WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 Welcome to the debate. Today we are looking at 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:07.000 a landscape that is so ubiquitous, so fundamental 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.960 to the modern experience, that has become almost 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:13.140 invisible to us. We are talking about the residential 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:16.600 area. Right. It's the backdrop of the American 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:20.079 dream. And yet, it's a concept we rarely stop 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:23.500 to define or critique. We just... We live in 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:26.179 it. Exactly. And for our discussion today, we're 00:00:26.179 --> 00:00:28.039 defining the residential area strictly based 00:00:28.039 --> 00:00:30.660 on land use. This is land where housing, you 00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:33.340 know, predominates, distant from industrial or 00:00:33.340 --> 00:00:35.899 commercial zones. Whether it's a sprawling suburb 00:00:35.899 --> 00:00:39.579 of single -family homes or a cluster of multifamily 00:00:39.579 --> 00:00:42.420 units, this is the environment we are dissecting. 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:45.240 And the central question, the real tension here, 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:48.380 is whether this specific design evolution represents 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:51.770 a triumph of accessibility in planning. or if 00:00:51.770 --> 00:00:53.850 we have inadvertently engineered a landscape 00:00:53.850 --> 00:00:57.409 of, well, profound isolation. Look, I'm firmly 00:00:57.409 --> 00:00:59.710 in the camp that the modern residential development 00:00:59.710 --> 00:01:02.869 is a success story. It represents a necessary, 00:01:03.090 --> 00:01:05.290 affordable escape from the cramping and chaos 00:01:05.290 --> 00:01:08.269 of the industrial city. It created a standardized, 00:01:08.650 --> 00:01:10.870 comfortable lifestyle that was, before this, 00:01:11.010 --> 00:01:13.890 the exclusive domain of the wealthy. And I come 00:01:13.890 --> 00:01:16.390 at it from a different angle. I believe that 00:01:16.390 --> 00:01:18.849 while the intention may have been noble, The 00:01:18.849 --> 00:01:21.450 specific design choices, I'm talking about the 00:01:21.450 --> 00:01:24.750 dead -end roads, restrictive covenants, the absolute 00:01:24.750 --> 00:01:27.890 separation of use, have created commuter towns 00:01:27.890 --> 00:01:30.590 that prioritize the automobile over the human 00:01:30.590 --> 00:01:33.489 being. We've built environments that look like 00:01:33.489 --> 00:01:36.409 communities, but function more like isolation 00:01:36.409 --> 00:01:39.150 chamber. I see why you might frame it that way, 00:01:39.269 --> 00:01:41.969 particularly looking at it through a modern urbanist 00:01:41.969 --> 00:01:44.709 lens. But let me give you a different perspective 00:01:44.709 --> 00:01:47.689 by starting with the history. To understand the 00:01:47.689 --> 00:01:49.969 value of the residential area, you have to look 00:01:49.969 --> 00:01:52.730 at what preceded it. Before the concept of the 00:01:52.730 --> 00:01:55.689 residential development really took hold, housing 00:01:55.689 --> 00:01:58.629 was essentially a binary system. A system of 00:01:58.629 --> 00:02:01.590 haves and have -nots? Precisely. If you were 00:02:01.590 --> 00:02:04.189 rich, you bought a town lot, you hired an architect, 00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:07.129 and you built up a spoke mansion. It was a custom 00:02:07.129 --> 00:02:10.370 process, slow, expensive. But if you were poor, 00:02:10.509 --> 00:02:13.389 you lived in shanty towns, or you were packed 00:02:13.389 --> 00:02:15.919 into tenements built strictly for rental. There 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:18.379 was no middle ground. So you're arguing that 00:02:18.379 --> 00:02:20.919 the residential area was the invention of the 00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:23.319 middle ground? It was the creation of the middle 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:26.300 -class market. Single -family houses were almost 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:29.360 never built on speculation, meaning, you know, 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:31.699 built for a future sale to a resident who hadn't 00:02:31.699 --> 00:02:34.000 been identified yet. That just didn't exist. 