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A comment on It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town. Parent comment

Re:It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town by TuringNYC on Friday February 22, 2019 @10:02AM (#19225878)
>> Not limiting the number of high-paying tech jobs in the Bay Area has been terrible for blue collar workers who don't own any land.

I'd say limiting high-density housing is really what has brought down the Bay Area. In contrast, New York has mostly embraced high-density housing. Take a look at LIC: https://www.6sqft.com/queens-new-skyline-a-rundown-of-the-30...

When you build upwards, the sky is the limit, literally.

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Re:It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town by leereeves on Friday February 22, 2019 @10:20AM (#19226033)
I looked at the first seven of those; one was a hotel and the rest were all high-density luxury towers, not affordable housing for blue collar workers.

For example:

https://www.buzzbuzzhome.com/us/the-forge

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Re:It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town by TuringNYC on Friday February 22, 2019 @10:40AM (#19226198)
You're absolutely right, but I dont see what is wrong with that. When you build high-density luxury towers, it creates capacity and fewer people "push out" into bordering areas. Contrast this with the Bay Area where the lack of high-density luxury towers causes people to push miles out and buy homes. Would the Bay Area have a housing problem if there were ~20 more luxury high rises Palo Alto? Seems to be that would greatly relieve the upwards pressure on the locus around Palo Alto.

Also, forcing people to move into low-density homes seems regressive. It can be an option.

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Re:It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town by leereeves on Friday February 22, 2019 @11:05AM (#19226414)
I think that's probably true, and the Bay Area needs more high density housing, but lessening the impact is not eliminating the impact.

So perhaps it's less harmful for the current residents of Queens, but it's still negative. Why should they not oppose that?

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Re:It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town by TuringNYC on Friday February 22, 2019 @11:24AM (#19226570)
If we're trying to oppose all gentrification, we'd also have to

- stop all jobs growth in Manhattan (10min subway ride to LIC)

- and/or we'd have to put a cap on salaries (what happens to doctors? minimum wage? how do they pay med school loans?)

- and/or ensure LIC residents dont commute to well-paying jobs in Manhattan

- and/or ensure only low paying jobs are created in LIC (how many mechanics jobs and other non corporate jobs can LIC support? Why havent they already been created?)

All of the above seem silly. At some point, you'd almost be breaking off LIC into a self-sufficient fiefdom in itself. The assumption would be that all the benefits that came from banding together as a city and creating a modern society were net negative to the residents of LIC. This seems quaint but doesn't feel right to me.

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Re:It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town by leereeves on Friday February 22, 2019 @11:36AM (#19226668)
> The assumption would be that all the benefits that came from banding together as a city and creating a modern society were net negative to the residents of LIC.

I suspect we could find many people who do think life was better before tech and finance took over. Not only in LIC, but in blue, pink, and even some white collar neighborhoods around the country.

Whether their opinion feels right to us here on Hacker News is only relevant to the extent that our political influence outweighs theirs (if it does).

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