I grew up in Oakland, but didn’t return after college. Looking at California as it was then and as it’s changed since I’ve left, I keep feeling like housing policy is really the nexus of so many different problems (and that this is true nationwide as well). We’re struggling with homelessness, high costs of living, climate change, wildfires etc., and housing has such a big role to play in all of those. We make new housing construction so hard, not just with zoning but with lot size and coverage restrictions, parking requirements, and arduous consultation and permitting processes. So many of the most desirable neighborhoods in the country, Greenwich Village, Rittenhouse Square etc. would be illegal to build today! Hard to build housing means rising rents, rising rents mean high cost of living and people being pushed into homelessness. People moving to exurbs add carbon emissions, and low density inside cities chokes public transit systems that can’t get a critical mass of riders. As we push farther into urban-wilderness boundaries, we put more people at risk in wildfires. I’m not by any means the first person to say this, but I just wish more people could see the whole web of connections.
Phew that was hard, I ended up taking about an extra 30 seconds to get it done, but it’s a good exercise in just putting words down and not spending too much time searching for perfection.
I grew up in Oakland, but didn’t return after college. Looking at California as it was then and as it’s changed since I’ve left, I keep feeling like housing policy is really the nexus of so many different problems (and that this is true nationwide as well). We’re struggling with homelessness, high costs of living, climate change, wildfires etc., and housing has such a big role to play in all of those. We make new housing construction so hard, not just with zoning but with lot size and coverage restrictions, parking requirements, and arduous consultation and permitting processes. So many of the most desirable neighborhoods in the country, Greenwich Village, Rittenhouse Square etc. would be illegal to build today! Hard to build housing means rising rents, rising rents mean high cost of living and people being pushed into homelessness. People moving to exurbs add carbon emissions, and low density inside cities chokes public transit systems that can’t get a critical mass of riders. As we push farther into urban-wilderness boundaries, we put more people at risk in wildfires. I’m not by any means the first person to say this, but I just wish more people could see the whole web of connections.
Phew that was hard, I ended up taking about an extra 30 seconds to get it done, but it’s a good exercise in just putting words down and not spending too much time searching for perfection.