00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:36.520 The shift that happened particularly during the 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:38.939 post -World War II economic expansion in places 00:02:38.939 --> 00:02:41.159 like New York and Los Angeles was a breakthrough. 00:02:41.379 --> 00:02:44.750 We saw a demand for thousands of homes. I don't 00:02:44.750 --> 00:02:47.689 deny the demand. The post -war boom is a matter 00:02:47.689 --> 00:02:50.969 of historical record. It was massive, and it 00:02:50.969 --> 00:02:54.090 was met by speculative building. Now, I know 00:02:54.090 --> 00:02:56.550 that term speculator has baggage. Indeed, the 00:02:56.550 --> 00:02:59.050 practitioners at the time, they hated being called 00:02:59.050 --> 00:03:02.189 property speculators. It sounded predatory, so 00:03:02.189 --> 00:03:04.349 they coined a new name, residential development. 00:03:04.969 --> 00:03:07.169 But this wasn't just a marketing spin. It was 00:03:07.169 --> 00:03:10.370 a total overhaul of the process. They took entire 00:03:10.370 --> 00:03:13.250 farms and ranches, subdivided them, and controlled 00:03:13.250 --> 00:03:16.930 every single aspect. Entitlement, grading, infrastructure, 00:03:17.469 --> 00:03:20.810 utilities. They industrialized the neighborhood. 00:03:21.169 --> 00:03:24.030 They did. In communities like Levittown on Long 00:03:24.030 --> 00:03:27.129 Island or Lakewood south of Los Angeles, homes 00:03:27.129 --> 00:03:30.270 were sold at rates of more than one a day. I 00:03:30.270 --> 00:03:33.039 mean, that is a logistical miracle. Mass production 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:35.819 and the standardization of design, along with 00:03:35.819 --> 00:03:38.259 government -backed mortgages, meant that for 00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:40.740 the first time, owning a house and a new residential 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:43.599 development was cheaper than renting a cramped 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:45.939 apartment in the city. This was a liberation. 00:03:46.379 --> 00:03:49.099 A liberation, sure. But I just don't buy that 00:03:49.099 --> 00:03:51.740 it was purely a liberation. I think we have to 00:03:51.740 --> 00:03:53.960 look at the result of this zoning and mass production. 00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:57.379 You describe it as a solution to cramping. But 00:03:57.379 --> 00:04:00.120 what we actually created were areas where large 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:02.680 tracts of land have, and I'm quoting the material, 00:04:03.319 --> 00:04:06.659 no services whatever. Well, no services refers 00:04:06.659 --> 00:04:09.240 to commercial services. That is the point of 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:11.159 a residential zone. You don't want a factory 00:04:11.159 --> 00:04:13.479 next to your bedroom. But think about the implication 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:16.959 of that. In these areas, especially the, you 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:20.540 know, the rural or large tract developments on 00:04:20.540 --> 00:04:23.779 the periphery, residents must use a motor vehicle 00:04:23.779 --> 00:04:27.089 to access anything. a pint of milk, a pharmacy, 00:04:27.329 --> 00:04:30.870 a school. We tied land development strictly to 00:04:30.870 --> 00:04:33.790 transport infrastructure, rail and road, rather 00:04:33.790 --> 00:04:37.050 than allowing for organic community growth. We 00:04:37.050 --> 00:04:40.449 created a dependency. But that dependency allowed 00:04:40.449 --> 00:04:43.250 for the separation of living and working, which 00:04:43.250 --> 00:04:46.149 is what people wanted. The residential area is 00:04:46.149 --> 00:04:49.250 a protected space. Zoning usually includes a 00:04:49.250 --> 00:04:52.709 smaller floor area ratio, or FAR, than business 00:04:52.709 --> 00:04:56.029 or industrial zoning. That is a feature, not 00:04:56.029 --> 00:04:59.589 a bug. It prioritizes living space and low density 00:04:59.589 --> 00:05:02.670 over the noise and congestion of business density. 