4 ms·

Sigh, this kind of thinking is some sort of variant of broken-window syndrome: > But Board President Norman Yee said San Francisco should be exempted altogethe

by boulos 7y ago

Sigh, this kind of thinking is some sort of variant of broken-window syndrome: > But Board President Norman Yee said San Francisco should be exempted altogether from Wiener’s proposal. > He said that SB 50 “does not take into account the nuances and intended impacts that comes up upzoning entire neighborhoods” and he noted that there are large developments planned in the district he represents. > "We’re actually building our share of housing,” Yee said. “Maybe we could better. But we certainly are probably doing better than most places in California. We have motivated communities that want to plan. We should be exempt from SB 50.” It's definitely true that San Francisco is building more housing than the other counties in the Bay Area, and that they should also do better. But that isn't a license to ignore the need for more housing directly in San Francisco. If anything, it's almost a non sequitor to the basic challenge facing any major city: how do you have enough housing within a reasonable commute of the jobs in your city? Just earlier today [1] the mayor decried the lack of housing in the city that our public transit employees can afford. Over 250k people were already commuting in back in 2013 [2]. For a city of under 1M people where job growth has outstripped housing growth, that seems like a fairly high "deficit". [1] https://medium.com/@LondonBreed/fixing-muni-ecb536aea50e https://medium.com/@LondonBreed/fixing-muni-ecb536aea50e [2] https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2013/cb13-r22.html https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2013/cb13-r22...

mc32 7y ago
The supes are a ridiculous hypocritical bunch. They hem and haw about building in the city, but they’re okay with bullying a neighboring community[1] in a different county into building (they threatened Brisbane, down the road, an independent jurisdiction in another county!!) [1]https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/04/san-francisco-supervisors-bully-brisbane-with-annexation-threat/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/04/san-francisco-supervi...
- boulos 7y ago
  A friend points out that Yee is Supervisor for District 7 [1], which is essentially entirely zoned as 40-X [2] (40 foot height limit) and mostly RH-1 and RH-2 [3] (single-family homes and two-unit residential respectively). As the N-Judah line runs through it, the SB 50 bill would immediately cause entire swaths of his District to be upzoned fairly dramatically. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Yee https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Yee [2] https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/resources/2018-08/Zoning%20Height%20and%20Bulk%20Districts.pdf https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/resources/2018-08... [3] https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/resources/2019-02/zoning_use_districts.pdf https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/resources/2019-02...
  - khuey 7y ago
    The N-Judah runs north of his district, District 7 does have West Portal and Forest Hill stations though and some part of the M-Oceanview route.
    - boulos 7y ago
      I read "parts of inner sunset" and assumed it would include the Judah part but didn't bother to think to look at the map: https://sfgov.org/ccsfgsa/sites/default/files/2000%20Census%3A%20Redistricting%20Task%20Force/ShowImage__e172.jpg https://sfgov.org/ccsfgsa/sites/default/files/2000%20Census%... which does seem to show that 7 borders the Judah line (on Judah itself). But to be fair, I'd assumed District 7 went to the park and that it included part of the UCSF area. So he's getting hit by MUNI lines on both sides :).
      - khuey 7y ago
        I had forgotten that District 7 goes that far north in the UCSF area and was thinking it was really just the Twin Peaks/West Portal/Lake Merced areas.
Retric 7y ago
The problem is not housing it’s the ratio of commercial to residential development. Ban new commercial development and you kill job growth and thus the ever growing demand for new housing. That’s not going to fly, but clearly it’s all about the ratio not the absolute numbers. PS: Well not kill, companies would end up packing more people into the same space up to a point.
- boulos 7y ago
  Right, it’s all about the ratio. A group of us pointed this out to the planning commission in relation to the Central Soma Plan. It called for something like 32k new jobs and only 8k housing units (and IIRC, nothing about transit other than claiming through magic that existing muni, Bart and Caltrain service would suffice). I’ve since moved out of Soma, as the commissioners and supervisors made it clear that while they understood the problem, they also didn’t have anywhere else to plop down tens of thousands of jobs.

by boulos 7y ago

mc32 7y ago

The supes are a ridiculous hypocritical bunch. They hem and haw about building in the city, but they’re okay with bullying a neighboring community[1] in a different county into building (they threatened Brisbane, down the road, an independent jurisdiction in another county!!) [1]https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/04/san-francisco-supervisors-bully-brisbane-with-annexation-threat/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/04/san-francisco-supervi...

boulos 7y ago
A friend points out that Yee is Supervisor for District 7 [1], which is essentially entirely zoned as 40-X [2] (40 foot height limit) and mostly RH-1 and RH-2 [3] (single-family homes and two-unit residential respectively). As the N-Judah line runs through it, the SB 50 bill would immediately cause entire swaths of his District to be upzoned fairly dramatically. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Yee https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Yee [2] https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/resources/2018-08/Zoning%20Height%20and%20Bulk%20Districts.pdf https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/resources/2018-08... [3] https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/resources/2019-02/zoning_use_districts.pdf https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/resources/2019-02...
- khuey 7y ago
  The N-Judah runs north of his district, District 7 does have West Portal and Forest Hill stations though and some part of the M-Oceanview route.
  - boulos 7y ago
    I read "parts of inner sunset" and assumed it would include the Judah part but didn't bother to think to look at the map: https://sfgov.org/ccsfgsa/sites/default/files/2000%20Census%3A%20Redistricting%20Task%20Force/ShowImage__e172.jpg https://sfgov.org/ccsfgsa/sites/default/files/2000%20Census%... which does seem to show that 7 borders the Judah line (on Judah itself). But to be fair, I'd assumed District 7 went to the park and that it included part of the UCSF area. So he's getting hit by MUNI lines on both sides :).
    - khuey 7y ago
      I had forgotten that District 7 goes that far north in the UCSF area and was thinking it was really just the Twin Peaks/West Portal/Lake Merced areas.

Retric 7y ago

The problem is not housing it’s the ratio of commercial to residential development. Ban new commercial development and you kill job growth and thus the ever growing demand for new housing. That’s not going to fly, but clearly it’s all about the ratio not the absolute numbers. PS: Well not kill, companies would end up packing more people into the same space up to a point.

boulos 7y ago
Right, it’s all about the ratio. A group of us pointed this out to the planning commission in relation to the Central Soma Plan. It called for something like 32k new jobs and only 8k housing units (and IIRC, nothing about transit other than claiming through magic that existing muni, Bart and Caltrain service would suffice). I’ve since moved out of Soma, as the commissioners and supervisors made it clear that while they understood the problem, they also didn’t have anywhere else to plop down tens of thousands of jobs.