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Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

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Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#141

Post by jedmeyers »

xenadu02 wrote: post #113

Very few people bother to vote in non-presidential elections. I keep hammering this point to anyone I meet in the startup scene here in SF. If just 1% of you reading this right now (who live in SF) bothered to vote on a pro-housing basis, we'd immediately turn into a huge voting bloc that could not be ignored. You should shame your coworkers and remind people in slack channels too. A few thousand NIMBYs currently con…

>You don't need a California drivers license. You don't need to have lived here for a year. You just have to have the intention to make California your current home (eg not a tourist).

No, you also have to be a US citizen, which a lot of newcomers to the Bay Area are not.

ELECTIONS CODE SECTION 2100-2124

2101. (a) A person entitled to register to vote shall be a United States citizen, a resident of California, not imprisoned or on parole for the conviction of a felony, and at least 18 years of age at the time of the next election.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#142

Post by archagon »

rconti wrote: post #136
archagon wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any argument that boils down to "grandma should move to make room for the techies" lacks perspective and will never gain any political traction. Moving is not just something you "do" after building a life somewhere for 40 years.

Any argument that boils down to "this other argument lacks perspective" presumes that there is a preferably alternative without all kinds of unintended consequences. We're seeing the unintended consequences of one alternative. Of course, we haven't tested all of the possible universes yet.

My point is that changing the deeply-entrenched status quo is not a matter of looking at a spreadsheet and picking the "best" option. The consequences of the alternative have to be preferable over the consequences of the status quo to the voter base. No amount of rabble-rousing will make people vote against their own best interests.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#143

Post by jbooth »

pjlegato wrote: post #62
pj_mukh wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's gotta be a way to economically make a lack of density untenable. Urban sprawl is a threat to the environment, we talk about charging a tax on Carbon, what about on Urban Sprawl? P.S: Not saying a carbon tax is the best idea, but urban sprawl (like carbon emissions) have a negative impact on the environment but zero impact on maximizing capital gains. They two must be tied somehow.

There are lots of ways. Extremely high gasoline taxes seem to be popular in Europe. When driving costs $10 or $12 a gallon instead of $2 or 3, people want to drive a lot less. High property values also work, as in Europe. In a relatively small European country, there is just a lot less land supply, so it costs a lot and people tend to build much more densely. By contrast the US is huge and has an enormous amount of v…

Bit of a mischaracterization there comparing turn of the century tenements to high rise apartment buildings.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#144

Post by guyzero »

guyzero wrote: post #129
ChuckMcM wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW that is the wrong question. People are opposed to change. So Sunnyvale has been building a number of apartment buildings and condos around. There has been tremendous back pressure for existing residents (not me but I'm a rarity it seems). The root of their concern is that they don't want the neighborhood experience to change from what they know (or knew) to something they don't know. I talked to some folks who h…

Well as an actual Sunnyvale resident the fears are slightly more rational: cars on roads, kids in schools and no increase in infrastructure to go along with the thousands of new residents. Some of the buildings have less than one parking spot per apartment which in theory is supposed to help encourage people to use transit, in practice people fear it will lead to more street parking in adjacent residential neighbourh…

Not sure why I'm being downvoted - my personal opinion is that densification of Sunnyvale and the area in general is fine, but the opposition to it isn't completely irrational. Short of a nuclear bomb going off Sunnyvale is never going to turn into Manhattan or even Staten Island.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#145

Post by gozur88 »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #40
Animats wrote: post #3

That's been called the "jobs-housing imbalance" since the 1980s.

It is was only housing! But it's infrastructure, too. You need to put in extra sewage, electric, roads, schools &c to accommodate the rise in population, and that is going to be painful. With Proposition 13, how does a municipality raise funds for new schools or a sewage plant expansion?

Typically through Mello-Roos districts. It's pretty common for residents of newer developments to have an additional line item on their property tax bills. This is to service bonds that were taken out for things like new roads, schools, water, and sewage. Mello-Roos districts are pretty popular with existing residents, since they don't have to pay for new infrastructure to accommodate new residents.

From the wiki page:

>Many communities requiring new schools or other public infrastructure such as public parks and roads impose Mello-Roos taxes as an alternative to (or in addition to) impact fees paid directly by real estate developers. While real property taxes are generally levied as a percentage of the assessed value of the parcel, a Mello-Roos tax is levied independent of assessed property value (a parcel tax), and is not subject to Proposition 13 property tax rate limitations.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#146

Post by anarazel »

ryfm wrote: post #116
Johnny555 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I lived in a high-rise, I chose one that had quality construction with decent soundproofing between units. I rarely hear neighbors in any direction (above, below or to either side). Unless you're a prisoner (or someone else is paying for your housing because you can't afford it), you can always choose quality of construction -- it may not be where you want to live, or might be more than you want to pay, but it's…

I yet to see in the US/Canada something built differently from this https://imgur.com/usO1i9r and if we're talking about a real highrise then good luck trying to change a door or window frames there to soundproof ones. Anyways i'm not trying to convince anyone, but after more than 30 years spent in different types of appartments i'm pretty happy in my own house.

I live in a relatively new apartment building in SF; and it's fairly well isolated (against sound). I've heard people from above my floor once, and just barely; it sounded like they were moving heavy furniture, i.e. not something you do regularly. If I play music in my apartment I can barely hear it standing directly in front of my apartment's door. They're constructing a bunch more additional buildings nearby, and some of them are the wood style you reference, and others look more solid.

FWIW, even with a mostly wood based construction, you can still insulate well. It just takes the desire to do so.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#148

Post by jseliger »

forgottenpass wrote: post #138
baron816 wrote: post #9

Why are people so adamantly opposed to density? Well, I know the reason is to prop up the value of their homes, but if you think about places like New York, London, and Paris, that argument doesn't exactly hold. Those cities are incredibly dense and expensive, but people love living there enough to pay the high prices. People who can live anywhere choose to live there. I'm willing to bet that SV could triple its popu…

Why are people so fervently pro-density? Maybe the smart move is to find a sustainable way to maintain current levels, tell newcomers that maybe a different city is right for them, and focus on improving conditions for the people already living there. There's can be more to city's goals than neverending growth, right?

Why are people so fervently pro-density?

Assuming this is a serious question and not a troll, see Edward Glaeser's The Triumph of the City, and/or my own essay, "Do millennials have a future in Seattle? Do millennials have a future in any superstar cities?" (https://jakeseliger.com/2015/09/24/do-millennials-have-a-fut...).

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#149

Post by shostack »

hkmurakami wrote: post #70

Similar forces in effect for school districts. I remember Cupertino being against additional medium density development because of concern over overcrowding of schools. Given that background I'm modestly surprised that the new Vallco redevelopment got approved.

Sunnyvale is likewise overcrowded and parents are PISSED [1]. Can't say I blame them--if you drop a massive amount of money to get into a neighborhood with the school being a large driver of that, only to be told "sorry, we're overcrowded and you're kid is going to go to this school that is known to be significantly worse" I know I'd be livid and consider whatever means necessary to fix it.

While SF's random lottery system certainly has its issues, it does actually solve for some of these problems.

[1] http://www.mercurynews.com/sunnyvale/ci_26825651/sunnyvale-s...

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#150

Post by sokoloff »

hx87 wrote: post #46
joss82 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean a RV? First serious question: how do you manage your social life?

I don't live in an RV, but ~0% of my social life takes place at home. I just sleep there.

Suppose you want to bring a date home and have sex. What's been the typical reaction to the "van down by the river"?
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