I think the marketing for the suburbs is better. The BIGGER NUMBER is a very powerful tool in the human mind and they achieve this via the MORE SPACE argument. You see this in marketing almost any and all products, even products where it doesn’t make sense like mouse dpi BIGGER NUMBER = BETTER which isn’t even strictly true.
Communists are bad at marketing because many despise its very existence but it is one of the most important things we need to be good at. The capitalists on the other hand love marketing and the capitalist profit system incentivises putting more resources into it than anything else which feeds back into how their extremely strong marketing skills have successfully harmed communist movements so many times.
Downsides of the soviet blocks:
- Loud neighbors, the ones above you who dont give a fuck
- Loud streets - fuck cars
- Sterile greenery, with 200 eyes on you
- Only 1 power outlet in each room
- Waking up 3 o clock because some kids think its cool to turn their bluetooth speaker up to 100%
Source: Me, living the last 6 years in one
tbf, most of those are issues with apartments in general
Construction techniques have improved a lot. I know some people who live in newly built apartments and when the windows are closed you hear basically nothing. Not the neighbors, not traffic, only what happens within your walls. Thermal isolation, heating, cooling is also on point.
Upsides of the Soviet blocks:
Lots of greenery around, close access to surrounding nature. So many trees, birds, parks, walking lanes and trails
All services close by, no need to use a car
Great public transport
Communal sauna and storage
Very quiet compared to newer apartment buildings, thick concrete walls
No heating bill thanks to district heating
No separate water bill
Large balcony for plants
Lots of space compared to newer buildings
Communal grill
Playground for kids on every yard
Closest store under 5 minutes by foot
Closest healthcare center, gym, library, schools within less than 10 minutes walking distance
Closest bus stop a few hundred meters away
Reasonable rent
Community, possible to arrange communal activities like gardening
Source: Me, having lived in various nordic socdem country versions since childhood, latest building about 15 years in total.
Soviet commieblocks have poor construction quality because they needed to pump these out as fast as possible. I’ve never heard anyone living in an actual commieblock saying that they have thick walls but I’ve always heard the opposite.
Designs were improved as time went on and modern Russian equivalents have good quality.
The units we have are mostly from the 70s, they do have thick concrete structures. The early one in USSR were understandably a quick solution to a housing problem and therefore not instantly great, but they came a long way pretty fast at least here.
And sure, I can hear the kids downstairs sometimes, or a neighbour playing the piano or a dog barking. It’s an apartment building with other people in it, there’s going to be some sounds of life. Personally don’t mind.
IF you have these nice communal things around you! BIG IF. our block is more a dumping ground for the poor. There are NO communal activities offered, only if you count meeting in the parking lot …
No heating no water bill? Where are you living sound like utopia. But im living only on earth fuck.
Large balcony, thick concrete and lots of space???
you are describing luxury flats, this has nothing todo with reality in commi bunkers most places
Pictured example:
These are all issues in the suburbs… Or just living anywhere close to civilisation
but in the suburbs, you get the freedom of dying when the popsicle stick construction style home you’re in finally collapses after an extreme weather event and the monthy energy bills for living in your own detatched box of tissue paper in the middle of a quarter acre of crab grass.
Loud neighbors, the ones above you who dont give a fuck
I feel like you trade this for the constant drone of lawnmowers and angle grinders in the burbs. Like not even for building the other houses, just somebody in a suburb seemingly always needs to cut stone
That and the affordable suitcase sized party speakers outside.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
