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Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

sfchronicle.com

311–320 of 373 posts

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#311
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think we have laws that are currently racist?

If there are so many racist laws in systemically racist USA, you should have no issues pointing out some laws that are racist, no?

Marijuana is in the news right now as just a mega obvious example

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not find myself disagreeing or agreeing. I understand I am not knowledgeable in this space and I am just trying to find answers to my questions. I will definitely look into what you mentioned.

Definitely! I know my comments didn’t come off as I would sound in real life but I promise they come from a place of love.

Thank you.

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> more supply brings down rents People say that on here all the time, but I have never seen that happen. Do you have an example where increased housing supply lowered prices aside from a natural or market disaster? Maybe, Detroit where people simply abandoned their homes with no intent to sell.

Japan is the classical example where they have national zoning rules permitting residential development in each zone. You can get a place in downtown Tokyo for like $300K USD. [1] > While the cost of housing is climbing in many global cities, the average middle-class family in Tokyo can still afford to buy a new, single-family detached home for $300,000. That’s right. The typical Tokyo starter home is a brand new thr…

Japan is a terrible example. It has near-zero immigration. Its population is now falling is the same as it was 30 years ago. In the 80s it had the highest most unaffordable prices in the world.

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#314
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly progressive people continue to self segregate into very non-diverse neighborhoods when buying houses.

This is category error, at a minimum. 'highly progressive people' is an abstraction and cannot take action. It's imagine it's also inductive reasoning and out group bias.

[deleted]

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#315

Planning is a perverse set of incentives. First it’s usually longer term thinking, where decisions made now impact the shape of a city decades out. Second, the people that live in a place now have undue influence and veer conservative in how land is used (ie NIMBYism). This often gives rise to at least near term stagnation (on a historical scale) in established, wealthy cities and growth in up and coming metros that…

You're right its long term thinking. A lot of people like suburbs, it makes sense to keep strict zoning for the benefit of the residents long term. That is true long term thinking, rather than quickly putting up luxury apartment buildings that no one will want to live after a few decades.

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#316

Most of the land in my (Massachusetts) town is zoned for single-family homes. There are several identifiable square-mile or larger areas with nothing but homes plus maybe one school and one church. Maybe a gas station / Dunkin Donuts within fifteen-minute walking distance. That's no way to live. I'd love to change it, with greater zoning diversity and particularly that which allows higher density, but there valid obj…

So you're saying there are areas with single-family homes and areas with higher density. Surely everyone is happy then? If you want HD, move there, if you want LD you have suburbs. Why do you have to change it?

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are several identifiable square-mile or larger areas with nothing but homes plus maybe one school and one church. Maybe a gas station / Dunkin Donuts within fifteen-minute walking distance. This is just suburban America in general.

Sadly yes, but I don't think that model is even sustainable let alone desirable. We must do better. Since these things do take so much time, that means we must reach some agreement on what "better means" (which doesn't at all have to be the same everywhere) and get moving toward it.

> that means we must reach some agreement on what "better means"

90%(?) of America lives in Single Family homes. We've agreed that this is the best. Dont change it.

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#318
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhh, Portland or Seattle? They're political similar, economically as similar as you'll get (silicon forest in Hillsboro and Seattle's whole tech scene rivals SF), and geographically similar in terms of climate to parts of the bay area.

Neither Portland nor Seattle can match the Bay Area in terms of overall culture. Neither has a world-class orchestra or opera, to say nothing of the early-music scene in the Bay Area, which is easily the best in the US. Neither measures up to the Bay Area in the art scene, either. Or the restaurant scene. Or the wine scene. Neither comes very close in terms of climate, although that argument is muted lately due to Ca…

You just listed a bunch of things that seem pretty subjective measures of a city.

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the about page, I found > We call them “Missing” because they have typically been illegal to build since the mid-1940s but I could not easily find and further explanation about why this is, etc

They go in to further detail about that on https://missingmiddlehousing.com/about/how-to-enable .

Interesting. It doesn't say they're illegal, it says they're illegal in Single Family suburbs. Its like they want the benefits of low density housing but somehow not do low density housing.

Re: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

#320
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly progressive people continue to self segregate into very non-diverse neighborhoods when buying houses.

This was my experience working at Google. Very liberal until you start talking about upzoning, then suddenly "some neighborhoods should keep their character".

Very liberal until it's time to actually solve their own backyard's problems eh.
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