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I grew up in the area and don't think it's really fair to compare Arlington, VA to San Francisco. The corridors where all of the residential development has occ

by bink 3y ago

I grew up in the area and don't think it's really fair to compare Arlington, VA to San Francisco. The corridors where all of the residential development has occurred in Arlington in the last 30 years were all basically condemned shopping or office parks. Clarendon/Wilson Blvd, Columbia Pike, Route 1, Rosslyn. All of those areas were relatively cheap land and zoned such that they could build large residential towers and mixed-use shopping centers. They are also almost all on or near metro lines. I've only lived in the Bay Area for a few years but I don't see the same opportunities in SF proper.

whats_a_quasar 3y ago
Within SF there's tons of single family housing neighborhoods along muni lines in the Richmond and Sunset that could be densified. Arlington is a suburb - the analogs are Daly City along BART, South San Francisco, and Milbrae/San Mateo along Caltrain. There's plenty of underutilized land around transit in those suburbs too.
- majormajor 3y ago
  Even if we lived in a world without zoning, occupied residential land is going to take far longer to densify than basically-empty former-commercial/industrial stuff. All the suburbs building the same sort of multi-story mixed-development to replace what used to be strip malls or warehouses or whatever also have single family housing and existing residential - it's just worlds easier if you don't have to deal with as many property owners or with people who don't really want to move.
  - whats_a_quasar 3y ago
    You may or may not be right but "Building dense housing along transit will take longer here than it did there" is not a good argument against building things in the Bay. Upzoning provides a windfall for the current landowners, increases tax revenue, provides more places for people to live, and reduces price pressure on people being pushed out of the neighborhood. The author pointed out that apartment dwellers pay more in taxes than they consume from city services, and that a group of homeowners who were interested in selling were able to get their land upzoned and sell to a developer for a 3x return.
HDThoreaun 3y ago
The entirety of SV sprawl, especially along caltrain, could be dense housing. Every caltrain station should be surrounded by at minimum 5 story buildings but skyscrapers would work too. Yes, the issue is that these towns are captured by NIMBYs who strangle the zoning, it doesn't have to be that way.

by bink 3y ago

whats_a_quasar 3y ago

Within SF there's tons of single family housing neighborhoods along muni lines in the Richmond and Sunset that could be densified. Arlington is a suburb - the analogs are Daly City along BART, South San Francisco, and Milbrae/San Mateo along Caltrain. There's plenty of underutilized land around transit in those suburbs too.

majormajor 3y ago
Even if we lived in a world without zoning, occupied residential land is going to take far longer to densify than basically-empty former-commercial/industrial stuff. All the suburbs building the same sort of multi-story mixed-development to replace what used to be strip malls or warehouses or whatever also have single family housing and existing residential - it's just worlds easier if you don't have to deal with as many property owners or with people who don't really want to move.
- whats_a_quasar 3y ago
  You may or may not be right but "Building dense housing along transit will take longer here than it did there" is not a good argument against building things in the Bay. Upzoning provides a windfall for the current landowners, increases tax revenue, provides more places for people to live, and reduces price pressure on people being pushed out of the neighborhood. The author pointed out that apartment dwellers pay more in taxes than they consume from city services, and that a group of homeowners who were interested in selling were able to get their land upzoned and sell to a developer for a 3x return.

HDThoreaun 3y ago

The entirety of SV sprawl, especially along caltrain, could be dense housing. Every caltrain station should be surrounded by at minimum 5 story buildings but skyscrapers would work too. Yes, the issue is that these towns are captured by NIMBYs who strangle the zoning, it doesn't have to be that way.