^Marcus, when people invest in a living space/place, they are buying into a certain environment. Naturally, if someone works to change that environment, you can expect resistance in most cases. It's about managing expectations and human nature.
Moving on, there is only so much real estate and they aren't making any more of it (other than, maybe, if a volcano's lava flows to the sea). Meanwhile, population continues to increase. The laws of supply and demand indicate that if you have fixed supply and growing demand, pricing is going to increase. Yes, you can slow or defer increases with increased efficiencies, in this case, greater densities. We do need to recognize that there are limits, too, to increasing density and, one day, the only way to reduce pricing is to reduce demand which will only be accomplished by limiting population growth. In some world cities, that breaking point may be here or approaching. By example, Manhattan is likely the epitome of near maximum density so not sure how many more people can be crammed into there. As a result, I wouldn't expect to ever see "affordable" housing there.
I have no problem with greater densities but that is not for every situation or for everyone. And, there are trade offs and limits to density. For some, they consider it a life style/quality of life issue... that is, some want to live in the middle of nowhere and, per above, others want to live in the heart of Manhattan. Different strokes for different folks.
So, it is not unreasonable that their is going to be push back from some quarters in this regard. You see this in zoning fights and expanding resistance to growing traffic generators.
The best way to drive increased density is to provide mass transit and walkability options and incentivize it vs. subsidizing lower density as we mostly do now in Florida and much of the U.S. These are public policy and city planning initiatives, not neighborhood ones. Those who value time and affordability will voluntarily pursue density at that point without it being forced upon them.
If we had appropriate leadership, we would implement in the urban core/downtown consistent street level zoning, walkable streets, plentiful greenspaces and robust mass transit that works (not fantasy AV's). At the same time, we should stop adding lanes to existing roads or building new ones for developers that encourage urban sprawl. It's not rocket science. Do this and the increase in density will take care of itself. When I have visited cities in foreign countries, I have seen how well this works. Not so much in the U.S.
Most of the above is "Mom and apple pie" and it is frustrating that we don't see our leadership being effective in this regard. I think this is where we can all find the most agreement
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