Voting in primaries is the single most important thing anyone can do do improve the political situation not just in SF but in the country writ large.<p>As the article states, there's a large majority of the population in favor of relatively sensible rational policies. And where two sides disagree, there's a large majority in favor of sensible compromise. Only the most hardcore partisans and ideologues are intransigent. And yet only the most hardcore partisans and ideologues vote in primaries. In today's gerrymandered and politically segregated world, primaries are the only elections that matter in many places. Solution: everyone should vote in primaries.<p>TLDR: Vote in primaries or the crazies win.
This really isn't rocket science or difficult. Everyone thinks this is a hard-complex problem, it is not. This is a hard simple problem. (easy-hard; simple-complex)<p>1. Upzone SOMA district to 12 stories.<p>2. Remove requirement that buildings over 50yrs old in SOMA need to pass the historic building committee.
Count me in. This will be a long struggle, one which starts with understanding the difficult territory.<p>One recent and significant gain in the fight is the notion that the city must measure the economic impact of underbuilding:<p><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/4/14/11424532/mark-farrel-housing" rel="nofollow">http://www.vox.com/2016/4/14/11424532/mark-farrel-housing</a>
Just in: SF housing prices dropping.[1]<p>Wait until a few of the big overvalued startups tank (looking at you, Twitter) and the bubble will be over.<p>[1] <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/04/15/san-francisco-housing-prices-drop/" rel="nofollow">http://fortune.com/2016/04/15/san-francisco-housing-prices-d...</a>
Why not implement a massive property tax hike for non-owner occupied units - with exemptions for apartment complexes & other properties designed as rentals? Something along the lines of 15x the property tax for units not owner occupied for at least 2/3 of the year / ownership period (if less than a year).
How about we do something about it today? Instead of waiting for new apartments to be built, we make better use of existing apartments:<p><a href="https://medium.com/@TomPJacobs/what-housing-crisis-3c0568a5dd44" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@TomPJacobs/what-housing-crisis-3c0568a5d...</a>
Here is an IDEA, shipping container housing, infinatley modular and to boot much cheaper, by almost half to 3 quarters the cost....i have been doing designs of these type of home for fun and you know what, i love them, not to mention the fact if i wanted i could pack em up and put them anywhere else, its not that we should seriously consider the change to the environment of San fran, for which i am sure there is merit in some cases, but why not make a location that can conform to your needs and then build how you want to build, live how you want to live, in a place that welcomes you... food for thought
Building more housing per se is only one of the problems.<p>A lot of quality of life problems will crop up as density rises. With that realization, calls for a "grand unified growth plan" and the corresponding environmental impact studies will surface. And that will take ... t .. i .. m ... e ...<p>The whole movement hits a wall.
Leave. You all work on the internet.<p>The main reason you moved there in the 90s is 1) because it was pretty and pleasant, and the culture was eccentric and liberal, and 2) because Willie Brown was unbelievably friendly to rezoning everything to accommodate you at the expense of the diverse people who used to be able to afford to live there. Now, astonishingly, the wealthy libertarian line is that the problem is that they won't let you continue doing it until the place looks like a giant housing project. SROs that can be slotted in by crane are hailed as a technological innovation.<p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/How-S-F-s-live-work-development-boom-began-3272818.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/How-S-F-s-live-work-de...</a><p>"Manhattanization" is definitely a good word for it, because Manhattan is a cultural wasteland where no one interesting can afford to live, where the wealthy moved in the 80s because it was filled with interesting people.