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Different cities different problems. Manhattan is expensive because its covered in tall buildings (minus central park) and more or less 'full'. SF on the othe
by thereisnospork 8y ago
Different cities different problems. Manhattan is expensive because its covered in tall buildings (minus central park) and more or less 'full'. SF on the other hand, and even more so the bay area in general, has massive amount of open space (parking lots, land preserves, etc.) in addition to large amounts of detached single family homes. Specifically in the bay area, greasing the political and regulatory wheels is so onerous that upscaling these homes and parking lots is expensive, so comparatively few dwellings are built relative to demand (see: Manhattan-esque pricing at some fraction of the density).
- harryh 8y agoManhattan is nowhere near full. There are huge swaths of the city that don't have tall buildings due to overly restrictive building codes. #UpzoneTheWestVillage
- jen20 8y agoI’ve previously been told (I’m not sure if it entirely true or not - it was by a west village resident!) that the west village has ground unsuitable for high rise construction.
- harryh 8y agoThere are issues with building the kind of skyscrapers you see in the FiDi or Midtown, but there is till plenty of room to grow. Huge chunks of the West Village have buildings of only 4-5 stories when it's definitely possible to build 3-4x higher.
- zjaffee 8y agoThe west village isn't primed for tall buildings (they can certainly be taller than they currently are) and is much denser than most people think it is, since the brownstones are often multifamily. But more than anything else, streets are much narrower there than other parts of Manhattan. I'd argue that the east village is more adequate for upzoning than the west village even though the east village is taller.
- harryh 8y agoI agree with your EV vs WV comparison. I just like the highlight the WV because it's such a rich person enclave with a community board that way way overdesignates buildings as "historic" as a way to stifle development.
- zjaffee 8y agoManhattan is expensive because of wealth inequality. Every year you see a huge number of neighboring apartments get merged together to have a single bigger unit, where huge numbers of people still can never afford to live there. I'd also point out that Manhattan would still be a very expensive place to live even with lower real estate prices, as a huge number of the buildings have very high maintenance costs.