4 ms·

I live in LA, and I wonder often about the future of housing for this city. With the population doubling by 2050, something needs to be done. A few ideas could

by LAMike 9y ago

I live in LA, and I wonder often about the future of housing for this city. With the population doubling by 2050, something needs to be done. A few ideas could help: - Self driving cars (live in Palmdale) - Tiny Homes/ADU's - Rezone parking lots (significant portion of LA)

lsc 9y ago
>Tiny Homes/ADU's Mobile homes (and all the 'tiny homes' I've seen are smaller and cooler "mobile homes") are great for quickly putting up housing in undeveloped places. I think they are less good for higher density options. Personally? I really like the idea of condo or apartment towers that are built to modern luxury condo standards... but have smaller units, and are priced accordingly. I'm in Silicon Valley, and all the new construction is luxury grade, which is fine; I like my insulation, climate control and especially my sound insulation, and I'm willing to pay for these things, but... the problem is that all the units are also really big; I'd be really happy to pay 60% of what they are charging for half the space. What I'm saying here is that I think that the 'tiny home' movement needs to move up. build us 'tiny condos' and I'll buy one!
- closeparen 9y ago
  The standard “luxury” high-rise studio is 500 square feet. A one bedroom is maybe 700-900. Is that really unreasonable? Most “luxury” multi family buildings use that word because the historical norm is that apartments only exist to cheaply house the poor. It just means they’re comparable in quality to suburban middle class houses (or are pretending to be).
  - lsc 9y ago
    > The standard “luxury” high-rise studio is 500 square feet. A one bedroom is maybe 700-900. Is that really unreasonable? first, just finding high rise studios built in the last two decades is really rough. Like I can't find any in silicon valley that aren't giant "lofts" that approach 1000sqft. Hell, the smallest studio I can find looking around now is the place I lived in redwood city; it was shit, built in the '60s, with a giant single pane window facing a major street near an intersection, so you could listen to all the people who have managed to disable the noise dampening capabilities of their vehicles. 600sqft. And it felt huge. I mean, not that I mind the extra space, but I totally would have given up a couple hundred square feet just for some decent noise insulation. But... as to the actual question? if you made it proportionally cheaper? I'd totally buy or rent a 300sqft space with a shower and bathroom, if it were priced proportionally. Ideally, you setup the shower and commode in the same enclosure, japanese style, and then have the sink in the apartment. The problem right now is that usually if you want to pay for less than 600sqft of space, you end up sharing some wreak of a single family home with five other people. or you live in a smaller studio built before double pane windows, with no thought given to isolating you from your neighbors. I kinda like having public places; I'm a member of a few clubs, including 'the hacker dojo' in mountain view, and I do move some of my life there. I enjoy interacting with other people, but I need some private space, even if it's a small private space. I've lived in shared houses, and with the right people, it's okay, but it's really nice to have your own adytum to withdraw into, where you don't have to see or hear anyone. >Most “luxury” multi family buildings use that word because the historical norm is that apartments only exist to cheaply house the poor. It just means they’re comparable in quality to suburban middle class houses (or are pretending to be). I don't think that's true in silicon valley; most single family homes around here were built to working class standards in the '60s and '70s and are all around pretty terrible. For someone as soft as I am, they'd be intolerable if the climate was not such that you could sleep in a tent, and they are intolerable if you live in the flight path of the local airport or otherwise have significant noise outside. (I'm in a somewhat more modern place right now, on the approach to SJC, with triple pane windows. It's super loud if you open the windows, but if you button up, it's nice and quiet.)
    - closeparen 9y ago
