|
London's a bit different due to its sheer _scale_, and the degree to which it's already built up. San Francisco's a much smaller city, and in theory has a simpler problem. But it's not dealing with it. I'm from Dublin, which has a housing and cost of living problem, and is on a more similar scale to San Francisco. The first time I visited SF, in 2018, it was kind of Dublin levels of expensive; that is, far too expensive, but not shockingly different to home. It has now really surged ahead. Now, there are lots of reasons for that, no doubt, but one stat stands out to me. Last year, 14,000 units of housing were built in Dublin. This, everyone acknowledges, is not enough... In 2024, 1,600 units of housing were built in SF. That seems catastrophic. At the very least, it's hard to understand why areas south of San Francisco on the BART haven't really been developed; it seems pretty sparse once you get out of the city. But even in the city proper, space usage seems terribly inefficient; lots of semi-derelict industrial stuff and parking lots and so on. |