When you have the property values San Francisco has, even after all the earthquake protection needed, you'll still end up with positive ROI. If it is cost-effective to build 10 story complexes in Mission Bay - on landfull - I can't imagine it not being cost-effective to do the same on Potrero Hill - bedrock.

Isn't high-density earthquake-safe construction a solved problem? It's not like SF has no high-density properties.

You talk to Japanese civil engineers and they tell you how to build earthquake-resistent tall buildings, which they have a lot of practice with.

From http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=863 , talking about the Kobe earthquake of 1995 (magnitude 7.2):

"Sixty percent of those who died were over 60 years old. The reason for this is that they were mainly the one who lived in the older houses that collapsed. Few people died in new homes. Nearly all the buildings that killed people were built before the enactment of modern building codes in the 1970s and 80s. Many newer buildings were badly damaged but they didn’t collapse."

"Kobe's modern buildings 'seemed to have performed very well,' a former Stanford engineering professor told Newsweek. 'There may have been one or two that have been damaged. But I haven't heard of any that fell.' Every building constructed according to the building codes established in 1981 was unscathed."

I bet there are many, many structures currently standing in SF that would be more earthquake-safe if they were replaced with taller, higher-capacity, but better-engineered modern buildings.

all I can say is, have you seen the existing housing stock in sf? It's not like that much of it is earthquake safe. And landlords have fought like hell to avoid retrofitting [1].

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/san-francisco-earth...

Tall buildings survive earthquakes better than low rise (odd but true) Though it does depend on ground in the area.

Bayview. The Mission.

The tenderloin, soma, mission bay, dog patch, bayview. It's not like current buildings were built on empty lots.

Everywhere.