00:05:02.949 --> 00:05:06.350 But at what cost to the social fabric? You talk 00:05:06.350 --> 00:05:09.370 about protection, but I see fragility. These 00:05:09.370 --> 00:05:12.670 systems rely entirely on the transport infrastructure. 00:05:12.990 --> 00:05:16.029 And more than that, the design enforces a kind 00:05:16.029 --> 00:05:18.870 of social stasis through restrictive covenants. 00:05:19.209 --> 00:05:21.870 Covenants are a tool for stability. They protect 00:05:21.870 --> 00:05:25.300 the asset. They are a tool for rigidity. These 00:05:25.300 --> 00:05:27.699 developments are regulated by deeds that are 00:05:27.699 --> 00:05:30.360 not easily changed because they require the agreement 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:33.759 of all property owners. And as our source material 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:36.899 notes, many of those owners may not even live 00:05:36.899 --> 00:05:40.139 in the area. They could be investors. We have 00:05:40.139 --> 00:05:42.420 built spaces that are legally and physically 00:05:42.420 --> 00:05:46.160 difficult to evolve. We have, in effect, created 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:49.379 isolation by design. I think you're conflating 00:05:49.379 --> 00:05:52.459 stability with stagnation, but let's dig into 00:05:52.459 --> 00:05:54.819 that core disagreement about the function of 00:05:54.819 --> 00:05:57.379 these spaces. You seem to view the separation 00:05:57.379 --> 00:05:59.759 of commerce and housing, the very definition 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:02.959 of the residential area, as a failure. I view 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:06.779 it as the creation of the commuter town. That 00:06:06.779 --> 00:06:09.240 is a specific criticism raised against these 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:12.120 developments. They serve no purpose for the greater 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:15.069 community other than sleeping. Unlike mixed -use 00:06:15.069 --> 00:06:17.250 developments where you have a blend of commerce 00:06:17.250 --> 00:06:20.050 and activity, residents here are forced to leave 00:06:20.050 --> 00:06:23.269 for everything. It just hollows out the concept 00:06:23.269 --> 00:06:26.370 of a town. Again, I would frame that differently. 00:06:26.889 --> 00:06:28.589 The separation is what makes the comfortable 00:06:28.589 --> 00:06:31.029 lifestyle possible. It's not that these places 00:06:31.029 --> 00:06:33.269 lack value, it's that the value is focused on 00:06:33.269 --> 00:06:35.769 domestic life. And developers didn't just build 00:06:35.769 --> 00:06:38.170 boxes and leave. As the market matured to remain 00:06:38.170 --> 00:06:40.470 competitive, they began to compete on community 00:06:40.470 --> 00:06:44.410 amenities. Such as? Greenbelt parks, neighborhood 00:06:44.410 --> 00:06:47.949 pools, community entry monumentation. You know, 00:06:47.970 --> 00:06:50.490 those big welcoming signs you see. These are 00:06:50.490 --> 00:06:53.750 significant additions. They created a self -contained 00:06:53.750 --> 00:06:56.610 environment where leisure and family life were 00:06:56.610 --> 00:06:59.370 prioritized. The developer wasn't just selling 00:06:59.370 --> 00:07:01.870 a house. They were selling a lifestyle package, 00:07:02.129 --> 00:07:04.930 kitchen appliance packages, location, pools. 00:07:05.230 --> 00:07:07.790 They were building a world. But a pool is not 00:07:07.790 --> 00:07:10.069 a grocery store. A greenbelt is not a pharmacy. 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:13.040 These amenities don't replace essential services, 00:07:13.339 --> 00:07:16.079 so the reliance on the automobile remains absolute. 00:07:16.420 --> 00:07:18.639 And let's look at how that infrastructure is 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:21.519 actually laid out. The criticism is that these 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:23.959 developments are often isolated, with only one 00:07:23.959 --> 00:07:26.680 entrance and one exit. Which limits through traffic, 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:29.139 making the streets quieter. It makes travel times 00:07:29.139 --> 00:07:32.019 pointlessly lengthy. If you're trying to get 00:07:32.019 --> 00:07:33.939 somewhere, you are funneled through a single 00:07:33.939 --> 00:07:36.540 choke point. It makes it significantly harder 00:07:36.540 --> 00:07:39.399 for people