Re:The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups
by wbl on Friday July 21, 2017 @01:41PM
(#14822379)
Neighborhood character is what they cited when they kicked out Willy Mayes. We are talking in some cases about people who bought houses knowing construction was permitted opposing it.
Traffic goes down when we have mixed use zones vs. Euclidean zoning.
Re:The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups
by timr on Friday July 21, 2017 @02:42PM
(#14822841)
"Neighborhood character is what they cited when they kicked out Willy Mayes."
I see. Because people have used this complaint to do bad things, it is therefore always incorrect. Got it.
Re:The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups
by wbl on Friday July 21, 2017 @02:48PM
(#14822894)
It's fundamentally about turning public space into a private club. Fine. Just don't expect me to be happy about paying for roads and sewers in places that keep poor people out.
Re:The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups
by LMYahooTFY on Friday July 21, 2017 @01:07PM
(#14822094)
I would not consider property values abstract in any sense of the word, especially when your "concrete" fears directly affect those values.
Writing off the whole notion that people fear their property value falling is illogical.
Re:The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups
by timr on Friday July 21, 2017 @01:38PM
(#14822352)
They're entirely abstract. Unless you're a professional real estate analyst, you have absolutely no idea what some proposed development is going to do to your "property value" (even then, you're basically guessing).
When you go to planning meetings, people are not generally complaining about property values. They're complaining about neighborhood character, traffic, parking, etc. I'm not going to say it never happens, but when it does, you should dig deeper. There are always real concerns.
Yeah, this is a bit of "yimby" rhetoric that's pretty simple-minded. People don't oppose new construction because of abstract fears like "property value"...they oppose them because of concrete fears, like changing the character of the neighborhood, or increasing traffic.
I'm not saying I agree with those fears, but it's helpful not to make cartoon characterizations of the other side's arguments, when many of those arguments have merit. If you spent most of your life savings on a house in a cute suburban neighborhood, you'd (rightly) be pretty pissed if people suddenly wanted to surround it with high-rises.
Again, I don't agree with these arguments, but it's helpful to actually understand them.