More construction is not going to solve this problem. The laws of supply and demand do not apply to American coastal real estate
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3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
21–30 of 56 posts
Re: 3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
#22More construction is not going to solve this problem. The laws of supply and demand do not apply to American coastal real estate
It sounded like this particular family was doing ok until the wife lost her job when she was on maternity leave (wouldn’t happen if maternity leave were actually protected), so they started illegally subletting, and then they got kicked out of their illegal sublet. Yeah it’s clear they basically had no savings at that time though, other than the car.
I read the article a few hours ago but I think I remember them saying like a quarter of the kids in the Salinas public school system were homeless? I agree that in general, people should be responsible about having children. But let’s be clear: a quarter of a city’s kids being homeless is indicative of a deep systemic problem. That’s not something that we should simply accept as natural because they are poor.
Of course, the big issue which they touch on briefly is that the whole “affordable/subsidized housing” crap is not even close to reaching the scale it needs to be at to address the problem. You can’t solve a housing shortage by selling $10 for $3 to a couple thousand people.
Re: 3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
CA's local governments have basically reached crippling levels of stupidity. I live in Mountain View, the home town of Google, but every city around here has made building so difficult, that it barely happens. What we do build are expansive planned "communities", where a developer managed to navigate the web of red tape and got it approved, and the amount of red tape involved is so huge that it's not worth trying to…
These governments aren’t stupid; they’re correctly representing the interests of the majority of their voters who a) are homeowners and b) strongly prefer suburbia. Renters and people who appreciate density need to show up if we’re going to counteract that.
If renters and those who appreciate density are never close to the majority of constituents, how does showing up help?
Re: 3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
#24Just like mass murders, these stories seem to be popping up everywhere in the US. I find it hard to understand how a country can be so good in some ways, but so terrible in others. Is it just because the successful truly extract all their wealth from the more unfortunate?
Welcome to the US. How else do you think we have such a massive income disparity ? We’re a wealthy country but the wealth is in very few hands.
compared to what? Any contiguous plot of 350 million people in the world has similar disparity.
Re: 3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
CA's local governments have basically reached crippling levels of stupidity. I live in Mountain View, the home town of Google, but every city around here has made building so difficult, that it barely happens. What we do build are expansive planned "communities", where a developer managed to navigate the web of red tape and got it approved, and the amount of red tape involved is so huge that it's not worth trying to…
> We've now banned natural gas Wait, really? Just for heat or also in the kitchen? Electric stove tops fucking suck. Ugh.
Yes, natural gas is being banned. California has gone crazy.
Inductive cooktops are pretty good - I’ve grown to prefer it over gas.
Re: 3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We've now banned natural gas Wait, really? Just for heat or also in the kitchen? Electric stove tops fucking suck. Ugh.
Yes, natural gas is being banned. California has gone crazy. Inductive cooktops are pretty good - I’ve grown to prefer it over gas.
Induction cooktops are fantastic. Wish it was possible to find them in rental housing instead of gas!
Re: 3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone wanna move to California City? If enough of us do it at once we can jumpstart the growth cycle.
I always figured with modern technology we don't need to have all of the federal government in the DC/VA area. I'd scatter each department to a different rust-belt or similarly hollowed-out city, creating a permanent economic base and allowing redevelopment to jump start.
That's my argument for internet everywhere to. You physically can't have work from home employees if, in 2019, they have to pick between 3Mbps or a 25GB data cap.
And if more people worked remotely, stress on large cities is reduced.
I actually liked the concept of wework -- a shared office to work in that is not at home -- to bad there was serious issues with the company. With enough places like this, you can still move people out of cities.
Re: 3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
#28Just like mass murders, these stories seem to be popping up everywhere in the US. I find it hard to understand how a country can be so good in some ways, but so terrible in others. Is it just because the successful truly extract all their wealth from the more unfortunate?
In order to make the large dollars (middle income wise) you need good training or education (or experience, but that doesn't typically apply for So the typical employment force has their education benefit offset by the cost of living increase, putting them in just as bad a situation as living in the middle of no where making low wages (or perhaps worse, since they went into debt for training).
Meanwhile, if your in the top 10% -- a business owner or top management -- most of this doesn't matter because you make enough to take $15/trip HOV Lanes, or buy a $800,000+ home easily. So you want to keep your business near top talent (i.e. cities) but are less impacted by the situation you are encouraging by flocking the business to the city in the first place.
This is super complex, but just my quick-ish generalization... There are lots of factors.
Re: 3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We've now banned natural gas Wait, really? Just for heat or also in the kitchen? Electric stove tops fucking suck. Ugh.
Yes, natural gas is being banned. California has gone crazy. Inductive cooktops are pretty good - I’ve grown to prefer it over gas.
Natural gas is a greenhouse gas, and contributes to climate change when leaking out of the distribution network or burned in your home. Not crazy at all to ban it.
Remember when doctors used to smoke during your exam? That’s how future generations are going to look back at our fossil fuel use.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/11/10/climate-chang...
Re: 3 Kids. 2 paychecks. No home
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, natural gas is being banned. California has gone crazy. Inductive cooktops are pretty good - I’ve grown to prefer it over gas.
Induction cooktops are fantastic. Wish it was possible to find them in rental housing instead of gas!
As someone who loves to cook and much prefers gas I’m genuinely curious about why you and parent like inductive so much?
One neat thing at my girlfriend’s place was that there was an inductive circle with two possible diameters of heat which seems neat for a gigantic stock pot.
But switching quickly between heats seems like it’d require you to have two “burners” going at once.
At the end of the day I’m not sure if it’d really affect my cooking which I love to do but probably isn’t three Michelin stars or anything, but it’s the first I’ve heard of a preference for electric.