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One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

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Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#261

Post by dpark »

davidw wrote: post #260
dpark wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Fairly dense" is all you need to vastly improve things in many places. Look at vast swaths of the bay area that are single story detached houses. Mix in some 2/3 story buildings in there, and you'd add a lot of supply without going 'full Hong Kong'. Ok, but I still don't buy your argument. Seattle has a density similar to Rome. San Francisco has a density similar to Milan. Why is Italy cheaper with good public tra…

Sure, in part Italy is cheaper due to the economy, but it's also because you can build outside of the historic areas to meet demand. And there's decent public transportation. I just don't see any relationship between decent public transportation and things being affordable or not. It's much more closely tied to density: without density, public transportation doesn't work as well.

I think I've just been misunderstanding your point. From your original comment, I thought you were saying that density was responsible for both good transit and affordable housing in Italy. I totally agree that you need density for decent public transit.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#262

Post by andrewfree »

techchick85 wrote: post #112
davidw wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please do come to Bend (although not all at once - at 80K, it's not big enough to absorb that many people at one time). But bring your anti-NIMBY hat! It's time the US grew up a little bit and realized that moving to "the next place" and repeating the same patterns that made the first place too expensive isn't going to work.

Yay! Bend is gorgeous, I'm from Portland, Oregon and at least it's still affordable. Great food, music, housing, nature, etc.

Yea it's pretty terrible here, hate it.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#263

Post by bashinator »

davidw wrote: post #184
muzz wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What technology are you referring to?

At the extreme, these things can hold a lot of people without too much land: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyscraper But you don't really need those in most places. Simply building 'in' more and up 2/3/4 stories would add a ton of housing in much of the bay area.

They also do best in areas where there is a large amount of bedrock close to the surface. NYC is geologically blessed in this regard. The Bay Area has far less geologically stable ground to build on, and a lot of what there is makes up our gorgeous parks and nature preserves.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#264

Post by bashinator »

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #144
windlep wrote: post #5

I'm sure the fact that there's an increasing trend of empty Chinese investment properties isn't helping. I grew up in Cupertino, and when I visit my parents there, I'm rather shocked at how downhill the neighborhood has gone in parts. It's crazy that these old 70's tract homes go for 1.5 million. Even more insane is that they're bought and then left empty to go downhill. Literally broken windows and paint falling off…

>empty Chinese investment properties It's like this all over North America. Not just the west coast. I lived in a chinese-built condominium in Toronto a few years ago, and the rumor was that 50% or more of the building's units were owned by absentee landlords. Which made sense, because almost the entire building was seemingly vacant. Hardly any lights on at night. No furniture on most of the balconies. Never had to w…

Why aren't more people squatting in these? My understanding is that if you can maintain "tenancy" for 30-60 days(?) you gain all sorts of rights.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#265

Post by gwright »

dpark wrote: post #157
tyingq wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> the bigotry of the Texan people A somewhat interesting counterpoint: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/28/the-m...

I seriously question the validity of that study. Racism has many forms and targets. You can't capture an objective measure of racism by looking purely at trends for the "n-word". You're capturing the researchers' bias as much as the subjects' racism. A foreign exchange student from Germany once remarked to me how she found it so odd that white and black students largely segregated themselves in the cafeteria (this wa…

> plenty of Germans are racist against other populations, especially Muslims

I don't mean to pick on you in particular, but your comment is an example of a pattern I've noticed over the last few years that results in confusion more than clarity -- using the term 'racism' outside of the context of 'race'.

In most cases, I think 'prejudiced' or 'bigoted' is probably a more accurate label when you are talking about irrationally negative attitudes towards religious, political, cultural or national groups.

Not all negative attitudes are necessarily prejudiced or bigoted. Religion and politics exist in the realm of ideas -- one person's 'bigotry' can be another person's rationality and of course reasonable people can agree to disagree without there being any prejudice or bigotry involved.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#266

Post by pessimizer »

I'm pretty sure that the tech kids didn't plan to stay there for more than a few years anyway. They're making big salaries, but the rent is so high that they can't save any money. What they can do is drag that fancy resume back to the Indiana suburb they came from, and buy a nice house with a 20 minute commute to the industrial park that they work in. Or a nice condo in downtown Boise, a five-minute bike ride from their CTO job at some newspaper, or the gas company.

Not necessarily a bad outcome...

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#267

Post by cpitman »

brianmcconnell wrote: post #95
windlep wrote: post #5

I'm sure the fact that there's an increasing trend of empty Chinese investment properties isn't helping. I grew up in Cupertino, and when I visit my parents there, I'm rather shocked at how downhill the neighborhood has gone in parts. It's crazy that these old 70's tract homes go for 1.5 million. Even more insane is that they're bought and then left empty to go downhill. Literally broken windows and paint falling off…

Two doors from my house is a deluxe 3 unit condo building that has been uninhabited for years. Not once have I seen any evidence of anyone living there. The units went for little under $2 million apiece. It makes me wonder what will happen if/when China has a financial crisis and people start trying to liquidate their offshore piggy banks.

Exactly! If this is indeed a major factor, could we see the SF housing market nose-dive if/when the Chinese market does at the same time? Or if/when better investment vehicles become available to them domestically?

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#268

Post by liquidise »

Balgair wrote: post #256
bkjelden wrote: post #163

I'm one of those in the 1/3rd, currently in the process of moving to the Denver/Boulder area. I knew on paper the housing would be cheaper, but what's stood out to me is how much less crowded it is: You can go to stores and find parking, and not wait 15 minutes at the cashier. You can go to restaurants and actually get a table. You can make unprotected left turns. Things are busy during rush hour, but outside of that…

Meh, I was raised in the Bay and Denver is no different anymore. Trying to get a table on Larimer Square or 16th is no different than SoMa now, 2+hour wait times if you can get that. The stores are just as crowded to me, but that may be my preference for shopping with the after church crowd (btw, Sunday drivers are so bad). On the left turns, I did live in LA for a bit, so yes, the drivers here are not as aggressive…

Huh? Active Denver resident for the past 6 years and i have never waited more than 30 minutes at a restaurant here. I work on the mentioned intersection and dine daily for lunch, with no wait regardless of my choice.

I struggle to even fathom how a 2 hour wait is possible here. Are you walking into places on Valentine's Day without reservations?

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#269

Post by vgeek »

tzakrajs wrote: post #86
thearn4 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: Cleveland as well. (... jokes on me, you were all going to keep away anyway)

My nana tells me Cleveland is up and coming and that I should move back home. But Cleveland is a city that will always be "up and coming". Perpetually fighting the reality that they are one of the most average cities of all time. I love Cleveland and I am glad I was raised there, but I can't come up with a convincing reason to go back.

Ohio as a whole is boring. Hardly any outdoor activities and the only scenery is corn. I guess if you like amusement parks, but besides that, it has to be one of the most generic/bland populated states.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#270

Post by xxpor »

bashinator wrote: post #263
davidw wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the extreme, these things can hold a lot of people without too much land: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyscraper But you don't really need those in most places. Simply building 'in' more and up 2/3/4 stories would add a ton of housing in much of the bay area.

They also do best in areas where there is a large amount of bedrock close to the surface. NYC is geologically blessed in this regard. The Bay Area has far less geologically stable ground to build on, and a lot of what there is makes up our gorgeous parks and nature preserves.

Chicago seems to do ok. I don't know what the ground is like in SF, but Chicago is basically a swamp.
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