🚀 go-pugleaf

"Andy Chow" <ac-netj@altavista.net> writes:
>I question the notion that people always want to live in low density area.
>Even through it has been a trend for the past 50 years in the United States,
>in other parts of the world, it was the reverse. People in other countries
>abandoning low density rural areas to move to the cities. And why would
>cities be formed ever if cities are so undesirable? No one puts a gun to
>other people to make them move to cities.
>
>There are somethings that the cities provide that rural areas and the
>suburbs can't.

That preference varies completely with the individual.  There isn't any
one thing that "most" people like.  You can point to aspects in favor of
cities large and small or rural areas.

Some people prefer high density for some specific aspects such as higher
services, specific social atmosphere or whatever.  Others prefer lower-density
urban.  Some prefer rural areas.  Some don't want the nearest neighbor any
less than a mile away.  California has got them all.

I'm sure that last group is hard to picture if you're from big urban areas.
Some people just want space around them.  And if you saw the scenery some
of these people live in, you'd probably understand even though you still
wouldn't choose to live there yourself.  I think where you prefer to live
is usually influenced by where you grew up.

I know people who can only stand to live in dense cities like San Francisco.
San Jose is just to much suburbia for them.  (i.e. businesses close way too
early in the evening.)  Not surprisingly, most of them that I know come from
New York City or London.

I know others (and this category includes myself) where San Jose was already
about as big a city as they could stand even before the Internet boom began.
But the density is offset by the culture.  The tech-oriented culture is the
attraction that brings many engineers and geeks here.  Recently, I've met
techies who came here because it was their dream to live in Silicon Valley.
(You know, similar to lots of people who have gone to Los Angeles dreaming
to be at the center of the entertainment industry.  California seems to keep
finding new ways to inspire those kinds of dreams.)

Still, I know others who came to Silicon Valley from other states just for
the jobs and are discontent with the housing costs and transportation hassle.
I've heard folks in this category tell me of their intentions to bolt from
California as soon as they can find as good a job elsewhere.  If you hear
this from a friend, all you can do is wish them well and respect their right
to pursue their goals.

In college I knew some people from Susanville in the rural northeastern
desert of California.  I'm sure many people from the Bay Area or Los Angeles
have driven through the town and wondered why people would want to live
there.  But I heard people from up there wonder how people can live in
big cities because it's so crowded.  It would be Hell on Earth for them
because that's not what they're used to.

OK, enough examples...  The point is that different people have different
preferences of where to live.  For nearly every scale of residential density
available in California, you can easily find people who prefer that.