Why California is so expensive: It’s not just the weather, it’s the regulation

Re:Why California is so expensive: It’s not just the weather... by mabbo on Tuesday July 19, 2016 @08:15PM (#12125937)

I was going to reply that hey, that 244sqmi is the greater toronto area (GTA), but then I checked the wiki page, and well I'll be damned that's just the city itself. The GTA is 676 sqmi.

What's really interesting is that the 244sqmi is full. There is room for maybe one or two more subdivision of houses, and then the only option is up (or another amalgamation with the neighbours, because that went so well last time).

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Re:Why California is so expensive: It’s not just the weather... by vonmoltke on Wednesday July 20, 2016 @12:04PM (#12130087)

Yeah, I checked to make sure I had the wright number before I posted. I don't have a good number for the tri-county core of South Florida, but I'd guess it is not much larger than the GTA.

We hit the point of "no way but up" about 20 years ago. There are a few holdout family ranches, but other than that there is nowhere left to build that doesn't involve tearing down something else first. In some parts of my home county the school board has had to start cannibalizing parts of public parks in order to build new schools to support the population.

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Re:Why California is so expensive: It’s not just the weather... by mabbo on Wednesday July 20, 2016 @09:12PM (#12133835)

The Toronto school board got clever: you tear down the school, build a 20-story building on top but the bottom 3 floors are a school and the other 17 are condos that you sell or rent.

The board keeps their school in the area that needs it (minus a few tough years without it) and they make a profit selling or renting the condos!

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