this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Fuck Cars

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 12 minutes ago

What are all those stupid shapes, and why does it look like there about 3 feet between each one?

[–] GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world 12 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The best part about this is that this will give blackrock more homes to purchase with cash to the rent out to people at ridiculous prices. /s

Sorry, I've become way to cynical these days about virtually everything, I need to go touch grass.

[–] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

We need to go touch pitchforks.

[–] Krik@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

Why building something on it instead of converting it into a park? People love green stuff, you know.

[–] biggerbogboy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

People love green stuff, you know.

Exactly, this is why we should legalise weed!

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 13 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Why does it need to be a dedicated park? They're not proposing getting rid of all the green stuff. Even better than having green stuff some distance away is living in the middle of the green stuff.

@FooBarrington @Krik
Close the asphalt streets. Rip them up and plant trees and grass. A 9 foot wide pathway for pedestrians and bicycles in the middle. Subways and streetcars to transport people from one green belt to the next one road with access for emergency vehicles, public service vehicles and deliveries circling every 9 square blocks.

[–] index@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Why building something on it instead of converting it into a park?

Because rich people need money to build a bigger golf course somewhere else

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 1 points 45 minutes ago

because poor people are already living on the golf course and would really appreciate roofs

[–] stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

but then where should the rich people go golfing?

[–] mouserat@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 5 hours ago
[–] stormeuh@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago
[–] Sylence@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

Not sure how it works in the US but here in Oz (where water scarcity is always present in our collective psyche) golf courses are usually placed on flood plains where it would be dangerous/too expensive to build housing. In addition most allow people to walk through them and many even allow dog walkers so they have quite a lot of public amenity.

I would still prefer if they were just designated as public parks rather than having huge swathes of grass that needed frequent watering, but they're not nearly as bad as most make them out to be.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Public golf courses are one of the best things about Oz. They provide a forest island for birds and mammals among the suburbs. Many golf courses have large swathes of natural bushland around them. They are often run by the local council, and are hence not for profit, and generally they are very cheap to play.

They make most of their money via selling beer and expensive golf clubs.

Turn them over to property developers, and they'll pave it with cheaply built single dwelling houses and flog them for way too much money resulting in just more urban desert and padded the obese wallets of billionaires.

That's if they are even build able. Some areas on floodplains and marshes that serve as a local soak for stormwater, hence the water hazards. Some are built on landfills that contain mu icipal waste or even asbestos, hence you can't risk putting houses on them where someone might dig up the asbestos or waste. Turning them into a revenue-generating forest parkland is one of the few good things you can do with that land.

The revenue earned by the golf course that is used to offset local parks and recs costs would otherwise be gained by taxing the local residents through land rates.

I used to hate on them a lot before I learned that the economics of public courses is way different to that of private ones. There are still some private courses, and I wouldn't be opposed to these being taken back into public hands and/or converted into affordable housing. To the gallows with the greedy exclusive fucktillionaires.

[–] doktormerlin@feddit.org 6 points 5 hours ago

In Germany most courses only have a few public walkways and if you leave them security will escort you right out

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 19 points 7 hours ago

Yeah, here in the US, golf courses can be extremely wasteful. There's two golf courses on my drive into the city, one is on a river floodplain, the other is a HOA golf course full of sprinklers that could absolutely be more housing. If I go the other way, there's another HOA golf course that could be housing too. So, to start with, there's three golf courses in a 15km radius.

One of the HOA ones is exclusive access to the surrounding retirement community, the other HOA one doesn't have a fence or anything, but idk if they chase people off. The one on the floodplain you have to pay to access the grounds.

[–] FleetingTit@feddit.org 10 points 8 hours ago

Now add in mixed use zoning, and affordable housing units and this could be a winner

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

That area should hold about 400 people, not 40,000. The trees won't survive unless they can see the sky.

[–] LaminatedDenim@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

In the United States of America, the average lot size for a single-family home is 0.19 acres (which is equivalent to 8,176 square feet). This math means that around 5 average-sized single-family homes can fit into one acre of land.

(Source)

So even if we're talking regular single-family homes you can already build 800.

