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Comment by baggy_trough | Hacker News Reader

It was an awful bill. It removed density limits in any jobs-rich area (so basically all of the Bay Area). It forced any single family zoned area to allow fourplexes.

This would have greatly changed the character of neighborhoods that people have lived and invested in for decades. If you can't see the political problem with that, well, you might want to learn more about California politics.

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what's wrong with fourplexes? i live in a neighborhood full of them and think they're great. they add a lot of character without additional massing, and the additional density unlocks commercial areas that are a walk away.

That's great that you like your neighborhood. Presumably you thought it was the best choice for you.

I don't want to live in a high density area, so that's why I chose to live somewhere else.

This argument always seemed like a fantasy to me. Cities and neighborhoods change over time. Legally forcing them to stay one way and not letting them adapt to the changing demands of the market seems petty and childish.

When you buy a house, you don't buy the neighborhood.

I'm sure you wouldn't have appreciated somebody saying you cant live where you do now, before you moved there.

However you are completely onboard with doing the same to others.

fourplexes fit in with single family homes[0]. what makes you averse to a fourplex in your neighborhood?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McAvinney_Fourplex

More people - more noise - more traffic - more fuss.

What was the growth rate of the region when they moved in? They chose to buy a house in an area where this kind of growth was foreseeable. For many that growth and the increasing home values that come with it was probably the reason they moved there.

If you don't want to live in a high density area, then why did you choose to live in a city?

Your explanation may be a reason why it failed, but doesn’t explain why it’s a bad bill.

Don’t you want to put more housing where the jobs are?

Jobs can move as well. And there's a good argument that more housing won't significantly ameliorate California's housing crisis: More housing results in lower prices only if it reduces demand. But if the pool of people competing to live there is much larger than the increase in housing (drawn from the entire US, plus some immigrants), then it won't make a dent in demand, and the prices will stay high.

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