to walk or cycle. If you want to go 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:40.879 to a neighbor's house that might be physically 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:43.300 close, their backyard might touch yours, you 00:07:43.300 --> 00:07:45.759 might have to drive a mile out and around just 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:48.379 because of the road layout. It discourages human 00:07:48.379 --> 00:07:51.139 movement in favor of vehicular movement. I'm 00:07:51.139 --> 00:07:53.139 not really convinced by that line of reasoning 00:07:53.139 --> 00:07:55.800 because it assumes the primary goal of a residential 00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:59.680 street is transportation efficiency for the passerby. 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:02.759 It isn't. It's safety and tranquility for the 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:05.160 resident. But I want to go back to the production 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:07.699 model itself because I think you are dismissing 00:08:08.009 --> 00:08:10.629 the economic miracle that allowed this to happen. 00:08:10.790 --> 00:08:13.149 I'm not dismissing the economics. I'm questioning 00:08:13.149 --> 00:08:16.110 the architectural legacy. But the two are linked. 00:08:16.329 --> 00:08:18.870 The source material highlights how the large 00:08:18.870 --> 00:08:21.810 -scale practitioners transformed from property 00:08:21.810 --> 00:08:25.430 speculators to residential developers. This wasn't 00:08:25.430 --> 00:08:27.850 just a name change. It was a change in process. 00:08:28.209 --> 00:08:31.629 By controlling entitlement, grading, infrastructure, 00:08:31.810 --> 00:08:35.190 and housing all at once, they achieved efficiencies 00:08:35.190 --> 00:08:37.830 that were impossible before. They used the same 00:08:37.830 --> 00:08:39.590 techniques that made the automobile affordable, 00:08:39.909 --> 00:08:42.529 standardization and repetitive assembly tasks, 00:08:42.690 --> 00:08:45.509 to make housing affordable. So Fordism applied 00:08:45.509 --> 00:08:48.870 to the living room. Exactly. And that is a good 00:08:48.870 --> 00:08:52.210 thing. It democratized the home. And that is 00:08:52.210 --> 00:08:54.970 exactly where the problem lies. Mass production 00:08:54.970 --> 00:08:58.929 resulted in a uniformity of product. You see 00:08:58.929 --> 00:09:01.870 efficiency, I see a lack of diversity. But there 00:09:01.870 --> 00:09:05.149 was diversity. The material explicitly mentions 00:09:05.149 --> 00:09:07.909 that diverse floor plans with differing room 00:09:07.909 --> 00:09:11.090 counts and multiple elevations, different exterior 00:09:11.090 --> 00:09:13.769 looks for the same plan, appeared as the market 00:09:13.769 --> 00:09:17.269 matured. You could choose your facade. That is 00:09:17.269 --> 00:09:20.570 a superficial diversity. Multiple elevations 00:09:20.570 --> 00:09:22.929 is just dressing up the same box in different 00:09:22.929 --> 00:09:25.789 wrapping paper. The reality is that these developments 00:09:25.789 --> 00:09:29.370 offer homes in a narrow range of age, price, 00:09:29.529 --> 00:09:32.220 size, and features. That allows for a cohesive 00:09:32.220 --> 00:09:34.960 neighborhood character. It allows for exclusion. 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:37.720 It means that potential residents with different 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:41.139 needs, wishes, or resources, perhaps the elderly, 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:44.419 the young, or those with lower incomes, must 00:09:44.419 --> 00:09:47.500 look elsewhere. We sort a society by price point 00:09:47.500 --> 00:09:50.360 and family structure. The residential development 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:53.639 is a filter that created a monoculture. You don't 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:56.039 get the vibrant mix of a real town. You get a 00:09:56.039 --> 00:09:59.000 demographic slice. Or you could say it created 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:01.440 a community of shared interests and stability. 