Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo • Hacker News Board

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#421

Post by harvey9 » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 1:49 PM UTC

toast0 wrote: post #332

m463 wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought "section 8" tenants had a guaranteed rent. But yeah, probably would still be a job.

I believe Section 8 also comes with regular inspections. Some locales do regular inspections anyway, but many don't. Some Section 8 tenants have complex interactions with their neighbors and their environment, and I think eviction of Section 8 tenants is harder too.

When you live near people who have complex interactions with their neighbours you get comfortable with using the term 'assholes'

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#422

Post by biophysboy » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 1:51 PM UTC

thegrim33 wrote: post #98

I can not follow the linked article at all. It keeps whiplashing back and forth between "big government good" and "big government bad". The summary, the best I can tell, is "big government bad, that's why we need to empower big government even more, so that it has the power to fix the things that big government did"? We gave control over housing to big government, which did things the author doesn't like, so now the…

The basic thesis is that big government is bad when the gears are gummed by excessive participation/procedure, but good when it provides fast grants to pressing issues.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#423

Post by hylaride » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 1:55 PM UTC

simoncion wrote: post #344

phil21 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have total opposite experiences from renting most of my life. I can't think of a mom and pop landlord I had a poor experience with. Financial incentives generally aligned fairly well for me. I was an extremely low-maintenance tenant, only calling for major repairs like mechanicals or outright dead appliances. I handled all basic maintenance and minor wear and tear myself at every property I rented from a small time…

> I can't think of a mom and pop landlord I had a poor experience with. Financial incentives generally aligned fairly well for me. I can think of a couple who were absolute nightmares. I can think of a couple others who were an absolute dream. The worst small-time landlord was WAY worse than the worst big property management firm, but the best small-time landlord was far better than the best big property management f…

I believe in strong tenants rights - IF you pay your rent on time and are not damaging property or otherwise misbehaving. If you stop paying, you should be out within 60 days that your security deposit should cover.

There should be mechanisms where through a process tenants can legally withhold rent if basic repairs or maintenance aren't being done. If a landlord can't or won't do it, they shouldn't be a landlord.

Evicting a tenant should be hard or expensive for any other reason (selling the property, landlord wanting to move in, etc).

I have mixed feelings around rent controls, though. In a healthy, competitive market they should be unnecessary over the long term, but if cities are going to restrict housing construction...

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#424

Post by PaulHoule » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

silverlake wrote: post #401

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boston was a mess before the big dig. Enough ink has been spilled over how long it took, but just about everybody agrees the city is better for it.

There’s a great podcast that delves into the Big Dig. It was an exceedingly difficult giant construction project. The original cost estimate was a made up number for political expediency. They lied knowing once they dug a big hole the sunk-cost fallacy would pull them over the finish line.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ9wEUKs4U4

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#425

Post by stronglikedan » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 1:57 PM UTC

legitster wrote: post #46

I've grown a little bit more skeptical of what can realistically be achieved by the passive nature of YIMBY-ism. In Portland, they passed some radical new zoning laws a few years ago that allowed anyone, anywhere the ability to zone ADUs on their property. And the cost to get permits is almost nothing. I have lots of friends and family in the area with property. But not a single one has added an ADU. It seems like it…

ADU = Accessory Dwelling Units (for those of us not "in the know" or whatever)

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#426

Post by vintermann » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

legitster wrote: post #46

I've grown a little bit more skeptical of what can realistically be achieved by the passive nature of YIMBY-ism. In Portland, they passed some radical new zoning laws a few years ago that allowed anyone, anywhere the ability to zone ADUs on their property. And the cost to get permits is almost nothing. I have lots of friends and family in the area with property. But not a single one has added an ADU. It seems like it…

> They don't need the money. If you can afford a home in the area, you're already pretty well off.

This is a part of the problem which I think isn't discussed often enough. Because of the varying marginal utility of money, if the divide between rich and poor becomes big enough, owners will not want to rent out in their own homes, because nothing the tenant can pay will make any significant difference to their personal budget, and certainly not enough to make up for the stress/risk.

