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Comment by smcl | Hacker News Reader

Interesting that this kind of problem exists elsewhere. What happens in the UK is a developer buys a "listed" building - meaning it has a special status that means you need to preserve it and cannot knock it and down then, say, build a bunch of flats or offices on the same location. These buildings have a very unfortunate tendency to burn down overnight, leaving said developers with little option but to build apartments or offices there.

Just one of those things, eh!

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That seems like such an easy thing to fix, though. The land a listed building is sitting on should be zoned only for the listed building. If it burns down, it gets rebuilt exactly, or donated to the public. Allowing developers to benefit from such "accidents" is the problem.

This, at least sometimes, happens: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-68...

Largely because it was reported so widely and was obvious what had happened.

Where I live a listed church mysteriously burnt down the night after planning permission to turn it into a hotel was declined.

Oddly it's just sat there as a burnt out husk for the last 15 years, rather than the developer forcing the issue.

or the site is cleared and goes into a 50 year ‘public use’ lockup, where the developer owns it still, but it must be used for the public good for 50 years. A park or community garden, for example. Basically just enough to make it unattractive as an option for the contractor

Start doing things like this, you just might shake enough of the BS money out of the real estate markets to return to sanity.

You propose to make the real estate markets work better by further restricting supply?

Are you advocating for increasing supply through arson?

Restricting illegal profit-taking, where possible.

Black money inflates markets. Inflated markets inflate other markets.

That worked well in the Bay Area. Definitely a bastion of sane real estate markets.

Govt leadership is in bed with developers and would never enact such restrictions. But you can dream about how liberal processes could lead to rules you like better and try the well worn strategy of voting and waiting.

This opens up forms of other abuse.

I’ve seen it happen before my own eyes in Toronto. Very popular developer Brad Lamb burns down historical buildings downtown in broad daylight with sometimes multiple attempts taken days apart. He’s highly successful and faces no repercussions.

> On March 23, 2020, Wellington House partially caught on fire amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Police say that at least one small explosion took place inside the abandoned semi-detached houses. Only two days later, the same building caught fire once again.

You can't make this up... Jesus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_J._Lamb

That’s the one I saw. A huge plume of smoke in the middle of the day. He’s suspected of other arson activity over the years. Lots of organized crime, criminal business leaders and collusion with politicians here in Canada. But sure it’s democracy.

Anyone who has ever played Civ knows you need to chop those forests to build wonders.

Funny reference, but does not deserve to be the top reply.

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