Many trees do very well in the shade, as long as their crowns get sun part of the day. Leave some room between buildings and you can easily build 4-6 stories tall and still have trees in between. You can easily fit 20 apartments per acre that way. That's about 3200 apartments. With 3 people per household that's close to 10k people.

I agree 40k is optimistic, but 400 is way pessimistic

[–] karpintero@lemmy.world 153 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Let's also get rid of golf courses in arid deserts in the midst of droughts

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 131 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

You had me at "Let’s get rid of golf courses"

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 45 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (3 children)

This is a municipal course as well, so Seattle could literally do this. The city government doesn't want to.

This heavily neglected sidewalk, next to the fenced off golf course, alongside a high speed and very busy highway onramp just 2 blocks from a light rail stop, tells you just how much the city cares about the area.

There is no excuse not to cleanup and widen this sidewalk except apathy and malaise from the city.

[–] The_Caretaker@urbanists.social 5 points 11 hours ago

@mosiacmango @PugJesus
My wire cutters, pipe cutters and bolt cutters are cheaper than your fence.

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[–] urata@lemmy.world 32 points 12 hours ago

I work at a golf course and I'd rather be doing something meaningful like building homes so this post speaks to me directly.

Unfortunately the big thing lately is we've been dropping a bunch of trees.

[–] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 80 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

You're probably not going to save 95% of the trees given the major earthworks likely needed for managing sewage, stormwater, and other utilities. You'll probably save most of them, though.

40k looks pretty optimistic for the size and number of buildings, too.

[–] index@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

I don't know if it's the same in USA but with all these new regulations building houses these days is an environmental disaster

[–] Sergio@slrpnk.net 11 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

probably not going to save 95% of the trees

I was wondering that too... maybe they meant: plant new trees, and the total number of new trees would be 95% of the number of old trees?

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 26 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I’m guessing they’re just not aware of construction impacts on trees. It’s not something most people think about.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 21 points 11 hours ago

I supposed they meant "And this amount of space is still available for greenery" rather than "These, specific, trees will be preserved"

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[–] odelik@lemmy.today 30 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

If you just repurpose for housing you just wind up with 40,000 people needing transit and overloading the system you're trying to promote.

We need to think beyond housing and towards having communities that largely provide the needs of the people living with them. Shops, offices, other non-office/shop jobs, and recreational activities need to be considered as well.

[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

The neat part is that businesses can be in the bottom couple of floors. Though often this doesn't seem to be done unless it's the CBD...

[–] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 32 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

BuT wHeRe WouLd i PaRk mY cAr?!?!!?

[–] rolling_resistance@lemmy.world 43 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

That's the neat part, you don't.

[–] CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works 26 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

car
car go
car go bye
cargo bike

[–] puppycat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 12 hours ago

if I saw this on a billboard/poster I'd have a new bike

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Truly the poet of our generation 🥲

[–] fnrir@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago
[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 3 points 11 hours ago

In the water hazard on the 14th hole.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 11 points 11 hours ago

Plus you can live in a pentagon! Just not the Pentagon.

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 8 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Most suburban streets are 50 feet wide, many suburban front yards are 50 feet deep. That's a wasted space 150 feet wide and however long the street is long. Think of how much housing could be built in that space if you tore up that road, and in its place put a pair of alleyways housing in the middle

[–] ChokingHazard@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I would argue closer to 30, unless you’re including all the easement and sidewalks?

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 1 points 38 minutes ago

I did some measuring on Google Earth and the distance from sidewalk (or on roads without a sidewalk from the road) to the front of houses in a major city nearish to me and found a few neighborhoods 50 feet to the house was about the standard. They also had 50 foot deep backyards!

[–] admin@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Good luck with the NIMBYs. Or NIMFYs now I guess?

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 1 points 37 minutes ago

Oh yeah it would never actually happen but a person can dream, right?

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 14 hours ago

When there's no more golf you'll know the rich fucks are gone.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 9 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Not for nothing, but this wouldn't fly in the USA. You'd need to replace most of those trees with roads.

Or better yet, reduce the number of housing units and keep the trees.

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[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

What if we just altered zoning laws so they don't restrict high-density residential buildings?

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[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 6 points 13 hours ago

But where would we play golf?

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