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There are some key differences between Detroit and the Bay Area (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=San+Francisco-Oakland-Fremont+metro+area+vs+Detroit+metro+
by rmk 8y ago
There are some key differences between Detroit and the Bay Area (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=San+Francisco-Oakland-Fremont+metro+area+vs+Detroit+metro+area http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=San+Francisco-Oakland-F...):
1. Less room to spread out in the Bay Area. Detroit does not have many high-rises, and as far as I can tell, it has had a large number of single-family dwellings condemned/abandoned etc. during the recession. Also, Detroit is in a seismically stable zone.
2. Large number of incoming people who do not have a say in local politics in the Bay Area. To my knowledge, many of the incoming workers are here on visas, and they are largely apolitical, unable, or uninterested to cast a vote. Most of the busy workers do not have the time or the inclination to participate in local politics. I imagine this must not have been the case in Detroit, where unions were strong.
The other problem is that many Bay Area residents who bought their properties when interest rates were quite high (I had an older colleague who bought his house at 24% or so interest rate --- unimaginable nowadays), and the Federal Government had not embarked on a protracted QE, QE2 ... phase of pumping money into the economy, so to a certain extent, buying a house in the Bay Area has always been hard (not impossible, though, which it is now, for most people); as a result these existing homeowners (who ploughed a significant portion of their incomes into their homes) feel entitled to keep their insane property values that way.
- weeksie 8y ago1. This is not the issue. If it were, suburban low density Palo Alto would be absorbing new people at a fine clip. The problem is the lack of building. 2. This is much closer to the heart of it. Local politics allows homeowners to veto good housing policy in the interest of protecting their investments. However, Detroits expansion had nothing to do with the unions lobbying for housing policy, there just wasn't much in the way of zoning laws and people built where there was demand. In any case, the only thing that's going to fix the housing crisis over there is zoning reform. Believe me I feel your pain, I live in Manhattan. At least we're doing some building, though not nearly as much as we should. If it were up to me all (most) of the three story sixpacks in Bushwick would be bulldozed for six story tenements.
- rmk 8y agoYeah, I think the way the 5 boroughs are organised is great for New York. People who are okay with high-density housing flock to Manhattan and those that want to have suburbs, leafy streets and green lawns stay in Long Island, West Chester etc. The key enabling factor is the (now decrepit) public transportation system. The Bay Area, again, has nothing like it (once again, possibly due to the crazy geography of the place). But New Yorkers beware. The Subway is at risk of being destroyed by idiot Cuomo. It's already leagues behind London (which does it cheaper and better), not to mention Tokyo and others.
- thaumasiotes 8y ago> The key enabling factor is the (now decrepit) public transportation system. The Bay Area, again, has nothing like it (once again, possibly due to the crazy geography of the place). I'd put this more on the Bay Area's low population than on the geography.
- jonny_eh 8y agoPlus the myriad of municipalities that all want a say. It's no coincidence that the BART doesn't go all the way down the Peninsula, stopping just before Burlingame. The rich homeowners there didn't want the SF riff-raff coming to their town, therefore commuters are stuck with the Caltrain.
- BurningFrog 8y agoThere is an enormous amount of room to build in the Bay Area. The constraints are political, not physical.
- rmk 8y agoHow? The area west of 280 is mostly protected land, so it's hard to build. Some of the empty areas out by Alviso/Milpitas are superfund sites. Apparently it's much harder than it looks to reclaim the Bay and build on it (best chance of opening up large amounts of land). Is there some map that shows areas that can be developed? Also, Santa Clara county is chock-full of EPA superfund sites. Lots of soil and groundwater contamination.
- BurningFrog 8y agoWell, the "protected land" is one of the biggest political constraints. The other is that most of the built land is zoned extremely low density.