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Americans think government is evil and all that. So there's no government rescue plan to build more housing because that's commie talk. So everyone's waiting fo

by Feniks 9y ago

Americans think government is evil and all that. So there's no government rescue plan to build more housing because that's commie talk. So everyone's waiting for the market to fix it.

davidw 9y ago
The market would absolutely produce more housing in a lot of places were there not a ton of regulations in place to stop it from doing so. And I don't write that as a fingers-in-ears, market-will-solve-all-problems libertarian, but as a fairly left-wing guy.
- JBlue42 9y ago
  There has to be an incentive for real estate developers. There's a project at my former company that will redevelop a part of downtown SF. There was a massive back and forth and iterations that had to be done because the numbers guy at the real estate development company wanted to cut out all residential since commercial would be more profitable. Those are the people you have to incentivize to make it work.
  - davidw 9y ago
    What SF probably needs is not huge projects downtown, but more incremental growth further out. In Europe, in a city that size, you'd see a lot more 4/5/6 story development, rather than the huge skyscrapers downtown and then 1/2/3 story in a lot of residential areas.
    - JBlue42 9y ago
      I agree. Same in LA. I was merely pointing out things I heard directly from people working with a major real estate developer there. I know from the design side that there was a major fight to try and get in some sort of affordable residential vs what the developer was hearing from their number crunchers.
      - davidw 9y ago
        Yeah, stuff in SF is complex. Could be that, yeah, if they decided to add some residential, they got more NIMBY pushback, or some kind of requirement to add N% 'affordable' that made it pencil out as less profitable.
        JBlue42 9y ago
        It's possible but honestly I don't think that's a factor only that commercial real estate in downtown SF is going to get them more bang for their buck right now. Their timeline is looking 5-10 years out so they have their shit together (as well as experience) to deal with SF stuff.
SiVal 9y ago
You really think the problem of refusing to build more housing in San Francisco would be solved if only you could get rid of the right-wingers who have run the place for years? Oh if only leftists had a chance to run the government for a change, they'd build plenty of housing, but the right-wingers who have made all their policies for years call that "commie talk"....

by Feniks 9y ago

Americans think government is evil and all that. So there's no government rescue plan to build more housing because that's commie talk. So everyone's waiting for the market to fix it.

davidw 9y ago

The market would absolutely produce more housing in a lot of places were there not a ton of regulations in place to stop it from doing so. And I don't write that as a fingers-in-ears, market-will-solve-all-problems libertarian, but as a fairly left-wing guy.

JBlue42 9y ago
There has to be an incentive for real estate developers. There's a project at my former company that will redevelop a part of downtown SF. There was a massive back and forth and iterations that had to be done because the numbers guy at the real estate development company wanted to cut out all residential since commercial would be more profitable. Those are the people you have to incentivize to make it work.
- davidw 9y ago
  What SF probably needs is not huge projects downtown, but more incremental growth further out. In Europe, in a city that size, you'd see a lot more 4/5/6 story development, rather than the huge skyscrapers downtown and then 1/2/3 story in a lot of residential areas.
  - JBlue42 9y ago
    I agree. Same in LA. I was merely pointing out things I heard directly from people working with a major real estate developer there. I know from the design side that there was a major fight to try and get in some sort of affordable residential vs what the developer was hearing from their number crunchers.
    - davidw 9y ago
      Yeah, stuff in SF is complex. Could be that, yeah, if they decided to add some residential, they got more NIMBY pushback, or some kind of requirement to add N% 'affordable' that made it pencil out as less profitable.
      - JBlue42 9y ago
        It's possible but honestly I don't think that's a factor only that commercial real estate in downtown SF is going to get them more bang for their buck right now. Their timeline is looking 5-10 years out so they have their shit together (as well as experience) to deal with SF stuff.

SiVal 9y ago

You really think the problem of refusing to build more housing in San Francisco would be solved if only you could get rid of the right-wingers who have run the place for years? Oh if only leftists had a chance to run the government for a change, they'd build plenty of housing, but the right-wingers who have made all their policies for years call that "commie talk"....