever need to see or interact with your neighbors. It’s as optional as with a house. The most I see of my neighbors is that once every few weeks I might stand in the elevator with one of them for 15 seconds.

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Ownership. You will not own your apartment, it will be owned by your landlord and you will pay him whatever he demands. You will not own the forest, either. The state will, or some private entity will. No trespassing.

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39 points

You can still own and buy appartements in most places in the world. Then there are many forms of social housing.

Rent to own is also a possibility but not seen in most countries.

Seems your problem is not ownership but landlords.

Some countries in Europe have the right to roam on any land. State owned and private owned. (Maybe more countries somewhere else have it to but I don’t know)

It does not need to be so terrible. In some places it just is because of profits

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8 points

Owning an apartment and owning land are wildly different. The housing structure alone is not the entirety of home ownership.

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20 points

It’s called a condo

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-1 points

Condo financing is not available everywhere.

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11 points

what no right to roam does to a mfer

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9 points

Have you heard of a national or state park?

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0 points
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1 point

Yeah that’s my main concern. Also less space to store things like my bike.

Then there’s the upstairs neighbors. Like I get that the kids are loud. But also could the kids stop throwing stuff at my bird feeder. And their upstairs neighbors flooded the dang place

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1 point

You can own and apartment. And there’s right to roam.

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There is no such thing as universal right to roam in the US. Likewise, apartment ownership (we call them “condos” when you can own one rather than rent) exists here, but by far is the minority option in multi-family housing. You can claim you want to buy a condo or apartment as much as you want, but that doesn’t do you any good when no one is selling. Units are built to be rented which is a recurring revenue stream, which big capital likes a lot more.

The significant problem is not that nobody is whacking out slabs of apartment housing fast enough. The issue is that our underlying capitalist system is fucked, and a simple anti-car attitude is not going to fix that.

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18 points

Uh yes, the suburban tranquility of non-stop leaf blowing, lawn mowing, and pickup humming.

Musics to my ears.

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40 points
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I live in an apartment with actual good sound-proofing. It’s almost dead silent inside except for the quiet hum of my AC. It’s legitimately so much quieter than my gf’s family’s house, where you constantly hear the rush of cars driving by on the street. Not to mention leafblowers and lawnmowers.

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13 points

We should amend building codes to require sound insulation

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3 points

You realize you are speaking from a very lucky position right? Everyone here agrees quiet apartments with clean facilities are pretty nice, but a large majority of apartment dwellers live in older, very noisy, very poorly managed facilities.

It’s very fair to want the conversation on improving apartments, it is super important. But you.have to acknowledge that people’s response about their apartment history is informed from lived experience.

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-5 points

You’re speaking from a privileged minority viewpoint, most people don’t report living that way in apartments. I’ve lived extensively in both apartments and suburban homes, suburbs have always provided more peace and quiet. For every day that’s been too loud due to lawn machines (a lot of suburbs it’s only once a month for context) I’ve had a dozen more with people partying, stomping, fighting, shouting, grudge starting, complaint making, roach infestation having, shitty corporate landlord owning ruined days in city apartments. And they all costed a lot more. I’m paying half what I would in a city apartment for my suburban townhome with a lawn, and a park, and pool, and walikg trails, conveniently nearby all amenities in my area.

That’s the part y’all need to adopt to get people on your side by the way; assure people who like suburbs that your plan isn’t to tear down their existing environments for new ones. We’re scared shitless you’re all gonna try to force us into boxes, many of us will fight violently to oppose such action. Make it clear you’re talking only about NEW developments and I think most people will support your cause. I do in principle, but the selfish American in me isn’t about to give up my already existing paradise for your apartment block, especially when you provide no answers to the corporate landlord landscape we’re operating in. Those of us who have been alive long enough know these plans usually end in lost livelihoods and destroyed dreams, the true benefits only going to the upper echelon of the highest earning capitalists.

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11 points

suburban

Assumptions being made here.

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14 points
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Rural neighbors. Even worse. Cowshit, ag runoff ruining our waterways, heavy machinery blocking streets, Trump flags inside every house and old boys racism everywhere the moment you’re ‘in’ with them.

Instead of loud neighbors you have to deal with white trash family fights and drunk driving everywhere. Meanwhile everyone has a chip on their shoulder about city and suburban people ruining their world somehow yet they never participate in any of it lmfao.

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6 points
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Sure, I doubt there is anyone here against rural self-sustained living, it is probably one of the more eco-friendly and humane way of living.

But once frequent car trip and road maintainance cames into equation, it might not be the most eco-friendly way any more. I understand not everyone cares about their fellow human being, but this is the point this post is trying to make.

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10 points

Suburbs are the worst of both worlds. Gimme a cave on the top of the mountain miles from anywhere, thanks.

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7 points

All the fun of overbearing neighbors telling you what you can or can’t do with all the inability to take the train anywhere

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5 points

don’t forget the dudebros driving around blasting bass every 20min. I hope they all go deaf. peacocking morons.

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10 points

Yes, that doesn’t happen in cities at all.

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2 points

Cities are 100x worse for noise levels.

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4 points

It’d take it over the sound of the upstairs neighbor fucking his microwave while bowling at the same time

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2 points

I don’t know about that. I don’t live in America and I’ve never lived in suburbs. I have lived in flats (apartments) and in dense areas.

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1 point

I lived both in dense neighborhoods, rural neighborhoods, and suburbs. Trust me, the more things you give your neighbor to do, the more shenanigans they will make, especially in place where everyone is bored out of their mind.

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1 point

I can’t hear shit when i clise my windows.

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6 points
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This isn’t a particularly convincing analogy. Islands have limited space. The suburbs where I live border tons of open space and parks. Meanwhile, our school district is already overwhelmed with children, so converting commercial spaces into apartments will merely add to congestion and sprawl. NIMBY’s make a convincing argument against denser residential construction.

A better focus would be the ability to simplify public transit and walkability. Town centers and public spaces could be more accessible with denser residential construction, and the additional green space can be closer to where you live without everyone needing their own half-acre yard to mow and water.

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3 points

The suburbs where I live border tons of open space and parks.

Yeah but then they build more houses and destroy more of those open spaces to make room for more suburban sprawl

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1 point

Yep, Toll Bros buys a horse farm and makes half acre mcmansions. There are some big properties that have covenants that prevent it, and the zoning in my township won’t allow new subdivisions less than 2 acres, and we have some great municipal parks which will never be developed. But that means everything is spread out to make public transit untenable. You need a car to get to the nearest train station, and then you need a car when you get off the train at any stop outside of the city.

There’s no one-size solution to combat sprawl. High density housing makes a lot of sense some places, and not so much in others.

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3 points

This isn’t a particularly convincing analogy.

I think you replied in the wrong place? I didn’t give an analogy.

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2 points

You’re right, I meant to reply to the OP. I agree with you. Still figuring out Lemmy, sorry.

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2 points

God I hate living in high density housing. Dogs yapping, bass and loud music booming, smelly, loud, animal poop and pee on every green/natural area, higher crime, more traffic, etc.

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