[what_is_orcas]

This is so frustrating.

I live in a relatively low-income neighborhood in a west-coast city and I hear on social media all the time about how the local government doesn't prioritize us because of our relatively low average household income, but at the same time a lot of those folks are resistant to zoning for more apartment buildings in our neighborhood because of all the nimby classics (crime, diversity, etc.). Maybe I'm wrong (and if someone wants to enlighten me, I'm all ears, because this is definitely not my area of expertise) but it seems to me that an influx of residents into the area might give our neighborhood more pull in local elections as we'd form a voting-block with some aligned interests (services & infrastructure in our neighborhood) even if we differ in other interests.

It just seems like we're already in a losing position (w/r/t local politics), why not at least try to make ourselves more formidable.

To be honest, I think it would improve a lot of other things. In the past I've mentioned that my neighborhood acts more as a pass-through between the outlying suburbs & the metropolitan city-center, but I think more residents in the area would attract local businesses (can you believe there's not a sit-down cafe in my area other than maybe a starbucks? They're all drive-through kiosks!) because there'd be more of a local population. Once the businesses open up, fewer folks would have to commute to another neighborhood for work (we'll probably, unfortunately, never be rid of that) and we become less of a pass-through neighborhood. But, again, not my expertise. It's also a long-term plan, which seems to be off-putting in today's financial atmosphere.

[milkytron]

> it seems to me that an influx of residents into the area might give our neighborhood more pull in local elections as we'd form a voting-block with some aligned interests (services & infrastructure in our neighborhood) even if we differ in other interests.

It might give more pull in local elections, but the one major benefit of having more residents is an increased tax base and being a more desirable place for businesses. There are lots of benefits of increasing the density of an area, like you mentioned. The NIMBY resistance has a lot of time and money on their side so it can be hard to overcome.

I'm also in a very similar spot as you, between expensive suburbs and a major urban core. Despite the city I live in voting to restrict new housing, they were able to approve an exception for my area. Definitely appears to be helping, lots of townhomes and apartments are going up and new businesses have been coming in.

[deepakhj]

New housing or old home sales are the only way to raise money for a city like Oakland. So many houses are subsidized by prop 13 that the revenue per capita is much lower here than SF which also includes a county.