The War on Density — A misguided issue

I get a chance to opine on density almost every day as almost every day people prefer to accentuate the wrong thing: density. I think it is because they prefer the fight. So here's my daily opportunity at Publicola.com: The War on Density

And here's the same thing I have been saying for a while:

DENSITY IS BESIDE THE POINT

It's so unfortunate that the density issue came up.

For people who like cities (as well as other places, too — it's not either/or) I'd suggest dropping the pro-density rhetoric. It is a political non-starter and simply irrelevant.

Urging density is putting the cart before the horse. The task is to create interesting places. Then people will compete to be there. You don't start by creating density. You create interesting urban places and then people will want to be there and developers will build.

Density is a byproduct of creating interesting places.
Density is a by-product of high-amenity environments.

Consider any waterfront location. Or a neighborhood like Madison Park. Do you really think that you have to encourage density in either place? Hardly. People want to be there, they compete to be there, and you have to beat them off with a stick. The public policy debate should be about how to create interesting urban spaces. So long as the zoning allows density, the market will take care of it.

And I wish people would be a bit more selfish when it comes to this discussion. The right reason to like density is that it is associated with more interesting cities. The wrong reason is because it is better for society and is more sustainable etc etc.

Comments

[Sean S]

hmmm, but it IS more sustainable, soo....