Solarpunk Urbanism

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A community to discuss solarpunk and other new and alternative urbanisms that seek to break away from our currently ecologically destructive urbanisms.

Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City — In brief, the right to the city is the right to the production of a city. The labor of a worker is the source of most of the value of a commodity that is expropriated by the owner. The worker, therefore, has a right to benefit from that value denied to them. In the same way, the urban citizen produces and reproduces the city through their own daily actions. However, the the city is expropriated from the urbanite by the rich and the state. The right to the city is therefore the right to appropriate the city by and for those who make and remake it.

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Does Density Solve Affordability? Explaining New York and San Francisco (youtu.be)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A well-researched video that explains why some dense urban areas are quite expensive.

TL;DW: Despite a substantial historic housing stock, our most expensive cities have built very little housing in recent years, leading to very low vacancy rates and high prices. Ramping up housing construction will be a necessary part of solving the affordability crisis.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

First mover advantage works against new housing too.

Like, you as a small retail consumer in your twenties, move to a place that you really can't afford. You find a way to buy a condo/house/apartment and tie up 90% of your net worth and expenses to that new place. You scrap by on other expenses like transportation and food and clothing, but you find a way to make it work.

Because of supply and demand and no new places being built, the price of your place increases 3x in the next decade even though you didn't do anything to improve it.

Your net worth increased almost that much (depending on how much you paid down towards principal) and now you can leverage that "home valuation" to borrow against and buy more things. Maybe even use it for a down payment on another condo. But you are going to do it because you are in your 30's now and tired of living the simple life of a pauper. You need things. You need cash flow. You DESERVE it.

Now you, a small retail consumer, are aligned with big real estate because you don't want new housing to come in and drive down the net worth that you borrowed against to live a better life. So you would be more susceptible to voting against housing density projects, and you would be outspoken about keeping the "charm" and "character" of your quaint little neighborhood.

Rinse and repeat for 75 years and this is the result.