$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes

Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by quelsolaar on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:08PM (#20215398)

Here is a buisnes idea Ive been thinking about lately for SF, Hong Kong, NY and other expensive places. Buy a smaller cruise ships and rent a pier to dock it. I found a newly renovated ship with 72 cabins for 5.8 million. With the average rent in SF that ship has paid for itself in 2 years (yes there will be additional costs, but back of a napkin, its a good start). Then buy more ships and stack them. Renovate/remodel in cheep places, then sail them to the bay. This could create housing in months not years, without the need for planing and building. If i had the money I would do it in a heart beat. It would be so much faster and cheaper then what google is planing.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by Shivetya on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:43PM (#20215905)

You would run into the same issues which are used to sabotage any new development. I gave a list below, it really isn't meant to be in jest but it sadly does happen.

The only way to get the issue fixed is with a state amendment and even then it would be years in court. It really comes down to two real reasons, they do not want those people in their city and second it makes so much money for all involved the longer nothing changes.

1) you would have to set aside a good number of units for low income residents 2) all work would have to be done by union member organizations 3) you would need to have multiple environmental impact studies to include traffic to and from the location 4) you would also have to appease groups concerned with the affect such a ship would have on naturally occurring views; this has been used against new construction as well as shadows cast 5) Plus a litany of politically associated special interest groups would have to be appeased, this is the primary method of wealth building among the political class.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by gamblor956 on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @06:37PM (#20219164)

Literally none of what you said is true.

1 is required only for developers seeking zoning changes. Low-income housing allowances aren't required if a development falls within existing site zoning, which is something that LA developers have used to great effect.

2) This is completely false, anti-union FUD.

3) This wasn't true before CA law was changed to simplify the approval process. You only need 1 comprehensive environmental impact study, and if you're close enough to another planned development (generally within 1 block), you can incorporate parts of their EIS into your own.

4) Views are not protected in CA...Appeasement not required.

5) Both cynical, false, and also misunderstands where the political class gets its wealth from (lobbying, not real estate).

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by toast0 on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @02:18PM (#20216513)

In addition to all the other problems, you may need to be a US-flagged and US-built vessel depending on how exactly your dock based cruise interacts with the 1920 Jones Act's restrictions on cabotage. Requiring a US built ship may significantly increase your costs.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by yters on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:15PM (#20215512)

And then once the ship city state has developed enough independence it can quietly slip out to sea beyond national borders and become its own seastead mini-nation of Google.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by the-dude on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:25PM (#20215656)

This is already being done in Groningen(NL) to accommodate influxes of students to our university.

edit: but I should mention, we have waterways reaching into the city. Being old Europe.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by Balgair on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @03:23PM (#20217290)

You mean The Raft, but moored in the South Bay?

https://sites.google.com/a/trinity.edu/snow-crash-fall-2016/...

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by jsonne on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:34PM (#20215782)

Last time I was in the bay area I stayed on a boat with some colleagues in a marina. There are a surprising number of people that already do this.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by stcredzero on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:17PM (#20215539)

Here is a buisnes idea Ive been thinking about lately for SF, Hong Kong, NY and other expensive places. Buy a smaller cruise ships and rent a pier to dock it.

This has been tried before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed

EDIT: Oh, you mean as residences! There are people who live in the marinas. There is some gatekeeping for that.

A high speed high tech ferry running between SF and the South Bay would be dandy.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by calvinbhai on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:16PM (#20215518)

Bottle neck: commute between ship and land.

How do you factor for that?

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by dmead on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:23PM (#20215622)

they'd be docked or anchored in the bay. daily ferries to the south bay and SF. duh.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by et-al on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @04:06PM (#20217805)

This actually did happen in SF with the Maritol "Icebreaker" ship by Creon Levit and Brewster Kahle:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/10/startups-aboard-...

I don't know what's happened to it after 2014, though.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by TACIXAT on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @02:16PM (#20216485)

This is the best worst idea I've ever heard. A lot of the offices (Google) are along the water, so the commute could be pretty ideal.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by no_wizard on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @08:03PM (#20219686)

Like the "icebreaker" ?

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/05/11/tech-company-st...

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by deepakhj on Wednesday June 19, 2019 @02:01AM (#20221155)

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/ne...

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by mewfree on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @04:01PM (#20217762)

It's actually quite common in Paris: http://www.annmah.net/2014/04/08/life-paris-houseboat/

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by megaremote on Wednesday June 19, 2019 @01:49AM (#20221103)

> Buy a smaller cruise ships and rent a pier to dock it.

Oh yes, no one has thought of that before. It has even been implemented.

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Re:$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes by josiahtu on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @02:50PM (#20216897)

aka Seasteading https://www.seasteading.org/

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