A lot of the things we do on a daily or weekly basis have ways of doing them that can either be private or communal, some of these which we do not think to consider as having that characteristic.
For example, bathing in the Roman Empire used to be communal, but then Rome fell and citizens in the splinter countries began taking baths privately.
Receiving mail is another example. There are countries which don’t have mailboxes and everyone gets their mail at the post office in the PO boxes. It was the United States which pioneered the idea of the modern mail system, which is why we associate it as a private act.
There are activities as well which don’t have any history as jumping between one or the other that might benefit from it, for example I think towns might benefit if internet was free and freely accessible but only at the local library.
What’s a non-communal aspect of life you think should be communal?
Generally think private homes are a giant waste, both in terms of wasted physical space and energy lost due to poor insulation.
Living should be communal. No residential construction should hold less than eight housing units.
After you do this, you can consolidate a bunch of an amenities - washing machines, parking, central heating/AC, pools, gardens, outdoor grills, wet and dry bars, basements, rumpace rooms, home theaters.
It all gets so much nicer when it’s a communal living space.
Yeah, no. Apartment living sucks ass. I’d rather live in the suburbs. My neighbors are close but far. We can’t hear each other normally. It’s great.
Live in a nice apartment. Makes all the difference.
The suburbs are horrendous. Everything is five miles away, you’re in gridlock when school starts or lets out, and the only social activities are pay-to-play. Spent my childhood in the suburbs and it was miserable.
Lived in an apartment for ten years and I couldn’t hear a peak from my neighbors, because the walls were wide and padded. Moved into a townhouse with single-pane glass windows. Neighbor’s kids were practically in my living room until I upgraded to double-pane a few years later. Insulation is a total game changer.
Past that, anyone who lives in a neighborhood with teenagers will hear those teenagers. As soon as someone gets a motorbike with a cut-out muffler, everyone on the block knows what time they get home.
Where I live apartments are places that people try to leave. People who live in apartments are generally less well off and have problems with crime and anti-social behavior. There were 2 murders in 3 years where I lived. Moved back to my parent’s house and then was lucky enough to be able to buy a house.
It’s just not something that I would want to do again unless I was forced to.
There are apartment buildings in my city of Houston where the base units rent for north of $10k/mo. Housing is cheaper (relatively speaking) but you don’t get the kind of access or amenities that these spaces provide. If there are criminals in these units, its all white collar crime. Nobody is stealing catalytic converters to pay rent at the Riverway Plaza.
Live in a nice upscale spot and you’ll enjoy the apartment lifestyle. Live in a falling over money pit and you’ll hate home ownership.
The great thing about parents is that they’ve already paid off their mortgage (or near enough) that they financed on a property purchased decades beforehand. But the down payment on a house costs more (even in PPP adjusted dollars) than the whole unit would thirty years ago.
That’s not a rich-guy / poor-guy problem, its an old-guy / young-guy problem.
Most cities in the South stink. Our suburban school district is the best in the state. Very little crime. My house is the correct size thankfully. I can afford it.
10k/month for an apartment. Lol. That is a rich guy thing. My mortgage is $750/month.
I don’t like all the people everywhere anyway. Whatever floats your boat.
Amazingly my parents house and my house cost the same at purchase. $130kish. A lot of things fell into place for us to be able to buy a house. I did get lucky.
Aw hell naw. Tell me you’ve never been poor enough to have to use a shared washing machine or even a laundromat without telling me you never had to. Those things are absolutely disgusting.
I used to believe in dense housing in cities until I had two sets of psycho upstairs neighbours and no thanks, I want to be as far away from another human being as reasonably feasible at all times, nevermind not share a fucking pool with one.
Greetings from Sweden, here shared washing machines are really common and generally not disguisting at all.
There are also solutions to people behaving badly in apartment buildings. Unfortunate if nothing was done at yours, but it’s definitely not an impossible problem to solve.
Literally every college kid ever. Lots of apartments and dorms have laundramats. They save space within the units, you can do two or three loads at once, and when you’ve got one per floor its never really a problem except on the day after exams when everyone is cleaning up and shipping out at once.
In my experience, a little insulation goes a long way. A couple of extra inches of wall thickness transform shouting/cheering/screaming kids into faint muffles. Meanwhile, anyone that’s had to live in an HOA community knows the annoyance of getting a nasty-gram from a neighbor down the street who might as well have had her ears shoved up against your window in order to complain that you had a party.
Folks in the suburbs somehow manage to develop Superman hearing and still complain about everything. Folks in midtown townhomes experience night-and-day differences when they get double-panned glass. Nice apartments have thick walls (good for heating/cooling as well as sound-proofing) and let you enjoy your privacy as soon as you shut the door.
Some people like living in communal spaces and some, like me, loathe it. Seriously, fuck that. Maybe more and affordable complexes do need to be built, but it should never be the only option.
I’ve lived in shared housing. Never again. I’m way too introverted and can’t stand how poorly some people clean nor how badly the behave to others (loudness, using resources inconsiderately, etc.)
I’ll be social when I have the energy. I help out my neighbors when they need it. We do have community events about monthly where we cut grass, clean up, etc.
I’d rather put a bullet through my brain pan
That’s a nice idea, but how do we decide on who gets to live in the communal space?
Poor introverts in this scenario.
This is a wild take. There is value in privacy. There is value in quiet! There is value in space. Electricity efficiency isn’t the only important thing!