SROs became airbnb private rooms listings, which were hilariously neutered in SF only after marginalized hosts in low income neighborhoods started getting a piece of the tourism pie.

More than a step, this oversteps the mark by quite a bit. A human being shouldn't have to live in a space that small. I can't imagine it not screwing up anyone's mental health when just looking at a picture of it is giving me an anxiety attack.

At 700$/month you can also afford to live outside of SF 3 days a week. These are basically just individual dorm rooms with communal living spaces. Perfect for someone working 4 days who can commute well outside the city for the other 3.

I think they just sleep at it and there's huge common areas they can actually live in for the most part like a Navy ship.

Well, I don't entirely disagree with you (about it overstepping the mark). But I also think you are exaggerating the negatives here.

I would like to see SROs updated. This is not that.

> More than a step, this oversteps the mark by quite a bit. A human being shouldn't have to live in a space that small. I can't imagine it not screwing up anyone's mental health when just looking at a picture of it is giving me an anxiety attack.

It works well in Tokyo. These are common housing for kids who might only have part time jobs at convenience stores.

> It works well in Tokyo. These are common housing for kids who might only have part time jobs at convenience stores.

By this logic, homeless encampments under freeway underpasses work well in the US. They are common for people who can't afford anything else so why fix what's not broken?

Actually housing, even if small, works better than homeless encampments. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Then why do so many people use homeless encampments instead of houses?

> A human being shouldn't have to live in a space that small.

The moral instinct that opposes renting out beds like these, but has no reaction to people sleeping on the street (because no one gets paid) is fascinating!

That's making a pretty big assumption about the poster and their views.

The assumption is that people have thoroughly thought out positions on things that aren't full of contradictions. Something like this challenges each of us to figure out how to square the circle on our world views with how things are and how things should be.

I don't know the poster specifically, of course, but this is a very common view.

It's known, at least by its opponents, as "The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics".

Automation and AI are going to destroy the value of human labor (physical and mental) over the next several decades, and under capitalism, the market value of a person translates directly to the amount of calories they can eat and cubic feet of shelter they can afford. When your value to society is all but nil, it makes sense that your allotment of space is little bigger than a coffin.

This is a quirky neo-bohemian thing for techies now but I can see it becoming commonplace under a pay-as-you-go no contract rental system in the future. Although I also think homelessness is going to be normalized in the future as well so this sort of thing won't look nearly as bad as the alternatives for most people when the climate change apocalypse really hits.

Shouldn't have to pya $5k in rent either but here we are. People should be allowed to make tradeoffs that they deem beneficial.

If your life is online you don't need to be in SF. There are plenty of third world countries to move to where Americans won't be ashamed to call you a compatriot.

Relevant book http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6j49p0wf/

Also parking for vans. A van is an awesome way to live if you can get parking. If you make the rent like 1000 a month for the space, it will keep the riff raff out. Put up a workspace and a some showers.

If something like that happened it would start a movement.

Like this?

https://www.kift.com

Exactly like that! Ive spoken with them and that is a great group of folks!

Im in their discord and I think theyre onto something huge.

Theyre more targeted for remote though. I was thinking more along the lines of somewhere in the suburbs for people who need to go into the office.

You could have 5000 square foot property and rent 10 van spaces at 1000 a month each. OR have a duplex at 3000 a month each for 6000 total.

Plus for the landlord theres minimal maintenance.as vans are pretty off the grid.

You could credit screen and do background checks...etc.to help keep the riff raff out.

If the zoning would allow it I think it could be a real solution to housing.

Gotcha. The other day I saw some RVs here by google: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZaPAEhWhnfW4Bn6XA

I don't know the legal set up is but it's close to what you describe.

Yeah, I'm assuming that's either some sort of city sponsored safe parking program or the cops get rid of them every now and then.

I want a more upscale van life experience where it's working people and nice facilities.

Warning : website links to NFT advert. Shame the actual information about this "community" is buried under this crap.

Van parking is a flat lot. This can be built in multiple floors. Suburbs are a problem, more density is a solution

This reminds me of the “Architect from Pluto” scene in Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain. The architect reveals his new efficient apartment design: a matrix of coffins. He received a thunderous applause from his investors. [1]

“A man doesn’t need a home. All he needs is a shelter. If we can sell him on the idea of a shelter, we’ll make millions.”

[1] https://youtu.be/FASvJF21yXU?feature=shared&t=70 (contains nudity)

Or more closely the sleeping pod scenes in Tokyo in Wim Wenders Until the End of the World (1991)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfFWBWKwQT8

Just the trailer - it's a 5 hour film and hard to find the specific scene on youtube

> Or more closely the sleeping pod scenes in Tokyo in Wim Wenders Until the End of the World (1991)

Can you give a more detailed description? Was just a run-of-the-mill Japanese capsule hotel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel)? Those were already common in 1991 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/glenhsparky/4820691940), and would have been certainly exotically sci-fi to an early-90s American audience.

> Just the trailer - it's a 5 hour film and hard to find the specific scene on youtube

Wow. some time ago that film connected with me for some reason (why, I have no recollection), so I have a VHS copy (because it was unavailable in any other format). That cut is much shorter.

Wenders filmed scenes in Japanese capsule pod hotels of the time ... it's relative to be sure but IMHO these are closer to the rentable pods depicted in the article than the scenes from the Jodorowsky movie.

The motivation here was admittedly to respond to one arthouse film drop with another.

I'm kind of old and while not in the film and TV business I've been tangential enough to work as an extra, tech runner, location support etc for various productions - notably in Berlin for Wings of Desire and in Australia (where I live) for some of the central Australian location work for Until the End of the World.

( Australian band in Wings of Desire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPf6SWcENWo

)

Wow! Two of my favorite films. Thanks for your work on them!

Bit player in a cast of thousands .. but of course I'll take all the credit! (Not! :-) ).

Aussies get about, a classmate of mine from the time had a bit part in a Nicole Kidman film and ended up giving black hole lectures at the Royal Institution of Great Britain along with being twice in the running for the Lucasian Chair.

That sort of things does wonders for your Erdős-Bacon number!

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.gauntlett