
San Francisco's Self-Defeating Housing Activists - selleck
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/san-francisco-is-confused-about-the-villain-thats-making-it-unaffordable/422091/?single_page=true
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geebee
Ok article, but I'm not sure it adds much beyond the earlier tech crunch
article from 2014 it references.

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf-
housing/](http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf-housing/)

The tech crunch article provides a much fuller and more nuanced overview of
the problem. I strongly recommend it.

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crdoconnor
>San Francisco as a whole has in grappling with the most significant reason
for its affordability crisis: the widespread opposition of its left-leaning
residents to lots more new building.

"Left leaning"?

Since virtually none of the developments that are being blocked are actually
affordable it's hard to feel sympathy for the developers looking to turn a
profit whose interests are being represented by this article.

>But many of the San Francisco activists most passionate about improving
affordability in theory are pursuing that goal in economically dubious ways
that are, as often as not, counterproductive.

One thing is for certain, picking a side in the fight between condo developers
looking to turn a quick buck and NIMBY San Francisco homeowners trying to stop
them isn't going to help anybody apart from them.

Two things will help solve this problem: raising property taxes and using the
proceeds to build public housing.

