Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dont see why new million dollar condos will help homeless at all.
20% of them are for low income only.
Says who? There are no zoning powers right.
Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
731–740 of 1001 posts
Re: Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
#732Earlier quoted context omitted.
This has little to do with the existence of zoning laws themselves, but the specific zones that they define. Japan has zones, so does Spain. But there's just nothing anywhere near as Restrictive as most US cities' R1 zone. Many places have R2s and R3s that are still more restrictive than the least dense thing than a Spanish city has. Remove zones alone, and HOAs will get areas into legally binding covenants that are…
Dumb question, but how do HOAs enforce things? Presumably they have some binding agreement, but I can't imagine why someone would opt into one. 'Why yes, I'd love to pay dues and fines to my noisiest neighbors.'
Had occasion to visit my hometown last year, so I drove around the middle-class neighborhood where I grew up. People have trash, old appliances, rusting inoperable cars parked on the lawn, 4-foot grass and weeds growing. People who spent like a million bucks on a house don't want the neighborhood to be full of blight and trash.
In a typical average HOA neighborhood:
* The HOA pays for landscaping of all the common areas like green belts and parks within the tract. If you don't have an HOA, you either are benefiting from your city choosing to locate and maintain those kinds of amenities right by where you live, or you just don't get any of those.
* Obviously one of the big ones, the other main HOA budget item is pools, clubhouses you can rent cheaply for parties, tennis courts, etc. For rich people they don't care since they have their own pools, but it's a great boon to people not rich enough to have a pool to have easy free access to one that isn't crowded and is close to home.
* They, in theory, fine you for outwardly living like an absolute slob or selfish jerk. NOTE: In practice nobody cares about most of these little rules, like mailbox color or a patio chair left on your lawn, unless you're acting wildly outside the norms. The rules are there to let them enforce them selectively on the person who's making everyone miserable.
* They regulate architecture and paint color. This may be my least favorite because it seems like we shouldn't need this, I have taste and why should I have to submit my stuff for approval to these jerks? But really, this is only there because there would be SOMEBODY who would paint their house an absurd garish color or build a giant ugly addition in their front yard or something that looks wildly out of place.
Re: Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
#733Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Basically, shows that the State's tax difficulties are themselves the consequence of exclusion. I'm not sure what you mean by tax difficulties, if you mean the state has trouble raising revenue, that's certainly not the case. CA is running a large budget surplus right now. If they only relied on property tax it could be an issue, but they also have an income tax, so the revenue outlook in CA is pretty good right now…
Fari enough: let me clarify. Because California gets so little tax from property, it must get more from income taxes. That has a couple of negative consequences. The nice thing about property taxes is that housing prices change slowly, even in boom/bust cycles -- essentially they are coupled to a dashpot. While income, especially in California with a progressive system coupled with most of the high earners paying cap…
Your point about moving is really important: there are a ton of boomers sitting in houses which are much larger than they need without children living at home but in many cases they're doing exactly what the system incentivizes. Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) can help somewhat if they have enough space and want to get in the landlord business (or have family who need it) but really we need to make it easy for people to downsize without financial precarity.
Re: Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
#734Earlier quoted context omitted.
The answers are very uncomfortable Like cleaner air, safer streets, less traffic and a better place to raise a child and/or dog with backyards and privacy.
> Like cleaner air, safer streets, less traffic and a better place to raise a child and/or dog with backyards and privacy. So, like in European cities.
I don't have to try that hard with google maps to find places in Europe that look just like suburbs of the US.
Re: Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
#735Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which alternative is less dystopian? * Clearcut wilderness to build more suburban homes * Don't build more homes, just stuff more people into existing homes * Let the excess population live in cars or on the sidewalk * Cull the excess population
Maybe excess population live somewhere else that costs less? That is, quite literally, the choice I made.
Sprawl is a significant factor in climate change. Spreading out is what we've been doing
Re: Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
#736That is a fucking incredible law. They allow zero houses to be built for decades and then some meme law activates and suddenly 5000 houses are being built next week.
Everywhere needs this.
Re: Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
#737Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think just changing "California" to "Bay Area" would be reasonable for now. If the article is correct, zoning is being completely eradicated, but I'm not sure why the poster decided to say it was for all of California.
I've consed "Some" onto the headline in the hope that this makes it more accurate. This is a confusing situation! confusing to me at least.
You could go with something that's more technically correct, if not immediately more clear. This would at least give people the opportunity to google the terms and learn about them themselves.
"Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow"
Re: Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
#738Earlier quoted context omitted.
> that are safe for kids It’s all about kids. Without kids in the picture sure, go ahead, make cities look like Coruscant from Star Wars. The instant you have kids you see how important open spaces safe enough for unstructured minimally supervised play are. Without spaces like this all you have are kids drooling on Roblox and YouTube all day. There’s nothing for kids in an urban core. Those spaces don’t have to be un…
I grew up in a Soviet planned city, with courtyard focused developments. Our playgrounds were(they still are) larger and more accessible, than anything my current neighbours kids get on their 2a of land in rural USA. Even the new developments in Eastern Europe provide a kid friendly courtyard. Shielded from all traffic and observable by literally the whole community. Suburbia should be reserved for the insane rich pe…
Advantages for real-estate developers triumphed over the community-minded across a lot of the USA. I talked to my elderly Uncle, and he said that these zoning and quality of life issues were discussed quite a bit in the 1950s, but the "sprawl" pattern won in most cases. Shopping mall retail is another example of low-quality results in the USA, but with a different menu of inputs.
Re: Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
#739Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nearly all studies regarding suburban vs. urban streets have shown that suburban streets have significantly higher rates of child deaths and injuries than urban streets.
Out of curiosity (I do not know the answer), is there a study on the percentage of time that children spend playing outside in urban vs suburban vs rural areas?
I guarantee you children in (european) urban areas go out more because there are more children and places to play with.
In suburban hell what are you supposed to play with? And with whom? The only other two kids on the street?
Re: Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
#740Will this allow people to turn their homes into a business. I can see this radically transforming communities and making cities more lively and walkable.
No. This purely allows construction of residential properties.