>>1965478Thank you brother.
>>1965505Unfortunately the YIMBY's have latched on to San Francisco as a target of their reforms. They think that building more housing will depress housing prices but here's what's actually going to happen.
1. First, they're going to bulldoze all of the old neighborhoods and buildings to make room for glossy high-density, expensive shit. Maybe they'll put generic, soulless shops underneath the apartment buildings. Tech is booming, the apartments are getting rented out, the stores are paying their rent - no love lost on getting rid of the gribbly old neighborhood, right?
2. The tech sector will inevitably crater, or take a dip, or whatever. Suddenly all those tech employees can't afford their fancy apartments. They leave the city. Small retailers in the soulless shops also leave the city, because the yuppies are no longer buying their shit. No worries though, right? Prices will correct, landlords will lower rent, people and businesses will move in to take their place.
3. This is where it all starts to fall apart. That neighborhood the developer bulldozed? Turns out it was pretty great. Commercial rents were expensive, but the buildings were all old and paid off, the landlords could afford to lower rents during a recession to keep tenants. Ditto with the residential units. Old and paid off, no coked out financing based on some batshit projection of infinite rent growth. There were also a lot of generational small businesses that really knew the old resident, long-haul customer base. The architecture was cool and eclectic, it brought in tons of tourism and outside visitors. Successful in good times, sustainable in bad.
Now that's all gone. The developer can't afford to lower rents because the building is levered to shit, you suddenly have blocks and blocks of foreclosed, empty glass monoliths. No more tourism revenue, no more local institutions. Druggies move in and trash everything. Boom. You've just created Detroit.
