I love it, and why doesn't every city do that.

Because of a pervasive meme that only the private sector should be doing this.

The US built huge projects just like this. I know most about chicago, we built a 15,000 person neighborhood in 1942 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrini%E2%80%93Green_Homes. It became one of the most lawless places in the country. Now it has been torn down. Same story happened 5 different times in this city alone, theyve all been torn down too. Not saying public housing cant work here, but it certainly didnt.

the problem here is building only public housing, and the way the US handles public housing. vienna doesn't build just public housing. seestadt in particular is not public housing. the city does the planning, and private developers compete for specific projects that they fund themselves. and they don't compete on cost but on design that makes for a livable city. so developers don't just get to build what they think makes them the most profit disregarding everything else. the city does contribute to the funding, but that happens with every development in the city anywhere because by city law 2/3rd of all new development must be subsidized with controlled rent. but that is still not public housing like in the US.

the failure of the US project is that it is segregating poor people. vienna doesn't do that. subsidized housing is mixed in. every building has some subsidized apartments among freely financed ones, and also, while you need to qualify by income to get a subsidized apartment, you are allowed to stay even if your income rises.

It's an awful place and pretty much all of us Viennese that don't live there make fun of it.

What's so bad about it other than it's obviously not the cool, centrally located district?

Well connected, long time residents who have access to flats in the inner city always feel superior to the people who move to the city after them, and have to live on the outskirts, that doesn't say much.

1. it‘s a concrete dessert

2. only every second U2 goes there

3. disregarding the doubled U2 wait times, it takes 40 minutes to get to Karlsplatz, 46 to Stephansplatz, 47 to the main train station, 53 to Westbahnhof, 54 to Landstrasse -those times get much worse if you don‘t live centrally in Seestadt. And those times are AWFUL for Vienna, anything over 30 minutes is awful.

4. The „See“ is actually a joke

5. if you live there, people won‘t want to visit you as it would take them over an hour to get home (unless you take a taxi or have a car)

6. is generally awful without a car -unless you live and work there, this is a big deal as you don‘t usually need a car in Vienna

Yes, it would be better if they built it closer to the inner city, but there's not that much space there anymore. Cities have to be polycentric if they want to scale. I'm sure a lot of people would be happy to live there even if the people from Vienna proper won't be able to come visit.

those travel times are still better than any other city in the world that i have lived in. i am originally from vienna, so i know what you mean, but you have to admit that vienna is privileged in that regard, and the only other option to creating places like this would be to either tear down a bunch of existing buildings and replace them with 20 floor highrises, or a massive demand on existing housing, driving rents up or to generally bar anyone from moving to the city. vienna grew by half a million people in the last 2-3 decades. and that growth is likely to continue. these people need to go somewhere.

as for the concrete desert, what are you asking for? isn't the inner city all asphalt and bricks too? there are parks. but seestadt has green spaces as well. according to the map it has even more than the inner city. but it's all new and it will take some time to feel comfortable and lived in. you have to start somewhere. i mean i get you, nobody wants a concrete desert, nor a concrete dessert for that matter. though the latter might make a good projectile to show your appreciation to the cook.

also how is the "see" a joke? it's water. sure it's not the "alte donau" but from the photos it looks no worse than the donauinsel.

my cousin waited for years to get an apartment in vienna, and they finally got one in the south. from the looks of where they ended up i think seestadt would have been a nicer option.

north east of the danube is the only space where vienna can expand. there is some space to the south of vienna too, but not as much. and probably living in the south would not feel any better.