Why do most cities BESIDES the US have residential/apartment buildings?

[NYaMtl]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Calgary though is clearly the more urban city with way more residential towers.

Residential towers do not necessarily make an urban city, and I think there would be few people to call Calgary an "urban" city. For its impressive downtown, it is sorely lacking in "finely-grained" urbanism and street life. I recently walked through the center of town during a beautiful chinook, and for about 10 enormous, skyscraper-lined blocks I didn't encounter another soul--on a Saturday afternoon. You might walk through a block that feels like an emptied out Midtown Manhattan, and then emerge on the next block in an empty lot with a strip mall at the end. Very bizarre.

I'm not knocking it, there are a lot of things going for this city, but it's important to realize that the vast majority of Calgary's city proper/metro area (the two are nearly contiguous) is very low-density suburban, and its core reflects that. If there are a number residential highrises downtown, the area is lacking in essential services. I wouldn't be surprised if most of those people drive out-of-town even to do their grocery shopping.

The CTrain is awesome, though.

Can't compare Calgary to Austin, never been.

[vid]

I've found it strange how so many cities in this country have no grocery stores in their downtowns. Mine has five.

[ue]

^There's two here in downtown proper, and 2-4 more depending on what you consider just outside the downtown.

^^Calgary's downtown is known from being duller in nature, but even on a cold Sunday morning, Edmonton's dull spot, I found some decent life around the LRT and Stephen Avenue.

Calgary reflects a big office city downtown...Downtown Manhattan, the Loop, DTLA, Toronto Downtown, Seattle Downtown, Houston Downtown, etc. all have duller downtowns, specifically outside office hrs.

I don't know when you last went but Calgary's downtown around Eau Claire and Stephen Ave seem busy even on Sat.'s.

So that leads me to say most of Calgary's activity is in the neighborhoods outside the Downtown, just like NYC, LA, Chicago, Toronto, Houston & Seattle. Beltline in particular seems like a perfect urban neighborhood. Variety of architecture, uses, and full of vibrancy, businesses, and redevelopment. The city's tier 1 urban drag 17 Ave SW is here, and 4 St SW in Mission is like a mini 17 in a more compact neighborhood. Go NW and you hit Kensington, a quaint little urban gentification project, go NE you hit Bridgeland -- a neighborhood still in development but with beautiful modern architecture, go east and you hit Inglewood...an artsy indie neighborhood with Atlantic Avenue as it's draw.

That's way more than Edmonton has, and Edmonton has way more older neighborhoods. I like that Calgary for the most part makes the best of it's relatively small amount of urban neighborhoods.

Calgary does feel very urban in it's Central City...not being to Austin, TX ever, I've still noted that things suburbanize even quicker once one leaves the downtown from maps, streetview, and images.

[Trantor]

Originally Posted by new.slang

And like PAPride said people in Brazil, China, India are mostly poor, so to them, living with 5 other people in a shoe box is nothing.

an apartment in Brazil will usually cost slightly more than a larger house.

Originally Posted by emathias

For rental landlords, it's a lot easier to build a tower of apartments than to build an entire neighborhood of small buildings.

doesnt hold true to Brazil since whole buildings owned by "rental landlords" are basically UNHEARD of here. Usually, a company will build a building, people will buy units. Some people will live in those units, other people will rent them for other people.

[Exodus]

This thread is misleading, many American cities has apartment buildings in residential areas. Even Detroit is spotted throughout the city with 3-4 storie apartment buildings, rowhouses, and flats. Detroit also has certain districts that are pretty much nothing but apartments of some kind, like midtown, Newcenters residential districts, Palmer Park, Lafayette Park, Rivertown, and the Gold Coast. Some of those districts even have quite a few highrise apartment buildings also. Even the suburbs have apartment complexes, townhomes, and condo districts. I'm not sure where the thread starter gets his information

[KINGPIN]

Nice to see Quahog finally represented!!

[vid]

Originally Posted by Trantor

doesnt hold true to Brazil since whole buildings owned by "rental landlords" are basically UNHEARD of here. Usually, a company will build a building, people will buy units. Some people will live in those units, other people will rent them for other people.

That's like a condominium then. Most of the highrises you see in Calgary are set up like that. They're owned by the people who own the units, not a single individual.

[Trantor]

Originally Posted by vid

That's like a condominium then. Most of the highrises you see in Calgary are set up like that. They're owned by the people who own the units, not a single individual.

yes, exactly. The tenants are responsible for paying condominium taxes, or sometimes, the condominium tax is included in the rent.

its just that people associate too much condo with "bought unit" and apartment with "rented unit". But obviously, as you just said, you can have an apartment which is a rented unit under a condo system.

