Quote:
Originally Posted by aerogt3
EXACTLY.
Why is there nothing to address lack of density in that plan? Most of SF is zoned for 4 sq ft of living space for each sq. ft of land area. Perhaps increasing that could increase supply?
Rent control is a complete joke. Keeping a small group of people who shouldn't be in the city there at absurdly low prices, at the expense of a huge swatch of middle class people who's prices are drastically inflated. A simple look at price distribution of rentals for cities with and without rent control, you can EASILY see that the policy is benefit for the few at the expense of many.
EDIT: Here is some old data for San Francisco:

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Rent control is not a complete joke, and it benefits SF's middle class too. 170,000 of SF's units--about half of them--are rent controlled. That's a lot of residents that you seem to think "shouldn't be in the city", including a lot of people who were born and raised here. Of course rent control does screw with the market, and there are people who could afford market rate rents who have rent control, who probably shouldn't have rent control....so maybe the rules can be modified somehow so that only those who need it get it. But rent control isn't even the main factor causing un-affordability in SF, It's the lack of housing supply that's doing that, and a lot of people with rent control can't afford the city otherwise. And they're an important part of SF: the middle class, working class, immigrants, artists etc. Like I said in a previous post, the last thing most people want is for those parts of SF's population to be priced out, and for SF to become nothing but a rich person amusement park...which is what would happen for the most part if rent control were abolished today. Prices wouldn't just immediately drop across the board. Before you see any price drop, you'd see most landlords with rent controlled buildings jump at the opportunity to finally raise their rents to the crazy market-rate levels, and there would be a ton of evictions, particularly in SF's lower and middle class areas, where people are less able to deal with much higher rents.
I think the only way abolishing rent control wouldn't have that affect is if we first build enough housing units to meet demand, or at least get close to it. The 50,000 (mostly market rate) units in the pipeline right now is a good start.