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Comment by pascalxus | Hacker News Reader

It's sad, but here in CA, most people don't have yards and there's nowhere to grow food. It's especially dumb because there's miles and miles of undeveloped land everywhere (at least in the east bay suberbs), not being used for anything in particular except maybe some farms with cows on it: I'm sure they're taking advantage of huge tax wholes because they're sitting on land that would cost 10s of millions of dollars in property taxes were it taxed at the same rate that people need to pay.

Also, there's no community compost which means people need to buy all of it at stores like home depot, making it expensive because they have to bag it and warehouse it, etc. The nearest compost I have to my house where I can get compost is nearly 35 miles away.

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I live in a flat, it has windows and window ledges and I grow things - sure not enough to sustain, but makes a dent in the right direction, also helps flats air quality.

As for compost, i'm supprised as I live in London and can easily get it. But appreciate that it may be a case of supply/demand and if no demand, the supply moves away.

Seems like an opportunity business wise in the times ahead as if you have that issue - many others will.

I think saying that most people don't have yards in California is misleading. More people have yards in California than in many other places where there are more dense cities.

SF Bay Area is not really representative of California as a whole. Most people outside of the dense cores have a place for a small garden. State is large and diverse. Los Angeles is a lot less dense and most people have at least a balcony on which you can grow stuff in pots. Won’t sustain you as the only source, but will provide greens and some variety. Yards are pretty common and usually green. Water shortages have led to some converting to hardscape, but that can be reversed.

Prop 13 is an issue, but the level of development opposition in Bay Area is another matter all together compared to the rest of the state. Where little you can build developers end up cramming every last inch with profit-producing structures. Couple with crappy commuting infrastructure and you have what we are living.

You can drive out as far as fairfield, about 70 miles outside of the bay area and still see housing communities packed together like slums with nothing but yellow and green for miles in every direction.

The lots in those communities (including Fairfield) look to be reasonably sized - some pools even. That’s plenty to have a few beds of greens. It’s not acre-sized, but that’s hardly a requirement.

What do you propose then, Los Altos or Atherton-sized lots?

10K sq ft lots isn't too much to ask for is it? especially when there's open land in every direction you can see as far as the horizon. It doesn't even look like all that open land is used for anything at all.

i'll never understand the CA obsession with keeping so much land undeveloped at the expense of humanity.

Just FYI that if you’re in Northern California I believe that Mission Trail or whoever has a centralized compost where you can pick up what you need. In normal times, at least. I’d imagine that service is currently shut down, but worth checking.

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