How great are the benefits of density? Economists studying cities routinely find that after controlling for other variables, workers in denser places earn higher wages and are more productive. Some studies suggest that doubling density raises productivity by around 6 percent while others peg the impact at up to 28 percent. — nytimes.com
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Yes, but does that outweigh the increased cost of living? In a place like New York it certainly does not.
i think that's subject to opinion, in my view it certainly does.
it seems like one of the points of the article, when discussing SF, is for cities to not discourage growth and continued densification, for that is what raises the housing costs. of course its easy to keep costs down in phoenix and atlanta when there is no limits to growth in the horizontal direction, but it's less sustainable and in this guy's argument also decreases productivity. i guess the question is how to produce higher densities in places without natural growth limits while keeping housing costs down at the same time.
at the same time there is also savings in transportation costs in higher density cities -in new york i don't own a car so don't pay car payments or insurance, but it's the density that allows for good public transportation for that to happen, and close distances that are easily traversed by bicycle.
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