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Currently tuned into the #CityAge panel for Fast Growing Cities Beyond the Pandemic https://www.cityage.com/urbangrowth
Many of the places San Franciscans relocate are expected to boom.
I refuse to accept this word.
Investors have bought so many single-family homes across the US that they now constitute up to half of rental housing stock in some states.
Poll on urban density opinions #CityAge
We're now at the part of the panel where Senator Scott Wiener debates Wendell Cox. He blames the high price of housing on... urban growth boundaries. He says all the unaffordable metropolitan areas have them.
Senator Wiener argues that the high cost is due to low supply of housing. We have urban growth boundaries, yes, but then we also don't zone for enough housing within those boundaries.
Wiener: In the 60s, CA built 250,000 homes a year. But now we're building 80,000 homes a year. The homebuilding industry has collapsed because we downzoned everything in the 60s-80s.
Wendell Cox just said that we should literally look at the land at the east end of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, and remove our urban growth boundaries there. Hmm, I wonder why we haven't done that. #CityAge
Scott Wiener replies that we should not push people into hours-long commutes when much of SF only allows one home per parcel.
Cox replies that parts of LA County are 2x as dense as New York, and the avg commute within LA County is 30 minutes. That... is not the whole story.
Cox replies that parts of LA County are 2x as dense as New York, and the avg commute within LA County is 30 minutes. That... is not the whole story.
Moderator asks for examples of good cities.
Wendell Cox: Columbus, Ohio, and Kansas City, Missouri
Scott Wiener: Minneapolis eliminated single-family zoning and got ahead of the problem. Washington, D.C. is expensive but is managing the cost.
Wendell Cox: Columbus, Ohio, and Kansas City, Missouri
Scott Wiener: Minneapolis eliminated single-family zoning and got ahead of the problem. Washington, D.C. is expensive but is managing the cost.
Nobody agrees with Wendell Cox
Houston has lower housing costs than San Francisco, but its transportation costs are so high that the cost of living is only barely affordable. #CityAge
Poll on the biggest issues facing fast-growing cities
Houston's Planning Director, Margaret Wallace Brown, is here. The moderator mentions that one of her major projects is "neighborhood character preservation." 
Brown says that 3/4 of the people living in Houston were born outside of Texas. What a statistic.
The Deputy Planning Director of Charlotte, North Carolina, Alyson Craig, says that Charlotte has increased the potential for by-right transit oriented development along Blue Line light rail.
Brown mentions that parking rules are some of the biggest obstacles to densification in Houston.
Houston's Planning Director just acknowledged that the problem for COVID-19 prevention is not density but overcrowding—a distinction which escapes the supervisor of San Francisco's densest district.
