Hacker News Reader

I'm curious to see if this change in the urban landscape is going to lead to a modern office loft type situation like NYC saw in the 60-70s with former commercial spaces being available under specific tenant laws to artists.

View on HN

They weren’t legal in NYC until 1982, I believe, but people lived in them anyway during the 60s and 70s. Fire marshals would knock on the door and kick people out. The 1982 loft law provided a road map for these spaces to get a certificate of occupancy without screwing over the existing tenants.

I suspect this kind of thing wouldn’t happen unless we saw a real drop in the value of office space in SF, and if it did, it wouldn’t be like NYC.

Right now developers say it’s too expensive. Some data and a potential path forward: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/empty-offices-housing...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com