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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

Read her other posts. It's basically the same litany of views (supporting highly paid municipal workers and rent controls while opposing aggressive policing) that have pushed people out into the suburbs, simultaneously destroying American cities while putting their finances in shambles.

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People ran to the suburbs because of rent controls and highly paid municipal workers? In what narrative?

Both of these policies drive up the cost of living causing families to move out[1]:

Rent control makes apartment rentals more expensive (and lower quality).

Overpaid municipal workers must be supported with higher taxes and/or higher fees.

[1] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Families-exodus-leaves...

The article you cite doesn't say anything about overpaid municipal workers or rent control.

Rent controls decrease supply. They help the few (mostly old) people who get in early on them, but raise prices for everyone else. Highly paid municipal workers require high taxes to support their salaries and pensions. Housing prices and taxes are key reasons people cite for moving out of the cities into the suburbs.

Housing prices and taxes are key reasons people cite for moving out of the cities into the suburbs.

Regarding housing prices: this may be true in first-rate cities like San Francisco or New York, but here in St. Louis (and in dozens of similar cities in the U.S.) housing is usually cheaper in the city's core. People left for the suburbs to get more space, because they had automobiles, because the housing stock in the suburbs is much newer, because blacks were moving in, and because of crime levels (some real, some perceived).

Desegregation and crime were major reasons, sure, but housing prices and taxes didn't help the situation. And today, even though there is a big trend of young people moving back into cities, questions remain about whether they'll stay while taxes ratchet up to support underfunded pensions, etc.

Also, rent controls depress the quality of housing stock.

"destroying American cities"

Is she arguing SF is or will soon be "destroyed"?

No, rayiner is.

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