…. as long as it isn’t into their own towns.
“California, Mired in a Housing Crisis, Rejects an Effort to Ease It” (NYT):
Mr. Wiener’s measure, Senate Bill 50, would have overridden local zoning rules to allow high-density housing near transit lines, high-performing school districts and other amenity-laden areas. Supporters portrayed it as a big but necessary step toward reducing the state’s housing deficit — and helping to curb carbon emissions from long-distance driving — by fostering development in dense urban corridors.
Well, you can guess what happened next!
Separately, how do America’s vulnerable fare when parked amidst millions of rich people who say that their #1 priority is helping the vulnerable?
Housing costs are the primary reason that California’s poverty rate, 18.2 percent, is the highest of any state when adjusted for its cost of living, despite a thriving economy that has led to strong income growth and record-low unemployment.
With no new infrastructure and not too much new housing, what will American cities look like in 30 years?
Can somebody build that high density housing without zoning permits etc? Such buildings should not be illegal, but just undocumented, at least in California.
What’s not mentioned in the NYT’s article is that the areas near transit lines are already over-impacted with population and traffic. And there’s absolutely no guarantee that anyone living near a transit center is even going to take advantage of it. Stacking more and more vertical housing is these areas is just plain stupid. It doesn’t take a genius or an urban planner to see this if you live in these areas…which makes an article in the NYT (3000 miles away) about California housing absolutely ludicrous.
I’d like to see a proposal like this in New York City to dramatically increase the density near Grand Central Station.