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California population declines for first time in more than a century

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Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#111
post #18

Paradise on Earth and home to the world’s brightest-future industry; California could easily grow to 100M residents if it simply allowed housing to be built to accommodate all the people who want to live here. And it would be a net win for the climate, because most of them would be coming from much less eco-friendly places.

As a native Californian I would argue a place like Hawaii is much closer to paradise on earth.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#112
post #88
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

should the "democrats" have just let them fail? what would a different party have done? why did the party even matter?

Yes they should. Because the alternative is subsidizing the same bad behavior across the the entire nation and bankrupting our grandchildren before they’re even born.

How does letting those pensions go bankrupt help anything? If the funds go bankrupt, it isn't the executives who used financial shenanigans to bleed the funds dry that face consequences. It is the employees who had no role in the management of the pension funds that end up punished.

If you want to actually stop that bad behavior, we need to massively overhaul how we address whitecollar crime in this country so that bad actors face real consequences.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#114
post #25

I can only comment on the Bay area which has plenty of land and lots of entrenched vested interests. Take a town like Atherton which is full of billionaires like Marc Andreesen who talk about how they want builders etc... But they are allergic when it is in their tony neighborhood of the zillionaires. The hypocrisy of the NIMBYs at full display: https://a16z.com/2020/04/18/its-time-to-build/ https://en.wikipedia.org/…

Let's be fair. Andreesen is just one person out of 7000 living in Atherton, and he's made his own position clear. Other than that, there's no evidence that he is or isn't a NIMBY, so let's not jump to fast conclusions without more data.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but housing policy should focus on helping people at the bottom, which will eventually trickle up to the people at the top (where you are) Price control is an illusion and demand will outstrip supply for a long time But state-sponsored, ugly, tall affordable apartment blocks will save from misery those who need it the most (i.e. the homeless) and offer a surplus supply to perhaps not lower current prices…

The state can invest billions of dollars into affordable housing, and simultaneously allow private developers to invest billions of their own dollars to meet demand from people at the top. Impeding the latter does nothing to help the former.

Where do the extra billions come from?

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#116
post #71
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motive isn’t evidence. I haven’t seen any serious criticism of data collection methods. Just doubting results based on “stood to gain” is silly unless there’s actual evidence. In what world would there be a conspiracy to reduce california population by 200k?

Considering that is how congressional seats are apportioned, there is plenty of reason to fudge the numbers.

But again, motive alone is empty. There is "plenty of reason" for me to do all kinds of terrible things that I consider abhorrent and would never act on.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#117
The crazy thing to me is just how ugly urban areas of California are. All around the bay it is just strip mall after strip mall and post-war cheap single family homes. Other than property values, for the vast majority of the San Francisco Bay area - zoning restrictions solve absolutely nothing. Allowing mixed use zoning around the bay would make the Bay area a much nicer.

Likewise in Los Angeles, pretty much everything other than the beach cities and the hollywood hills are a complete eyesore and look like any random suburb on the west coast. Nothing of value would be lost if most parts of LA were demolished to build high rises.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#118
Born in CA, lived in CA my whole life (-1 year) until end of 2020 (last 30-1 in San Jose, working in tech the whole time). Now reside in semi-rural AZ (working remotely for the same tech co as before I left CA). I might visit CA eventually, but aside from those few family and friends still there, I've not found myself missing it at all.

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#119
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need for highrises; just take all the places where 40' single-family houses are allowed, and allow 40' multifamily houses.

I'm ok with taller buildings if we ever finally allow more CLT construction in this state. Our building code is antiquated and silly, and the construction industry itself is probably the least innovative or capable industry in the entire US, which is probably to be expected with the way we've treated it to such awful boom and bust cycles.

CLT=Cross Laminated Timber

Re: California population declines for first time in more than a century

#120
California is just at saturation level. There's just too many people for the small strip of coastal land that is inhabitable. All I could think while living there for 5 years was how damn cool it must have been in the 60's/70's with literally half as many people. The traffic, the crowds everywhere at all times, it's all just too much at this point. It's still an amazing paradise playground if you're a millionaire. But any normal person just trying to establish themselves can only tread water, nothing more.
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