Image of the day: Crowding vs. density

We need a lot more floor space

Illustration by Alfred Twu of California YIMBY. Each building has five people living in it, but the building on the right has much more space for each person.

Gordon Price recounts how after the West End was densified during the 1960s high-rise boom, the number of dwellings had increased by something like 5X, but the population had only gone up by about 50% (from 20,000 in the 1950s to 30,000), because crowding decreased.

It’s natural to think that crowding and density are synonymous. But in fact adding density, i.e. a lot more homes and a lot more floor space, can help to reduce crowding.