prop13throwaway

While I think this is a valid critique of many of the comments in this thread (including the current top one about SF being "dystopian"), I think you're being uncharitable to the author. Nowhere does he say he hates SF and is desperate to leave; though he is predicting decline if the housing and COL issues don't eventually get addressed.

Hopefully if you believe that the solutions to SF's problems are folks being positive, committed, and pitching in, you'll also agree that we need more inclusive land use policies (zoning and tax) that aren't aggressively pro-incumbent.

100% this. It also can't be emphasized enough that these property tax breaks have disproportionately benefited older, white Californians (due to both historic property ownership rates and demographics).

Edit: For the folks downvoting, well, here are a few links:

* https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/owne...

* http://www.nahbclassic.org/generic.aspx?genericContentID=261...

The irony being, of course, that California is one of the few places where your home value could rise 5-10X and your property taxes appreciate at less than inflation.

Prop 13 creates many artificial barriers to selling property and other market distortions, and folks not downsizing when they'd like to is one of the crazier ones.