The author writes, "Victorian houses... are very pretty. They’re also very inefficient. Collectively, they take up a lot of space, but don’t house very many peo

The author writes, "Victorian houses... are very pretty. They’re also very inefficient. Collectively, they take up a lot of space, but don’t house very many people... if developers were allowed to do it, they’d buy up small houses and apartments all over the city and replace them with highrises" Funny, you don't often hear about plans to start building tower blocks in Pacific Heights, a neighborhood with probably one of the lowest population densities in the city. Surely, given the economic arguments, VCs and business leaders residing there wouldn't mind a bit of construction? The author believes "Build more houses, lots and lots more, and you’ll finally start seeing rents go down" yet the evidence of rental prices in Manhattan, Tokyo and Hong Kong suggest otherwise. In fact, today in Hong Kong, a car parking spot costs double the average US house price! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-26/hong-kong-parking-costs-387-000-as-cash-moves-from-homes.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-26/hong-kong-parking-c... This battle over high-rises has been going on for decades, through every boom and bust, and this time is no different. The one constant is people falling in love with the pretty Victorian houses on tree lined streets. Amen to that! 1971 - The Ultimate High-rise: San Francisco's Mad Rush to the Sky. http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Highrise-Franciscos-Rush-Toward/dp/B000K6QLPM http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Highrise-Franciscos-Rush-Towa... 1999 - Do high-rises create a healthier economy? http://www.spur.org/publications/library/article/propositionM07011999 http://www.spur.org/publications/library/article/proposition... 2005 - Is San Francisco's Anti-Highrise Movement Dead? http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=2317 http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=2317 2007 - Ugly canyons everywhere! With the latest San Francisco construction boom, history repeats itself. http://www.sfbg.com/2007/02/21/next-mad-rush-sky http://www.sfbg.com/2007/02/21/next-mad-rush-sky