8 ms·

My god. The comments here are like they're generated by an LLM. "Google cancel project. One more to the dead google project lol" Even the slightest awareness o

My god. The comments here are like they're generated by an LLM. "Google cancel project. One more to the dead google project lol" Even the slightest awareness of local conditions would have improved these comments. The Google developments suffered from the same opposition any residential developer faces in the Bay Area. https://nextcity.org/features/why-one-silicon-valley-city-said-no-to-google https://nextcity.org/features/why-one-silicon-valley-city-sa... In addition, the towns of the Bay also made a big fuss about "company towns". For those who aren't acquainted with the Bay Area, residents of the region in general strongly oppose any housing. Explanations given range from "The Bay Area is full" to "People shouldn't be living like sardines on top of each other" to "Where will my friends park when they visit". A housing project being cancelled after years of opposition is normal not, out of the ordinary.

p_j_w 3y ago
>The comments here are like they're generated by an LLM. "Google cancel project. One more to the dead google project lol" I understand why people post such low effort trash: "make number bigger". What I don't quite understand is why people upvote the same dorky joke they've seen others post a million times. It's baffling to me.
- BagelGuy 3y ago
  The Redditors are coming
- colpabar 3y ago
  Have you ever been to reddit?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
pchristensen 3y ago
I'm very pro-housing, but one valid concern is that residential real estate generally doesn't pay its way, especially with school-age children, and California's Prop 13 makes this problem worse over time by freezing tax rate growth. So any housing in your municipality is a fiscal negative to start that gets worse over time. Normally I would say that the tax code isn't set in stone, but in California's case, it is in the state constitution.
- colinsane 3y ago
  > residential real estate generally doesn't pay its way how could that be possible? if residents are a financial drain on a city, then where does it get its income? tourism? industry operated by non-residents? if true, then by not building residences all you're doing is pushing the costs onto the neighboring towns. but that's obviously not sustainable, because eventually those towns would go bankrupt, or they'd also "wise up" and push residents out from their own town, and you'd have some geographically-expanding bubble of financially-sound towns with 0 residents. i don't buy it.
  - pchristensen 3y ago
    Sales tax, business taxes, tax on commercial and industrial real estate, etc. These also require services, but don't put kids into public school and are much less emotional about tax changes compared to residents. And you're exactly right, in California most towns would happily guarantee that no new resident ever moves in, and just continue to collect taxes from workers that commute from farther and farther away. Cities at the edge of the bubble (Dublin, Brentwood, Gilroy, etc) build housing because a) they're turning undeveloped land into housing, and b) new housing construction is less unprofitable for the municipality in the beginning and can be offset by development fees. It sounds crazy, and yet, it's true. For example, Palo Alto has 100,000 workers commuting in to a city of 70,000 people - http://meetingthetwain.blogspot.com/2018/01/palo-alto-work-live-commute.html http://meetingthetwain.blogspot.com/2018/01/palo-alto-work-l...
    - BobaFloutist 3y ago
      That being said, while it's 100% the case that SFHs don't pay for themselves, I bet high-rises change the math a bit.
      - CydeWeys 3y ago
        Schooling is a big expense, and it's not much cheaper with high rises. (It's a little bit cheaper, but only because of bussing.)
Nifty3929 3y ago
And then lament that their kids can't afford to live in the Bay Area. If you don't move away and don't allow building of more homes, where do you expect your kids to live?
- anon84873628 3y ago
  Oh yes, I love watching brains break over this. "You grew up in the Bay Area and had two kids who don't live with you anymore. Did they move in with their in-laws instead? Did you build two homes for them? Oh your parents are still alive in their own home too?"
pb7 3y ago
Yep, same old smooth-brained takes repeated ad nauseum, while dang is busy posting PSAs about the discussion surrounding Cities: Skylines II performance not being to his liking.[0] What could possibly be more generic than the same trite comments repeated 1000 times? This place feels like a circus sometimes. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38155949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38155949
tacocataco 3y ago
I remember a time when everyone was a dog, using their humans internet while they were away at work. Now we're all viral marketing AI chat bots.

p_j_w 3y ago

>The comments here are like they're generated by an LLM. "Google cancel project. One more to the dead google project lol" I understand why people post such low effort trash: "make number bigger". What I don't quite understand is why people upvote the same dorky joke they've seen others post a million times. It's baffling to me.

BagelGuy 3y ago
The Redditors are coming
colpabar 3y ago
Have you ever been to reddit?
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

pchristensen 3y ago

I'm very pro-housing, but one valid concern is that residential real estate generally doesn't pay its way, especially with school-age children, and California's Prop 13 makes this problem worse over time by freezing tax rate growth. So any housing in your municipality is a fiscal negative to start that gets worse over time. Normally I would say that the tax code isn't set in stone, but in California's case, it is in the state constitution.

colinsane 3y ago
> residential real estate generally doesn't pay its way how could that be possible? if residents are a financial drain on a city, then where does it get its income? tourism? industry operated by non-residents? if true, then by not building residences all you're doing is pushing the costs onto the neighboring towns. but that's obviously not sustainable, because eventually those towns would go bankrupt, or they'd also "wise up" and push residents out from their own town, and you'd have some geographically-expanding bubble of financially-sound towns with 0 residents. i don't buy it.
- pchristensen 3y ago
  Sales tax, business taxes, tax on commercial and industrial real estate, etc. These also require services, but don't put kids into public school and are much less emotional about tax changes compared to residents. And you're exactly right, in California most towns would happily guarantee that no new resident ever moves in, and just continue to collect taxes from workers that commute from farther and farther away. Cities at the edge of the bubble (Dublin, Brentwood, Gilroy, etc) build housing because a) they're turning undeveloped land into housing, and b) new housing construction is less unprofitable for the municipality in the beginning and can be offset by development fees. It sounds crazy, and yet, it's true. For example, Palo Alto has 100,000 workers commuting in to a city of 70,000 people - http://meetingthetwain.blogspot.com/2018/01/palo-alto-work-live-commute.html http://meetingthetwain.blogspot.com/2018/01/palo-alto-work-l...
  - BobaFloutist 3y ago
    That being said, while it's 100% the case that SFHs don't pay for themselves, I bet high-rises change the math a bit.
    - CydeWeys 3y ago
      Schooling is a big expense, and it's not much cheaper with high rises. (It's a little bit cheaper, but only because of bussing.)

Nifty3929 3y ago

And then lament that their kids can't afford to live in the Bay Area. If you don't move away and don't allow building of more homes, where do you expect your kids to live?

anon84873628 3y ago
Oh yes, I love watching brains break over this. "You grew up in the Bay Area and had two kids who don't live with you anymore. Did they move in with their in-laws instead? Did you build two homes for them? Oh your parents are still alive in their own home too?"

pb7 3y ago

Yep, same old smooth-brained takes repeated ad nauseum, while dang is busy posting PSAs about the discussion surrounding Cities: Skylines II performance not being to his liking.[0] What could possibly be more generic than the same trite comments repeated 1000 times? This place feels like a circus sometimes. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38155949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38155949

tacocataco 3y ago

I remember a time when everyone was a dog, using their humans internet while they were away at work. Now we're all viral marketing AI chat bots.