3 ms·

I think the main point is the fast-tracking. Developers don't care if they need to add some landscaping to the whole thing, it just makes things more expensive

by pas 3y ago

I think the main point is the fast-tracking. Developers don't care if they need to add some landscaping to the whole thing, it just makes things more expensive in the end. What they care about is they don't want to start working on projects that then sit in drawers for years. Of course "LA cracked" nothing, because the construction industry is in absolute shambles. It basically regressed into this cutesy artisanal nonsense, delivering a lot of single family homes (from the ugliest flimsiest Florida-grade paper-thin boxes to the enormous McMansions), and a few fancy high-rises. Because there's nothing industrial in much of construction. It's one-off bespoke custom things with their separate paperwork. About as productive as wrapping rice by the grain.

gottorf 3y ago
> ugliest flimsiest Florida-grade paper-thin boxes Is Florida-grade a thing? As far as I know, Florida is the only state where a majority (or plurality?) of single-family homes are built with CMU blocks, vs. the typical stick-framed construction.
- pas 3y ago
  I meant these mobile-home looking boxes. (for example Largo has this manufactured home community.) Probably they are temporary/vacation homes, so they don't count. (Though if a storm is coming it might not care about the distinction. And evacuating ... well, looking at the sat view it's unlikely that a thousand or more cars can just whoosh away at the same time.)
crooked-v 3y ago
> delivering a lot of single family homes [...] and a few fancy high-rises Yes, because it turns out that local zoning and permitting in most major US cities makes everything else nonprofitable. Construction companies will build what is effective to build. Change those local rules, as in the article, and suddenly lots of companies rush in to build that middle-density housing as soon as they can actually make any money doing so.
Terr_ 3y ago
> What they care about is they don't want to start working on projects that then sit in drawers for years. This reminds me of another HN discussion about prediction markets, and how they can be misleading since profit is not the same as the time value of money. For example, I could put down some money for a guaranteed profit against the people betting on "Trump will replace Biden in October 2024 after the aliens invade", but that's so far-out (in both senses) that it's not actually a good rate of return--I could be doing a lot more in-between now and then with the money. In this case, perhaps developers could invest in a profitable project... but if the time-span is too long, the profit-per-time is bad so they'll look elsewhere.

by pas 3y ago

gottorf 3y ago

> ugliest flimsiest Florida-grade paper-thin boxes Is Florida-grade a thing? As far as I know, Florida is the only state where a majority (or plurality?) of single-family homes are built with CMU blocks, vs. the typical stick-framed construction.

pas 3y ago
I meant these mobile-home looking boxes. (for example Largo has this manufactured home community.) Probably they are temporary/vacation homes, so they don't count. (Though if a storm is coming it might not care about the distinction. And evacuating ... well, looking at the sat view it's unlikely that a thousand or more cars can just whoosh away at the same time.)

crooked-v 3y ago

> delivering a lot of single family homes [...] and a few fancy high-rises Yes, because it turns out that local zoning and permitting in most major US cities makes everything else nonprofitable. Construction companies will build what is effective to build. Change those local rules, as in the article, and suddenly lots of companies rush in to build that middle-density housing as soon as they can actually make any money doing so.

Terr_ 3y ago

> What they care about is they don't want to start working on projects that then sit in drawers for years. This reminds me of another HN discussion about prediction markets, and how they can be misleading since profit is not the same as the time value of money. For example, I could put down some money for a guaranteed profit against the people betting on "Trump will replace Biden in October 2024 after the aliens invade", but that's so far-out (in both senses) that it's not actually a good rate of return--I could be doing a lot more in-between now and then with the money. In this case, perhaps developers could invest in a profitable project... but if the time-span is too long, the profit-per-time is bad so they'll look elsewhere.