Munich Transit Documentary
September 16th, 2008
Munich Germany land use policy comparison with the United States. The cost of having the best transit-oriented city in the world.
Its been just over a year since I wrote an article and made a short documentary on our travels through Munich, Germany. This film has done very well on YouTube, it was later featured on the popular urban development website Planetizen. The video is again being featured on StrayCompass.com.
Since making the film, I've realized that one of my observations was probably a bit naive. Sure its great to have such a great public transportation system like Munich, its also great to have so little suburban sprawl. However, everything comes at a cost. I received one very interesting comment on the story, when it was posted on Planetizen. Which was the following:
Interesting story about munich. But one should never forget that munich somehow forgot to create new residential spaces during the last 30 year[s]. The result is that every year new students cannot find a place to live and have to stay in gymnasiums for weeks. At the same time, real estate prices are so high and offers so few that many people have to commute from far away cities every day.-FlipFlapFlower
Its wonderful how Munich has preserved so much land. And as a traveler I can appreciate that. But if I were living in the city with modest income I would rather have the option to live closer to the city with affordable housing than be forced to live far away but still have my green space. There needs to be a happy medium. Certainly sprawling development and paving over all open available land is very poor land-use policy. But its a dream-come-true to have a home with a yard with the ability to live close to a city. In Salt Lake City I've realized this dream and it would be elitist for me to say you must be at least as wealthy as me to realize the same dream.
Munich, Germany takes the cake when it comes to the best in a transit-centered city, but Western cities like Salt Lake City, still offer a higher standard of living in terms of realizing the dream of home ownership and affordable housing.
If you havn't alredy seen it
