<parody>

Hey! Ned Nimby here, and I'd like you to know that I *AM* struggling!

You think it doesn't break my heart to know that as I admire the beautiful sunset over the SF bay while sipping the finest of imported Bordeaux my back porch, there are poor homeless people out there?

It breaks my heart!

And by golly, if someone were to build a bunch of cheap housing blocking my view of the bay, I don't think I'd be able to take it!

Have some empathy for me!

</parody>

;-)

There are many people who are not comically wealthy San Franciscans, who have worked their whole lives to live in middle-class communities across America that are being ruined by a sudden focus on density instead of building outward, driven by landowners who "don't give a shit about the people of <insert community name here>" (actual quote from personal experience), enabled by laws and policies that have noble goals but were written in an unthoughtful, easily-exploited way and put in place by partisan bodies.

I'm not trying to downplay the complexity of the situation - I'm just saying that you alienate more people than you think with this common format of sarcastic hatred based on the extreme example of the bay area.

thanks for pointing that out ^_^

I would like to say that, having lived in a city that built very outwards (Houston, Texas), and several denser cities (most notably Paris, France which is very dense), I prefer the quality of life in dense spaces. Being too spread out means that you have massive commutes to be able to get anywhere. Being built up means you can do everything on foot.

In CA you can literally build a house in a backyard now with a max wait of 60 days for approval. No one can literally stop it.

That is an ADU, and it’s not like that’s free. People need capital. The things that people are blocking are larger building projects.

ADUs won’t fix the problem, but I guess it’s something.

Yeah, just watch out for things like water permits.

Not even the homeowner?