      You might be interested in 77 Bluxome which does micro-studios in a mid-rise in SF [0]. Popped up in my apartment search a few times. Too small for me, might be closer to what you're looking for. But no apartment is going to be as cheap as splitting a house 6 ways: demand for an apartment of any kind vastly exceeds demand for marginal square feet, and the kitchen and bathroom imply certain fixed costs to split. Silicon Valley communities are deeply attached to their lack of high-rise construction and fight to keep it that way. Call your representatives to support SB 827 if you want to see ~8 stories along the Caltrain corridor. [0] http://www.equityapartments.com/san-francisco-bay/soma/77-bluxome-apartments http://www.equityapartments.com/san-francisco-bay/soma/77-bl...
      - lsc 9y ago
        That looks like about what I'm talking about, though I'd prefer it to be a condo, and to be in silicon valley proper; I'm not really cool enough to work in San Francisco and am intolerant of commutes. If we built more apartments, assuming people really do prefer to live in single family homes, I'd assume that apartments would get cheaper compared to single family homes, just because land is such a large portion of the cost of anything around here, and single family homes are usually single story around here. I've been following Scott Wiener on twitter, and yeah, I should do something.
    - sjg007 9y ago
      Ear plugs and heavy duty curtains should help.
      - closeparen 9y ago
        Ear plugs aren’t magic. They are appropriate to make dangerous noise levels tolerable, but don’t do much to remove the distracting information encoded in already-moderate sounds. They also reflect the sounds of my own body back into me, which practically guarantees insomnia. A white noise source is much more effective. (I use a box fan). Still not great against bass-heavy music next door but makes me pretty much impervious to street noise.
      - 9y ago
- sjg007 9y ago
  There are a ton of strip malls that can be redeveloped as mixed use. The one issue would be parking, but if you can forgo a car or uber/rent one as needed then it might work.
  - lsc 9y ago
    huh. My impression was that strip malls are almost entirely parking. they are usually single story and relatively small, compared to their parking lots. Silicon valley also lacks food places (which is what most new things in those strip malls are) - I mean, going from one story to three or five, with the ground floor remaining food service sounds great to me, but there's not much of the existing structure you would want to keep.
WillPostForFood 9y ago
Build better transportation to support density, then add density. But to add density first on the promise of improved transportation has led to the traffic mess of today.
- bfung 9y ago
  That certainly is an ideal, however, consider it in an economics point of view: There's no need to spend more money on transportation if there's not the amount of people to pay and ride on it. The unknown here is if the population density will ever go up to support a new system being paid for, now. Adding density first proves demand, and although messy, transportation would NEED to improve somehow.
  - skookumchuck 9y ago
    Build it, and they will come!
- lsc 9y ago
  Yeah, you need transport. Historically speaking, this has been a chicken-and-egg problem; to get density high enough for reasonable public transit, it needs to be practical to get by without a car. To get by without a car, you need reasonable public transit. Usually people build transit nobody will use in hopes that people will then build housing. We've got an opportunity right now in silicon valley to do it the other way around, because ridsharing in silicon valley is so good that it's totally practical for an upper middle class person to live without a car (I got rid of mine about a year ago) - this means that you can talk me into renting a place that doesn't have parking. Now, hear me out. Yes, I know uber being cheap is temporary, but this presents a unique, i think, opportunity to build housing without parking first, and then generate demand for public transit, rather than the other way around as you suggest. Now, remember that in Silicon Valley, at least, the people who get into new housing are usually well off. If you can afford the rent on a newly built unit, uber is cheap for you, and you have the political power of an upper middle class person. Build the housing on a rail line; which I think is standard practice, but right now we build housing and a giant parking structure. The opportunity right now is that the rail line is not an alternative to a car, but uber + the rail line is - you can use that to start with the egg rather than the chicken. Build the housing next to transit without car parking spaces, and then let the residents agitate for better public transit once uber starts charging profitable prices.

