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ChrisLTD | 3 months ago

Allow people to build more housing. It's simple. These rules will help current renters at the expense of future Los Angelenos, make building more housing less desirable for developers, and will let local politicians pretend they solved the issue while actually doing the exact opposite.

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maldev|3 months ago

Mostly nobody is against building more housing. The big issues, especially in California, are the Water supply issues. The cities largely run at capacity and the water system can't really handle the increased load. Then you have traffic and other safety concerns like electricity. It's not as simple as building more houses, it's a long road of improving infrastructure. I used to date a housing advocate who attended city hall hearings for a non profit, and no one objected, it would always get to close to being approved, then the water guy comes in and they can't do it.

mgh95|3 months ago

Roughly 80% of developed water use in SoCal is agriculture. Population is a secondary concern when it comes to water use in the area. Severance of riparian rights through eminent domain is looking increasingly appealing.

ChrisLTD|3 months ago

Most people are for more housing somewhere else or with so many caveats that they are effectively against it.

avmich|3 months ago

Do we have specific numbers how much water costs and why? In a new place?

rayiner|3 months ago

Most people have no number sense. E.g. the Brian Williams on-air segment where he (and apparently his presumably college-educated staff) thought a $500 million campaign investment by Bloomberg meant he could give every American $1 million. That's not just a simple math error--it's a fundamental lack of numerical intuition about society-scale numbers. Prices are even more complex--a dynamic equilibrium between supply and demand. You can't get people to understand that. You might as well expect them to do jumping jacks while standing on their hands.

You can't lecture people about supply and demand. What you need is an electorate that has correctly aligned gut feelings. You need to socialize people from birth to understand that "if you build more, you'll get more; if you build less, you'll get less." You know how your dad says "there's no such thing as a free lunch?" You need to socialize people at that level.

mchusma|3 months ago

And this exact play has been run so many times, with the same bad results every single time. My only "hope" would be they would pair this limit with such aggressive housing increases that the overall practical effect of this is mitigated.