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1. Embed this notice
   Philip Weiss (Phil in SF) (kingrat@sfba.social)'s status on Saturday, 19-Oct-2024 23:55:56 JST Philip Weiss (Phil in SF)

   The two real problems that prevent solving the high cost of housing are people who don't want housing of a particular type (housing for poor people or housing for rich people) in a particular place and authorities that defer to them. These are people problems, not logistics problems. Everything else is pretty easily solvable if we can resolve one or both of those.

   Those aren't easy to solve tho. So whenever I see a post with "it's easy" to solve the housing crisis, I think, "Have you met people?" If convincing people of the obvious right thing was easy, quite a few problems would be solved.

   • Embed this notice
     Philip Weiss (Phil in SF) (kingrat@sfba.social)'s status on Sunday, 20-Oct-2024 00:52:25 JST Philip Weiss (Phil in SF)

     in reply to

     • Lyle Solla-Yates

     @Lyle Scale is a relatively easily solvable problem. People creating lots of little fiefdoms is the same as people not wanting housing of particular types in particular places.

   • Embed this notice
     Lyle Solla-Yates (lyle@cville.online)'s status on Sunday, 20-Oct-2024 00:52:27 JST Lyle Solla-Yates

     in reply to

     @kingrat there’s also a giant scale problem. Making tons of little fiefdoms responsible for regulating housing supply without oversight (except some in CA) is not a reasonable path to success. They either need to be coordinated or replaced by something functional

   • Embed this notice
     Philip Weiss (Phil in SF) (kingrat@sfba.social)'s status on Sunday, 20-Oct-2024 02:58:01 JST Philip Weiss (Phil in SF)

     in reply to

     • Owen

     @owen I'm not saying that's the way it should happen. Just that it's one of the two hard people problems.

   • Embed this notice
     Owen (owen@social.ridetrans.it)'s status on Sunday, 20-Oct-2024 02:58:02 JST Owen

     in reply to

     @kingrat coming to this same conclusion has basically changed the way I think about electoral politics and representative government.

     I feel like my politics have become more essentially more elitist. we do actually need electeds who are willing to enact their preferred policies even if there's a lot of pushback

   • Embed this notice
     Philip Weiss (Phil in SF) (kingrat@sfba.social)'s status on Sunday, 20-Oct-2024 06:01:32 JST Philip Weiss (Phil in SF)

     in reply to

     • scott f

     @scott Money is muuuuccch easier than convincing people to spend money.

   • Embed this notice
     scott f (scott@carfree.city)'s status on Sunday, 20-Oct-2024 06:01:33 JST scott f

     in reply to

     @kingrat You're missing the fiscal side of things. Public investment in housing used to be much greater, before Prop 13, Reagan, the Faircloth Amendment, end of Redevelopment in California. It doesn't turn a profit to build housing for the non-rich.

     In the Mission, activists fought housing for rich people as leverage to win funding for affordable housing. Whether or not you like the tactic, it worked. The City wouldn't have funded all these developments otherwise. https://missionlocal.org/2020/11/an-affordable-housing-boomlet-is-coming-to-the-mission/

   • Embed this notice
     Philip Weiss (Phil in SF) (kingrat@sfba.social)'s status on Sunday, 20-Oct-2024 06:44:49 JST Philip Weiss (Phil in SF)

     in reply to

     • zed

     @zed That's a longer way of saying that authorities are deferring to people who don't want housing in a particular place. Which is a hard problem to solve, because it's a people problem.

   • Embed this notice
     zed (zed@mstdn.party)'s status on Sunday, 20-Oct-2024 06:44:50 JST zed

     in reply to

     @kingrat the solution isn’t to convince NIMBY’s, it’s to legislate by-right incremental development.

     If you’ve got a single family home, you should be able to walk in and out of a permitting office in one day with a permit to build a duplex , triplex, or triple decker.

     If you have a duplex/triplex, by right you should be able to build a 3-5 story apt building.

     You have a 5 story building, by right you should be able to build a 10 story building.

     No community input meetings needed.