Re:Rent Control Needs Retirement, Not a Comeback
by bpicolo on Friday February 09, 2018 @10:03AM
(#16340628)
Berlin is half as population dense as SF, and has more surface area to spread out. SF is stuck in a single 49 mi^2 peninsula. That's not to say issues can't be solved in a variety of ways, it just doesn't seem like Berlin is a good point of comparison.
https://www.google.de/maps/@52.5351488,13.4089075,266a,35y,2...
This sort of layout in Berlin is something common in Europe that I kinda of wish existed in US cities. (Barcelona is similar too?)
Re:Rent Control Needs Retirement, Not a Comeback
by adrianN on Friday February 09, 2018 @10:11AM
(#16340697)
I don't like comparing cities' density numbers as given by Wikipedia because many cities, Berlin included, include large areas that have really low density. Berlin for example has more than 4000 hectares of forest inside its city limits where nobody lives. If you go by these numbers, SF is denser than Tokyo.
Re:Rent Control Needs Retirement, Not a Comeback
by bpicolo on Friday February 09, 2018 @10:30AM
(#16340850)
Yeah, was trying to get at that with `has more surface area to spread out`. Suburban sprawl doesn't work as well in SF.
Re:Rent Control Needs Retirement, Not a Comeback
by pwinnski on Friday February 09, 2018 @10:51AM
(#16341065)
That seems like double-counting, then. The density numbers are based on the total area divided by the total residents. If the residents are squeezed into half the area, it should not be said that there is lower density and more space to spread out. The lower density is already because of the space.
Re:Rent Control Needs Retirement, Not a Comeback
by bpicolo on Friday February 09, 2018 @11:32AM
(#16341545)
I don't think so, the point there is that SF physically has no room for suburban sprawl because it's a single stranded peninsula. Berlin is both currently less dense, and also has further room to expand geographically. One might disagree but it makes sense that way to me
https://goo.gl/maps/hvkzDG4u9Tp
with this random "small" street in SF
https://goo.gl/maps/dJzn86V9ers
It's even more stark when you compare larger streets. Berlin:
https://goo.gl/maps/hBg7aMA2Feu
SF:
https://goo.gl/maps/YFcVLSWHPzS2
I guess you can see why I thought the density in SF to be pretty ridiculous.
Low density wouldn't be so much of a problem, imho, if the zoning would be better. Why does a large fraction of the population have to commute downtown to the skyscrapers? Couldn't the offices be spread out a bit more? Why are supermarkets to far apart? I did a lot of walking while in SF and in many parts of the city I had the feeling that sidewalks were more decorative than meant for transportation, because there were no shops or small businesses for a kilometer or more around.