From Neal Lamontagne: “Many people citing Gabe Metcalf on San Franscisco’s progressive politics + housing costs. I suggest also reading @markasaurus:”
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Are San Francisco’s “famed progressive politics” really to blame for the housing crisis?
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Perhaps you have read Gabe Metcalf’s piece for CityLab titled ‘What’s the Matter With San Francisco? The city’s devastating affordability crisis has an unlikely villain—its famed progressive politics.’ It goes into depth about how policies in San Francisco have lead to the current situation where one bedroom apartments are renting for $82,000 per year. Yes, policies in San Francisco and the surrounding area have lead to very high housing prices. Who is to blame? I have a hard time blaming Progressives (whatever that means these days).
I would argue that in the Bay Area, wealthy single family homeowners have had FAR more sway on maintaining exclusionary zoning and blocking new housing than San Francisco’s progressive politicians. This piece dramatically understates the role of other towns and cities in the region, many of which are located on transit lines, to provide increased density.
Yes, it’s not NYC, but BART and Caltrain are better than what most of the country has to work with. Many of the stations on the peninsula are surrounded by one and two story buildings. Even within the City of San Francisco, the majority of residential land is zoned for single family homes. …
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Implications for Vancouver? If there is little likelihood that transit, whether rail or bus, will be expanded in suburban communities (indeed, they may lose service in the name of optimization), do they now have a justification not to accommodate growth, particularly that which might serve those priced out of Vancouver? (There are even rumours that some North Shore politicians are arguing for a downzoning of the corridor that was meant to be serviced by a new B-line.)
Therefore, all the more pressure on prices and rents in Vancouver. (Barbara Yaffe: Vancouver rent increase ‘tsunami’ expected‘)
