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Comment by ksec | Hacker News Reader

Excuse my ignorance. SF doesn't look anywhere like Hong Kong, possibly the most crowed places on earth, and it is not close to Tokyo or Seoul. It has plenty of Spaces, for many coming from Asia, most part of SF is like country side so to speak.

What cant there be more housing development on the edge of SF, or taller building with many smaller apartments etc. Underground packing lot?

Edit: Ok, is it because it is in an Earthquake zone?

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Because of Prop 13.

http://projects.scpr.org/prop-13/stories/housing-shortage/ has a good write up.

Because land isn't taxed based on it's current value landowners have little incentive to develop their land in order to get the most out of it. They simply bank land as much as possible as it's the most surefire way to turn a profit. It's why we have golf courses* in city centers and dilapidated shacks* next to Google's global HQ.

Additionally, prop 13 gives landowners every incentive to lobby for policies that restrict development in order to drive up prices instead of fighting for the right to build 4 story apartments on their property.

Slashing property taxes always floods the market with speculators and destroys housing affordability. Look at Vancouver, or Malta, their housing shortages rival SF despite low wages and comparatively small economies.

* https://www.planetizen.com/node/93284/la-country-clubs-takin...

* https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/15/google-ca...

There is local political opposition against allowing dense development. There are empty lots which do not get developed, even though the owner wants to develop it, because of neighborhood opposition and zoning regulations.

From what I've heard it's very difficult to develop new housing in San Francisco due to various regulations. Apparently, you even need to apply for permits to change your windows. Having lived in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, San Francisco does feel like country side.

> Apparently, you even need to apply for permits to change your windows.

Needing a permit to install windows is a thing everywhere. Because if you want a really good way to ruin a house, installing windows wrong is a great way to do it.

Everywhere in the world or everywhere in California? If the former, I find it amazing that house owners ruining their house by replacing windows is a universal problem and that requiring permits solves it.

Pretty much every developed part of the world requires permits for such things. Why permits? Because building codes are as old as civilization.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=5181e80b-f307...

Tokyo is certainly an earthquake zone as well so I don't think that explains it.

Tokyo is an earthquake zone in a country with a total liveable land mass that could comfortably fit inside a single US state. In fact the totality of all land in all of Japan, including mountains, is smaller than California. A lack of options will drive people into close quarters, but no such pressure exists in San Francisco. Wanting to be close to venture capital isn’t as compelling an build a megalopolis as some people with vested interests seem to think, no matter how much they dress up the issue with altruistic claims about the homeless.

The truth is that it’s prime real estate with a beautiful climate, and risks of earthquakes aside (and you can’t avoid natural disasters of some kind wherever you live) lots of people would like to live there. That’s no more an argument to build build build than it is to knock down any existing popular city or town and build high rises. While this argument is often derided as “NIMBYism” it is also true that it is in fact already some people’s back yard in the first place. A balance needs to be struck between the people and interests who’ve invested generations in a place, and people who want to flood in and change it to suit their desires.

Sorry, why does the fact that your grandparents lived in a place have any bearing on whether you have a say on what a neighbor should be allowed to build on their land?

Locals fight against further developing the land. They don't want skyscrapers in their suburbs.

Skyscrapers? Suburbs? They don't want 5-story buildings in their dense urban area.

>What cant there be more housing development on the edge of SF...

Three of the edges of SF are water.

Hence 'edge' in the singular, I think.

Why build more housing if people will continue to happily pay these prices to live here? The goal isn't to cram as many people as possible in a single pcity.

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