4 ms·

Yeah, that's the irony of other cities trying to compete with Silicon Valley. If a city succeeds at this and a lot of well-paid engineers move there, that city

Yeah, that's the irony of other cities trying to compete with Silicon Valley. If a city succeeds at this and a lot of well-paid engineers move there, that city will end up a lot like Silicon Valley, including the high housing prices and the traffic.

bproven 9y ago
well, mainly the problem is the city doesn't prepare for it. For example, not keeping up with housing demand, public transit demand etc. THEN you get the bay area ;)
- Tempest1981 9y ago
  And if you try to tax businesses to pay for infrastructure, they threaten to leave the state. And businesses barely pay employees enough to afford a mortgage, or even rent, so you can't tax the residents. How do we get our infrastructure?
  - kerbalspacepro 9y ago
    The private market will make the housing available and keep rent low, which you can then serve with infrastructure via. property tax. San Fransisco and other coastal cities are the only ones that haven't figured out to just build homes.
    - bproven 9y ago
      Well, I think they have, but there is a vested interest in keeping the housing prices high. And as much as I hate it, I do understand it. CA asked for this problem and now it will be hard to reverse. What would you do if you had millions of dollars tied up in your home and it was your only asset of value? Argh- I'll save myself some typing :) - I commented on this here on another post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16540488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16540488
tjr225 9y ago
The worlds population has gone from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.6 billion in 2017. This will keep happening. This is not California's fault.
- doctorless 9y ago
  Except that most of the places in the world that were responsible for that population boom have vastly decreased in children per family as of late.
pascalxus 9y ago
As long as those new liberals don't outnumber the existing population, they should continue to allow for growth and hence housing won't be a problem. Housing doesn't get expensive because highly paid workers go there. Housing gets expensive because voters and politicians don't allow enough housing to be built (lack of supply).

bproven 9y ago

well, mainly the problem is the city doesn't prepare for it. For example, not keeping up with housing demand, public transit demand etc. THEN you get the bay area ;)

Tempest1981 9y ago
And if you try to tax businesses to pay for infrastructure, they threaten to leave the state. And businesses barely pay employees enough to afford a mortgage, or even rent, so you can't tax the residents. How do we get our infrastructure?
- kerbalspacepro 9y ago
  The private market will make the housing available and keep rent low, which you can then serve with infrastructure via. property tax. San Fransisco and other coastal cities are the only ones that haven't figured out to just build homes.
  - bproven 9y ago
    Well, I think they have, but there is a vested interest in keeping the housing prices high. And as much as I hate it, I do understand it. CA asked for this problem and now it will be hard to reverse. What would you do if you had millions of dollars tied up in your home and it was your only asset of value? Argh- I'll save myself some typing :) - I commented on this here on another post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16540488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16540488

tjr225 9y ago

The worlds population has gone from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.6 billion in 2017. This will keep happening. This is not California's fault.

doctorless 9y ago
Except that most of the places in the world that were responsible for that population boom have vastly decreased in children per family as of late.

pascalxus 9y ago

As long as those new liberals don't outnumber the existing population, they should continue to allow for growth and hence housing won't be a problem. Housing doesn't get expensive because highly paid workers go there. Housing gets expensive because voters and politicians don't allow enough housing to be built (lack of supply).