San Jose gets new LED lights and get busted again (Irvine: crime, tech jobs)

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by darkeconomist

This. Truly, absolutely, definitely this.

Bobby_Guz_Man may think 8k DUs in 3 years is a lot, but they've been sensible developments in north SJ, close to LRT and major employers, and that number, or more importantly the total for all 200+ square miles of SJ in the last decade pales in comparison to the inflow of residents.

Sensible for who? San Jose, who has to house these 10K units? Or for Santa Clara where these workers go to work, or for Milpitas where these residents go to do their shopping/retails?

8K in 3 years in one section of town alone is a lot of housing, for the Bay Area and for the current time.

I'm an advocate for mass market-rate housing to be built, but, with the exceptions of certain areas, I don't advocate for that here in San Jose.

It's time for the other towns to pick up the slack.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

This is pretty much what people in every city say, and then they act surprised when rents and home prices are astronomical.

For San Jose, except for a few areas, the housing needs to stop. We just flat out don't have the infrastructure to support it anymore. The towns surrounding San Jose need to step up and take ownership of the housing issues.

[RecentGrad1]

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

For San Jose, except for a few areas, the housing needs to stop. We just flat out don't have the infrastructure to support it anymore. The towns surrounding San Jose need to step up and take ownership of the housing issues.

The bike lanes are wide open. Trolleys and buses often have very few people on them.

When I ride home from work in the evenings on my bike, the street looks like a parking lot. But I rarely see another cyclist. Cycling home from work is twice as fast as driving. We could support way more density if people didn't insist on owning a car. I've been car-free in San Jose for 6 months and am loving it.

And seriously, when $1000/month for a 250 square foot studio is the market rate, don't you think there might be a supply issue? The reason there's so much traffic on the freeways is that there's no housing available close-by such that one could go without a car.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by RecentGrad1

The bike lanes are wide open. Trolleys and buses often have very few people on them.

When I ride home from work in the evenings on my bike, the street looks like a parking lot. But I rarely see another cyclist. Cycling home from work is twice as fast as driving. We could support way more density if people didn't insist on owning a car. I've been car-free in San Jose for 6 months and am loving it.

And seriously, when $1000/month for a 250 square foot studio is the market rate, don't you think there might be a supply issue? The reason there's so much traffic on the freeways is that there's no housing available close-by such that one could go without a car.

Let me reiterate my position again. I have no problem with mass market-rate housing. We need MORE market-rate housing, period. This is something that cannot be argued.

But mass market-rate housing should NOT be in San Jose. We currently have an imbalance of jobs-to-residents ratio, and our retail tax base don't necessarily make up enough for us to maintain the infrastructure, let alone support newer infrastructure and housing burden.

The other towns such as Mountain View, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Morgan Hill, Redwood City, San Mateo, Fremont, Milpitas, etc need to build MORE housing.

San Jose does not. We already built A LOT of housing already. It's time for other towns to do their part.

[RecentGrad1]

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

Let me reiterate my position again. I have no problem with mass market-rate housing. We need MORE market-rate housing, period. This is something that cannot be argued.

But mass market-rate housing should NOT be in San Jose. We currently have an imbalance of jobs-to-residents ratio, and our retail tax base don't necessarily make up enough for us to maintain the infrastructure, let alone support newer infrastructure and housing burden.

The other towns such as Mountain View, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Morgan Hill, Redwood City, San Mateo, Fremont, Milpitas, etc need to build MORE housing.

San Jose does not. We already built A LOT of housing already. It's time for other towns to do their part.

People commute from all over to Silcon Valley to San Jose, crowding our freeways and polluting the air. Wait lists for apartments in San Jose are 6 months to a year long, or often simply closed. People will live in Morgan Hill and commute by car to San Jose to save on housing. To me that suggests a shortage of housing.

Other cities definitely need to allow construction of more housing, but that doesn't mean San Jose doesn't need more as well.

[kyle242]

Originally Posted by RecentGrad1

seriously, when $1000/month for a 250 square foot studio is the market rate, don't you think there might be a supply issue? The reason there's so much traffic on the freeways is that there's no housing available close-by such that one could go without a car.

The average is actually way more than that. It is about $1500 per month. A studio close to $1000 is rare and affords you at most a ghetto. I am in this situation, I pay almost $1200 for a small studio with outdated appliances and live in East San Jose. My neighbor house across the street had 2 x last year police squad with guns or SWAT. The studio has heating or AC, but AC does nothing in summer to cool my apartment because my ceiling gets very warm and in winter I struggle with turning gas heat on until I switch thermostat at least 10x. Also the AC they provide is not only small and not powerful but connected to outlet via cheat-adapter. All outlets in my apartment are two-prong only making connecting my consumer electronics difficult. Few neighbor apartments around me were cockroach infested last year and they had to spray everywhere. Even laundry room had them.

