
Last Refuge: A Bay Area RV community bands together to fight City Hall - MilnerRoute
http://extras.mercurynews.com/lastrefuge/
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TomMckenny
>his rent in East Palo Alto doubled to $4,000 a month

It'd be repetitive to observe how insane that is so I'll say it's going to be
hard to beat interests with that much money.

Maybe if prop 10 had passed there'd be some glimmer of hope.

~~~
twblalock
Rent control is a terrible policy and it is good for California that Prop 10
failed. The only solution is to allow more housing to be built.

~~~
TomMckenny
Landlords opposed it and tenants put it on the ballot, it is unlikely all
parties were acting against their own interest.

Rent-control has been essentially banned since 1995 yet housing costs have
exceeded wages during that time. It's also quite extreme to claim that rent-
control is so bad for every possible community everywhere that it must be
universally outlawed.

Towns which now have fewer construction restrictions than in '95, also have
raising land costs.

Pricing of necessary goods differs from ordinary goods.

The expanding and primarily ideologically driven Lezze-Faire approaches have
clearly failed in both medicine and housing. And while the US might be growing
tired of wasted GDP on mediocre medical outcomes, it is clear the society will
tolerate vastly more homelessness and degradation in housing conditions,
regrettably.

~~~
twblalock
If you think we have had laissez-faire housing policies you're completely
wrong. Housing policy is probably less free than any other part of the market.
We have an enormous number of zoning laws that prevent people from building
what they want to build on the land they own. Whenever new housing projects
are proposed they get locked up in court for years because the existing
homeowners feel entitled to freeze their neighborhoods in stasis so they will
never change.

Meanwhile the most expensive Bay Area cities are the ones that have rent
control, because rent control is a form of price control and all price
controls create shortages. Why would any reasonable person want to invest in
building housing when the city government gets to tell them how much they can
charge for rent?

~~~
TomMckenny
>Why would any reasonable person want to invest in building housing when the
city government gets to tell them how much they can charge for rent?

Why do landlords oppose rent control if it will raise prices? Why do tenants
favor it?

Theories notwithstanding, it simply is untrue that rent control halts
development. New York city has had rent control for generations and has had an
abundance of development. At this moment more than 2 million units are under
some form of rent control.[0]

>the most expensive Bay Area cities are the ones that have rent control

This is a myth. The 5 most expensive Bay Area rental areas are in Sunnyvale,
Mountain View, Cupertino, Foster City, Palo Alto. None of which have rent
control. Of the top 20, only 4 are in SF and 1 in Berkeley.[1] And comparing
medians, Berkeley is cheapest[2].

And while relaxing construction requirements will help, the over valuation of
land guarantees the effect will be small. For example, this slum centered
small triangular dirt lot is 1.6million [3]

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_control_in_New_York](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_control_in_New_York)

[1] [https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san-
francisco/article/most-...](https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san-
francisco/article/most-expensive-zip-codes-San-Francisco-Bay-
Area-13197633.php#photo-16304014)

[2][https://sf.curbed.com/2018/5/3/17316196/berkeley-rent-
median...](https://sf.curbed.com/2018/5/3/17316196/berkeley-rent-median-
numbers-san-francisco-2018-cost)

[3] [https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Oakland-
CA/pmf,pf_pt/l...](https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Oakland-
CA/pmf,pf_pt/land_type/2111233543_zpid/13072_rid/globalrelevanceex_sort/37.823904,-122.261031,37.805732,-122.292703_rect/14_zm/)

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sdrothrock
This is a link to the slashdot summary; the original article is
[http://extras.mercurynews.com/lastrefuge/](http://extras.mercurynews.com/lastrefuge/)

Could @dang or someone else change it?

~~~
dang
Yes. Changed from [https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/12/22/0418241/two-
miles-f...](https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/12/22/0418241/two-miles-from-
facebooks-headquarters-working-poor-live-in-trailers). Thanks!

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heyjudy
Facebook HQ is just across Bayshore (84) and Willow Road from East PA, owned
by drug gangs, crushing poverty and classism/racism. It's where people would
think to look to buy an NFA Class 3 machine gun or destructive device
illegally... I know a homeless RV guy who got a MAC-10 for free from a drug
dealer in lieu of repaying a loan. It's an entirely different world from Palo
Alto proper just across Highway 101, with $5 million homes, families walking
their dogs around the block and kids going to the best universities in the
world.

~~~
newnewpdro
> I know a homeless RV guy who got a MAC-10 for free from a drug dealer in
> lieu of repaying a loan.

That doesn't sound like free to me...

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newnewpdro
These people have already done the hard part of fitting their lives into an
RV. Accept the reality that you've been priced out of the market and drive
somewhere you can afford.

~~~
twblalock
The article mentioned that many of the RVs are not drivable and the residents
cannot afford to repair them.

