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An amazing amount of land opened up in the Bay Area that could have been used for housing developement with the closing of many military bases (The Presidio, Tr

An amazing amount of land opened up in the Bay Area that could have been used for housing developement with the closing of many military bases (The Presidio, Treasure Island, Alameda Naval station, Concord Naval Base, Hunters Point) and the closing of salt production in the South Bay. While a few of these areas are finally seeing some construction[1] 20 years later, the density is often low and the amount of acres set aside for green space seems excessive to me. Treasure Island, for instance, is 465 acres with 300 of those acres as parks. Cargill handed over 15,000 acres of salt ponds to state and federal agencies for wetland restoration in 2002. No housing planned. For comparison all of San Francisco is 30,000 acres. [1]https://www.bisnow.com/san-francisco/news/construction-development/these-5-decommissioned-military-bases-are-the-bay-areas-biggest-development-opportunities-74375 https://www.bisnow.com/san-francisco/news/construction-devel...

cjensen 9y ago
Salt ponds being turned into natural wetland is a HUGE win for the environment, particularly water quality and fisheries. Being entirely mud, they are literally the worst place to build in an earthquake-prone region. "Affordability" just means a balance between jobs (which produce people needing housing) and the supply of houses. There are TWO ways of fixing supply and demand problems like that. It is insane that the city of Cupertino has allowed the construction of offices for 26K jobs but only has housing for 58K people. It is insane that Mountain View has allowed the construction of offices for 30K jobs but only provided places for 77K people to live. Those two cities and others collect all the sweet revenue and burden the rest of the Bay Area with costs of housing and commuting. Rather than insisting that cities must build housing, we should insist they balance jobs and homes. I'm angry that my home town, Fremont, had a plan to reserve space for both homes and jobs, but is forced by the state to accept home construction and we have no money to build the schools needed to accommodate the new population.
- khuey 9y ago
  Fremont's jobs/housing ratio is 1.44 which is larger than the regional average.

cjensen 9y ago

Salt ponds being turned into natural wetland is a HUGE win for the environment, particularly water quality and fisheries. Being entirely mud, they are literally the worst place to build in an earthquake-prone region. "Affordability" just means a balance between jobs (which produce people needing housing) and the supply of houses. There are TWO ways of fixing supply and demand problems like that. It is insane that the city of Cupertino has allowed the construction of offices for 26K jobs but only has housing for 58K people. It is insane that Mountain View has allowed the construction of offices for 30K jobs but only provided places for 77K people to live. Those two cities and others collect all the sweet revenue and burden the rest of the Bay Area with costs of housing and commuting. Rather than insisting that cities must build housing, we should insist they balance jobs and homes. I'm angry that my home town, Fremont, had a plan to reserve space for both homes and jobs, but is forced by the state to accept home construction and we have no money to build the schools needed to accommodate the new population.

khuey 9y ago
Fremont's jobs/housing ratio is 1.44 which is larger than the regional average.