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<< Seattle refuses to add density- a common pattern on the west coast it seems. This is utterly and preposterously false. There are huge apartment and condomi

<< Seattle refuses to add density- a common pattern on the west coast it seems. This is utterly and preposterously false. There are huge apartment and condominium complexes going up all over town. Ballard has been strip mined and turned into a virtual Las Vegas strip of luxury apartments. Capitol Hill has been strip mined and turned into block after block of luxury apartments. I've visited the web sites of nearly all these buildings, and with the exception of projects by Capitol Hill Housing Authority, it's virtually all been built for people with high incomes. The fact that so much housing has been built for solely for wealthy people is really, really, really central to the argument against gentrification. Gentrification says "Hey, if your community doesn't have have money, it doesn't exist. If it doesn't exist, we don't even have to erase it. You'll just be gone and no one will care." This is an incredibly destructive ( often totally racist ) message, and it's really at the heart of the problems that arise with income inequality.

fjsolwmv 9y ago
Look to the east coast or even Vancouver to see what a "huge" building is.
- esmi 9y ago
  Speaking of changing cities with “huge” buildings; the before pic is 1990 which is just incredible, to me anyway. http://www.businessinsider.com/shanghai-growth-gif-2014-11?r=UK&IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com/shanghai-growth-gif-2014-11?r... The tallest in the “now” image is this building. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower
- cperciva 9y ago
  Not Vancouver. Vancouver's suburbs. In downtown Vancouver people are complaining that 30 floor condo towers are too tall, and outside of the downtown core even getting past 10 floors is rare; in Burnaby there's 30 towers of 45+ floors built or planned within a 1 km radius.
OrwellianChild 9y ago
I'm glad you brought this up, as it lets me help clarify a few points of contention: 1) When a city has constrained housing supply, wealthy people compete in lower tiers of the housing market, driving up prices. Building more luxury homes allows those people to stop bidding up mid-tier homes, taking some of the pressure off the housing market at large. Thus, while it might not feel like it, those luxury homes are a good thing for Seattle's housing market. The concept is called "filtering" and you can read more about it here. [1][2] 2) While it seems like Seattle is awash with cranes and construction is running rampant, it's surprisingly not enough to keep up with population/job growth. There have been so many people showing up in the city that housing stock just hasn't been able to keep up. Something like 20K people in the last year and only ~6K housing units. This is a large part of the housing problem in general, and there's nothing to be done but build even more (and make it easier to build, through re-zoning and densification). [1] http://cityobservatory.org/what-filtering-can-and-cant-do/ http://cityobservatory.org/what-filtering-can-and-cant-do/ [2] http://cityobservatory.org/how-luxury-housing-becomes-affordable/ http://cityobservatory.org/how-luxury-housing-becomes-afford...
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  I rented an apartment just last month and, at least for downtown Bellevue, the rental market is surprisingly weak because of all the new supply that has been coming online. Not enough to drive prices lower, but enough that rents weren't rising and many properties were even doing incentives. Not sure if this generalizes to Seattle, and it is downtown Bellevue, which isn't a very happening place.
  - stephengillie 9y ago
    The advantage to living in Bellevue is that, after 7pm Seattle is just 20 minutes away. (Before 7 it's about an hour away.) There certainly are luxury apartments in Bellevue for cheaper than Seattle + 520 tolling.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      I have a baby, and getting to Seattle is just a dream so far. The only thing I've managed is to visit my aunt in West Seattle on a Sunday. Bellevue is boring as hell, but a great place to entertain and service a 9 month while staying close to job oppurtunities (though their is a lot more in Seattle these days then their ever was in the mid 90s when I was attending UW).
yahna 9y ago
As opposed to what, fuck you someone else was here first?

fjsolwmv 9y ago

Look to the east coast or even Vancouver to see what a "huge" building is.

esmi 9y ago
Speaking of changing cities with “huge” buildings; the before pic is 1990 which is just incredible, to me anyway. http://www.businessinsider.com/shanghai-growth-gif-2014-11?r=UK&IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com/shanghai-growth-gif-2014-11?r... The tallest in the “now” image is this building. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower
cperciva 9y ago
Not Vancouver. Vancouver's suburbs. In downtown Vancouver people are complaining that 30 floor condo towers are too tall, and outside of the downtown core even getting past 10 floors is rare; in Burnaby there's 30 towers of 45+ floors built or planned within a 1 km radius.

OrwellianChild 9y ago

I'm glad you brought this up, as it lets me help clarify a few points of contention: 1) When a city has constrained housing supply, wealthy people compete in lower tiers of the housing market, driving up prices. Building more luxury homes allows those people to stop bidding up mid-tier homes, taking some of the pressure off the housing market at large. Thus, while it might not feel like it, those luxury homes are a good thing for Seattle's housing market. The concept is called "filtering" and you can read more about it here. [1][2] 2) While it seems like Seattle is awash with cranes and construction is running rampant, it's surprisingly not enough to keep up with population/job growth. There have been so many people showing up in the city that housing stock just hasn't been able to keep up. Something like 20K people in the last year and only ~6K housing units. This is a large part of the housing problem in general, and there's nothing to be done but build even more (and make it easier to build, through re-zoning and densification). [1] http://cityobservatory.org/what-filtering-can-and-cant-do/ http://cityobservatory.org/what-filtering-can-and-cant-do/ [2] http://cityobservatory.org/how-luxury-housing-becomes-affordable/ http://cityobservatory.org/how-luxury-housing-becomes-afford...

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
I rented an apartment just last month and, at least for downtown Bellevue, the rental market is surprisingly weak because of all the new supply that has been coming online. Not enough to drive prices lower, but enough that rents weren't rising and many properties were even doing incentives. Not sure if this generalizes to Seattle, and it is downtown Bellevue, which isn't a very happening place.
- stephengillie 9y ago
  The advantage to living in Bellevue is that, after 7pm Seattle is just 20 minutes away. (Before 7 it's about an hour away.) There certainly are luxury apartments in Bellevue for cheaper than Seattle + 520 tolling.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    I have a baby, and getting to Seattle is just a dream so far. The only thing I've managed is to visit my aunt in West Seattle on a Sunday. Bellevue is boring as hell, but a great place to entertain and service a 9 month while staying close to job oppurtunities (though their is a lot more in Seattle these days then their ever was in the mid 90s when I was attending UW).

yahna 9y ago

As opposed to what, fuck you someone else was here first?