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Comment by Kalium | Hacker News Reader

In both Oakland and SF, there's been significant resistance to projects that propose to replace things that are not housing at all with things that are. If memory serves, the "Monster in the Mission" was proposed for an empty lot. I saw significant resistance to putting a tower in a literal hole in the ground at MacArthut BART.

In SF, the resistance often seems centered on the idea that however much subsidized housing the developer proposes isn't enough for the interest groups fighting it. Often the push is for 100% subsidized, plus assorted "community benefit" donations to non-profits.

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Yup. There is another project trying to get approved that will replace a parking lot and a laundromat (the owner owns the land and says his business has been going down for year).

Jesus Christ, you wouldn't believe the opposition to it. The preschool next door will be shaded for 2 more hours! The proposed mural doesn't align with the community.

Unbelievable! This would bring another 90 units to the Mission with 15 of them for low income residents.

People opposing the tower at MacArthur BART claimed it would block views. Of what? The lovely highway and classic BART station architecture?

Even 100% affordable housing gets objected to: https://sf.curbed.com/2016/10/6/13189882/1296-shotwell-affor...

To be honest, people like to extol the virtues of Bay Area liberalism, but to me the housing policy in the Bay is one of the most systematic (and regulated) form of prejudice. Cities like SF are losing their minorities, their middle class, all to fatten the paycheck of existing landowners. Almost the entire black population has emptied out of SF. It's one of the most pervasive form of class discrimination I've seen.

It comes down to incentives. With the current policies in place, there isn't much incentive for incumbents / existing residents to allow more housing.

If you are a home owner or landlord, reduced supply results in asset appreciation.

If you are a renter with rent control, then building more housing in your neighborhood may not seem like much of a benefit either.

Policy makers are always looking for piecemeal solutions, e.g. let's give teachers a rental subsidy, tweak the % of affordable housing that must be build, etc.

Lawmakers really need to create incentives so incumbents have a reason to want more housing.

  Almost the entire black population has emptied out of SF.

Bayview / Hunters Point is still part of S.F. I have black friends whose parents still live in the same homes for 50+ years.

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