by LAMike 9y ago

lsc 9y ago

>Tiny Homes/ADU's Mobile homes (and all the 'tiny homes' I've seen are smaller and cooler "mobile homes") are great for quickly putting up housing in undeveloped places. I think they are less good for higher density options. Personally? I really like the idea of condo or apartment towers that are built to modern luxury condo standards... but have smaller units, and are priced accordingly. I'm in Silicon Valley, and all the new construction is luxury grade, which is fine; I like my insulation, climate control and especially my sound insulation, and I'm willing to pay for these things, but... the problem is that all the units are also really big; I'd be really happy to pay 60% of what they are charging for half the space. What I'm saying here is that I think that the 'tiny home' movement needs to move up. build us 'tiny condos' and I'll buy one!

closeparen 9y ago
The standard “luxury” high-rise studio is 500 square feet. A one bedroom is maybe 700-900. Is that really unreasonable? Most “luxury” multi family buildings use that word because the historical norm is that apartments only exist to cheaply house the poor. It just means they’re comparable in quality to suburban middle class houses (or are pretending to be).
- lsc 9y ago
  > The standard “luxury” high-rise studio is 500 square feet. A one bedroom is maybe 700-900. Is that really unreasonable? first, just finding high rise studios built in the last two decades is really rough. Like I can't find any in silicon valley that aren't giant "lofts" that approach 1000sqft. Hell, the smallest studio I can find looking around now is the place I lived in redwood city; it was shit, built in the '60s, with a giant single pane window facing a major street near an intersection, so you could listen to all the people who have managed to disable the noise dampening capabilities of their vehicles. 600sqft. And it felt huge. I mean, not that I mind the extra space, but I totally would have given up a couple hundred square feet just for some decent noise insulation. But... as to the actual question? if you made it proportionally cheaper? I'd totally buy or rent a 300sqft space with a shower and bathroom, if it were priced proportionally. Ideally, you setup the shower and commode in the same enclosure, japanese style, and then have the sink in the apartment. The problem right now is that usually if you want to pay for less than 600sqft of space, you end up sharing some wreak of a single family home with five other people. or you live in a smaller studio built before double pane windows, with no thought given to isolating you from your neighbors. I kinda like having public places; I'm a member of a few clubs, including 'the hacker dojo' in mountain view, and I do move some of my life there. I enjoy interacting with other people, but I need some private space, even if it's a small private space. I've lived in shared houses, and with the right people, it's okay, but it's really nice to have your own adytum to withdraw into, where you don't have to see or hear anyone. >Most “luxury” multi family buildings use that word because the historical norm is that apartments only exist to cheaply house the poor. It just means they’re comparable in quality to suburban middle class houses (or are pretending to be). I don't think that's true in silicon valley; most single family homes around here were built to working class standards in the '60s and '70s and are all around pretty terrible. For someone as soft as I am, they'd be intolerable if the climate was not such that you could sleep in a tent, and they are intolerable if you live in the flight path of the local airport or otherwise have significant noise outside. (I'm in a somewhat more modern place right now, on the approach to SJC, with triple pane windows. It's super loud if you open the windows, but if you button up, it's nice and quiet.)
  - closeparen 9y ago
    You might be interested in 77 Bluxome which does micro-studios in a mid-rise in SF [0]. Popped up in my apartment search a few times. Too small for me, might be closer to what you're looking for. But no apartment is going to be as cheap as splitting a house 6 ways: demand for an apartment of any kind vastly exceeds demand for marginal square feet, and the kitchen and bathroom imply certain fixed costs to split. Silicon Valley communities are deeply attached to their lack of high-rise construction and fight to keep it that way. Call your representatives to support SB 827 if you want to see ~8 stories along the Caltrain corridor. [0] http://www.equityapartments.com/san-francisco-bay/soma/77-bluxome-apartments http://www.equityapartments.com/san-francisco-bay/soma/77-bl...
    - lsc 9y ago
      That looks like about what I'm talking about, though I'd prefer it to be a condo, and to be in silicon valley proper; I'm not really cool enough to work in San Francisco and am intolerant of commutes. If we built more apartments, assuming people really do prefer to live in single family homes, I'd assume that apartments would get cheaper compared to single family homes, just because land is such a large portion of the cost of anything around here, and single family homes are usually single story around here. I've been following Scott Wiener on twitter, and yeah, I should do something.
  - sjg007 9y ago
    Ear plugs and heavy duty curtains should help.
    - closeparen 9y ago
      Ear plugs aren’t magic. They are appropriate to make dangerous noise levels tolerable, but don’t do much to remove the distracting information encoded in already-moderate sounds. They also reflect the sounds of my own body back into me, which practically guarantees insomnia. A white noise source is much more effective. (I use a box fan). Still not great against bass-heavy music next door but makes me pretty much impervious to street noise.
    - 9y ago
sjg007 9y ago
There are a ton of strip malls that can be redeveloped as mixed use. The one issue would be parking, but if you can forgo a car or uber/rent one as needed then it might work.
- lsc 9y ago
  huh. My impression was that strip malls are almost entirely parking. they are usually single story and relatively small, compared to their parking lots. Silicon valley also lacks food places (which is what most new things in those strip malls are) - I mean, going from one story to three or five, with the ground floor remaining food service sounds great to me, but there's not much of the existing structure you would want to keep.

WillPostForFood 9y ago

Build better transportation to support density, then add density. But to add density first on the promise of improved transportation has led to the traffic mess of today.

bfung 9y ago
That certainly is an ideal, however, consider it in an economics point of view: There's no need to spend more money on transportation if there's not the amount of people to pay and ride on it. The unknown here is if the population density will ever go up to support a new system being paid for, now. Adding density first proves demand, and although messy, transportation would NEED to improve somehow.
- skookumchuck 9y ago
  Build it, and they will come!
lsc 9y ago
Yeah, you need transport. Historically speaking, this has been a chicken-and-egg problem; to get density high enough for reasonable public transit, it needs to be practical to get by without a car. To get by without a car, you need reasonable public transit. Usually people build transit nobody will use in hopes that people will then build housing. We've got an opportunity right now in silicon valley to do it the other way around, because ridsharing in silicon valley is so good that it's totally practical for an upper middle class person to live without a car (I got rid of mine about a year ago) - this means that you can talk me into renting a place that doesn't have parking. Now, hear me out. Yes, I know uber being cheap is temporary, but this presents a unique, i think, opportunity to build housing without parking first, and then generate demand for public transit, rather than the other way around as you suggest. Now, remember that in Silicon Valley, at least, the people who get into new housing are usually well off. If you can afford the rent on a newly built unit, uber is cheap for you, and you have the political power of an upper middle class person. Build the housing on a rail line; which I think is standard practice, but right now we build housing and a giant parking structure. The opportunity right now is that the rail line is not an alternative to a car, but uber + the rail line is - you can use that to start with the egg rather than the chicken. Build the housing next to transit without car parking spaces, and then let the residents agitate for better public transit once uber starts charging profitable prices.