Maybe they can find someone non-threatening enough where the benefit of having someone living in the cellar apartment, to discourage break-ins when they're away etc. makes up for the risk. That is, I guess, how I managed to get a rental in one of the most expensive parts of Oslo ~20 years ago. But I really doubt I'd gotten that if I wasn't extremely non-threatening, let alone if I had been a minority of some sort.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#427

Post by jhonof » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 1:59 PM UTC

phil21 wrote: post #268

throw4847285 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been a renter since I was born, and I have rented from both mom and pop landlords and bigger corporations, and I can tell you that whether or not the "small landlords" were good people or not, our financial interests were diametrically opposed. If I did not live in cities with good tenant protections, there would be no incentive whatsoever for the people who owned the place where I lived from providing basic ser…

I have total opposite experiences from renting most of my life. I can't think of a mom and pop landlord I had a poor experience with. Financial incentives generally aligned fairly well for me. I was an extremely low-maintenance tenant, only calling for major repairs like mechanicals or outright dead appliances. I handled all basic maintenance and minor wear and tear myself at every property I rented from a small time…

I (and most of the people I know), have had the opposite experience as you. Essentially everyone I know has moved into corp landlord situations because the downside risk is a lot lower and there is a paper trail if you need to dispute anything. I have like a 50% hit rate on mom and pop landlords being awful, I can give three examples off the top of my head:

1. New landlords bought a place I was living in and wanted to do in their words "minor upgrades to the house", but during the construction they would "keep it livable" and not require me to move. I came back after work one day to my water being off (and a toilet removed), and they didn't turn it on for two weeks after that (and kept the toilet removed). I had to get a lawyer involved for rent reimbursement.

2. My water heater broke and flooded my house in the middle of the night. The landlord took 1 month to start fixing the completely flooded apartment, and then the landlord tried for a year (threatened legal action as a bluff) to get me to pay for the new water heater despite it being their property, and maintenance being in the lease as their problem. I obv never paid because it was basically just a shakedown.

3. My landlord tried to just not pay me a month of rent owed after they sold the property with me living in it. He called me several times trying to "make a deal", and I told him that it was a cost associated with him selling the house and that I would not leave until he paid me the month owed. He waited until literally the last possible day to pay me and yelled at me on the phone that I was being unfair despite it just being money he owed me.

Every corp landlord I have had has been by the book. Yes my rent has gone up marginally, but at least there is a paper trail and they do not try to do any of the crazy stuff I just described.

That being said, I did have one mom/pop landlord who built me a deck with a bike locker over the course of a summer once, that guy was great.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#428

Post by jhonof » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 2:01 PM UTC

simoncion wrote: post #344

phil21 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have total opposite experiences from renting most of my life. I can't think of a mom and pop landlord I had a poor experience with. Financial incentives generally aligned fairly well for me. I was an extremely low-maintenance tenant, only calling for major repairs like mechanicals or outright dead appliances. I handled all basic maintenance and minor wear and tear myself at every property I rented from a small time…

> I can't think of a mom and pop landlord I had a poor experience with. Financial incentives generally aligned fairly well for me. I can think of a couple who were absolute nightmares. I can think of a couple others who were an absolute dream. The worst small-time landlord was WAY worse than the worst big property management firm, but the best small-time landlord was far better than the best big property management f…

> I can think of a couple who were absolute nightmares. I can think of a couple others who were an absolute dream. The worst small-time landlord was WAY worse than the worst big property management firm, but the best small-time landlord was far better than the best big property management firm I've been a tenant of.

This is basically my experience I wrote about above, the downside risk for mom and pop landlords is way way worse than corp landlords in my experience (and pretty much everyone else I know).

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#429

Post by nyc_data_geek1 » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 2:10 PM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #418

Telemakhos wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re paying a million dollars to own a studio apartment (essentially a hotel room), something has gone horribly wrong. That could be any number of things (inflation, insane property valuations, unreasonable demand for city life), but that same money could be spent very differently and go much further in a different location.

In Manhattan, in a good building, good neighborhood, 1M USD for a 25sqm studio sounds fine.

New York City consists of more than Manhattan. There are plenty of other places on subway lines where a million dollars buys a lot more.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#430

Post by watwut » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 2:18 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #138

soco wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because anything related to "delivering better lives" gets labeled as "tangled up social issues" and discarded in favor of "increasing profits". Maybe the majority only understands life through money? Like, a better life means more money, period - and has no concept that a better life could mean road safety, reliable healthcare, serious schooling, quiet retirement, and such.

Republicans are trusted more on schools post-COVID and evidence is blue states lost more schooling progress than red state even if blue states were mostly ahead pre-COVID. (if you argue that we are not post-COVID, people are not going to trust you on schools even if the virus still lingers. As callous as it sounds, everybody dies, but not everybody gets a complete education and if you think the way the education-indu…

Republicans are not trusted more on schools. You may trust them more after covid, but overall the claim does not seem to be valid. Also, republican plan is to dismantle public schooling and conservative plan is to move as much as possible toward homeschooling. Which has double advantage of keeping women at home.