2019
"Detailed Plans and Timing for Proposed BART Station Development"
As proposed, nearly 800 residential units could be built at the base of the West Oakland BART station, with a 30-story, 500-unit residential building rising up to 320 feet in height at the corner of 7th and Mandela, a 7-story mid-rise building with 240 below market rate units (and 22 market-rate duplexes fronting Chester), and a 100-foot-tall office building at the corner of Mandela and 5th.
...More"The Geography of Commuting and the ‘New Urban Crisis’"
How people get to work, and the geographic distinctions between trends in those choices, reveals some of the country’s more ominous traits, including the trend Richard Florida calls “the new urban crisis.”
Richard Florida digs deeper into data recently released by the American Community Survey to make the case that how people move around cities is a key feature of the country’s “deepening economic and political fissures.”
...More"Why Technology Hasn’t Fixed the Housing Crisis"
A lot of start-ups have promising ideas, but the fundamental problem of affordability seems beyond their reach.
Billions have been flowing into a corner of the tech industry focused on the housing market. And now there are start-ups to help landlords manage properties, or homeowners manage sales, or tenants manage their packages.
...More"Why Won’t SF Embrace Tiny Homes for the Homeless?"
While Bay Area neighbors try it, the city remains reluctant
“…One development company, Panoramic Interests, has been advocating for the city to give their version of tiny homes a try to little avail.
Owner Patrick Kennedy pitched his vision of affordable housing—apartments that are modular and can stack on top of each other to fit more in one location—to SF officials in 2015. But officials denied it, as the project would involve units being built overseas (though assembled here by local workers).
“The problem with the tiny-home thing is you just can’t get the density,” Kennedy said. “Vacant land in cities is too valuable to put one-story buildings on. It’s not a long-term solution.”
...More"How Oakland is planning for massive growth – San Francisco Business Times.pdf"
…”“If you look at Oakland and where a substantial amount of the growth is going to occur, it’s going to happen in the center of the Bay Area, which is here,” said John Protopappas of Madison Park Financial, one of the city’s most prolific developers…”
...More"These Bay Area cities saw the biggest rental price spikes over the past 2 years — and they’re not San Francisco"
2017-2019 — Oakland sees highest rent growth of any city in the Bay Area
“… While every city saw an increase to varying degrees, Oakland, Berkeley and Menlo Park saw the largest percentage spike in rental prices since the beginning of 2017.”
...More"How Would San Francisco Develop Under an Open Market?"
The Bay Area would likely be denser – and a lot more urbanized.
When it comes to housing, the Bay Area is a pillar of market distortion. People gravitate to the metro because it is among America’s top economies.
...More"You’re going to need a bigger boat"
“Apartments mean less widespread disruption and demolition
The space efficiency of apartments is actually a boon if you’re looking to avoid widespread neighborhood disruption and minimize demolitions of existing homes…”
...More"Single-Family Zoning Is an Urban Dinosaur"
The city of Minneapolis just launched a quiet revolution when the city council voted to abolish single-family zoning. This is an excellent move. Cities around the country should follow suit.
...More"Amid building boom, 1 in 10 Seattle apartments are empty, and rents are dropping"
Seattle is building more apartments than just about anywhere, and now 1 in 10 units across the city are sitting empty. Landlords have responded by lowering rents slightly and offering more perks to get tenants in the door.
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