Conversation

Dec 1, 2020

What’s wrong with it being just what it is? Presumably, it is acceptable for some place to be an aging, silver retirement community. Why not Palo Alto? Being “more” would be something different, which sounds like it’s at odds with the retirement community vibe residents enjoy.

Kim-Mai Cutler

@kimmaicutler

East Of Palo Alto’s Eden: Race And The Formation Of Silicon Valley

there are costs to everyone else:

techcrunch.com

What if Silicon Valley had emerged from a racially integrated community? Would the technology industry be different? Would we? And what can the technology industry do now to avoid repeating the...

Kim-Mai Cutler

@kimmaicutler

The Urban Housing Crunch Costs the U.S. Economy About $1.6 Trillion a Year

there are costs to the entire economy, on the order of trillions of dollars a year

bloomberg.com

For the first time, economists have put a price tag on restrictive urban land use policies.

Kim-Mai Cutler

@kimmaicutler

Income Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility Across Colleges in the United States | Opportun...

it also reduces economic dynamism and socioeconomic mobility for the entire labor force. it means the meritocracy doesn't exist at all; in fact, the inverse. a heritocracy.

opportunityinsights.org

Maybe but it could be that those things aren't desirable in PA. Improving scores in those areas might reduce the cost of labor but it might also be worth it to them to just pay the higher cost to maintain low scores there. Can't blame them for trading in their own interest.

Vadim Graboys

@deapthoughts

If every city did this, it would lead to increased cost of living, decreased standard of living, increased commutes, increased homelessness, etc. And in fact, that's what every American city with job growth has done, which explains a lot of our societal ills.

Vadim Graboys

@deapthoughts

I suppose you "can't blame" Palo Alto for selfishly guarding their own interests at the expense of the entire country, since every other city is doing the same thing. But you gotta recognize that this is very bad, and it would be better if we stopped cities from doing this.

12:31 AM · Dec 3, 2020Twitter Web App

Dec 3, 2020

The question for real estate investors then is: is anywhere safe? Where can one build a low density, high-priced community which will not constantly be attacked by invaders seeking to destroy what the inhabitants value?

Vadim Graboys

@deapthoughts

Dec 3, 2020

lol, allowing a property owner to build an apartment building on their own property is not an "attack by invaders seeking to destroy". If you want to live in a low-density, high-priced retirement community, there are plenty in Florida far away from jobs. No risk of upzoning there

Replying to

and

Far away from jobs for how long? So, as soon as there are jobs nearby all bets are off?

Replying to

and

These retirement communities are purposely built on cheap land far away from cities (and even the closest ones are not big job centers). It's unlikely that jobs will come there because the only people living there are retired, so there's no workforce.