Why the San Francisco Bay Area should have 11 million residents today

See http://shine.yahoo.com/green/simple-life-in-manhattan-a-90-s...

But, why do you think so small, when what is possible is a BIG, clean, modern, beautiful, 2 BR apt for $50/month!

Simple - people don't want to live in those states as much as California. For example, we have palm trees in California. They have them in Florida too - it's not the same!

Similarly, Texas also has nice weather but it's way more variable than California which has a fairly temperate climate. In TX crazy temperature swings are the norm. Also, I've known a number of Texans throughout my time in the Bay Area, pretty much all of them from Austin. The culture of Austin is the most like California and San Francisco - artsy, liberal, etc. Places like Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio are decidedly not like San Francisco.

To your point about Prop 13, I agree that it's an issue, and it's definitely a major part of why we keep having this budget crisis over and over and over again, every friggin' year. Sadly, I don't think Prop 13 will be abolished or really revised until the state is completely broke - much worse than it is now. But eventually it will change.

Under the price ceiling there is excess demand relative to the supply. This is a no brainer. But excess demand is not the same thing as an increase in demand. If there is an increase in demand why is the demand curve not shifted to the right? The curve stays in the same place.

Quote from NMHC: NMHC is a national association representing the interests of the larger and most prominent apartment firms in the U.S.

Cato is obviously infinitely more reputable than an industry trade group. But lets face it Cato is not exactly an unbiased source for discussion of government policies.

(also similar: minimal amount of nature within the city itself; lots of concrete but not in an elegant urban way; not much in the way of historical sections)

And, when people say "LA", they really mean the LA area, which contains not only the city itself, but outlying/surrounded cities like Pasadena, Santa Monica, Compton, Long Beach, etc.

Some people do opt for the arrangement you've just described, living in e.g. the "Lake Silver" high rises way out at the very end of the Ma On Shan metro line. Most of them don't seem to mind it, even though it means long rides on the bus or MTR to go anywhere.

But it's just as easy to live a few stops from work, in an older neighbourhood like Sa Ying Poon or Prince Edward with smaller buildings, where you have three different supermarkets within a five-minute walk and are surrounded by shops selling everythinng imaginable.

I mean, how many cities have two overlapping and completely independent public transport networks? HK has the "official" bus and metro system, but the red minibuses are essentially a rogue invisible-hand-of-the-market creation that just sprung up organically. And unlike most American cities, where the public transport struggles to even survive, both of these HK networks are thriving...

If you absolutely need a car for big purchases, Zipcar and its competitors are easily accessible. If you're older, you have BETTER options here in the form of delivery services than you'd have in a rural setting. If you'd like to get a little further away from the city in a nice, quiet Queens neighborhood, you can hope on the express train and read a book while you're zipped to your destination.

Hong Kong is a different animal just because it's, well, Hong Kong. But nothing in the world quite compares to that, and you really shouldn't associate New York or Paris with that crazy city.

Having left London, I really do miss Ocado. Unlike the silly timing restrictions you suggest, they delivered at any hour between about 0700 and 2300 with one hour windows.

> ...ride the public transport (which usually moves slower than a car even if it weren't making a bunch of other stops between your home and ultimate destination's drop-off point)

This is just the tragedy of the commons at work. Outside of the City there are bus lanes (shared with cabs). It isn't the job of society to subsidize drivers in congested areas. There's simply no political will to squeeze private autos.

> If you already live in a highrise

You're tilting at a straw man. Single family houses and high rises aren't the only options. Greater London, for example, is full of four story row houses.

You're not completely incorrect, insofar as European cities (and any worthwhile city) are forced to infringe to some extent on fundamentalist interpretations of property rights for urban planning. But you might as well throw up your arms and complain about building codes and zoning restrictions anywhere else if such things are such "onerous restrictions on individual liberty."

The reason why so many Americans have settled in exurban developments is because we've artificially subsidized those lifestyle with federally-funded freeways, artificially cheap gasoline, and destructive corporate attacks on public transportation systems (especially in the 1950s, check out the GM attack in Los Angeles as an example). Exurbs didn't develop organically, nor are they in any way models of efficiency, cost, or sustainability.

And the USA is not reluctant to really cram down civil liberties to control crime, if that's your unstated implication. The rate of imprisonment is many times higher in the USA than in Europe. You might be suggesting that controlling crime in the USA is simply impossible with anything short of a police state but criminological research indicates the high crime rates are largely a result of poor policing policy.

However, Europe is almost entirely concentrated in walkable, urban areas -- even beyond the major cities, small towns are accessible by train, navigable by foot, and have excellent support in the form of public transportation. If people do have "cars," they tend to be tiny or Vespas.

There's no reason we can't have the same system here, except that we absolutely suck at infrastructure investment. It's really not that hard to build an urban environment, and it's overwhelmingly popular with people who can afford it. The exurbs of Las Vegas and Miami are completely worthless, and will be even more so in a future with higher fuel costs, water scarcity, and resettlement in urban environments.

Compared to Indiana it may well be nice.

Palo Alto? "For every 100 females there were 95.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.0 males."

Cupertino? "For every 100 females there were 97.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.6 males."

San Bruno? "For every 100 females there were 97.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.1 males."

Redwood City? "For every 100 females there were 99.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.1 males."

Menlo Park? "For every 100 females there were 93.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.5 males."

Millbrae? "For every 100 females there were 90.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.7 males."

San Carlos? "For every 100 females there were 93.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.7 males."

San Mateo? "For every 100 females there were 95.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.8 males."

Atherton? "For every 100 females there were 96.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.3 males."

Milpitas, Mountain View, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale were the ones with more males - worst ratio in Milpitas, 104.5 and 104.6 respectively. Surrounding cities would more than balance that out.

Sure, you're not burning a ton of fuel a minute plowing through dolphins and kelp, but you still need to generate power to operate all of the on-board facilities such as electricity, plumbing, elevators, etc. Would the city allow an entrepreneur to run a fat power cable onto a sitting ship - leaving aside political implications of a big honkin' vessel blocking the ocean view, are there even any regulations written for it?

Based only on what I've read of jwz just attempting to put a door in a nightclub wall, it seems that a hostile takeover over San Francisco, followed by some summary executions of most of the city government and a formal secession from the United States of America would be easier.