Quote:
Originally Posted by Bunk
The single to multi split is evolving though - 55% to 45% last year in Calgary. Housing expectations and desires are shifting and people at different life stages require and want different housing forms. I was talking with two different (very) large land developers & home builders and they said they have been really adjusting their housing mixes to adapt to market conditions (not because of any sort of City policy).
I would also challenge you on the traffic front - low density, segregated land uses are worse for traffic than somewhat denser, mixed use areas where different mobility options are more realistic options. If you make a place car dependent you guarantee traffic congestion - it is impossible to build out of. Living in Lower Mount Royal it seems much easier to me to navigate by car (or any other mode) than say Scenic Acres because not everyone else is driving!
Also, I have never seen a correlation between crime and density. People on streets reduces crimes of opportunity.
Of course that is not to say in any way we should not build single family homes, or new suburbs, but evolve the way we design these communities. This is already happening - often led by developers - Brookfield is looking at very innovative things in their new South Seton ASP for instance, which is great!).
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Bunk, this is not a fair argument. I am not speaking against higher density housing in any of its built-form (semi-detached, row townhome, stacked-townhome, low-rise, mid-rise and high-rize apartment). I am only opposed to picking easy targets for political gains and making individual visions into social engineering policies.
The attitude shift towards multi-family housing you are referring to has been happening mostly because of the affordability gap, this is not even questionable. When Plan It Calgary essentially legilslated a future SF/MF split heavily towards MF, the political direction has formed the administration's attitude towards new development. The business will do what it can to survive. If MF is easier to get approved, we will see more MF being built.
Crime vs. density - is absolutely an issue, unless a lot of police force is used to control it. The City of New York has experienced it all too well in the past. Chicago is dealing with it now, especially, in the higher density suburbs! How could you deny that?