Why is there so much open land in the bay area?

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by FelixTheCat

I don't think agriculture is the cause of dense cities. I think it's more convenient to have people closer together. I have heard industrialization was more of a cause of big cities. A lot of people like to be in dense urban areas so we can shop, eat out, have more forms of entertainment and be close to work. Also, when we get to a point where we run out of oil, we will be better off being close together. I would prefer more dense cities with really good public transportation. Then people would have the option to go without cars. That is part of why I prefer that some of the central park areas be built on rather than building out where there are no jobs and people need to drive an hour each way to get to work. There should be more small urban parks like golden gate park and then the houses built out in brentwood should be closer in. You can say I am against the environment by wanting to fill in some of the open space, but isn't burning gas doing harm? That brings me to another question, why aren't we riding horses anymore? So here's the plan. We build a larger faster trains system, then when we get off at our stop, we have a horse share program, where we can take the horse to our destination. There. Problem solved.

Reactionary sarcasm aside, you've missed the main point. Big, dense cities would not exist if the acreage that people consider "empty" (for lack of housing-starts) wasn't already being used for agriculture, grazing, logging, watershed, etc. In other words, it takes a lot more land than people realize to support modern living standards and dense population centers.

You hear people talk about "empty land" based on casual airplane window observations, but it's more and more of an illusion. Annual world population growth is roughly twice California's current population (i.e. about 75 million net) and these people are trying to survive on a shrinking per-capita resource base. The process is falsely called "growth" when it's mostly depletion. The main thing growing is human numbers, not actual resources. Credit gives the illusion that resources have no limits (e.g. the derivatives trickery that led to the current economic mess).

A steady-state economy would solve a large number of land-use and societal problems but that's still considered a radical concept.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by bellalunatic

Because the CEQA laws are here and so are many open space advocates....there are many historical figures in Ca that had a hand it preserving open space as well
thank the gods.
Everywhere else can be overbuilt, good for them, that's why we don't live anywhere else!

Exactly!

If one wants that ugly messy sprawl, we have plenty to choose from here in So Cal. Let the Bay Area remain as is.