4 ms·

> are surrounded by communities that like their low density housing This is changing; Facebook is sponsoring 1500 units, 300 affordable, in Menlo Park, Mountai

> are surrounded by communities that like their low density housing This is changing; Facebook is sponsoring 1500 units, 300 affordable, in Menlo Park, Mountain View also becoming more welcoming of new housing, they recently approved 10,000 units in the North Bayshore area. Cupertino (where Apple is located) continues to distinguish itself in a bad way; they approved 11,000 new office spaces for Apple without any corresponding increase in housing, and routinely send people to San Jose city council meetings in an attempt to block housing on San Jose land. > The best solution, IMHO, is to improve public transit Again, there are promising developments here. Facebook sponsored a Dumbarton Corridor study, and all of the tech companies are throwing their money behind a new bridge tax ballot measure that would raise money for public transit. http://www.greencaltrain.com/2017/08/dumbarton-corridor-study-needs-review-august-meetings/ http://www.greencaltrain.com/2017/08/dumbarton-corridor-stud...

londons_explore 9y ago
All those numbers seem very small... Wouldn't we be needing something more like 1 Million new units to fully satisfy demand for housing and bring prices back to levels similar to the rest of the USA? A 30x30 grid of 100 story residential towers with 10 apartments per floor would nicely solve your issue...
- kevinburke 9y ago
  Yes, they are, but they're better than doing nothing, which is what has been happening for a while.
- bb611 9y ago
  There are only ~20 buildings of 100+ stories in the world. The tallest building in the Bay Area is the Salesforce Tower at 61 stories, and there are only ~50 buildings in SF that hit 400 feet, which is about 1/3 the height required to hit 100 stories. *All stats from wikipedia So in theory they would solve the issue, it's just that your solution dwarfs the number of humanity's 100 story buildings by a factor of almost 50.
- ThrustVectoring 9y ago
  You don't need 100 story residential towers. Put in 3 or 4 floor rowhouses up against the sidewalk and there's more than enough room. The issue is zoning regulations that make cheap enough and dense enough housing illegal.

londons_explore 9y ago

All those numbers seem very small... Wouldn't we be needing something more like 1 Million new units to fully satisfy demand for housing and bring prices back to levels similar to the rest of the USA? A 30x30 grid of 100 story residential towers with 10 apartments per floor would nicely solve your issue...

kevinburke 9y ago
Yes, they are, but they're better than doing nothing, which is what has been happening for a while.
bb611 9y ago
There are only ~20 buildings of 100+ stories in the world. The tallest building in the Bay Area is the Salesforce Tower at 61 stories, and there are only ~50 buildings in SF that hit 400 feet, which is about 1/3 the height required to hit 100 stories. *All stats from wikipedia So in theory they would solve the issue, it's just that your solution dwarfs the number of humanity's 100 story buildings by a factor of almost 50.
ThrustVectoring 9y ago
You don't need 100 story residential towers. Put in 3 or 4 floor rowhouses up against the sidewalk and there's more than enough room. The issue is zoning regulations that make cheap enough and dense enough housing illegal.