00:10:01.860 --> 00:10:04.700 The smooth flow of capital and advertising that 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:07.519 facilitated this didn't just sell houses. It 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:09.960 built the American middle class. It solved a 00:10:09.960 --> 00:10:12.820 massive demand crisis in post -war cities. You 00:10:12.820 --> 00:10:15.440 cannot overlook that before this model, the alternative 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:18.559 was cramped city apartments or shantytowns. That 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:21.059 is a fair point, but we are living with the legacy 00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:23.740 of that solution now. And the legacy is physical. 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:26.139 I want to talk about the design of the actual 00:10:26.139 --> 00:10:28.519 lots and streets, because this is where the theory 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:30.940 of comfort really clashes with the reality of 00:10:30.940 --> 00:10:33.759 human behavior. What specifically are you referring 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:37.860 to? The front nursery paradox. I assume you mean 00:10:37.860 --> 00:10:41.139 the front gardens or lawns? Yes. The material 00:10:41.139 --> 00:10:44.700 notes that front nurseries or gardens often have 00:10:44.700 --> 00:10:48.200 low walls or no walls at all. Because developers 00:10:48.200 --> 00:10:50.759 wanted to reduce costs by eliminating the distinction 00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:53.259 between public and private space. Which creates 00:10:53.259 --> 00:10:57.559 an open, welcoming atmosphere. It flows. In theory. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:01.659 In practice, it creates a space of anxiety. Residents 00:11:01.659 --> 00:11:04.440 tend to these spaces to outperform their neighbors. 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:07.159 It becomes a display case, not a living space. 00:11:07.460 --> 00:11:09.960 The source material is quite damning here. It 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:13.379 says these places often become unused, disliked, 00:11:13.379 --> 00:11:16.360 and neglected. It's land that you own but cannot 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.019 really use because it's performative. You don't 00:11:19.019 --> 00:11:21.299 sit out there. You just mow it so the neighbors 00:11:21.299 --> 00:11:23.899 don't judge you. I think disliked and neglected 00:11:23.899 --> 00:11:27.899 might be an overstatement in many cases. People 00:11:27.899 --> 00:11:30.860 love their curb appeal. But I do see the point 00:11:30.860 --> 00:11:33.519 about the blurring of lines. However, you have 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:35.539 to weigh that against the other design features 00:11:35.539 --> 00:11:38.879 that were introduced for safety. Such as? Traffic 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:42.000 calming. The winding streets. The looped roads. 00:11:42.429 --> 00:11:44.889 The dead -end roads are cul -de -sacs. These 00:11:44.889 --> 00:11:47.429 weren't accidental. They were designed to slow 00:11:47.429 --> 00:11:50.110 down life, quite literally. A slowly winding 00:11:50.110 --> 00:11:52.970 street forces cars to decelerate. It makes the 00:11:52.970 --> 00:11:55.649 streets safer for children. Does it? Because 00:11:55.649 --> 00:11:57.789 the counter -argument presented is that these 00:11:57.789 --> 00:12:00.730 modern roads are often packed with unattended 00:12:00.730 --> 00:12:03.450 vehicles. That is an issue of parking management, 00:12:03.629 --> 00:12:06.429 not road design. It is a direct result of the 00:12:06.429 --> 00:12:09.289 design. When you create a zone with no services, 00:12:09.549 --> 00:12:11.980 everyone needs a car. often two or three per 00:12:11.980 --> 00:12:14.399 household. Those cars have to go somewhere. They 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:16.759 end up on the street. It's unsightly. It blocks 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:19.460 pavements. And the material explicitly states 00:12:19.460 --> 00:12:22.039 it makes roads more unsafe for kids because it 00:12:22.039 --> 00:12:24.519 obstructs visibility. Plus, it becomes a source 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:26.940 of arguments among neighbors. We design streets 00:12:26.940 --> 00:12:29.440 for cars, filled them with cars, and then wonder 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:31.740 why they aren't safe for children. That's an 00:12:31.740 --> 00:12:33.919 interesting point, though. I would frame it as 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:36.860 a tradeoff. The alternative, the grid system 00:12:36.860 --> 00:12:39.139 with high speed through traffic, is certainly 00:12:39.139 --> 00:12:41.940 not safer. And I would argue that despite the 00:12:41.940 --> 00:12:44.299 cars, there is an attempt at greenery that you 00:12:44.299 --> 00:12:47.360 are ignoring. I'm not ignoring it. I'm critiquing 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:50.240 its execution. Everyone loves a tree -lined street. 