Chebucto Regional Softball Club

@IngaLovinde @keefeglise

Interest over 7 percent is evil and wrong.

@Virginicus

Ugh. The cheap McMansion construction is going to look so bad as it ages. They are disposable buildings with little to justify maintaining them past 40 years.

I guess that's a positive for cities... the construction we've gotten has been generally very well done in terms of durability. With the exception of those pencil towers which may not last except as curiosities. (The pencil towers are not really that numerous. Most construction has been more practical)

@grootinside

I've lived in London and the size of apartment there was very similar to NYC ... the prices too. It was kind of identical. Though, maybe NYC is a little smaller.

I grew up in a classic US suburb, in a house with four bedrooms, living room, office and big garage and two yards. I was one of the poorest kids at my school. But that was in Ohio.

@rhempel

It was not my assignment. I don't teach or know much French. They were just talking to me during study hall and I love to find out how they see the world.

@grootinside

If your living space has a bedroom for each person and one bathroom for each three people that is "a lot of space" most other Americans would call that "bare minimum" but that's my dividing line.

If you have extra rooms beyond this that's "too much" in my view.

@quinn @llewelly

I agree with you about this so I'm confused what you don't agree about?

@gbargoud

Like half I bet.

@grootinside

People in cities do not have a lot of space. If you want space you must have a car.

It was a really interesting conversation. Kids who grow up in NYC are impressed with "lots of rooms" in a way that I have trouble relating to. Yeah... you have a "rec room" but it's far away from everything.

But, it also takes less to impress them. When we noticed that some "mansions" had 5 bedrooms (not that many for a suburban mansion at all) they thought it was "too many rooms"

"A million dollars is a lot less money than I thought."
"Yeah... and yet it still is a lot of money at the same time."

@promovicz

Yeah the school would be too huge converted to a residence. They did eventually figure out what a condo was. But also decided to live in Yonkers which made me very sad.

My students were doing a project where they had to write how they would spend a million dollars in French.

"Mrs. * how much does a big mansion cost?"
"Where is it?"
"In NYC."
"Ten million dollars."
(grumbling disappointed sounds)
"What about in a normal city?"
"In a suburb? I guess like half a million, you did say you wanted a 'mansion'"
(grumbling)
"How much would the school cost?"
"It's not for sale."
"My dad says everything is for sale for the right price."
"I don't know like 30 million?"

@quinn

No one can afford the housing in NYC. It's even worse than ever!

@gbargoud

Living without a car is WHY I'm here. And it's true for so many people that I know. It's this massive benefit and attraction of the city, but US car culture means that we don't talk about it directly.

Living car-free is very luxurious but implying this would make car manufactures and many people angry. So, we pretend that the half of NYC residents without cars are sad and poor about it.

This is a lie.

@quinn

One of the benefits of NYC is the locals are already pissed off so we can't really be pissed off more.

@quinn

I want to point out one other thing. In a primate city like NYC increasing density and building more housing has an "induced demand" effect just like when you try to widen a highway. Building more housing has made the city a more desirable place to live and increased housing prices even as the supply has increased.

Now with a highway? I say, don't bother. With housing I think the induced demand just means you need to be more aggressive in increasing the supply.

@quinn

People who live in NYC are very pro-transit. That's because we all depend on it to ... live. Transit obviously needs massive funding increases, modernization and new lines and that is harder, but I would not call it a "non-starter" just difficult.

@quinn

Building more housing isn't a "non-starter" in NYC. We are NOT SF.

In fact, over the past two decades we have built tons and tons of housing, it's why the city is thriving. Tons of "in-fill" and "80-20" development. It has not been very focused on ordinary people, so much has been built strictly to rent, but that could change as we keep building. (And even building rentals is better than not building.)

We love to increase density.

Now the transit part.

@giflian

Are cats real?

@llewelly

Around 50 percent of people own their home or are paying a mortgage. It's fairly common, but the reality of renting for life needs to stop being treated like an anomaly or a mistake.

Everything about the US is set up to advantage home owners. It's kind of disgusting.