Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

Post by malandrew » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 10:35 PM UTC

mjevans wrote: post #303

malandrew wrote: post #229

Yay, yet another city trying out the horribly naive and misguided "Below Market Rate" housing model that only serves to distort the local housing economy further. I had a front row seat to experience the process because someone I date got into a BMR house about 1.5 years ago. For those that don't know, BMR housing programs usually work like this: - In order to build a new building, the builder must agree to allocate…

The real solution, as you point out, is fixing the supply. The reason the rent is too damn high is that the market has insufficient supply. You can encourage buildings with more store frontage near the market level(s) and more housing above by offering economic incentives (possibly with conditions like rent control) until you reach a more desired outcome. PS: While you're doing this please also include civic funding…

Parking? Why? Remove it all, put more buildings. Cities don't need parking. You could easily remove all parking in SF. Between cycling, public transport and Uber, all your within SF transportation needs are met. For those times when you need a car to get out of town, the problem would quickly be solved by the half a dozen startups that will crop up to solve the problem of having access to a car when you need it (Doesn't Avis already have a way to have a rental car delivered to you when you need it?)

Once the no-parking model has been established in SF, other cities will have a model to copy and the startups that solved the problem can expand to those new markets.

On demand transportation companies are already starting to challenge the economics of car ownership for many people. It's only a matter of time until they challenge the economics of car ownership for just about everyone.

Post by smithkl42 » Wed, Oct 21, 2015, 10:16 PM UTC

voltagex_ wrote: post #201

smithkl42 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably so, if you've got good technical skills. At the very least, you ought to be able to land a couple of contracting gigs to tide you over until you find the right long-term position. There's a lot more demand here in the Puget Sound area for good technical skills than there is supply, so unless you're just not a very good developer, you ought to be able to find something reasonable.

A week of rejected job applications has me wondering if I'm not a good developer at all...

Don't worry too much about that. Apply for a ton of jobs, for weeks, if not months. Assume that for 80% of them, your resume will get tossed immediately, for no good reason whatsoever. Not your fault. Similarly, for reasons beyond your control, you'll probably fail half of the phone screens, and when you actually get called in, you won't get past 90% of the interviews. Don't worry about it: that's just how it goes. Those numbers will vary substantially with the market, your experience, your innate horsepower, and your asking salary, but the fact is, although there are a lot of developers out there, and employers are careful who they hire, there are also a lot of job openings. Play the numbers game: my rule of thumb is to apply for 100 jobs to get one that you want.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul