10
votes
How socialists solved the housing crisis of Vienna after WW1 and how we can do it again
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- Title
- How Socialists Solved The Housing Crisis
- Authors
- The Gravel Institute
- Duration
- 9:00
- Published
- Jan 29 2021
A video on How the Social Democratic Party of Austria instituted massive social reforms to housing and massively improved the situation of Housing in Austria in the 1920s and 30s.
I personally have a 2 questions:
Austria was and is a medium-large city of around 2 million people. Would there be any big differences in doing this in a city of, say, 10 million other than just upping the numbers?
Would constructing all those homes which would cost a lot of resources be bad for climate change? Unrestricted industrial, infrastructure development was a good idea, maybe even an ideal in the past, but now that climate change is here, building more affordable homes seems a little risky, despite the obvious good that would come from that.
The climate impact of housing construction depends a lot on choice of building materials. Obviously building a bunch of concrete Khrushchyovka knockoffs would be worse than wooden midrises for example.
But honestly, either way, new construction, particularly under government auspices, is actually a fantastic way to fight climate change. What new complexes would likely be replacing (for their residents) are aged, single family houses in low density, car-centric suburbs. The efficiency gains from moving them in to newly constructed buildings with modern insulation and central climate control, situated in more walkable and transit oriented areas, are substantial.
America's 20th century car culture and its attendant infrastructure choices need to be dismantled if we're to have a hope of fighting climate change, and especially out west, this'll involve substantial redevelopment of all the post-war and post-interstate cities. The housing shortage and possible revival of large scale public housing projects represents an excellent opportunity for this redevelopment.