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Tech companies are already working slightly to solve this, but the high cost of living will be a huge drag on future agglomerative effects. Tech must stop acce

Tech companies are already working slightly to solve this, but the high cost of living will be a huge drag on future agglomerative effects. Tech must stop accepting the NIMBY environment which has existed in California for 40-50 years and shift it to a YIMBY environment for housing, if the cost of living is ever going to get under control. Ironically, the local NIMBYs have been blaming tech for the mismatch between cost of living and wages (for those outside of the tech sector), but one only need look south to LA to see a place with even greater cost-of-living vs. wage mismatch. The days of working out of a garage to get a startup going are disappearing, because so few own garages, and so many garages are already converted to decrepit living spaces. Biotech is particularly at risk in the SF Bay area, due to generally lower salaries than tech, and longer riskier payoffs from startups. If Harris wins, I hope to see sweeping changes, as the NIMBY democrats in the area hopefully lose both influence locally, and are subject to some national policies to improve the housing situation.

darepublic 2y ago
> If Harris wins, I hope to see sweeping changes Any reason this is more realistic with Harris in charge?
- epistasis 2y ago
  IMHO, surprisingly yes, for several reasons: 1) For the first time ever, national level Democratic politicians are speaking publicly about housing supply and adopting YIMBY language 2) Harris adopting YIMBY policies will have great influence over both the faux-progressive SF faction and the centrist-to-right-wing Peninsula NIMBY democrats. Their choice will be to defy a hugely popular national politician that originated in the Bay Area, or break from the Democratic infrastructure and lose influence. 3) The Biden administration has, in the past two months, really switched focus to hyping up YIMBY policies, with several announced policy changes on their blog. I believe this is the administration finally realizing that housing costs are the last big segment of inflation that has not been tamped down. With Harris' & Obama's & Walz's much more strident YIMBYism than Biden, I think this will increase, with lots more national level policy pushing local zoning decisions and code decisions towards more housing. 4) If Harris does lose, local politicians can blame her YIMBY policies in contrast to Trump's strident NIMBYism and anti-apartment politics. Generally, the voting populace in local elections is majority YIMBY, and the small number of hyper-motivated folks that organize and decide local elections are NIMBY, and the NIMBY faction will be paying attention to this loss. Overall, YIMBYism has crossed the party lines up until now. In highly Republican areas, like San Diego or Utah, Republican elected officials embrace YIMBYism. In Democratic strongholds, Democtratic elected officials embrace YIMBYism. There's a problem that with the Harris/Trump political split on YIMBY/NIMBY, this divide might get pushed towards the local level. In which case, blue cities will tend towards more YIMBYism, and redder cities (like San Diego) may go more NIMBY. Up until now, within California, I'd say that San Diego and Oakland have been the most YIMBY, with Berkeley starting to catch up. We will see what happens after the November election!

darepublic 2y ago

> If Harris wins, I hope to see sweeping changes Any reason this is more realistic with Harris in charge?

epistasis 2y ago
IMHO, surprisingly yes, for several reasons: 1) For the first time ever, national level Democratic politicians are speaking publicly about housing supply and adopting YIMBY language 2) Harris adopting YIMBY policies will have great influence over both the faux-progressive SF faction and the centrist-to-right-wing Peninsula NIMBY democrats. Their choice will be to defy a hugely popular national politician that originated in the Bay Area, or break from the Democratic infrastructure and lose influence. 3) The Biden administration has, in the past two months, really switched focus to hyping up YIMBY policies, with several announced policy changes on their blog. I believe this is the administration finally realizing that housing costs are the last big segment of inflation that has not been tamped down. With Harris' & Obama's & Walz's much more strident YIMBYism than Biden, I think this will increase, with lots more national level policy pushing local zoning decisions and code decisions towards more housing. 4) If Harris does lose, local politicians can blame her YIMBY policies in contrast to Trump's strident NIMBYism and anti-apartment politics. Generally, the voting populace in local elections is majority YIMBY, and the small number of hyper-motivated folks that organize and decide local elections are NIMBY, and the NIMBY faction will be paying attention to this loss. Overall, YIMBYism has crossed the party lines up until now. In highly Republican areas, like San Diego or Utah, Republican elected officials embrace YIMBYism. In Democratic strongholds, Democtratic elected officials embrace YIMBYism. There's a problem that with the Harris/Trump political split on YIMBY/NIMBY, this divide might get pushed towards the local level. In which case, blue cities will tend towards more YIMBYism, and redder cities (like San Diego) may go more NIMBY. Up until now, within California, I'd say that San Diego and Oakland have been the most YIMBY, with Berkeley starting to catch up. We will see what happens after the November election!