Earlier quoted context omitted.
What part of Asia are you living in? Remember Asia is a massive fucking continent...
Oh really? In living there for over a decade I somehow hadn’t noticed.
You missed my principal question.
Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
371–380 of 403 posts
Re: Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're thinking of condos. Otherwise, I don't it's possible for a multi-unit apartment building to sell single units.
>I don't it's possible for a multi-unit apartment building to sell single units. Ok. I own one unit of a 4-unit building, which was as far as I know built to sell, not rent, roughly 30 years ago. It is definitively not a condo, in terms of the ownership structure and the portion that I own. No HOA either. So your point is that it's not an apartment? Empirically, it is true that people don't call it an apartment. But…
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Re: Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
> could it be easier to shift commercial to high density residential? In some places it's possible, as long as the commercial spaces naturally lend themselves to residential occupation, or in places with enough demand to justify the costs of tearing down existing commercial spaces and building residential structures. But most unused (therefore in theory available) American commercial space isn't comprised of smaller…
When you rezone low density residential into high density residential the apartments wouldn't appear by repurposing existing structures either. What I could imagine being a problem is rules applying to e.g. the land of an abandoned mall not allowing sufficient elevation. Because "high above" is what you'd want to offer potential residents in exchange for a not so nice ground environment. Perhaps even skip a few floor…
> When you rezone low density residential into high density residential the apartments wouldn't appear by repurposing existing structures either.
Many large homes could be converted to duplexes, and homes with large lots could add accessory dwelling units, or sometimes, an additional home to make a "freestanding condominium" development.
Re: Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
#374I live in Washington and I don't understand how anybody can live in LA unless they have a physical job or family that is tying them there. If you like hot weather, there are many better places to live, like Scottsdale or Naples. If you must live in California, why not Palm Springs? If you are concerned about taxes and cost of living and you don't need California's weather, virtually any other state has a safe communi…
The food is really good here.
This is a true criticism of Seattle, I have to cook everything myself haha
Re: Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. I'm an evil SFH owner. I don't give a single shit about how much it is worth, because I'm not a house flipper and I plan to live in this home for decades. I deliberately moved to this home, away from higher-density housing, primarily to get away from high population density and for the other various benefits of living in a SFH neighborhood. Some people like living in higher-density neighborhoods, and they sh…
To clarify, do you live in a city? Respectfully: you bought your house — not the neighborhood around your house, and everything in it. It's true that it's OK to have mixed densities of housing, but I think it's an unrealistic and ungrounded expectation to buy a single family house in a city and expect your neighborhood around it to never change. There are areas of the country where you can cheaply move to, outside of…
Nope. The far out suburbs. If it wasn’t for my job being near a city, I’d have moved even farther to the rural boonies. Now that remote work is getting normalized it’s tempting. To me, the idea of a SFH in the city is nonsensical. The whole point is getting away from having people everywhere and having your own place you don’t have to share walls, sounds, and drama with strangers.
One of the major considerations for me when I bought was “how likely is it urban development will reach this far out in my lifetime?”
Re: Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
#376I live in Washington and I don't understand how anybody can live in LA unless they have a physical job or family that is tying them there. If you like hot weather, there are many better places to live, like Scottsdale or Naples. If you must live in California, why not Palm Springs? If you are concerned about taxes and cost of living and you don't need California's weather, virtually any other state has a safe communi…
Palm Springs and Scottsdale are magnitudes hotter than LA. When I used to live in Scottsdale, every day between early May and end of September will be above 100. LA weather barely gets into the 90s. Most days it is between 75-85. Also, Palm Springs and Scottsdale do not have beaches, do not have nearly the same level of entertainment (music venues, clubs, bars, nightlife, two football teams, two basketball teams, sto…
Appreciate this information and perspective :)
Re: Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
> LA is already building various large expansions of public transit which suffers from many difficulties and cost overruns because of existing layout. I think it would be more cost efficient to build another city/town nearby from the ground, and people decide where they want to live given differences in cost and lifestyle.
On paper. However in the real world cities are only built next to other cities. You could build a "perfect" city like LA in ability to support population and jobs in Oklahoma for pretty cheap - but nobody will come. That is ignoring the fact that in our perfect city above, just a few years later we will discover something new we forgot to account for and now our city is imperfect.
Yes, I proposed to build it nearby.
Re: Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The only issue that I have with this so far is that newer construction denser housing is not required to have parking for some reason, but people living in them do have cars. I'm hoping that larger projects start to require parking because transit here just isn't good enough to not have a car. Mandatory parking minimums make constructing new housing more difficult, raising the cost of housing. The city is making th…
> Mandatory parking minimums make constructing new housing more difficult, raising the cost of housing. The city is making the tradeoff that affordable housing is more important than free parking. As density increases it will hit a point where you need to pay for parking. I live in Belltown and own a parking spot. Ultimately I think this is the right direction to go, the city shouldn't have to pay to store your car.…
I agree that we should invest in public transit. It is already good enough to get you a lot of places, but it could be better. We aren't New York or Tokyo. In fact, our energy should be spent on expanding transit, not expanding car ownership.
> I have a driveway and a garage, so the problem is solved for me, and in theory means someone could put their car in front of my house on the street.
I'm not sure what your objection here is then? Density won't impact your parking situation at all. The people moving in (or not moving in) after you can make the decision for themselves. By mandating a specific amount of parking, you are taking that decision from them.
I'm not saying people shouldn't have a car. I already said I have a car, but that I pay for a spot. My partner and I share that car and that spot. If couples downsized from two cars to one, thats already a 50% reduction.
Enacting parking minimums digs us deeper in the car hole. Building 6 units instead of 4 is preferable. Instead we should invest in expanding public transit.
Re: Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
#379I live in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Nearly every single home is multi-family, and the single families that do exist are usually $2 million and up. Take a stroll down one of our streets https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3130357,-71.1188873,3a,75y,1... It is dense, walkable, and extremely beautiful. There is no reason every neighborhood with duplexes has to look like cookie cutter sprawl tha…
Have you ever had your mail sent to Jamaica?
Not yet!
Re: Facing housing crisis, L.A. voters back duplexes in single-family neighborhoods
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's truth to that, but Paris and Barcelona are some of the densest cities on the planet. People really underestimate how much you can get just with 5 stories or so if you do it consistently. As anyone who's been to those places knows there's no sacrifice of beauty, sun, or livability really.
And getting rid of cars! Pre-1920s neighborhoods in the USA are dense, yet spacious. So much of the density problems in America are due to our over-reliance on cars.
I prefer living in the burbs and working remote. I do think that zoning should be much more lenient for housing in urban areas though. Not everything has to be one size fits all. NIMBYs definitely need to go though.