Duplexes are civilizing

PawPaw told me to get a duplex for my first home, so I did. On a personal, practical level, it’s great for offsetting housing expenses. Being an amateur landlord can be a mixed bag.

Around my neighborhood, there are many multifamily buildings, and my fondness has grown for the different ways 2 and 4 units are styled and fit into a single residential building. I’ve also come to appreciate how this design adds to the urban fabric, more than simply increasing density.

I posit that putting families close together makes a neighborhood better for everyone else. It may be a little annoying to have a noisy neighbor above you, but if they’re noisy enough to diminish the quality of the rest of the street, you can bet they’ll hear about it first from the folks downstairs. Fights, abuse, other egregious illegal activity — sharing walls with another household is going to prevent you from getting away with that behavior for too long. It’s like a sort of buddy system, for community happiness.