New York is possible for artists because of public transit.
Artists don't live in Manhattan, they live in the outskirts, or once were the "outskirts", and commute to where is needed because the MTA works (for the most part).
The Bay Area's transit system is a mess (too many different agencies with inconvenient transfers between lines) so affordable, yet accessible neighborhoods beyond Oakland/San Leandro/Richmond are nil.
SF would need to gut its entire permitting system. Today, it can't even make small and incremental improvements: https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/heatherknight/article/Is-p...
My point was that O($10m) isn't even enough to reliably land something on the ballot, much less get whatever crazy thing you want passed.
This of course being distinct from undoing Prop 13.
In a state that's nearly majority renters it should be possible to outspend HJTA and win.
Probably never because management don't care, highly-compensated workers will find a way, and many are moving to at least hybrid-remote anyway. But imagine what if big SF corporate money finally got sick of their headquarters being surrounded by homeless suffering and public sanitation problems and put some money towards systematically fixing it.
At the same time, I can think of few things with worse optics than big, fat, cash-rich tech companies full of big, fat, rich techies banding together to raise taxes on regular homeowners.
Prop 13 is possibly illegal: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3012949
Correction: in 2020, Proposition 19 (which limited Proposition 13/58 property tax breaks for parent-child transfers to only farms and owner-occupied “family homes”) did pass 51%-49%, whereas Proposition 15 (which would have eliminated Proposition 13 tax breaks for commercial property) was on the ballot but failed 48%-52%.
Everyone loves the idea of cheaper housing for people in theory.
Once they realize it means their own property value won't appreciate as quickly, or may even decrease and then suddenly they are against it. And they will vote out any officials that support it.
There needs to be state or federal intervention. And that doesn't seem likely at any time in the near future.
Our problem is never that we don't have enough wealth, it's always that it's concentrated among a small percentage of the population, and a much larger percentage gets starved out entirely.
> New York billionaires have always found a way to support artistic endeavors. Case in point - Bloomberg, he personally donated a lot.
If we have to depend on the charity of billionaires, we've already lost the war.
Right?
May as well keep your money and let those fend for themselves.
Much better art created when people do it for the passion.. on their own time.. with their own resources.. after they've worked an 8 hour day.
Whingers are going to complain anyway - no point in affording them the time and resources to do it more.