9 ms·
In other news, $2100+ for a small unit is viewed as 'affordable' for grad students to UC Berkeley administrators. I know there's a rent crisis out that neck of
by wanderfowl 8y ago
In other news, $2100+ for a small unit is viewed as 'affordable' for grad students to UC Berkeley administrators. I know there's a rent crisis out that neck of the woods, but that's some quality lack of perspective.
- jacquesm 8y agoThat's ridiculous. Even in Amsterdam student housing is ~450 for single occupants, and the tuition is a lot cheaper as well. At $2180 it is probably better to just move into your office or lab and sleep there. The best way to deal with these idiot prices is to rent a regular house a bit off the beaten path and split the rent with a couple of mates.
- steanne 8y agodon't know about berkeley specifically, but some towns have laws against more than a set number of unrelated people living together.
- jacquesm 8y agoInteresting. Amsterdam actually has a scheme that promotes this ('woongroep') for the express purpose of accommodating students.
- gt_ 8y agoIn America, all it takes is a developer not making their money back (i.e. not wanting to be a “risk-taker” anymore) and these sorts of laws magically disappear.
- astura 8y agoIndeed, however, the number is usually very reasonable, usually 5+, its not gonna stop a grad student from saving money on rent. Though the court case that upheld these laws as constitutional, Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas, the zoning law was extreme at limiting only two unrelated persons - which is extreme.
- TaylorAlexander 8y agoReasonable to you, but others may think 20+ is fine. I’m not sure what the law is even trying to protect, or why it matters.
- astura 8y agoIt's zoning ordinances and like any zoning ordinance its aimed at controlling or maintaining the character of the neighborhood, preventing frat houses and group homes in certain neighborhoods, etc. If parking for one family is expected and 8 students take up the whole block, etc. It's limited to unrelated persons because "family status" is a protected class under housing law. Different houses on the same street can be zoned differently. My house is zoned "single family" but two houses down is zoned "boarding house."
- dsr_ 8y agoI expect that most grad students don't have enough office or lab space to unroll a sleeping bag.
- nikanj 8y agoIt’s illegal to sleep in an office. That legislation, like many others, was put in place to protect renters and workers but now ends up hurting them instead
- smhost 8y agowhy can't we write laws that are conditional, where we explain the intent of the law, and then the law can be ignored when the conditions aren't met
- hyperpape 8y agoWithout judging the merits of this particular law, it's because conditions will be abused by the people who have the strongest incentive to game them. Laws are like code in this way: simplicity is not always easy, or possible, given the constraints, but complexity has significant downsides.
- smhost 8y agoi mean if you say so. the supreme court does it, and it's not like they're some special breed of superhumans or something.
- ChuckMcM 8y agoYou are mixing two concepts here, perhaps unintentionally. The supreme court has a standards document against which it evaluates the laws (the constitution, whether it is state (SCOC) or country (SCOTUS)). I have not read a decision where they evaluate "what the legislature 'meant'" when they make their rulings, although they do sometimes comment on that.
- hyperpape 8y agoThe Supreme Court absolutely interprets the meaning of federal law passed by the legislature. Whether they do it by appeal to authorial intent or something else is a matter of jurisprudential philosophy. For an example of talking about what the legislators intended, see King v. Burwell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_v._Burwell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_v._Burwell
- davidw 8y agoOff the beaten path in the Bay Area means... what, these days? Stockton? That area is a huge mess in terms of housing prices and NIMBYism.
- dopeboy 8y agoIf you are fine with roommates, there are plenty of sub 1k options in and around the area. El Cerrito and Richmond aren't too far away and generally cheaper than Berkeley.
- ghull95 8y agoExactly. Even in decent areas of Oakland you can find sub 1k rent with a roommate. Currently live in an apartment that's a 5 minute walk away from a BART station in Oakland and pay 1800/month for a 1 bedroom that I split. Takes me 35 minutes to get to work in the SF Financial District. While housing is very expensive here (especially if you have family), there are definitely ways to find cheap housing. Anecdotally I know people who are renting rooms out of their homes in San Leandro/Hayward for $750/month.
- frozenport 8y agoThis is worse than most single studios. It's living in a shipping container. They don't even have enough room for a bed and couch. Instead you have a foldable sofa.
- jrowley 8y agoI share 1BR for $2000 about 2 miles from this location (away from campus). It has a great yard but is old and has rats/squirrels in the walls. Rent is crazy here.
