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Comment by loandbehold | Hacker News Reader

It's not just manual labor. You need an architect, structural engineer. Getting all permits, environmental analysis. A lot of expensive "knowledge workers" involved. Then there are materials, rental of construction equipment, insurance. Developers who build large number of row houses at the same time can get costs down through economies of scale.

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In the county next to me you can self certify and pretty promise you did all that "knowledge worker" shit. No one will ever check, the self certification just promises you did the stuff and the government promises they won't investigate. Somehow not everyone is dying in city-wide house fires.

Sounds like southern california done fucked themselves with over-regulating that stuff.

It's because its used as a vehicle for bribery. See Jose Huizar the former LA city councilmember who pleaded guilty for bribery a few days ago. If its easy to get things built then no one would be paying you in paper bags of cash to get things built.

Our buildings are built to withstand earthquakes that could level other cities, because we have frequent earthquakes, and building codes were dramatically strengthened following the 1994 Northridge Quake.

A single Ritcher 5.8 quake in Virginia in 2011 caused $300 million in damage and disrupted utilities for days in 12 states. A series of earthquakes in 2019 (6.4, 5.4, and 7.1) in California caused so little damage that it's hard to find a tally. Power was knocked in some cities and restored within hours.

Yes, CA construction is more expensive. But it's also stronger and more resilient than the cheap crap in the county next to you.

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