Moved to the Bay for 1 year from out of state, moved back. My review of it. (Los Angeles: 2013, hotel)

[bodyforlife99]

Originally Posted by HockeyMac18

The solutions I'm talking about are DRASTIC and not realistic. As in razing thousands of homes and placing in dense, sometimes VERY dense, housing. With huge investments in public transit to go with it. And you keeeeeeep building. Yes, endlessly.

You can't keep building endlessly and I seriously doubt anyone would want to live that way anyway. But again, we're just dancing again as we often do on this topic. We're never going to agree so as we always do on this topic, we will respectfully agree to disagree. Have a good weekend.

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by bodyforlife99

You can't keep building endlessly and I seriously doubt anyone would want to live that way anyway. But again, we're just dancing again as we often do on this topic. We're never going to agree so as we always do on this topic, we will respectfully agree to disagree. Have a good weekend.

You are again misunderstanding me.

In simple terms, it is not a technical problem. We can, with enough political will and money, build endlessly until demand is satisfied. That does mean continually tearing down old buildings to build bigger ones.

Of course, what I'm saying is ludicrous since no one wants that. But that is exactly my point. It's political why we don't do this, not technical.

I don't support endlessly building, since I don't want to live in that world, either. But I do recognize that it would solve housing affordability problems.

Have a good weekend, body.

[bodyforlife99]

Originally Posted by HockeyMac18

You are again misunderstanding me.

In simple terms, it is not a technical problem. We can, with enough political will and money, build endlessly until demand is satisfied. That does mean continually tearing down old buildings to build bigger ones.

Of course, what I'm saying is ludicrous since no one wants that. But that is exactly my point. It's political why we don't do this, not technical.

I don't support endlessly building, since I don't want to live in that world, either. But I do recognize that it would solve housing affordability problems.

You cannot build endlessly

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by bodyforlife99

You cannot build endlessly

Perhaps not in the world we live in. There is no technical reason why we can't continually build higher and higher skyscrapers (tearing down old ones as we go).

There is a political reason why we don't, though.

A good discussion about this topic here in a recent Vox article: [url=http://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/big-cities]The case for making New York and San Francisco much, much bigger | The new new economy[/url

I found this part pertinent:

The city of San Francisco is half as dense as Brooklyn, and San Jose and Silicon Valley are much less dense than that. So there’s a lot of potential to build more housing. The region would also have to build more transportation infrastructure — probably including a more extensive subway system — to support an expanded population.

To be sure, many people in the San Francisco Bay Area don’t want it to look more like Brooklyn. But they also probably don’t want housing to become so expensive that their children can’t afford to stay in the area. And that’s ultimately the choice they face.

Technology millionaires aren’t going away. If the region doesn’t find ways to accommodate soaring demand for housing, it will wind up being a place where only technology millionaires can afford the rent.

Have a good weekend, body.

[Perma Bear]

Originally Posted by bodyforlife99

You cannot build endlessly

You can build on the millions of acres of green space, Kathmandu was built on mountains, why not build on the Santa Cruz mountains?

[likealady]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

I support building a lot more housing, but it has to be high density. I would support 20 story buildings with thousands of three bedroom condos inside. But I would also support a ban on new single family homes in California.

And I tend to agree with bodyforlife99; it is unlikely that any region in the Bay Area can build enough condos to keep up with demand, and even less likely to sustain it for a long period of time. But we definitely will never be able to house all eight hundred thousand people in San Francisco in their own single family homes. There is simply not enough room. Condos, yes. SFHs, no. Not if you also want retail space and emergency services.

Given enough time, all cities have to move to dense housing. You reach a point where you just can't add SFHs anymore.

You love to bash SFHs, but please tell me how much of SF is actually SFH? All large scale building here in the city has been condos. I'm even seeing townhomes or condo communities being built down in Foster City, so it's not like density isn't on people's minds.

Companies here really need to space out. I noticed the other day just how crowded the city is compared to a few years ago. When holidays roll around - like Thanksgiving and Memorial day - the city is actually pleasant But it's a chicken and egg scenario really. They claim they can't find good workers if they move closer to Dublin or something, so they move to the Peninsula, San Jose, or the city and just perpetuate the problem. Nothing changes. Glad I've been frugal and saving my money like crazy, gonna need it.

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by likealady

You love to bash SFHs, but please tell me how much of SF is actually SFH? All large scale building here in the city has been condos. I'm even seeing townhomes or condo communities being built down in Foster City, so it's not like density isn't on people's minds.

Companies here really need to space out. I noticed the other day just how crowded the city is compared to a few years ago. When holidays roll around - like Thanksgiving and Memorial day - the city is actually pleasant But it's a chicken and egg scenario really. They claim they can't find good workers if they move closer to Dublin or something, so they move to the Peninsula, San Jose, or the city and just perpetuate the problem. Nothing changes. Glad I've been frugal and saving my money like crazy, gonna need it.

I'd be totally in favor of having companies spread out more throughout the region. Ideally this would occur as clusters around major infrastructure hubs.

[3rdGen SFan]

Originally Posted by HockeyMac18

I'd be totally in favor of having companies spread out more throughout the region. Ideally this would occur as clusters around major infrastructure hubs.

Same here, but I wish housing would also spread out more and that most people would live in the area where they work rather than contribute to commuting traffic. For example, a lot of businesses want to be located directly in SF and a lot of people want to live here in SF, even those whose workplaces aren't located here in SF. Not living where a person works is a big part of the problem. Commuter traffic could be decreased and more people who work here could live here.

Maybe if salaries would be adjusted based on where a person actually lives it could help deter people from making so much commuting traffic and help ease the housing problem a little.

[bodyforlife99]

Originally Posted by 3rdGen SFan

Maybe if salaries would be adjusted based on where a person actually lives it could help deter people from making so much commuting traffic and help ease the housing problem a little.

Of maybe we could let people do what they want and stop trying to put restrictive controls on their lives. Now there's a novel thought.

[WithDisp]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

Eh, it's about the same amount. Just different types of amenities. Plus the most value comes in considering all the diverse regions of the Bay Area as one integrated whole, since they are so close together. San Francisco is great by itself, Silicon Valley is great by itself, Oakland is great by itself. Put all these regions together and they're awesome. Easily worth the price of admission.

Comparing New York's Cultural Base to San Francisco's is not even close.

Not even remotely close.

Bay Area's greatest up on New York is the Weather (minus SF/Daly City/Pacifica/HMB)
and livable/workable suburbs.

Theater, Art, Music, Museums, History, Restaurants, Hotels- New York justifies it's pricetag.