The Deleted Scenes - New and Old #165
The Weird Politics of Housing Abundance, Thesis Driven, Brad Hargreaves, May 15, 2024 I already know what some people will say in response here: trans rights or stopping civilian deaths in Gaza are not “politics” or “partisanship,” they’re basic litmus tests of human decency. Look, if half the country is made up of moral monsters, you do in fact need to work with them. Or better yet, trick them to support at least some small piece of your progressive cause. Wouldn’t you want to see otherwise awful right-wing types embracing a pro-housing agenda? “We got them on one position, at least…” But I think the average person probably does perceive those priorities in my first paragraph as “political.” At the very least, they’re much more remote, for most people anyway, than the cost of housing is. That’s the thing about housing that makes it almost unique: it may feel like one of these hot-button culture-war issues, but it almost lies below politics, because it affects everybody. It lends itself to a big tent because of its nature. In other words, as Hargreaves spells out right at the start:
Further down in the piece, he makes a really important point: the opposite of the pro-housing coalition—NIMBYs—are a political big tent too:
Also, perception is reality in politics, so this is simply true whether or not you like or agree with it:
This is good. Read the whole thing. The Lifestyle Ratchet Is Hard to Avoid, Aaron Renn, May 21, 2024 This is interesting, and it touches on a thread I’ve been pulling at with a few different subjects: to do with whether urbanism is “eating your vegetables,” with the downsides of work-from-home, and with whether it’s possible to put down smartphones. The big question being whether the mere availability of the easier but less salutary choice makes it almost impossible psychologically to affirmatively choose what you once just did. Does giving people “choice” actually restrict what we feel able to choose? I also wrote about that with regard to manners and social niceties, which is adjacent to remote work:
But here’s Renn:
In other words—even though in some sense they’re the same thing—bunking up your kids or going without air conditioning is totally different in a world where neither of those things is normative than in one where they’re either common or essentially required. The new option isn’t really an option, because it forecloses the old one. Renn is more conservative than I am, but I agree with this line of inquiry, and I think it explains a lot of the psychological frictions in society today. And I’m not sure, actually, that is a conservative idea, per se. I had a pretty lefty environmental studies professor in college who talked about this stuff all the time. It’s called in social sciences the “hedonic treadmill”: the idea that we adjust to improvements in standard of living and come to expect them, and so our subjective well-being never really improves even though our lives demand much more energy and resources over time. And of course there’s something very Catholic about the idea of forgoing worldly comforts in order to devote more of yourself to deeper things. Check out the piece! Why Cars In The U.S. Are Not Smaller, Cornerstone, Luca Gattoni-Celli, May 15, 2024
That last bit is important. A lot of the loud voices on urbanist Twitter seem to sit in an echo chamber where cars are just bad, and while they have their reasons for their tone, they don’t match the way the average person thinks about a car. Apparently, though, the average person may be right, because a tiny car isn’t really much more efficient or less polluting—and it is less safe—than a mere small car:
And this is where land use runs up against lighter, cheaper, smaller, less polluting transportation options. A three-wheeler or a tiny car is just fine in an urban context. But it’s a death trap on an expressway or a stroad. What’s missing in America are urban-scaled vehicles—what Europeans explicitly call “city cars”—and fully urban city environments (i.e. not beset by suburban-scaled vehicles and high-speed motor traffic in general.) Read the whole thing. This is very long, and politically leans fairly left, but it describes something real that transcends politics, and which I think I’ve touched on a lot, from a lot of different angles, in thinking about land use and human relationships. But obviously there’s more than that going on.
It seems to me we have little understanding of why European life is so different than American life. What explains this? How is it even possible to have the leisure time to see friends every day and still be employed and a full adult? Or is it not possible? Or is America wrong about what “full adult” life entails? Etc., etc. Give this a read and a think. Related Reading: Thank you for reading! Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekly subscribers-only piece, plus full access to the archive: over 1,000 pieces and growing. And you’ll help ensure more like this! You're currently a free subscriber to The Deleted Scenes. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
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New and Old #163
Monday, June 3, 2024
Friday roundup and commentary ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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