4 ms·

Alas, construction speed isn’t the bottle neck behind the housing crisis

by nikanj 8y ago

lainga 8y ago
I'm impressed Berkeley went to all the trouble of designing, approving and erecting an entire dormitory without ever seeing the point - or maybe while trying not to.
- gt_ 8y ago
  That’s how this works. Wealthy people don’t develop out of kindness. They do it to profit.
  - TomMarius 8y ago
    Of course, how else would they feed their families and why would they put their capital at risk if there is no possible profit? The question you should be asking is "why is the regulator slowing down the housing market?" - because the profit margin would be much lower if they weren't, as more competition would be allowed to grow and it's a well-known fact that competition leads to better services for lower prices.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - rustcharm 8y ago
    If the government didn't stand in the way, these 'wealthy' people you hate so much would have built a lot of housing.
adrianmonk 8y ago
You know what would have way more impact on housing affordability? Build it using traditional construction methods but make it 10 stories instead of 4 stories. But the city will find some reason why that's absolutely unacceptable. Then they will go on to talk about how this is just fundamentally a difficult problem that they haven't found a solution for, but rest assured they are still looking for ways to solve it.
- csours 8y ago
  The city, and the neighbors. YIMBY: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=633224790 https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...
  - michaelchisari 8y ago
    YIMBY has its limits. We all need to start looking at policies that dis-incentivize keeping empty units as speculative investments.
- jseutter 8y ago
  There is a practical aspect to building height. Berkeley is on an earthquake fault line, and buildings in the 6-15 storey range have a natural resonance that tends to match the frequency of earthquake waves. I'm having difficulty finding references to this, so maybe it's not as big a deal as I thought? http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/hazards/earthquakes/howAffectBuildings.html http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/hazards/earthquakes/...
  - NickNameNick 8y ago
    That was certainly our experience here. "Wellington's mid-rise buildings worst affected by earthquake" https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11750524 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&object... NB, the defence headquarters building, and the statistics building mentioned in the article have since been demolished.
  - mc32 8y ago
    That's not a real excuse. Tokyo is crisscrossed with fault-lines and they manage to build to quake code --the proof being all the healthy buildings despite frequent quakes. Berkeley is just putting up excuses.
  - rohit2412 8y ago
    I thought buildings can be reinforced. How does Tokyo manage it's buildings?

Alas, construction speed isn’t the bottle neck behind the housing crisis

by nikanj 8y ago

Alas, construction speed isn’t the bottle neck behind the housing crisis

I'm impressed Berkeley went to all the trouble of designing, approving and erecting an entire dormitory without ever seeing the point - or maybe while trying not to.

gt_ 8y ago
That’s how this works. Wealthy people don’t develop out of kindness. They do it to profit.
- TomMarius 8y ago
  Of course, how else would they feed their families and why would they put their capital at risk if there is no possible profit? The question you should be asking is "why is the regulator slowing down the housing market?" - because the profit margin would be much lower if they weren't, as more competition would be allowed to grow and it's a well-known fact that competition leads to better services for lower prices.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- rustcharm 8y ago
  If the government didn't stand in the way, these 'wealthy' people you hate so much would have built a lot of housing.

adrianmonk 8y ago

You know what would have way more impact on housing affordability? Build it using traditional construction methods but make it 10 stories instead of 4 stories. But the city will find some reason why that's absolutely unacceptable. Then they will go on to talk about how this is just fundamentally a difficult problem that they haven't found a solution for, but rest assured they are still looking for ways to solve it.

csours 8y ago
The city, and the neighbors. YIMBY: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=633224790 https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...
- michaelchisari 8y ago
  YIMBY has its limits. We all need to start looking at policies that dis-incentivize keeping empty units as speculative investments.
jseutter 8y ago
There is a practical aspect to building height. Berkeley is on an earthquake fault line, and buildings in the 6-15 storey range have a natural resonance that tends to match the frequency of earthquake waves. I'm having difficulty finding references to this, so maybe it's not as big a deal as I thought? http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/hazards/earthquakes/howAffectBuildings.html http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/hazards/earthquakes/...
- NickNameNick 8y ago
  That was certainly our experience here. "Wellington's mid-rise buildings worst affected by earthquake" https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11750524 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&object... NB, the defence headquarters building, and the statistics building mentioned in the article have since been demolished.
- mc32 8y ago
  That's not a real excuse. Tokyo is crisscrossed with fault-lines and they manage to build to quake code --the proof being all the healthy buildings despite frequent quakes. Berkeley is just putting up excuses.
- rohit2412 8y ago
  I thought buildings can be reinforced. How does Tokyo manage it's buildings?