8 ms·
(Dec 13, 2017) - This is a great start. But I think we really need more like 100,000 new units built. Just to help reverse some of the astronomical housing pri
by salimmadjd 9y ago
(Dec 13, 2017) -
This is a great start. But I think we really need more like 100,000 new units built. Just to help reverse some of the astronomical housing prices.
I have no idea how a teacher would be able to live in SV and plan to have a family and everything else. At this rate, the housing costs are unsustainable. We wont be able to have a functioning city with all the needed staffing like teachers, nurses, sellers, etc.
I'm rather disappointed by lack of vision from SV and SV companies in this regard.
Apple has enough money that they could buy a huge block of land across the hills in Santa Cruz county. Build a large housing community of 10,000+ and hire the boring company to dig tunnel connecting that community to their new campus. Probably using autonomous electric shuttles.
That kind of housing project probably lessens the salary demands and I would imagine the project could not only pay for itself in 5-10 years, but it could also help increase Apple's retention rate.
- moonman272 9y agoIt’s not the industries issue, it’s the NIMBYism that has been at the heart of the Bay Area for decades, especially the peninsula.
- freyr 9y agoDespite the reputation of the Bay Area as a liberal and progressive region, the reality is that almost everyone who “makes it” here quickly changes their tune to “I got mine, now screw you.”
- epistasis 9y agoUnfortunately Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz have anti-housing factions similar to everywhere else in the Bay Area, and the pro-housing faction is in earlier stages of organization than in the Bay Area. Scotts Valley City Council actually had a member say in open meeting that they don't want "those type of people" living there, in reference to renters and presumably others without the means to buy a home. Santa Cruz is similarly non-inclusive, and both are extremely homogenous communities that tend to scare away the typical racial diversity seen in a tech company. Many people of color in tech I've met say they simply don't feel welcome here like they do in the Bay Area. Santa Cruz also has a green belt. But instead of encouraging density and all the environmental benefits of density, the aging political crew that enacted it now prefer sprawl, since they have their single family single story homes that continue to appreciate at astronomical rates. (At least until the homes are bought as tear-downs and replaced with single-family two story homes that extend to all corners of the property to maximize square footage.) But if anybody can change attitudes, it's probably Apple or Google.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- salimmadjd 9y agowhy can't someone buy enough land and incorporate their own city?
- chii 9y agoyou mean like how Disney made Disneyland? you'd need quite a large amount.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- DaiPlusPlus 9y agoI'm hoping there will be more land-reclamation projects from the Pacific or even inside the Bay itself. Maybe that's Ellon's plan: use Tunnel Boring machines to make transport tunnels, and use the extracted earth to push back the coastline to make more habitable land!
- nradov 9y agoNo let's not wreck the marine environment. The coastal waters are a very sensitive ecosystem. People can live elsewhere.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> why can't someone buy enough land and incorporate their own city? Because you can't just incorporate your own city because you own land. In California, you need to convince the Local Agency Formation Commission for the county you are in, and, if your land is in an existing city, also a supermajority of the residents both of the land you own and the existing city from which you are splitting.
- ryandrake 9y agoI would stand up and oppose dense urban housing plopped down in the middle my suburban single-family home neighborhood, too. I guess that makes me an evil, dirty NIMBY, but oh well, I'll live with the label. When your message is "dense urban is the only acceptable way to live" don't be surprised when people who don't want their neighborhoods to turn into apartment complexes push back.
- kekeblom 9y agoThe problem is that most people making the decisions own one or more units. If they decided to build more housing, the value of their investments would decline.
- closeparen 9y agoI'm not sure this is true - the value of their land would skyrocket if rezoned for a more productive use.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- naravara 9y agoInstead of selling one $6M mansion, they could sell a multi-unit building with $30M worth of condos though.
- thaumasiotes 9y ago> I have no idea how a teacher would be able to live in SV and plan to have a family and everything else. The math teacher at my high school in Santa Cruz was a retired electrical engineer with a Ph.D. from Stanford. There's no rule that says teachers need to make a living from teaching. It's known for being pleasant work. Granted, the school hasn't pursued that strategy since then...
- tormeh 9y agoTeaching? Pleasant work? I've tried it and it's worse than the ops job I have now. Very stressful. Even teachers I know agree. You do get long vacations to compensate, but it's not all good.
- thaumasiotes 9y agoYes, many, many people enjoy working and generally interacting with the children. The vacations are a perk, but they're not even the primary perk.
- Bahamut 9y agoNot sure where you get pleasant perk from - a lot of teachers I know are often working 12 hour days.
- adrianN 9y agoEvery job we as a society want done should pay a living wage. Teaching children definitely is one of them.
- thaumasiotes 9y agoIf retirees prefer teaching to watching TV, and everyone is happy with their performance as teachers, they should be stopped from doing it because somebody else could have earned more doing the same work less satisfactorily?
- distances 9y ago
- briandear 9y agoGiven the San Andreas fault, I am not sure I want to be riding in a Santa Cruz mountain tunnel. Why not instead just run high speed commuter rail to the Central Valley? A maglev or something? Definitely far more immediately useful than that San Fran — Los Angeles boondoggle.
- DrScump 9y agoHeck, they could just build rail over the old South Pacific Coast railroad right of way. I've hiked it from Felton to the coast; it's gorgeous.
- dredmorbius 9y agoGeorgian Land Tax. Kill the asset appreciation, encourage density.