Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by yowzadave 725 days ago
I'm not objecting to causing pain for property owners, I'm saying that doubling the number of bedrooms in a city is nonsensical (if you double the amount of residential area in a city, where will it go?), and also that you're underestimating the impact on the market of a relatively small increase in supply.
1 comments
marssaxman 725 days ago
> if you double the amount of residential area in a city, where will it go?

You don't need to double the area, you just need to double the density, which is easily done by eliminating exclusionary zoning. The scarcity is artificial.

link
yowzadave 725 days ago
> you just need to double the density, which is easily done by eliminating exclusionary zoning

I think you should double-check the numbers on this before you assert something is easily done. I live in NYC--are you saying we should live in half the space that we currently live in? A 400sf 1BR apartment should now be a 2BR apartment? Please draw a functional layout for this apartment.

And to what end? The population of NYC is ~8 million. You think the population should double? Where are all of the new people moving from, and what should we do with the houses they are currently living in? You don't need to double the total supply of housing to dramatically affect the housing cost--you just need to increase the supply of housing for the people who are looking right now, which is a much smaller number than the total number who live in the city.

link
marssaxman 725 days ago
New York is a real outlier among American cities and I'm sure its needs are different. Here in Seattle, three quarters of the land available for residential use within the city limits is zoned exclusively for single-family housing. This is absurd. Yes, the population of the city should double: the alternative is that all those people will be pushed out into ever-further reaches of suburban sprawl.
link
lwansbrough 725 days ago
Density doesn't mean making spaces smaller, it just means making more of them. Usually this is accomplished with more floors. If you look at NYC, a huge portion of it is buildings are <= 12 stories. NYC is unique in its density and is certainly a model for other cities in the US, but in terms of fulfilling its own livability needs.. it will have to become denser through height. Even NYC must address its demand with additional supply within Manhattan -- up is the only way to go.

Instead what we see today in NYC is the same as what we're seeing around North America. NIMBYism, heritage protections, gatekeeping, lawsuits, FUD, political grandstanding, etc.

link