Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
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Re: Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
#2Grrrr. Existing SF residents are facing an influx of newcomers, who are pushing out (pricing out) some existing residents. And somehow, it never occurs to them to just make room for more people, so that existing residents don't get pushed out.
SF has plenty of opportunities to build upward, but as long as SF insists on being anti-development and anti-height, the housing supply problem is going to continue.
Re: Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
#3blaming the "rich" techies for the over priced rental market in SF and the rest of the Bay Area is terrible. The real reason rent is sky high in my opinion is because SF is acting like a small city when it's not. Real estate development is pretty much kept flat. Yes they are adding units but if you look at the expected growth, we will stay flat at best. This results in bidding wars for rentals and real estate purchases, because frankly there isn't enough for everyone. Builders would like to buy up more space and crank out energy efficient/modern housing, but no sir, no permit for you.
Re: Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
#4I was recently contemplating moving to the bay area from Midwest. Then a few months ago i shared a hostel room in Edinburgh with a guy from Portland. When we got to talking he told me that he is originally from San Francisco but decided to ran away to Portland to escape nearly insane cost of living. I don't know how much of this is true but he was telling me that some dingy studio apartments have 10-15 people in line to sign contract. Landlords are reluctant to negotiate mainly because the next person in line is a Googler who will pay $1000/month above the asking price without thinking twice.
A couple of months later, an acquaintance of mine got a gig as a software engineer at Apple. When i got in touch with him, he told me that he's dishing out $5K/month to pay rent for the house his family lives in. My jaw dropped.
Re: Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
#5Grrrr. Existing SF residents are facing an influx of newcomers, who are pushing out (pricing out) some existing residents. And somehow, it never occurs to them to just make room for more people, so that existing residents don't get pushed out. SF has plenty of opportunities to build upward , but as long as SF insists on being anti-development and anti-height, the housing supply problem is going to continue.
Why is SF (I assume you mean local government?) anti-height? Are there downsides to building upwards (environmental? taxation?) or is it just a refusal to allow the landscape to change?
Re: Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
#6Grrrr. Existing SF residents are facing an influx of newcomers, who are pushing out (pricing out) some existing residents. And somehow, it never occurs to them to just make room for more people, so that existing residents don't get pushed out. SF has plenty of opportunities to build upward , but as long as SF insists on being anti-development and anti-height, the housing supply problem is going to continue.
How are current residents being priced out? If they rent, then rent increases are limited by law and no-fault evictions are nearly impossible to get honestly. If they own, the no one can force them to move short of the city invoking eminent domain.
Re: Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
#7Move to Portland, friends! CoL-wise, you can't beat our home on the price/quality curve.
For those hiring, the your odds are better up here (but as they say in engineering school, the goods can be odd...).
For those seeking work, your options are similarly good (but not as good as the beer...).
Re: Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
#8I was recently contemplating moving to the bay area from Midwest. Then a few months ago i shared a hostel room in Edinburgh with a guy from Portland. When we got to talking he told me that he is originally from San Francisco but decided to ran away to Portland to escape nearly insane cost of living. I don't know how much of this is true but he was telling me that some dingy studio apartments have 10-15 people in line…
Is your friend renting in Cupertino? That place has some other dynamics, such as excellent school district, so families compete price-wise to get there.
Re: Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
#9Grrrr. Existing SF residents are facing an influx of newcomers, who are pushing out (pricing out) some existing residents. And somehow, it never occurs to them to just make room for more people, so that existing residents don't get pushed out. SF has plenty of opportunities to build upward , but as long as SF insists on being anti-development and anti-height, the housing supply problem is going to continue.
From what I understand, efforts in other cities to build upwards to house poor people have been a failure.
That strategy results in large populations where poverty is highly concentrated. This leads to those areas becoming breeding grounds for crime and hopelessness. Over and over again in the US, large scale projects have exhibited this pattern of failure.
That's not to say that building affordable housing shouldn't be a priority. Indeed it should. But it might make more sense to build lots of small scale housing, with a focus on building viable community spaces rather than large scale ghettoes.
Also, rent control should be more widespread, instead of relentlessly fought against. This way, the housing that's created will have a chance to remain affordable, instead of constantly being at risk of gentrification.
Re: Shaken by the latest digital gold rush, San Francisco struggles for its soul.
#10I was recently contemplating moving to the bay area from Midwest. Then a few months ago i shared a hostel room in Edinburgh with a guy from Portland. When we got to talking he told me that he is originally from San Francisco but decided to ran away to Portland to escape nearly insane cost of living. I don't know how much of this is true but he was telling me that some dingy studio apartments have 10-15 people in line…
I can verify that most apartments have a line. I visited one a half hour after there open house started. The realtor at the entrance said they already had 20 applications and 7 deposit checks so they didn't need mine but that I could look at the apartment if I wanted.
It wasn't a good apartment IMO. 14th and Dolores
That said, people do manage to find apartments. But yes, they are over priced. You can live in SF without a car so I suppose compared to most cities you could add the cost of a car minus the cost of public transportation to your rent.