00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:53.059 That is a universal truth. But the reality of 00:12:53.059 --> 00:12:55.340 modern residential development is often quite 00:12:55.340 --> 00:12:58.639 different. How so? Highway authorities and developers 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.379 often discourage trees and hedgerows. Likey for 00:13:01.379 --> 00:13:04.059 visibility and maintenance reasons. Roots and 00:13:04.059 --> 00:13:07.440 pipes, leaves on the road. Perhaps. But the result 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:10.100 is developments dominated by hard materials. 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:13.379 They appear colorless. We have replaced the organic 00:13:13.379 --> 00:13:16.000 complexity of a tree -lined lane with asphalt, 00:13:16.259 --> 00:13:19.500 concrete, and maybe a small strip of grass that 00:13:19.500 --> 00:13:22.220 no one is allowed to walk on. It's a sterile 00:13:22.220 --> 00:13:24.940 environment. It's efficient to grade and pave. 00:13:25.559 --> 00:13:27.679 but it's oppressive to live in. I think you are 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:30.620 painting a very bleak picture of what is, for 00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:34.600 many, a very desirable place to live. These developments 00:13:34.600 --> 00:13:37.340 help form the stereotypical image of suburban 00:13:37.340 --> 00:13:40.600 America for a reason. People want to live there, 00:13:40.700 --> 00:13:43.460 and they want their investment protected. This 00:13:43.460 --> 00:13:45.159 brings me back to the covenants you mentioned 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.759 earlier. The restrictive covenants? Yes. You 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:51.549 view them as rigid. But they are the legal bedrock 00:13:51.549 --> 00:13:53.970 that prevents a factory from opening next door 00:13:53.970 --> 00:13:56.090 to your bedroom or a neighbor from turning their 00:13:56.090 --> 00:13:58.769 lawn into a junkyard. They regulate development 00:13:58.769 --> 00:14:01.210 patterns to maintain the character of the area. 00:14:01.509 --> 00:14:03.870 But at what point does maintaining character 00:14:03.870 --> 00:14:07.309 become preventing adaptation? When you buy into 00:14:07.309 --> 00:14:09.649 a residential area, you are buying a promise 00:14:09.649 --> 00:14:12.389 of stability. But cities and communities need 00:14:12.389 --> 00:14:15.759 to breathe. They need to change. The material 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.240 points out that restrictive covenants are not 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:21.200 easily changed. It requires the agreement of 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:25.019 all property owners. Imagine trying to get 100 00:14:25.019 --> 00:14:27.740 % agreement on anything in a neighborhood. It 00:14:27.740 --> 00:14:31.120 is difficult, yes. It's nearly impossible. This 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:33.399 means that even if the needs of the community 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:36.679 change, say they need more density or a small 00:14:36.679 --> 00:14:39.879 local shop or a daycare, the residential areas 00:14:39.879 --> 00:14:43.220 is locked in a static state. It's a fossilized 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:45.379 version of what the developer thought was perfect 00:14:45.379 --> 00:14:49.679 in 1950 or 1980 or 2000. It cannot evolve. But 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:52.299 that fossilization is exactly why the property 00:14:52.299 --> 00:14:54.940 values remain high. It is the assurance that 00:14:54.940 --> 00:14:57.259 the environment will not degrade. It provides 00:14:57.259 --> 00:14:59.960 financial security for the family. It provides 00:14:59.960 --> 00:15:02.980 financial security at the cost of social vitality. 