As an example of how Bay Area housing politics are silly.. there is a document that local governments use that purports to show that building more housing creates demand for even more housing, and use it to justify not building things.

By that logic, these arsons will help reduce rents in Oakland... it makes no sense.

I think Kevin was being snarky.

The idea of induced demand can't be discounted, that said building housing doesn't have the same negative impacts as building more highest lane miles, so the fact that it could induce demand is not as bad. Just keep building housing until every person who wants a roof over their head has one.

Maybe it does make sense. I want to live in Oakland even less now.

NIMBYism is merely one of the theories why the buildings in Emeryville to which you refer were set ablaze. Another begins with the phrase "follow the money..."

I guarantee you that the developers would rather have the housing built than the insurance money.

There are people other than developers. There are plenty of other people who might benefit from housing prices not going down.