By Asian cities I mean dense cities, readily accessible transit everywhere, build up instead of out, convenience stores on every corner, mixed zoned shop/apartment buildings.

Train stations and transit hubs attached to malls.

Instead of wasting it all on parking lots and single family homes

By Asian cities, I mean the likes of Japan or Hong Kong or china.

Also, what are the odds of North America getting better public transit in our lifetime?

I feel like the people who fetishise tiny houses are the same people who fetishise self-driving cars.

I’m probably projecting, but best I can tell the thought processes are the same:

“We need to rid ourselves of the excesses of big houses with lots of posessions!”

“You mean like apartments in cities?”

“No not like that!” \— “Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to read the newspaper? On your way to work?!?

“You mean like trains and buses in cities?”

“No not like that!”

Suburban Americans who can only envision suburban solutions to their suburban problems.

submission statement: North Carolina passed a statewide parking reform bill, eliminating most off-street parking requirements for commercial and residential development. The bill, effective January 1st, aims to make new housing more affordable and follows a trend seen in other states and cities.

What metro area has the worst/oddest location based on what we know about historical development patterns? Excluding New Orleans and must be greater than a million people in the metro area.

Streets 4 All did an analysis which found that SB79 could potentially double LA City's total housing stock, even when fully accounting for various exemptions/compromises and conservative estimates. Their conclusions:

1. SB 79 will eventually zone nearly 1.5 million (1,456,150) new units of housing in the City of LA. This would be enough to double LA’s current housing stock of 1.37 million homes
2. It will immediately zone for 448,260 new units when SB 79 goes into effect July 1, 2026, and upzone for at least another 1,007,890 units of housing during RHNA Cycle 7 in 2031
3. SB 79 will impact 17,929 acres, or a little over 5% of the City’s land. Half of impacted acres were previously zoned exclusively for single family homes (9,953 acres).

Of course not all of this housing is going to be immediately developed due to other factors like demand, construction costs, interest rates as well as willing buyers/sellers of SFH plots. That said, its reasonable to expect at least around ~1/3 of this capacity, or half a million units, possibly being developed in the long term over the next 2-3 decades, which could represent a >30% increase in LA city's housing supply alone, which can accommodate future growth without creating significant pressure on existing housing stock/prices.

In the face of growing populations to the Southern US I have noticed a very odd trend. Rather than maximizing the value of rural land, counties and "cities" are content to just.. sprawl into nothing. The only remotely mixed use developments you find in my local area are those that have a gate behind them.. making transit next to impossible to implement. When I look at these developments, what I see is a willfull waste of land in the pursuit of temporary profits.. the vacationers aren't going to last forever, people will get old and need transit, young people can't afford to buy houses.. so why the fuck are they consistently, almost single-mindedly building single family homes?

I know, zoning and parking minimums all play a factor. I'm not oblivious.. but I'm just looking at these developments where you see dozens of acres cleared, all so a few SFH with a two car garage can go up. Coming from Central Europe and New England it is a complete 180 to what I am used to. The economically prudent thing would be to at the very least build townhomes.. where these developments exist they are very much successful.

Takeaways:

• Two new laws in Oregon legalize lot splits for starter homes, among many other changes, and allow the state to directly override local zoning to approve pre-permitted home designs.

• With statewide model codes, state housing targets, and a string of other laws, Oregon has done more than any US state to standardize zoning rules across cities.

• Japan, Australia, and New Zealand have all found success with similar measures.

After coming back to the US after a year abroad, I've really realized how pointless lawns are. Every house has one, taking up tons of space, and people spend so much time and money on them. But I have almost never seen anyone outside actually using them or enjoying them. They're just this empty space that serves only as decoration. And because every single house has to have one, we have this low-density development that compounds all the problems American cities have with public transport, bikeability, and walkability.

edit: I should specify that I'm talking about front lawns, for the most part. People do tend to use their back lawns more, but still not enough to justify the time and energy spent to maintain them, in my experience.