00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:04.879 Let's take a step back and look at the broader 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:08.200 picture here. We are discussing the modern residential 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:11.929 area. I maintain that this model born largely 00:15:11.929 --> 00:15:14.750 from the post -war economic expansion, was a 00:15:14.750 --> 00:15:17.929 massive success in terms of human welfare. Welfare 00:15:17.929 --> 00:15:21.110 in terms of shelter, perhaps? In terms of quality 00:15:21.110 --> 00:15:24.710 of life. We moved from tenants to owners. We 00:15:24.710 --> 00:15:27.870 moved from bespoke mansions for the few to comfortable 00:15:27.870 --> 00:15:31.090 homes for the many. The standardization, the 00:15:31.090 --> 00:15:33.950 residential development rebranding, the efficiency, 00:15:34.169 --> 00:15:36.490 these were tools that solved a housing crisis. 00:15:37.179 --> 00:15:39.639 It offered a lifestyle distinct from the industrial 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:43.860 city, protected by low FAR and zoning. It gave 00:15:43.860 --> 00:15:46.320 people their own piece of the world. That is 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.460 the compelling narrative, certainly. And I don't 00:15:49.460 --> 00:15:52.840 deny that it provided roofs over heads. But I 00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:55.460 come back to the cost of that comfort. The design 00:15:55.460 --> 00:15:58.259 legacy is one of isolation. We created spaces 00:15:58.259 --> 00:16:00.539 that do not mesh well with the greater community. 00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:03.559 We built commuter towns that act as dormitories 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:06.480 rather than villages. But they are safe dormitories. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:10.000 Are they? When they're reliant on cars filled 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.820 with hard materials and stripped of organic street 00:16:12.820 --> 00:16:15.659 structures like trees, the material highlights 00:16:15.659 --> 00:16:17.919 that these places can be aesthetically sterile 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:21.080 and socially disconnected. Residents are covertly 00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:23.580 competing over front lawns they don't use, while 00:16:23.580 --> 00:16:25.940 arguing over parking spaces on winding roads 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:28.600 that block the sidewalk. That isn't a community. 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:31.159 That is a collection of people hiding in boxes. 00:16:31.500 --> 00:16:34.159 And yet, looking at the history from Levittown 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:37.659 to today, the demand persists. The residential 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:40.399 development remains the dominant form of housing 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:43.120 growth. People vote with their feet, and they 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:45.740 walk, or rather drive, into these neighborhoods. 00:16:46.139 --> 00:16:49.659 They do. And perhaps that tension between the 00:16:49.659 --> 00:16:53.019 stereotypical image of suburban America that 00:16:53.019 --> 00:16:55.980 we desire and the reality of the isolation it 00:16:55.980 --> 00:16:58.460 produces is something we will always grapple 00:16:58.460 --> 00:17:01.419 with. We want the escape, but we forget that 00:17:01.419 --> 00:17:04.079 we are escaping to a place that effectively cuts 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:06.990 us off. It is a complex trade -off between the 00:17:06.990 --> 00:17:09.869 efficiency of the developer model and the organic 00:17:09.869 --> 00:17:12.950 needs of a community. But the fact remains that 00:17:12.950 --> 00:17:16.589 for millions, this land use, where housing predominates, 00:17:16.630 --> 00:17:20.430 is home. Indeed, and whether that home is a sanctuary 00:17:20.430 --> 00:17:23.849 or silo is largely determined by those initial 00:17:23.849 --> 00:17:26.809 design choices, the roads, the zoning, and the 00:17:26.809 --> 00:17:29.309 covenants. A fascinating look at the structures 00:17:29.309 --> 00:17:32.349 we live in. Thank you for listening to The Debate.