Reply to D.C. has the highest ‘intensity’ of gentrification of any U.S. city, study says

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with the folks who say that we have to build more/denser housing supply in the form of large buildings, but I think that we also need to find ways to build more housing that's similar in character to rowhouses/small multifamily.  Not townhomes that are still in car-dependent separated developments (what's built now), but actual walkable and transit-oriented mixed use urbanism.  The problem is that zoning makes it almost impossible to increase density in a lot of suburbs or in more suburban neighborhoods, and there's no land to build anymore of this kind of housing in already-urban neighborhoods.  So a lot of lower-income folks, many of whom don't have cars or can't afford them, are displaced into neighborhoods that are built around cars in a way that systematically reduces their access to social services, social networks, etc.

Apartment/large building living is a very poor substitute for even attached home living for a lot of people.  Clearly more people will need to choose to live in large buildings in the future if we want to keep close-in areas affordable.  Not everyone will be able to afford to live in as close proximity to downtown as they might prefer. But even setting aside the loss of proximity associated with displacement by gentrification, there is a real loss of lifestyle associated with with being displaced from classic rowhouse neighborhoods.  Meanwhile, the supply of that kind of housing is actually declining pretty rapidly, leading attached house prices to rapidly outpace inflation with little end in sight. It's not hard to understand why even people who don't appear to be financially harmed by gentrification might be unhappy about that loss of lifestyle.[/quote]

Correct.  We need both denser housing around transit, and denser housing in current single-family more suburban areas.
We also need denser housing in row home areas.  
Steps we should take:
- Make it easier to build high around metro stops.  We’re actually doing ok at this in some areas of DC.  But in too many cases local opposition blocks construction or reduces height.
- Upzone single family suburban areas to build more densely
- upzone row house areas to allow pop ups or replacing two story row houses with 4 story row houses.

Answer is really: build more housing everywhere.  More more more.  Upzone everywhere.  There is a huge supply crunch.[/quote]

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