I mean, I live in a nice apartment and I still don’t enjoy density, living in the city with kids sucks in many ways. Im not sure I would enjoy suburbia that much more, especially if it means taking a hit on expenses. When I buy a house, I don’t want neighbours in spitting distance of me, which is why I will be looking something outside of the city, ideally without a neighbour within 500, if not 1000m of my house.

How does he think that animals live???

Walking 12 miles would be a lot less tiring once you are used to it. I remember it took me 2 weeks to feel normal again when I started biking to work. Plus walking more throughout our days is going to keep us healthier.

The walking is a non issue after a few weeks, you won't even realize. I can't remember the last weekday I didn't get under 10k steps without doing any non essential walking. You'll be much healthier for it.

It's not all of Japan that's like that. I live in rural Japan. It's a 50 minute walk to the nearest train station, the trains frequently don't run on time and are sometimes cancelled for parts of or whole days.

In dense Tokyo, people constantly have to deal with thin walls and petty neighbors. Concrete buildings come at a premium. Frequently, cigarette smoke coming in from windows or range hoods is an issue. There's definitely a lot given up with people getting constant shit from neighbors because their kids have the audacity to move and make noises kids make.

It's not all roses here. I definitely would urge anyone to try living in Japan for a while before actually writing about it.

Edit to add: love hotels are a thing in part because of how thin walls are in apartments. Central heat/AC is mostly not a thing here, if you're used to that. Clothes dryers are also not generally used outside of particularly cold/rainy areas. Housing is cheap in part because land may appreciate but houses/flats are not investments that will sell for more than you paid later; most things are still built to last about 30-40 years before the next generation will take them, gut them (or knock them down in the case of houses), and rebuild.

Edit2: forgot another gripe: technically/legally, most verandas/balconies are public space (as they are parts of fire escape routes) and you're not allowed to put anything like plants or furniture there. It varies based on building type and isn't super enforced (I grew a lot of plants when I lived in an apartment, but it was only me who would be negatively impacted if I needed to escape via my veranda).

Instead somehow “satisfying demand” will fix things alone.

Even this phrasing is borrowed economic lingo which only further reinforces that they have a blind spot in exactly the area you're indicating.

I think this is mostly due to historical issues in North America then anything fundamental about density (I.e. driving white people out of the cities and into the surburbs through various incentives and disincentives, then marginalising those that remain). But you're right, those issues cast a long shadow and need to be addressed as well. And I'm all for more public housing, mixed-use development, and green space. Which should be easier to do if there are less single family dwellings taking up precious space, but does require government will.

Which is fine, as long as you don't move to a city and then pull the ladder up after you by blocking housing for others.

I moved from a small town to a large city and the cost of goods and services is almost doubled what it still is in the town I moved out of. There is more selection, sure; but it sure as hell doesn't seem competitive when the 2 plumbers in the small town are still more affordable than any of the hundred or so in the city.

As an actual handyman, I had to charge city centers much more. Road "calming" has created so much congestion I simply can't reach as many customers I used to. It started getting absurd; I had the business, but I couldn't reach the customers. I tried scheduling days for different sections, but often I'm called for an emergency.

I stopped that business last year. I felt bad charging so much, customers had sticker shock, and nobody in city traffic planning would listen. It was thankless.

That reminds me of a laugh that I had while attending (on Zoom) a local government hearing about a proposed 3 1/2-story development. The neighbors were positively unhinged in their opposition. One of them claimed that it was out of character for the neighborhood because there was not even one building taller than 2 stories on the street between there and downtown. I had to laugh, because I was sitting in my apartment on that street; out the west window I could see the house immediately adjacent was 3 stories. Out the north window, I was looking at a 3-story condo complex. (And there was the 3-story high school just down the block.)

But all of those things had been there for years, so they didn't even see 3+ stories (anymore).

Americans’ problems with density can be summed up by: shit construction with hollow walls, neoliberal financialization and shit infrastructure.

So basically all political issues, and nothing to do with density. But the ideology of antisocial subarbanism is still very strong, so people are a bit incapable of actually understanding the material reality of the situation and just reduce it to urban = bad.