Today is Tuesday and this is Apex Money! Today I’ve gathered a collection of stories related to our modern urban lives. I thought each of these was interesting. I hope you’ll like them too.
How much does it cost to live in New York City? [Curbed] — “The purpose of presenting these receipts isn’t to shock or horrify. But if they do shock or horrify, we hope facing them is at least better than wallowing in the ambient dread of not knowing. We hope it’s genuinely useful to younger New Yorkers wrestling with questions like, What would my family income have to be to support my vision of tomorrow?”
Imagine a renters’ Utopia. It might look like Vienna. [The New York Times Magazine gift article] — “The key difference is that Vienna prioritizes subsidizing construction, while the United States prioritizes subsidizing people, with things like housing vouchers. One model focuses on supply, the other on demand. Vienna’s choice illustrates a fundamental economic reality, which is that a large-enough supply of social housing offers a market alternative that improves housing for all.” [This is a long, interesting article about a complicated topic.]
How Tokyo became an anti-car paradise. [Heatmap] — “Since the advent of the automobile, architects and urban planners worldwide have found it almost impossible to resist building cities around roads and an assumption that most people will drive. Tokyo somehow managed not to. It rebuilt in a much more human-centric way.”
Lastly, here’s a video that explores a question that’s been bugging me for 10+ years: Why did kids stop walking to school?
I don’t have kids. The parents I know (which is nearly every person I know) have made it clear that this disqualifies me from speaking my mind about issues of child rearing. But I have opinions! I’m not a fan of today’s brand of hyper-involved parenting. I think it hurts more than it helps.
Anyhow, now that I’ve made a bunch of you cranky, I’ll bow out. The folks from Plutus will be here tomorrow with their batch of links. I’ll see you again on Thursday.