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An article about housing on hacker news, let's see, let me put on my Carnac hat and guess this article is about zoning. Anyways, I think the pandemic has shown

An article about housing on hacker news, let's see, let me put on my Carnac hat and guess this article is about zoning. Anyways, I think the pandemic has shown that the monomaniacal focus on zoning reform isn't actually well suited to what people want out of their housing. Hasn't this pandemic pretty well proved that when people aren't at the office they want a little more space? And not just inside but outside too. Yards are nice, people like yards, the single family lot in the suburbs is the American dream. I think the focus on zoning always takes the same rhetorical trick, "Build where people want to live" and abuses the hell out of it. Do people actually want to live in highrises in megacities? Or do they just do it so they can land a decent job? Maybe the problem isn't moving more housing into cities, it's moving more jobs out of them. The zoning reform people only ever look at one side of that equation.

zepto 6y ago
This x 100. It’s a good thing is development of nice places to live and work is pushed out of the current center so that more of the country is livable.
devingoldfish 6y ago
> Hasn't this pandemic pretty well proved that when people aren't at the office they want a little more space? Yea, and they want a pool and a free pony too. Given that people can't all get the housing they want, how do we solve for the housing problems we've run headlong into? Building more housing is absolutely a meaningful way to attack the problem, and zoning reform is a part of that. > Do people actually want to live in highrises in megacities? Or do they just do it so they can land a decent job? Of course jobs are the driver here, but that means that incidentally, yes they do want to live in high-rises in megacities. There's no real sign of large cities releasing their hold on productivity and good paying jobs, the current remote work in a pandemic thing not withstanding. > The zoning reform people only ever look at one side of that equation. As someone who has faced the SF Bay Area housing crisis over the last ten years, I'd be fine with people moving out. But it's not a realistic solution, given that the good jobs are still here. Not to mention, there's not much we can do to reverse the economic incentives that bring people to places like San Francisco, but there is something we can do about local zoning rules. So it's entirely rational that people focus on building housing in these cities rather than trying to convince people not to move here in the first place.

zepto 6y ago

This x 100. It’s a good thing is development of nice places to live and work is pushed out of the current center so that more of the country is livable.

devingoldfish 6y ago

> Hasn't this pandemic pretty well proved that when people aren't at the office they want a little more space? Yea, and they want a pool and a free pony too. Given that people can't all get the housing they want, how do we solve for the housing problems we've run headlong into? Building more housing is absolutely a meaningful way to attack the problem, and zoning reform is a part of that. > Do people actually want to live in highrises in megacities? Or do they just do it so they can land a decent job? Of course jobs are the driver here, but that means that incidentally, yes they do want to live in high-rises in megacities. There's no real sign of large cities releasing their hold on productivity and good paying jobs, the current remote work in a pandemic thing not withstanding. > The zoning reform people only ever look at one side of that equation. As someone who has faced the SF Bay Area housing crisis over the last ten years, I'd be fine with people moving out. But it's not a realistic solution, given that the good jobs are still here. Not to mention, there's not much we can do to reverse the economic incentives that bring people to places like San Francisco, but there is something we can do about local zoning rules. So it's entirely rational that people focus on building housing in these cities rather than trying to convince people not to move here in the first place.