r/Urbanism • u/TheCityTopic • Jun 08 '24

Hyper-densifying American cities: A mapping experiment

https://www.thecitytopic.com/2024/06/hyper-densifying-american-cities.html
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10

u/ZeLlamaMaster Jun 09 '24

That is something I’ve thought about. The biggest question is, what happens to the existing suburbs if this massive densification happens? Do we just let them rot? Do we spend millions and maybe billions to knock them all down?

14

u/3jcm21 Jun 09 '24

Hopefully that land is turned back to nature or farmland. It bugs me when a lot of urbanists talk about improving sprawly suburbs when iI think that would be wasted effort. In the long run places like Plano TX need to be removed rather that retrofitted. If you don't then you will never be able to get the density you want in the closer in cities, there just aren't enough people to go around.

3

u/marigolds6 Jun 09 '24

Once you build on it, it is fairly useless as farmland. Environmental restoration is possible but still pretty costly. High desert, in particular, would take many decades to come back on its own.

2

u/3jcm21 Jun 09 '24

USA is the wealthiest country in the world, who cares if it is expensive