4 ms·

Why doesn’t anyone want to address the elephant in the room, which is affordable housing? Why not convert vacant offices to apartments?

lhorie 6y ago
That doesn't seem all that relevant to the topic of taxes, and even if it did, I don't believe there's a very good correlation between increases in CA taxes and improvements in the housing situation.
- Rebelgecko 6y ago
  The amount of money that this is expected to bring is ≈ to the size of SF's homelessness budget so it's not the biggest stretch to link them (although you could bring up lots of other issues to)
yftsui 6y ago
If offices become vacant, what is the motivation to live in the city anyway?
- blackguardx 6y ago
  Plenty of people commute in to work in non-tech jobs. Some of those folks would love to live in SF if rent was cheaper.
dmitrygr 6y ago
there are many political reasons. i'll list some logistical ones: fire codes? not enough bathrooms? lack of showers?
- djrogers 6y ago
  > not enough bathrooms? lack of showers? Err, plumbers exist, and showers and bathrooms are added to commercial buildings all the time. Nobody is suggesting simply telling people to live in existing office space as-is - converting them would include accounting for these things.
  - diebeforei485 6y ago
    It is not easy to do this in most buildings. There are some examples (eg. 100 Van Ness) but it takes years and really was not as simple as people make it out to be.
deleted 6y ago
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ajmurmann 6y ago
Why not loosen building restrictions and allow to build new and high outside of a narrow downtown area? Why not loosen restrictions to build smaller, tenement-style units of there is demand?
6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
In what way is nobody addressing the elephant in the room? That was a solid chunk of the propositions this year.
booboolayla 6y ago
So, effectively kick the productive people out of offices and move the homeless in? Sounds wise.

lhorie 6y ago

That doesn't seem all that relevant to the topic of taxes, and even if it did, I don't believe there's a very good correlation between increases in CA taxes and improvements in the housing situation.

Rebelgecko 6y ago
The amount of money that this is expected to bring is ≈ to the size of SF's homelessness budget so it's not the biggest stretch to link them (although you could bring up lots of other issues to)

yftsui 6y ago

If offices become vacant, what is the motivation to live in the city anyway?

blackguardx 6y ago
Plenty of people commute in to work in non-tech jobs. Some of those folks would love to live in SF if rent was cheaper.

dmitrygr 6y ago

there are many political reasons. i'll list some logistical ones: fire codes? not enough bathrooms? lack of showers?

djrogers 6y ago
> not enough bathrooms? lack of showers? Err, plumbers exist, and showers and bathrooms are added to commercial buildings all the time. Nobody is suggesting simply telling people to live in existing office space as-is - converting them would include accounting for these things.
- diebeforei485 6y ago
  It is not easy to do this in most buildings. There are some examples (eg. 100 Van Ness) but it takes years and really was not as simple as people make it out to be.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

ajmurmann 6y ago

Why not loosen building restrictions and allow to build new and high outside of a narrow downtown area? Why not loosen restrictions to build smaller, tenement-style units of there is demand?

6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago

In what way is nobody addressing the elephant in the room? That was a solid chunk of the propositions this year.

booboolayla 6y ago

So, effectively kick the productive people out of offices and move the homeless in? Sounds wise.