3 ms·

Demand for housing in Atherton isn't high because Atherton's rules made Atherton nice. If Atherton allowed high-density condos to be built, demand for housing i

Demand for housing in Atherton isn't high because Atherton's rules made Atherton nice. If Atherton allowed high-density condos to be built, demand for housing in Atherton would not decline at all, because Atherton's "character" has very little impact on its desirability. Demand for housing in Atherton is high because of its location, full stop, and its location is attractive because Bay Area residents started businesses in cities adjacent to Atherton, and because Bay Area taxpayers built a Caltrain stop in Atherton. People who own property in Atherton have massively benefitted from their proximity to the tech world, while refusing to contribute to housing its workers. Atherton houses 13x fewer people per unit area than San Francisco. Its landowners are like Hacienda ranchers, or feudal lords given exclusive rights by the government to manage profitable land to their own benefit, at the expense of the peasants who actually make that land valuable. Fuck their exclusivity.

lazide 4y ago
Have you ever been to Atherton? Or East Palo Alto? Because what you are saying does not match the reality I've seen on the ground, or what appears to be the emotional content of the reaction you posted.
- ambrozk 4y ago
  In what sense does it not match? The emotional content of my reaction is anger at the obscene hording of space by a privileged minority who benefit from the productive behavior of their neighbors and contribute nothing in return. The average home price in Atherton is $8.1M. There are 7,000 people there, benefitting enormously from the wealth generated by tech. But they won't build more homes. And they will sue to stop the Caltrain from being electrified because they don't think converting a diesel train to electric is "environmentally safe." I lived nearby Atherton for some time, and it made my life, and the lives of my friends and family worse. I think it's a selfish municipality and I don't respect its ethic.
  - lazide 4y ago
    In order for the market to price the average home to be worth $8.1m instead of $1m, a whole lot of people are willing to pay a whole lot of cash to be there. Which goes against the core thesis of your earlier statement. A friend of mine rented a room from a owner in Atherton, and a few doors down was Marc Andreesen and next door was a Saudi prince. I don’t think either of them were ‘benefitting from proximity to tech’ in a passive way and getting rich off it. They were already rich and were looking for a nice house in the area. That it sucks to not be able to do it, yourself, obviously. Personally I found it kinda interesting and wasn’t bothered, but I’m not a jealous person. I’m not sure I’d want to deal with the risks of being that high profile frankly. Plenty of jobs and economic activity from the people living there though, and while they are taking up more space than most, near as I can tell they’re paying more than most in on everything from taxes to generated economic activity too. And it’s not like they’re displacing artists from the Tenderloin while doing it either. If someone gets a billion dollars from something, they’ll spend at least some of it on stuff. A nice, quiet house in a nice area (albeit too oversized for me to want to manage or deal with staffing) wasn’t the weirdest or most wasteful thing i’ve seen.
    - ambrozk 4y ago
      It's amazing to me that you go from "Marc Andreesen lives there" to "it's not like Atherton's residents are financially benefitting from their proximity to the tech industry." Very, very dumb.
      - lazide 4y ago
        Someone who moved to Atherton after helping form the tech industry isn't benefitting from living nearby and passively getting rich from proximity. Or did you mean something else?
        ambrozk 4y ago
        I didn't add the qualifier "passively." You did. I think it's great if people are contributing to the region's wealth via their work, but it doesn't affect my argument. The fact is that the locality of Atherton is full of people whose home values are high because of their homes' proximity of the tech industry (this includes Marc Andreesen), and they're not willing to liberalize their zoning ordinances because, as a housing cartel, town landowners benefit from restricted supply. You were acting like the reason there's high demand for housing in Atherton is that it has low density, but what distinguishes Atherton from a random, low-cost town like Muskeegon, Michigan is its location smack-dab in the center of Silicon Valley. You could replace all the mansions in Atherton with high-density condos and they'd get snapped up by tech workers in a short period of time. You'd end up with way more property taxes paid to the state, way more people housed, way more economic growth for the region, and way less pollution as people lived closer to their place of work. Not to mention, the locality wouldn't be suing the caltrain to prevent electrification, because its residents would actually depend on public transport.

lazide 4y ago

Have you ever been to Atherton? Or East Palo Alto? Because what you are saying does not match the reality I've seen on the ground, or what appears to be the emotional content of the reaction you posted.

ambrozk 4y ago
In what sense does it not match? The emotional content of my reaction is anger at the obscene hording of space by a privileged minority who benefit from the productive behavior of their neighbors and contribute nothing in return. The average home price in Atherton is $8.1M. There are 7,000 people there, benefitting enormously from the wealth generated by tech. But they won't build more homes. And they will sue to stop the Caltrain from being electrified because they don't think converting a diesel train to electric is "environmentally safe." I lived nearby Atherton for some time, and it made my life, and the lives of my friends and family worse. I think it's a selfish municipality and I don't respect its ethic.
- lazide 4y ago
  In order for the market to price the average home to be worth $8.1m instead of $1m, a whole lot of people are willing to pay a whole lot of cash to be there. Which goes against the core thesis of your earlier statement. A friend of mine rented a room from a owner in Atherton, and a few doors down was Marc Andreesen and next door was a Saudi prince. I don’t think either of them were ‘benefitting from proximity to tech’ in a passive way and getting rich off it. They were already rich and were looking for a nice house in the area. That it sucks to not be able to do it, yourself, obviously. Personally I found it kinda interesting and wasn’t bothered, but I’m not a jealous person. I’m not sure I’d want to deal with the risks of being that high profile frankly. Plenty of jobs and economic activity from the people living there though, and while they are taking up more space than most, near as I can tell they’re paying more than most in on everything from taxes to generated economic activity too. And it’s not like they’re displacing artists from the Tenderloin while doing it either. If someone gets a billion dollars from something, they’ll spend at least some of it on stuff. A nice, quiet house in a nice area (albeit too oversized for me to want to manage or deal with staffing) wasn’t the weirdest or most wasteful thing i’ve seen.
  - ambrozk 4y ago
    It's amazing to me that you go from "Marc Andreesen lives there" to "it's not like Atherton's residents are financially benefitting from their proximity to the tech industry." Very, very dumb.
    - lazide 4y ago
      Someone who moved to Atherton after helping form the tech industry isn't benefitting from living nearby and passively getting rich from proximity. Or did you mean something else?
      - ambrozk 4y ago
        I didn't add the qualifier "passively." You did. I think it's great if people are contributing to the region's wealth via their work, but it doesn't affect my argument. The fact is that the locality of Atherton is full of people whose home values are high because of their homes' proximity of the tech industry (this includes Marc Andreesen), and they're not willing to liberalize their zoning ordinances because, as a housing cartel, town landowners benefit from restricted supply. You were acting like the reason there's high demand for housing in Atherton is that it has low density, but what distinguishes Atherton from a random, low-cost town like Muskeegon, Michigan is its location smack-dab in the center of Silicon Valley. You could replace all the mansions in Atherton with high-density condos and they'd get snapped up by tech workers in a short period of time. You'd end up with way more property taxes paid to the state, way more people housed, way more economic growth for the region, and way less pollution as people lived closer to their place of work. Not to mention, the locality wouldn't be suing the caltrain to prevent electrification, because its residents would actually depend on public transport.