The housing problem in the bay area has nothing to do with space. There's plenty of space in most places, or at least enough room for greater density. Even as

The housing problem in the bay area has nothing to do with space. There's plenty of space in most places, or at least enough room for greater density. Even as far out as Fairfield, you can see miles and miles of empty space, and yet all the stupid little houses are bunched up into a tiny little lot, surrounded by nothing but land. The problem, as you said, is land use policy and regulations. All these rent control rules drive up the cost of building more housing, further constraining supply, causing even greater rent control... It's a downward spiral of epic proportions. The true root of the problem is a lack of basic economic education. I've been viewing my voter election material, and there are countless politicians who freely admit that they've been "preserving open spaces", "preventing new construction and building" and even bragging about it! This tells you something about the general public: they don't understand (or believe in) the first thing about supply and demand. They just don't understand that more regulation leads to less supply, which leads to even higher housing prices.