95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority

Re:95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority by djur on Thursday February 23, 2023 @11:00AM (#34912232)

"Literally anywhere else" is going to be facing the same challenges and questions. SF is not the only city with a housing shortage. Why should SF be specially interested in preserving high rents and driving away the children of its residents?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority by wyager on Thursday February 23, 2023 @11:28AM (#34912604)

> SF is not the only city with a housing shortage.

And? There are dozens of cities that don't have a housing shortage. Living in the city of your choice isn't a human right.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority by ocschwar on Thursday February 23, 2023 @11:48AM (#34912916)

Freezing your city in amber isn't a human right either.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority by wyager on Friday February 24, 2023 @03:24PM (#34929598)

It literally is your right to do what you want with your property, subject to whatever covenants were in place when you acquired it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority by linuxftw on Thursday February 23, 2023 @11:23AM (#34912529)

IMO, the bay area is well beyond carrying capacity. The last time I stayed in a hotel there, the water out of the shower was a bare mist.

How many people should we try to pack into that area? Double the current housing? Triple it? Where do you stop?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority by myko on Thursday February 23, 2023 @12:01PM (#34913130)

The only reason it is beyond capacity is because the ability to expand capacity has been blocked. The bay is nowhere near maximum possible density.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority by km3r on Thursday February 23, 2023 @12:23PM (#34913501)

"The hotel had bad water pressure so the Bay is full".

I very much doubt SF is limited in expanded by water pipe capacity. Total water use, sure, but people use less water in a city then the suburbs anyways so it will be a net savings of water.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority by linuxftw on Thursday February 23, 2023 @02:09PM (#34914936)

Traffic, transit, and the water and sewer systems disagree.

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Re:95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority by thebradbain on Thursday February 23, 2023 @12:39PM (#34913751)

The Bay Area has a whole is nowhere near carrying capacity, what?

We "stop" where it is natural to, like any other place in human history: lack of resources, lack of space*, there's better places to move to, etc. And if the only thing holding back the Bay Area's development is artificial zoning laws -- we are certainly not at its "natural" equilibrium.

While CA has had its generational water supply issues, only 10% of it is used for residential purposes; 90% of it is used for agriculture. Adding more people in SF, or Palo Alto or Berkeley, does not put special strain on CA versus anywhere else. Not to mention, single family homes often consume _much_ more water per family than those in apartments or condos (yards, many bathrooms, etc).

*Lack of space, for what is a _city_, is not "it's too populated here for me to have a backyard without paying a ton of money"

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