4 ms·

There really are not plenty of places in the US where you can live a good, urban, non-car-oriented life, and you can tell that is true because the ones which do

There really are not plenty of places in the US where you can live a good, urban, non-car-oriented life, and you can tell that is true because the ones which do exist tend to be very expensive, showing that they are in high demand. You clearly do not desire an urban lifestyle, and I won't try to change your mind about that, but those of us who do want urban living generally don't find that our choices are either plentiful or affordable.

trimethylpurine 3y ago
I think it's because urbanites keep getting suckered into letting builders do "condensed affordable housing" under the false premise that more housing means cheaper housing. Obviously that would only be true if the units were owned by competitors. Where one contractor owns all the units they set the prices, and they have no reason to make them "affordable." Just condensed.
- recursive 3y ago
  > they have no reason to make them "affordable." The money they make is {rent} × {units rented}. The reason they don't set rent to $1billion is that they will rent zero of them. I think this shows that they do have a reason to lower prices, at least at some range.
  - trimethylpurine 3y ago
    Sure so long as the assumption is that they aren't cheating. But apparently Congress thinks they are. Hence the lawsuits.
- adrianN 3y ago
  Supply and demand would like to have a word with you.
  - trimethylpurine 3y ago
    Congress would like to have a word with contractors about "supply and demand." https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-welch-introduce-legislation-to-crack-down-on-companies-that-inflate-rents-with-price-fixing-algorithms https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-w...
- trimethylpurine 3y ago
  For the downvoters, nice of you to hope I'm wrong but unfortunately: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-welch-introduce-legislation-to-crack-down-on-companies-that-inflate-rents-with-price-fixing-algorithms https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-w... Honestly who is downvoting this anyway? Do you work for big contractors or just like unaffordable housing as long as it's condensed? Evil much?
  - mlsu 3y ago
    This is entirely unrelated to the presence or lack of housing in urban areas. If anything, a monopolistic landlord would like to expand and build more apartments, to extract a higher volume of above-market rent.
    - trimethylpurine 3y ago
      You appear to be paraphrasing me. Did you get a bunch of downvotes? Or was this not related to my comment?
      - tekknik 3y ago
        You shouldn’t worry about downvotes on HN, many here are biased and are looking for reconfirmation of their beliefs rather than discourse.
        trimethylpurine 3y ago
        I'd like to not worry about it, but it then prevents me from posting. The suggestion is to then stop posting and move on, which I fear allows the washing of dialogue and kindles political approaches that further the damage we're doing to society and the environment through corporate influence. If you, as a developer, feel good about your job helping corporations inflate rent prices, you're not going to look for another job. If you can clearly see that your employer is destroying society, you're very much likely not going to be willing to stick around. Maybe that's doesn't matter in most cases, but clearly big tech employees have influenced government contracts, etc.
dheera 3y ago
Not to mention safe urban areas. Most US urban areas are relatively high crime, and even if you don't encounter actual crime you are made to feel unsafe by a bunch of drug addicts in hoodies who yell racial slurs and other creepy dudes who approach you unsolicited, in contrast to urban areas of e.g. East Asia which tend to be extremely safe. Boston is about the only city in the US that I feel mildly safe walking around the downtown at night.
- nerdkid93 3y ago
  > relatively high crime You mention crime in regards to safety within a city, but there is a study floating around Twitter that factors in traffic fatalities in suburban and rural areas, and the dangers of cars make suburbs and rural areas MORE dangerous that urban areas! Take a look at this article detailing urban vs rural deaths: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-rural-areas-die-at-higher-rates-than-those-in-urban-areas/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-rural-a...
  - tekknik 3y ago
    well that’s clearly flawed. i certainly don’t buy SF being safer than literally any rural area.

trimethylpurine 3y ago

I think it's because urbanites keep getting suckered into letting builders do "condensed affordable housing" under the false premise that more housing means cheaper housing. Obviously that would only be true if the units were owned by competitors. Where one contractor owns all the units they set the prices, and they have no reason to make them "affordable." Just condensed.

recursive 3y ago
> they have no reason to make them "affordable." The money they make is {rent} × {units rented}. The reason they don't set rent to $1billion is that they will rent zero of them. I think this shows that they do have a reason to lower prices, at least at some range.
- trimethylpurine 3y ago
  Sure so long as the assumption is that they aren't cheating. But apparently Congress thinks they are. Hence the lawsuits.
adrianN 3y ago
Supply and demand would like to have a word with you.
- trimethylpurine 3y ago
  Congress would like to have a word with contractors about "supply and demand." https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-welch-introduce-legislation-to-crack-down-on-companies-that-inflate-rents-with-price-fixing-algorithms https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-w...
trimethylpurine 3y ago
For the downvoters, nice of you to hope I'm wrong but unfortunately: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-welch-introduce-legislation-to-crack-down-on-companies-that-inflate-rents-with-price-fixing-algorithms https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-w... Honestly who is downvoting this anyway? Do you work for big contractors or just like unaffordable housing as long as it's condensed? Evil much?
- mlsu 3y ago
  This is entirely unrelated to the presence or lack of housing in urban areas. If anything, a monopolistic landlord would like to expand and build more apartments, to extract a higher volume of above-market rent.
  - trimethylpurine 3y ago
    You appear to be paraphrasing me. Did you get a bunch of downvotes? Or was this not related to my comment?
    - tekknik 3y ago
      You shouldn’t worry about downvotes on HN, many here are biased and are looking for reconfirmation of their beliefs rather than discourse.
      - trimethylpurine 3y ago
        I'd like to not worry about it, but it then prevents me from posting. The suggestion is to then stop posting and move on, which I fear allows the washing of dialogue and kindles political approaches that further the damage we're doing to society and the environment through corporate influence. If you, as a developer, feel good about your job helping corporations inflate rent prices, you're not going to look for another job. If you can clearly see that your employer is destroying society, you're very much likely not going to be willing to stick around. Maybe that's doesn't matter in most cases, but clearly big tech employees have influenced government contracts, etc.

dheera 3y ago

Not to mention safe urban areas. Most US urban areas are relatively high crime, and even if you don't encounter actual crime you are made to feel unsafe by a bunch of drug addicts in hoodies who yell racial slurs and other creepy dudes who approach you unsolicited, in contrast to urban areas of e.g. East Asia which tend to be extremely safe. Boston is about the only city in the US that I feel mildly safe walking around the downtown at night.

nerdkid93 3y ago
> relatively high crime You mention crime in regards to safety within a city, but there is a study floating around Twitter that factors in traffic fatalities in suburban and rural areas, and the dangers of cars make suburbs and rural areas MORE dangerous that urban areas! Take a look at this article detailing urban vs rural deaths: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-rural-areas-die-at-higher-rates-than-those-in-urban-areas/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-rural-a...
- tekknik 3y ago
  well that’s clearly flawed. i certainly don’t buy SF being safer than literally any rural area.