Hacker News Reader

vergon Detroit's fabled Packard plant gets makeover

Detroit is the birthplace of Techno and Techno artists have continued to emerge from Detroit even as it's status as a city has declined. Because of this the city is idealized among Techno fans across Europe. My guess is some of this development is trying to target this European base.

vergon Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

eh. But also filters people who are serious about work but also serious about their mental health.

I know myself well enough to know that I am less productive when I don't get sunlight. I suspect many other people are the same.

vergon What You Can Do About Climate Change

Since many people on HN live in California. The single greatest thing you can do if you live in be an advocate for building more housing in California, especially in locations with public transportation. California has low heating and cooling costs, and existing public transportation networks that can be extended.

Look at the difference in per capita carbon emissions between California and say, Texas, a place where many Californian's are moving to because of high housing costs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_carbon_...

vergon Why Socialism for the Rich, Capitalism for the Poor?

The name for this is crony capitalism. Policy that benefits businesses instead of policy that benefits markets. Luigi Zingales's book "A Capitalism for the People" is a good read on the subject.

vergon Building affordable housing

If only there were some technology that would allow multiple homes to exist on a single lot...

vergon New Cities

The lack of on-street parking was something I noticed visiting Japan. Streets can be much smaller when they don't have 20-24 feet of parking. In the US, a massive percentage of our most valuable land goes to subsidized vehicle storage. It's insane.

vergon Is the U.S. Ready for Post-Middle-Class Politics?

This is a good interview with economist Gordon Hanson on trade, poverty and US job losses: http://www.vox.com/2016/4/20/11466868/trade-poverty-economis...

vergon Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures

His book, Triumph of the City, is a good read on urban economics.

vergon ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

I really love using Car2Go in Brooklyn. I transit/Bike/Walk 95% of the time, but it's great to have a one-way option when I take a trip that doesn't line up well transit lines.

vergon Welcome to the Future: Middle-Class Housing Projects

Yuma Az was just successfully sued for zoning laws under the fair housing act. http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/04/court-decision-on-dis...

Another group is trying to sue Lafayette, Ca http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/09/suing-the-suburbs-ove...

Edit: fixed first link

vergon Welcome to the Future: Middle-Class Housing Projects

Tokyo, Toronto, and Houston are all examples of large cities where it is relatively easy to build housing and housing is relatively cheap.

vergon The Immobile Masses: Why Traffic Is Awful and Public Transit Is Worse

RE parking minimums: http://graphingparking.com/2013/01/25/residential-parking-re...

A similar issue is street sizes in the US are much larger than in countries with good transit and walkability. Anecdotal, but compare image searches for "American Street" and "Japanese Street". Not only is the driving area of the streets much narrower, on street parking doesn't really exists in Japanese cities. This contributes alot to the walking experience.

"japan street" https://www.google.com/search?q=japan+street&espv=2&biw=1440...

"american street" https://www.google.com/search?q=american+street&espv=2&biw=1...

vergon The Immobile Masses: Why Traffic Is Awful and Public Transit Is Worse

Another good overview from Matthew Yglesias: http://www.vox.com/2014/6/2/5771880/us-mass-transit-construc...

vergon The Immobile Masses: Why Traffic Is Awful and Public Transit Is Worse

Costs are a major part of the problem. US rail construction costs are by far the most expensive in the world [1]. Other countries are able to build rail at costs in the $100-250 million per km range (even in dense cities). The East Side access project in NYC has costs around $4 billion per km. Los Angeles has much better costs in the $400-500 million per km range [2]. Its hard to imagine the US will be able to build much transit at those costs.

From 2012[3]: "When asked by transit blogger Benjamin Kabak about its high construction costs, Michael Horodniceanu, president of the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital construction division, gave a two-word answer: “work rules.” Citing the example of the city’s revered sandhogs, he said the MTA employs 25 for tunnel-boring machine work that Spain does with nine."

[1] https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r... [2] https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/category/transp... [3] http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2012-08-27/labor-rules...

vergon Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis

The cheap housing created by new construction isn't the new construction itself. It's a result of reduced demand for older housing stock.

http://cityobservatory.org/what-filtering-can-and-cant-do/

vergon Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis

1. What do you mean by safely improvable?

2. Hong Kong, one of the densest cities in the world, is built on land much steeper than SF.

vergon Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis

You will never be able to outbuild what Facebook, Google, and the like can pay their workers.

NYC 1921-1929 (prior modern zoning): "The total of 658,780 new dwellings averaged 73,198 units per year, a figure ... In the most prolific year, 1927, 94,367 dwellings were built"

https://books.google.com/books?id=AS1bGTRSggYC&pg=PA122&lpg=...

vergon Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis

SF is half as dense as Brooklyn. The major supply constraint is not geographic, its land use regulation.

vergon Why I Quit Ordering from Uber-For-Food Startups

Food can be a part of the culture without everyone being a cook. See Thailand. Street food is very cheap and owning a kitchen is expensive, so most people eat out. Obviously low labor cost is a factor in Thailand, but the opportunity cost of cooking at home in the west is high.