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I too noticed that. Cities with least price increases: Austin, Raleigh, Atlanta, Vegas, Charlotte, Phoenix...all of them in states leaning Republican. Cities

I too noticed that. Cities with least price increases: Austin, Raleigh, Atlanta, Vegas, Charlotte, Phoenix...all of them in states leaning Republican. Cities with most price increases: San Jose, Boston, NYC, LA, Seattle, San Diego, DC... all of them in states leaning Democratic. Could it be because of the parties' philosophies about regulations? Conservatives would let you build without much hassle, thus letting supply meet demand. Liberals, on the other hand, would regulate and constrain the supply. Apart from political ideologies, what could be other possible reasons for such disparity?

ethanjdiamond 10y ago
Coastal vs. Noncoastal
- santaclaus 10y ago
  Raleigh and Charlotte are in a coastal state...
  - danielvf 10y ago
    Yeah, but not coastal cities. (We probably also need to specifiy coastal cites with restricted building area as well, since Houston is a major port.)
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
graeme 10y ago
Aren't all the cities in the latter group already dense than the former group? I didn't check all of them, but these are the least dense cities in the second group, in people per sq mile: 1. San Jose: 5000 2. San Diego: 4000 LA is 8000. NYC is 28000. For the former, "build without hassle" group, here are the highest densities 1. Atlanta: 3360 2. Austin: 3358 3. Raleigh: 3158 4. Phoenix: 3025 Las Vegas is 1659, Charlotte is 2720. ------------- I pulled the numbers from Wikipedia. Here's an alternate theory: the cities in the second list are pretty full. So costs go up, despite the fact that the cities are unusually dense. Further, it's impossible to build NYC in modern America. Zoning laws now require more sprawl. The cities in the first list are mostly building low density housing. (Hint: even tall buildings neighborhoods can be low density if built wrong.)
- skybrian 10y ago
  And that's the problem. Supposedly high density in U.S. cities isn't all that high. They're nowhere near "full" (what does that mean when you can build taller buildings) but zoning laws prevent growth.
  - mountaineer22 10y ago
    There is more to it than just adding enclosed space. Where does all the extra water come from? Where does the extra sewage get processed? Where do you bury the extra garbage?
  - graeme 10y ago
    Eh. I feel like this conversation is lacking basic statistics. San Francisco: 18,451 Tokyo: 16,000 San Francisco is not all that high, but denser than Tokyo. Cities don't need to be high to be dense. That's one of the biggest misconceptions. Most of the world's high density cities don't do so by using skyscrapers. The actual problem? I think it comes down to two factors: 1. Almost all density in NA was built pre-car 2. So density is limited by the size of areas that were built in the pre-car area. Taller buildings isn't necessarily the answer. Narrower streets is a larger determinant of density. But it's very hard to tear down streets, make them narrower and add new buildings. It's especially hard to rebuild the suburbs around cities like San Francisco and make them more San Francisco-like. If the whole Bay area was built like SF, there would be no silicon valley rent crisis. Yet for some reason everyone focuses on SF. I'm writing this in Montreal, a city built like SF. It's infuriating that this whole debate happens without people googling density stats. How many people would have guessed that SF is denser than Tokyo, per square mile? Tokyo is bigger, and holds more people, because the Japanese have sensible zoning. But "tall buildings" is not how they do it over the whole span of the megalopolis.
    - khuey 10y ago
      Your 16000 (people per square mile) number for Tokyo must be for the whole prefecture, because the actual city (the 23 wards) is significantly more dense. Wikipedia tells me roughly 37000.
tamana 10y ago
The cities lean Democratic, even in Republican states. In general, less population density , small homogenous towns ,leans Republican, and high density, where people encounter more people less like themselves, lean Democrat. The most expensive citiesare coastal cities that have geographical barriers to growth.
majormajor 10y ago
Austin and Atlanta themselves definitely don't lean Republican. NC cities are reportedly getting much more Democrat-leaning as well, though I haven't kept in touch with the people I know Raleigh/Charlotte for a while. Remember this is the same Austin that Uber is decrying for over-regulation compared to other cities.

ethanjdiamond 10y ago

Coastal vs. Noncoastal

santaclaus 10y ago
Raleigh and Charlotte are in a coastal state...
- danielvf 10y ago
  Yeah, but not coastal cities. (We probably also need to specifiy coastal cites with restricted building area as well, since Houston is a major port.)

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

graeme 10y ago

Aren't all the cities in the latter group already dense than the former group? I didn't check all of them, but these are the least dense cities in the second group, in people per sq mile: 1. San Jose: 5000 2. San Diego: 4000 LA is 8000. NYC is 28000. For the former, "build without hassle" group, here are the highest densities 1. Atlanta: 3360 2. Austin: 3358 3. Raleigh: 3158 4. Phoenix: 3025 Las Vegas is 1659, Charlotte is 2720. ------------- I pulled the numbers from Wikipedia. Here's an alternate theory: the cities in the second list are pretty full. So costs go up, despite the fact that the cities are unusually dense. Further, it's impossible to build NYC in modern America. Zoning laws now require more sprawl. The cities in the first list are mostly building low density housing. (Hint: even tall buildings neighborhoods can be low density if built wrong.)

skybrian 10y ago
And that's the problem. Supposedly high density in U.S. cities isn't all that high. They're nowhere near "full" (what does that mean when you can build taller buildings) but zoning laws prevent growth.
- mountaineer22 10y ago
  There is more to it than just adding enclosed space. Where does all the extra water come from? Where does the extra sewage get processed? Where do you bury the extra garbage?
- graeme 10y ago
  Eh. I feel like this conversation is lacking basic statistics. San Francisco: 18,451 Tokyo: 16,000 San Francisco is not all that high, but denser than Tokyo. Cities don't need to be high to be dense. That's one of the biggest misconceptions. Most of the world's high density cities don't do so by using skyscrapers. The actual problem? I think it comes down to two factors: 1. Almost all density in NA was built pre-car 2. So density is limited by the size of areas that were built in the pre-car area. Taller buildings isn't necessarily the answer. Narrower streets is a larger determinant of density. But it's very hard to tear down streets, make them narrower and add new buildings. It's especially hard to rebuild the suburbs around cities like San Francisco and make them more San Francisco-like. If the whole Bay area was built like SF, there would be no silicon valley rent crisis. Yet for some reason everyone focuses on SF. I'm writing this in Montreal, a city built like SF. It's infuriating that this whole debate happens without people googling density stats. How many people would have guessed that SF is denser than Tokyo, per square mile? Tokyo is bigger, and holds more people, because the Japanese have sensible zoning. But "tall buildings" is not how they do it over the whole span of the megalopolis.
  - khuey 10y ago
    Your 16000 (people per square mile) number for Tokyo must be for the whole prefecture, because the actual city (the 23 wards) is significantly more dense. Wikipedia tells me roughly 37000.

tamana 10y ago

The cities lean Democratic, even in Republican states. In general, less population density , small homogenous towns ,leans Republican, and high density, where people encounter more people less like themselves, lean Democrat. The most expensive citiesare coastal cities that have geographical barriers to growth.

majormajor 10y ago

Austin and Atlanta themselves definitely don't lean Republican. NC cities are reportedly getting much more Democrat-leaning as well, though I haven't kept in touch with the people I know Raleigh/Charlotte for a while. Remember this is the same Austin that Uber is decrying for over-regulation compared to other cities.