4 ms·

You're right about everything. A LVT would go a long way to solving our problems, but it must also be paired with dramatic zoning reform to actually allow land

by buss 7y ago

You're right about everything. A LVT would go a long way to solving our problems, but it must also be paired with dramatic zoning reform to actually allow land to be redeveloped into a higher use. Doing that is illegal in the vast majority of San Francisco and the Bay Area at large. Opposition to Prop 13 is building, and I think we will see meaningful reform within 10 years. Hopefully full repeal within 20. But this is an even bigger political lift than fixing our broken Bay Area governments. If you haven't already, check out http://thecommonssf.org/ http://thecommonssf.org/, an org based in SF that's centered around LVT.

dredmorbius 7y ago
The trick with LVT may be to find an alternate form of it that skirts Prop-13 restrictions, in the meantime. As for zoning, that's likely a chicken-egg issue, but once holding nonproductive land becomes nonviable, reversing restrictive zoning may become far more tractable. Alternatively, cracking the nut outside SF (and yes, I realise you're in the City) might be an option, where if a sufficient alternate jobs-and-housing magnet were formed, SF would be forced to follow suit. Not my first choice, but I'd take it. Tackling this as a strategic "having defined our point B, how do we get there from A" question, and finding the least-cost path seems the right approach. Finding examples of other areas which have successfully tackled the problem is another.
- deepakhj 7y ago
  We also need to find a way to crack the nut in the city. Soma is the only place with any movement.
  - dredmorbius 7y ago
    The challenge I see is that tackling the asset-protecting interests head on may be too great a challenge. As a comparison, California in the 1950s represented an alternative to challenging development-averse and innovation-averse practices in points East -- New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and other established centres of population and industrial power. Rather than fight on home turf, innovation packed up and headed West. A classic example being RAND Corporation, which literally loaded a train with researchers and families and headed to the (then cheap) locale of Santa Monica, CA. The history of research and academic centres as being adjacent but removed from centres of commerce and power is a long one, dating back to Plato's Academy, an eponymous grove about a 30 minutes' walk outside Athens, then centre of the Western world. I've been diving a bit into the history of major research laboratories, such a DuPont, Kodak, AT&T, IBM, Xerox, and others. Similar trends. The Manhattan Project is an extreme case, with additional constraints (secrecy, not disturbing the neighbours).

by buss 7y ago

dredmorbius 7y ago

The trick with LVT may be to find an alternate form of it that skirts Prop-13 restrictions, in the meantime. As for zoning, that's likely a chicken-egg issue, but once holding nonproductive land becomes nonviable, reversing restrictive zoning may become far more tractable. Alternatively, cracking the nut outside SF (and yes, I realise you're in the City) might be an option, where if a sufficient alternate jobs-and-housing magnet were formed, SF would be forced to follow suit. Not my first choice, but I'd take it. Tackling this as a strategic "having defined our point B, how do we get there from A" question, and finding the least-cost path seems the right approach. Finding examples of other areas which have successfully tackled the problem is another.

deepakhj 7y ago
We also need to find a way to crack the nut in the city. Soma is the only place with any movement.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  The challenge I see is that tackling the asset-protecting interests head on may be too great a challenge. As a comparison, California in the 1950s represented an alternative to challenging development-averse and innovation-averse practices in points East -- New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and other established centres of population and industrial power. Rather than fight on home turf, innovation packed up and headed West. A classic example being RAND Corporation, which literally loaded a train with researchers and families and headed to the (then cheap) locale of Santa Monica, CA. The history of research and academic centres as being adjacent but removed from centres of commerce and power is a long one, dating back to Plato's Academy, an eponymous grove about a 30 minutes' walk outside Athens, then centre of the Western world. I've been diving a bit into the history of major research laboratories, such a DuPont, Kodak, AT&T, IBM, Xerox, and others. Similar trends. The Manhattan Project is an extreme case, with additional constraints (secrecy, not disturbing the neighbours).