Excellent Reads

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Are you tired of clickbait and the current state of journalism? This community is meant to remind you that excellent journalism still happens. While not sticking to a specific topic, the focus will be on high-quality articles and discussion around their topics.

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154

The Great Compression - Thanks to soaring housing prices, the era of the 400-square-foot subdivision house is upon us (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 9 months ago by can@sh.itjust.works to c/longreads@sh.itjust.works

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[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

R O W H O U S I N G.

Gardening, owning a workshop, are two hobbies which are pretty much impossible in apartment complexes (as are many other things which are deal-breakers to anyone with enough income to have an opinion on the matter). However to think it's either "apartment complex" or "detached house with five parking spots and a grass monoculture" is a false dichotomy. A terraced house with 3 stories and a basement used to be the standard for the working class where I live, and it is a huge shame they went out of fashion.

Row housing sits halfway between apartment buildings and detached houses, density-wise. Maybe much closer to apartments if you're comparing against low-rises with ample green space.

This is obviously the niche that the trend in the article tries to fill, while failing hard due to zoning laws forbidding terraced housing despite the fact that the exact same lots would immediately double the livable space at almost zero cost (besides a few grand in fireproof and soundproof materials I guess).

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Row housing is still insufficient. We need more density.