A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team:
San Francisco
Can downtown be saved? Mayoral candidates’ big ideas to stop the bleeding (SF Standard): The candidates agree that something must be done, but who has the right formula to make the downtown boom again?
State labels S.F. as a pro-housing city, one year after criticizing city’s slow housing progress (SF Chronicle): State officials have designated the City as pro-housing, pointing to “significant progress in accelerating housing development and removing obstacles that delay approval.”
Could changing this obscure S.F. building code allow the city to create more housing? (SF Chronicle): Supervisor Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution that convenes a “sensible density” working group to study permitting apartment buildings of up to six stories to be constructed around a single staircase.
Can Free Rent Revive Downtown San Francisco? (NY Times): The City is trying to lure businesses back with a free-rent period.
After public school closures, what happens to the real estate? (SF Standard): The San Francisco Unified School District is poised to close 13 facilities.
California and Beyond
Beverly Hills is dragging its heels on a development with affordable apartments. The governor says: Build it (LA Times): California officials are turning the screws on the City of Beverly Hills, where approval of a new hotel and apartment complex is moving too slowly for state housing bosses and the governor.
Judge orders VA to build housing on UCLA baseball parking lot. On the double! (LA Times): U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has nullified UCLA’s lease to the veteran land and ordered the lot to be used for temporary housing.
What Kalamazoo (Yes, Kalamazoo) Reveals About the Nation’s Housing Crisis (NY Times): A decade ago, the city had too many houses. Now it has a shortage. The shift there explains today’s costly housing market in the rest of the country.
Why Does This Building by the Subway Need 193 Parking Spots? (Yes, Exactly 193.) (NY Times): New York and cities across the country reconsider decades-old parking rules.
How Developers Are Catering to Would-Be Homeowners With Rental Amenities (NY Times): Families are choosing to rent for the foreseeable future — some out of necessity, others for amenities.
Who’s Responsible for the Housing Crisis? How local governments broke America’s housing markets (The Atlantic): Local government is driving a housing crisis that is raising rents, lowering economic mobility and productivity, and negatively impacting wages.
The Labyrinthine Rules That Created a Housing Crisis (The Atlantic): A deep dive on the rules that govern land and how they function as the foundation of our lives.
This is How to Fix the Housing Crisis (NY Times): Tying federal transportation spending to building activity may be the best way to induce change.
