Zoning mutual sense

Kate Kershaw Downing has posted a worthy letter of resignation from the Palo Alto Housing commission , that seems to locomote going viral.

Palo Alto is absurdly expensive. People who desire to come upwardly hither for jobs can't afford to alive anywhere nearby.  What to produce virtually it?

 I receive got repeatedly made recommendations to the Council to expand the housing render inwards Palo Alto too hence that together alongside our neighboring cities who are already adding housing , nosotros tin send away get-go to brand a dent inwards the jobs-housing imbalance that causes housing prices throughout the Bay Area to spiral out of control. Small steps similar allowing 2 floors of housing instead of 1 inwards mixed role developments , enforcing minimum density requirements too hence that developers build apartments instead of penthouses , legalizing duplexes , easing restrictions on granny units , leveraging the residential parking permit computer program to experiment alongside housing for people who don’t desire or require ii cars , too allowing single-use areas similar the Stanford shopping pump to add together housing on pinnacle of shops (or offices) , would larn a long fashion inwards adding desperately needed housing units spell maintaining the grapheme of our neighborhoods too preserving historic structures throughout.

She likewise warns

 If things proceed going equally they are , yep , Palo Alto’s streets volition await simply equally they did decades agone , but its inhabitants , spirit , too feel of community volition locomote unrecognizable. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 1 time thriving metropolis volition plough into a hollowed out museum.  

I flora Ms. Downing's missive of the alphabet noteworthy inwards that it did non include the common Bay Area nostrums -- the authorities must build "affordable housing ," freeze rents , ban novel construction (yes , this is proposed) or otherwise receive got counterproductive actions. Those steps tin send away save about existing low-income people at high cost -- creating a dissimilar form of museum , actually -- but brand matters fifty-fifty worse for people who desire to movement hither to work. Few local voices appreciate that expanding render tin send away produce a lot to lower prices , too heighten historic catamenia too economical diversity.

As the postal service notes , the Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution on the same letter. Alex points out simply how much nosotros receive got all lost belongings rights.