I live in a VW somewhere in Silicon Valley. Ask me anything (respectful, non-troll) EDIT: I don't usually bite, but when I do, I won't eat much.
what rental price would get you out of the VW?
Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
51–60 of 206 posts
Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
#52Why are people so adamantly opposed to density? Well, I know the reason is to prop up the value of their homes, but if you think about places like New York, London, and Paris, that argument doesn't exactly hold. Those cities are incredibly dense and expensive, but people love living there enough to pay the high prices. People who can live anywhere choose to live there. I'm willing to bet that SV could triple its popu…
There's gotta be a way to economically make a lack of density untenable. Urban sprawl is a threat to the environment, we talk about charging a tax on Carbon, what about on Urban Sprawl?
P.S: Not saying a carbon tax is the best idea, but urban sprawl (like carbon emissions) have a negative impact on the environment but zero impact on maximizing capital gains. They two must be tied somehow.
Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Well, I know the reason is to prop up the value of their homes Yes, but not in the way you expect, which is why your comparison fails. In many cases, its not to prop up the market value of their homes, but the features of the community which supports the personal value they place in their homes: its "I live here, and I'd like to keep it the kind of place it is that led me to choose to live here".
The desire to keep a city looking the same as it was decades ago does seem to be a powerful motivator for a lot of anti-housing people. It's always seemed a little perverse to me. Cities are dynamic, constantly changing organisms. Trying to keep a city from changing over decades is like forcing a 9-year-old kid to wear diapers and sleep in a crib because you liked the way it was as a baby and you never want it to cha…
Most people simply don't like change. Some changes can't be avoided, such as a kid growing up. Other changes can be avoided, such as by passing zoning laws that make it illegal to substantially change the physical appearance of the town you live in. When it's possible, people seek that out.
Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Well, I know the reason is to prop up the value of their homes Yes, but not in the way you expect, which is why your comparison fails. In many cases, its not to prop up the market value of their homes, but the features of the community which supports the personal value they place in their homes: its "I live here, and I'd like to keep it the kind of place it is that led me to choose to live here".
The desire to keep a city looking the same as it was decades ago does seem to be a powerful motivator for a lot of anti-housing people. It's always seemed a little perverse to me. Cities are dynamic, constantly changing organisms. Trying to keep a city from changing over decades is like forcing a 9-year-old kid to wear diapers and sleep in a crib because you liked the way it was as a baby and you never want it to cha…
It's also hypocritical: for the city to have reached the state which they originally bought into, it had to have changed. If SV was still zoned exclusively for farms or something, then the neighborhood they like so much wouldn't have existed in the first place.
Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you mean a RV? First serious question: how do you manage your social life?
I don't live in an RV, but ~0% of my social life takes place at home. I just sleep there.
Thanks bro, I got this. :)
Although I do have an LED spinning light ball, an old tape-player radio and the world's smallest dance floor.
Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
#56Why are people so adamantly opposed to density? Well, I know the reason is to prop up the value of their homes, but if you think about places like New York, London, and Paris, that argument doesn't exactly hold. Those cities are incredibly dense and expensive, but people love living there enough to pay the high prices. People who can live anywhere choose to live there. I'm willing to bet that SV could triple its popu…
There's gotta be a way to economically make a lack of density untenable. Urban sprawl is a threat to the environment, we talk about charging a tax on Carbon, what about on Urban Sprawl? P.S: Not saying a carbon tax is the best idea, but urban sprawl (like carbon emissions) have a negative impact on the environment but zero impact on maximizing capital gains. They two must be tied somehow.
> There's gotta be a way to economically make a lack of density untenable.
A revenue-neutral switch to land value taxes?
Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
#57I live in a VW somewhere in Silicon Valley. Ask me anything (respectful, non-troll) EDIT: I don't usually bite, but when I do, I won't eat much.
what rental price would get you out of the VW?
Airbnb, uber or is that an offer to cofound an app to pay to live with startup people?
Personally, I'd never let someone rent it without a massive security deposit and a very profitable rate because parts are rare, fragile and expensive.
Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
#58I live in a VW somewhere in Silicon Valley. Ask me anything (respectful, non-troll) EDIT: I don't usually bite, but when I do, I won't eat much.
You mean one of those mini-buses?
http://www.truckchamp.com/images/articles/vw-minibus---abbey...
Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Allow residents of those existing houses to add additional floors, convert garages, add a granny flat, et cetera. Large parts of Boston consist of nothing but 3-story, 3-unit apartments, often with a live-in landlord, and it's quite dense.
I don't think there's enough people in the valley with the money and the desire to convert and rent out part of their house to do much of anything about the demand.
You might have a point about desire, but with the levels of land value inflation there, almost any owner can take out enough of a home equity loan to finance the construction or conversion of additional units.
Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence
#60Why are people so adamantly opposed to density? Well, I know the reason is to prop up the value of their homes, but if you think about places like New York, London, and Paris, that argument doesn't exactly hold. Those cities are incredibly dense and expensive, but people love living there enough to pay the high prices. People who can live anywhere choose to live there. I'm willing to bet that SV could triple its popu…
> Well, I know the reason is to prop up the value of their homes Yes, but not in the way you expect, which is why your comparison fails. In many cases, its not to prop up the market value of their homes, but the features of the community which supports the personal value they place in their homes: its "I live here, and I'd like to keep it the kind of place it is that led me to choose to live here".
This many times over. Rewind a few decades and the same basic human desire for such preservation was mobilized towards racial motivations.