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"Go to Wyoming or Idaho and people feel the same way. California has unfortunately been exporting its ridiculous cost of living and lifestyle to the American we
by rsync 6y ago
"Go to Wyoming or Idaho and people feel the same way. California has unfortunately been exporting its ridiculous cost of living and lifestyle to the American west for decades, Austin is just the latest to feel it."
It seems like that but the actual phenomenon is simply the slow, increasing urbanization of the United States.
There are, of course, actual Californians moving into places like Austin and Bend and Colorado Springs but with or without them, the American expression of 21st century urbanism is what we're actually witnessing.
California the place just happens to be 15-20 years ahead of most of the rest of the country on that path to urbanization which is why it's so easy to mistake it for "Californication".
As evidence I would put forth Minneapolis: this is not a place that many Californians are moving to and yet they are experiencing the same kind of anti-zoning housing movement, they bemoan exploding housing prices and they aspire to the same cultural and societal progression that everyone in the Bay Area would recognize.
I maintain they are not experiencing "Californication" - they are experiencing urbanization.
- jeffbee 6y agoMeanwhile Minneapolis is handling their housing crisis much better than we are. They responded to rising housing prices by liberalizing their zoning code in the hopes of attracting more construction. Portland has done the same thing this year by legalizing the construction of multi-family dwellings on almost any parcel in town. This, of course, is also the secret to Houston's low cost of living. California today is, for practical analytical purposes, a state with a fixed number of houses. This means we're currently operating in a regime where only the most successful and luckiest people can remain here. Unless we restart our housing production, this will continue.
- rsync 6y ago"They responded to rising housing prices by liberalizing their zoning code in the hopes of attracting more construction." Yes, that is what I was referring to when I spoke of an "anti-zoning housing movement". That is a political movement that, I believe, has its roots in California. And yes, I agree with you that it has progressed further in Minneapolis than it has in, for instance, the Bay Area.
- jeffbee 6y agoI was both agreeing and disagreeing. In MN they have an "anti-zoning housing movement" but in CA we still have an "anti-housing zoning movement".
- somethoughts 6y agoMy take is that its because Texas at least has no natural barriers to contain sprawl, so its just sprawls outward as far as the eye can see. I suspect Minneapolis has similar geography. Both Northern California and Southern California on the other hand have hills/mountain terrain which constrains suburban development.