[Tony]

Originally Posted by yellowboy06

I think the MAIN reason for the 'irregular' buildings in other countries is because the people are too poor to live in houses. Because i'm pretty sure america has its own 'signature' buildings, although some countries like South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have american like buildings.

Basically 'rich' countries have 'regular' buildings and 'poor' countries have 'irregular' buildings.

That is so EXACTLY ignorant. Here's a hint: High Land prices due to proximity to places of employment (let's say "Regular" buildings), high availability of services (such as subway, transit, shopping, entertainment) result in intensification of residential use, which equals higher density housing or in your language "Irregular" buildings.

[vid]

Originally Posted by Trantor

yes, exactly. The tenants are responsible for paying condominium taxes, or sometimes, the condominium tax is included in the rent.

its just that people associate too much condo with "bought unit" and apartment with "rented unit". But obviously, as you just said, you can have an apartment which is a rented unit under a condo system.

Yes, I think that is called sub-letting? It's common here, as well.

[Tony]

Originally Posted by vid

Yes, I think that is called sub-letting? It's common here, as well.

No Sub-letting is different, that's someone renting a unit from the original renter.

[KINGPIN]

I'm not sure but I think yellowboy06 was making reference to how many cities around the world have an abundance of apartments or apartment blocks as the main residential structures..Even though I have not visited many cities outside the US, If you look at photos of many European cities, such as Paris and Berlin, I believe, but not sure, that most residential structures are those beautiful well designed apartment blocks. The new cities in Asia have the many modern fancy apartment blocks while I've seen photos of Latin American cities with mega apartments ...Sao Paulo always comes to my mind. And lets not forget the "Corbusian"(spelling) Apartment blocks of the old Cold War communist states.

Beside Manhattan I think the reasons why you don't see that kind of development in the U.S are:
1.Legal and zoning restrictions
2.availability of land
3. English tradition & history
4. Culture- Americans tend to want to be independent and to live a part of the American dream of a house, dog, kids hot wife and picket fence. Apartments by nature might be a little to communal for Americans, hell we generally don't like strangers standing too close let alone living close.

[bbeliko]

Originally Posted by new.slang

And like PAPride said people in Brazil, China, India are mostly poor, so to them, living with 5 other people in a shoe box is nothing.

Funny thing, here in Mexico most of the working class don't live in an apartment building:






source
While two of the biggest upper class neighborhoods in the city are mostly buildings:

source


source

[vid]

What is the word for "cartoon" in Spanish?

[Evan]

I didn't know Lego made houses!

[FREKI]

Originally Posted by yellowboy06

I think the MAIN reason for the 'irregular' buildings in other countries is because the people are too poor to live in houses.

That is absolutely correct mate!

I was born in a swamp ( it was frozen at the time so above the water of course ) and it wasn't until in my teens we got enough money in my family from making clay tiles that we could afford to move to the city - and as people are so poor here in Denmark no one can afford to live by themself in houses, so we moved into an irregular apartment building..

This was the first time I had actually had a real roof over me ( we used to use plastic backs we found behind thes tore we sold the clay tiles too.. )

The reason we have irregular apartment buildings is because here in Scandinavia it gets really cold at night, so we have fireplaces on the balconies to keep warm and keep the polarbears away ( they are attracted to the smell of food and without electricty we can't store food elsewhere than in our room ) if we had the fires inside the buildings would burn..

( how do people keep warm in the USA at night - do they use that electricity? )


A few years ago I found a magazine in the garbage can I was looking for food in and saw pictures of the USA and I was absolutely amazed

I can not believe how rich you guys are, living in houses and owning cars - here only the royal family and tile exporters can afford that! ( we have a cart we can push, but the right wheel keeps falling off )


I really hope I can make enough tiles to afford the boat ticket so I too may be able to see and maybe even own my own house!!! ( will probable have to start with a regular apartment building - I really hope it will have electricity, that would be so neat to have instead of all these candles )

How much does clay tiles sell for in the US? ( I can make nearly 50 a day! )

[Evan]

[CGII]

Originally Posted by FREKI

How much does clay tiles sell for in the US? ( I can make nearly 50 a day! )

I'm sorry to say that clay tiles are really only popular to the irregular apartment building market, so you'll have to retool to cater to regular buildings to get rich to afford a house here.

[FREKI]

Aww nuts

[muppet]

hey you people want wood. Wood make fire, make hot hot.

Also donkey I have, make good wife

You give me CAR