[kyle242]

that when I was looking just for room on Craigslist to rent around the area, I struggled to find an honest person to lease room to me. One in Fremont did not tell me until I was at his house for tour that he posted the room for rent for bidding and said the more I am willing to pay for my room the more likely I will get it. Other times, timing is bad and they expect me to pay rent and move in just like that "tomorrow" or if they give plenty of notice 2-4 weeks on craiglist ad they don't respond to my inquiry.

Oh and those rooms for rent not cheap either ranging on average from $800 for 4-bedroom shared house or apartment in San Jose to $1500 in Mountain View.

[RecentGrad1]

Originally Posted by kyle242

The average is actually way more than that. It is about $1500 per month. A studio close to $1000 is rare and affords you at most a ghetto. I am in this situation, I pay almost $1200 for a small studio with outdated appliances and live in East San Jose. My neighbor house across the street had 2 x last year police squad with guns or SWAT. The studio has heating or AC, but AC does nothing in summer to cool my apartment because my ceiling gets very warm and in winter I struggle with turning gas heat on until I switch thermostat at least 10x. Also the AC they provide is not only small and not powerful but connected to outlet via cheat-adapter. All outlets in my apartment are two-prong only making connecting my consumer electronics difficult. Few neighbor apartments around me were cockroach infested last year and they had to spray everywhere. Even laundry room had them.

Yeah, I believe the average is around $1700/month, but that's for a much larger apartment of ~400-500 square feet. My studio at 250 is small but very secure and well-maintained. IMO that's the way to go - smaller but with decent quality.

If only housing supply weren't so artificially restricted by the city and NIMBY's, my studio would rent for half of what it does. You have to wonder how they expect your average person to get ahead. Thankfully I'm blessed with a good job, but many aren't.

[darkeconomist]

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

Let me reiterate my position again. I have no problem with mass market-rate housing. We need MORE market-rate housing, period. This is something that cannot be argued.

But mass market-rate housing should NOT be in San Jose. We currently have an imbalance of jobs-to-residents ratio, and our retail tax base don't necessarily make up enough for us to maintain the infrastructure, let alone support newer infrastructure and housing burden.

The other towns such as Mountain View, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Morgan Hill, Redwood City, San Mateo, Fremont, Milpitas, etc need to build MORE housing.

San Jose does not. We already built A LOT of housing already. It's time for other towns to do their part.

It's an aside that other towns need to step up. Yes, they do and it is an important conversation--just look at how critical I am of the PA city council on HSR, Caltrain electrification, and BRT. But that shouldn't stop SJ from building.

Now, if we plopped down 8k new residences in, say, Blossom Valley or Cambrian, that would be a mess for sure. But were talking about north SJ, a growing area that makes sense to be dense because of its context.

To another point of yours, there is not feasible way to build "enough" market-rate housing. There's simply not enough political will for that kind of socialism nor is there money to buy the land, fight the litigation (neighbors generally oppose housing blocs that concentrate poverty in one building), and build it. And why should we raise costs for other residents in order to subsidize a large plurality of the population? Why not use the market itself to provide market-rate housing by permitting the building of more housing and thereby stabilizing the market?

Finally, if you care so deeply about the jobs-housing ratio, it makes way more sense to draw in more jobs than to try to tamp down residential demand (which has been going up at a breakneck pace anyway, it is important to add). Run an incubator and subsidize shared space not far from SJSU, incentivize companies to move to DTSJ, streamline and reduce the cost of the permit process for spec offices in DTSJ and along the north 1st corridor, and generally work with the VTA (vs other cities that work against the VTA).

[kyle242]

Originally Posted by RecentGrad1

Yeah, I believe the average is around $1700/month, but that's for a much larger apartment of ~400-500 square feet. My studio at 250 is small but very secure and well-maintained. IMO that's the way to go - smaller but with decent quality.

If only housing supply weren't so artificially restricted by the city and NIMBY's, my studio would rent for half of what it does. You have to wonder how they expect your average person to get ahead. Thankfully I'm blessed with a good job, but many aren't.

It it werent we would have a city close to size of NYC, Hong Kong or Tokyo on west coast. Mountain areas and coastal areas could be still kept less developed. They would just have to improve public transit well above and beyond and push more incentive to employers to build offices in the city than suburban campuses.