- keithpeter 8y agoYou have vermin? Is there not a pest control service about? Good luck
- jrowley 8y agoThe rats have been contained to the walls thus far, and pest control comes periodically but it can be hard to lock down an old house. Such is life.
- namibj 8y agoEver considered (a) cat(s)? If deployed correctly, they deliver those that they don't like the taste of to your doorstep, albeit often very mutilated (think with (part (!)) of the head missing).
- jrowley 8y agoThat's a great idea. We live on the second floor, so the cat wouldn't have access to the outside directly, which is complicated. The other issue is the lovely vizsla that lives downstairs - she is scared of cats. But I'd love to get a cat or dog when my life is 10% more stable.
- chrisseaton 8y ago> I share 1BR for $2000 You literally share a bedroom with someone you're not in a relationship with?
- jrowley 8y agoNo, I’m in a relationship with them. But the quarters still feel tight sometimes.
- ajeet_dhaliwal 8y agoExactly, the cost of the rental ($2180) for a single person for a 310 square foot apartment overshadowed the modular/technical aspect of the story for me. If it was 800 square feet or something like that I could understand but these are tiny.
- goodoldboys 8y agoThat's the sad reality of bay area housing in 2018. However, if they keep building enough units like these, prices should eventually become less insane.
- gt_ 8y agoNot in our lifetimes. Any American not retired or who doesn’t own a home most likely wants to move to the Bay Area, and most likely because there are jobs. The only reason they don’t is the rent rates. Housing by market value is a losing proposition.
- paulie_a 8y agoThat is a pretty pretentious attitude about the bay area. Which is pretty much the primary reason I would never want to live there. I'll take a guess that the vast majority of that demographic doesn't want to live there also.
- umanwizard 8y ago> Any American not retired or who doesn’t own a home most likely wants to move to the Bay Area Huh? Is this supposed to be serious? I know plenty of Americans who don't own a home and aren't retired. No more than a few percent of whom want to move to the Bay Area.
- jessaustin 8y agoIsn't net migration out of the Bay Area? https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san-francisco/article/Bay-Area-outward-migration-exodus-sf-redfin-12563337.php https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san-francisco/article/Bay-A...
- Randin 8y agoI don't
- Nasrudith 8y agoWhile strictly better than a two story or a one story single family home I don't think that they'd be sufficient for solving the bay area housing issue.
- psychometry 8y agoTrue. While stipends vary from school to school, they don't really seem to vary according to regional cost of living. You're probably maxing out at 30k/year whether you're in Boston or Cleveland.
- ebikelaw 8y agoBerkeley hasn't built a damn thing since Gerald Ford was President, while the population has increased a lot, mostly through longevity rather than the oft-blamed migration. Going rate for a normal sized studio apartment is about $4000/mo.
- khuey 8y agoBerkeley's population has actually been flat or falling for most of the period since 1970. In the 1970 census there were 116,700 people living there. In 2010 there were 112,580. Many of the intervening years were barely above 100k. This is what happens when you don't build any new housing and median household sizes continue their decades long decline.
- ebikelaw 8y agoYes but Berkeley is not in deep orbit, it is central to the 7-million-person Bay Area. The population has doubled in the time since Berkeley decided to freeze itself in amber.
- daydreamnation 8y agoit's insulting to have this called affordable
- sowbug 8y agoFTA: "In lieu of providing affordable units on site..."
- rflrob 8y ago$2100/month is literally more than my partner’s pre-tax stipend as a grad student at UC Berkeley.
- plankers 8y agoSomething something student loans, something something increased future earning power, something something growth based economy. Ah, the joys of the modern higher learning establishments.
- TaylorAlexander 8y agoIt’s interesting that the contractor had to pay a $500k fee to Berkeley for an affordable housing trust. While I applaud the spirit of such a thing, it seems like the last thing you want to do in a housing crisis is make building more expensive. Perhaps if the contractor didn’t have to pay such a high fee just to build the place, they could offer better prices to the tenants. Can anyone comment on the work done by that housing trust?
- supermdguy 8y agoThe article says it was given "in lieu of providing affordable units on site". So, sounds like it was a penalty of sorts?
- sowbug 8y agoThe article expressly says these units are not considered affordable.
- xvector 8y agoWhen housing costs in SF are 3-4K for a single, it's actually quite reasonable.