Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

fastcompany.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 427 posts

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#111

Post by claudeganon »

novok wrote: post #103
claudeganon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the real estate is being used as a value store for people moving money from overseas, engaging in money laundering, or as a hedge against other bets. Once exchange value is given priority over use value in markets for things like housing, you run into all kinds of nonsensical arrangements and deleterious social consequences.

And that is why you need tax penalties such as long term unoccupied property taxes and non-resident investor taxes to counter incentivize such behavior.

I’m skeptical that taxes themselves can resolve the problem. The people who engage in these tactics are already quite good at gaming them. Housing would have to revert to circumstances like Japan, where homes are largely a depreciating asset.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#112

Post by pj_mukh »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #101
Spooky23 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory sure. In reality, the financial system is oriented towards big capital. My aunt ran a coffee shop that was established by grandparents in 1939. It was in the lobby of a office building in he central business district of our little city. The building was bought by a Chinese investor. Like other similar stores, her rent went up 5x and she shuttered. I live in a mixed use urban neighborhood. 50% of he storefro…

The problem is people want to call it "mixed zoning" but still have Karens on the central planning committee making stupid rules, e.g. they'll have "businesses" next to "residences" but a given plot will be explicitly designated as one or the other. What you really want is the small businesses which start off being operated out of the proprietor's residence. A hair salon in a converted living room, a restaurant servi…

“Karen’s on the central planning committee”

cries in San Francisco

So apt.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#113

Post by earthboundkid »

bezmenov wrote: post #48
rland wrote: post #3

When I visited Japan, I went to an izakaya with room for maybe 9 people in it, it was smaller than my living room at home. I was hungry and I saw the sign lighting the alley about 40 yards off the main road. I was thinking at the time, if I lived in that area, you bet I'd be there a couple times a week to talk to my neighbors. I wanted to ask those inside if they were all neighbors, because they seemed to know each o…

The worst part of visiting Japan is it spoils your enjoyment of every other destination thereafter.

Lol, can’t talk about the NY subway with my New Yorker wife. “I mean, I guess if you consider it compared to the rest of the US, it’s a good system…”

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#115

Post by bobthepanda »

enchiridion wrote: post #109
TheAdamist wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are big enough theres some weird accounting incentive to keep it vacant. You can keep claiming it as an asset that brings in 10x dollars, even though your cash flow is 0x, so actually renting for 8x really hurts your asset value or some nonsense that im probably getting the details wrong about.

Right, which is why commercial lending is a farce in my opinion. It's more or less built on wishful thinking of future gains, leading to a lot of vacancy.

At least in residential lending the problem is that the FHA has specific rules on what it will and will not guarantee, distorting the market in favor of mostly single-use residential.

Really we should pull that and the mortgage deduction, because at this point both distort the market in favor of people who can afford to own property.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#116

Post by jrd259 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #30
madamelic wrote: post #2

Mixed use zoning is just about the best case situation for everyone. - Less reliance on cars, which results in less parking, which results in less traffic... it becomes self-perpetuating. - Better walkability - Knowing your corner store clerk or at least having a rapport with them - Healthier citizens, due to them walking everywhere (Go to NYC and see how few overweight people you see... not many unless they're touri…

In theory sure. In reality, the financial system is oriented towards big capital. My aunt ran a coffee shop that was established by grandparents in 1939. It was in the lobby of a office building in he central business district of our little city. The building was bought by a Chinese investor. Like other similar stores, her rent went up 5x and she shuttered. I live in a mixed use urban neighborhood. 50% of he storefro…

It's not obvious why you have to call out the nationality of the investor.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#117

Post by throw737 »

frank2 wrote: post #37
throw737 wrote: post #4

I have liquer store under my windows, it is open 24 hours and has outside benches. Basically loud nonstop pub with many junkies. I am going to move soon to get better sleep

Is this in the US or some other country?

Hungary

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#118

Post by momokoko »

aahhahahaaa wrote: post #13

How did we slip away so far from this being fairly obvious? Cities have worked well this way for hundreds of years. Maybe the industrial revolution made cities too unpleasant? Were we too spoiled by the automobile industry and government roads? White flight from cities into the suburbs?

Because if you moved to a new town you were in a different school district.

The great migration to the suburbs happened right after schools were desegregated in the US.

White Americans moved to the suburbs to avoid their children from attending school with black children. Milliken v. Bradley was the last nail in the coffin.

The return to cities has coincided with white people having less children and children at older ages along with less racist views.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#119

Post by Causality1 »

I suppose this would work very well for people with a particular outlook. I'm not one of them. My neighborhood is a refuge from commerce; I don't want stores within earshot of my front door. I don't want people I don't know walking past my yard at night.

Re: Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods

#120

Post by refurb »

didip wrote: post #24
aahhahahaaa wrote: post #13

How did we slip away so far from this being fairly obvious? Cities have worked well this way for hundreds of years. Maybe the industrial revolution made cities too unpleasant? Were we too spoiled by the automobile industry and government roads? White flight from cities into the suburbs?

My first guess would be the car lobbyists doing. They are powerful enough to tear down so many street-car rails all over America.

Makes for a nice conspiracy theory but from what I’ve read many of them were going under and consumers wanted cars, not street cars.
Post reply on HN